It's one thing to not have the evidence they would have had if they'd asked for assistance from the Department of Justice. But what about the evidence that is available to anyone with an internet connection?
Let's go back to that post conviction question and answer period held by Attorney General Jim Hood and District Attorney Mark Duncan.
The two said that they knew much more about the case, including who actually killed the three, than they were allowed to tell jurors in court.
They faced several problems, they said. For one, some witnesses, including several of those who were convicted in a 1967 federal civil rights violation trial, refused to testify or sign written statements. Others, Hood said, were dead. Three of the most significant witnesses in the case against Killen died, he said.
Duncan said Wayne Roberts and James Jordan, both of Meridian, were actually responsible for shooting the young men, James Chaney, Andrew Goodman and Michael Schwerner. Roberts shot Goodman and Schwerner, he said, and Jordan shot Chaney, they said (emphasis added).
Now let's go back a little further to an article by Jerry Mitchell in the year 2000 (via Susan Klopfer).
Like the photograph of Emmett Till two generations ago, the picture of James Chaney horrifies and outrages.
It is that autopsy picture, along with a signed autopsy report obtained by The Clarion-Ledger, that experts say proves Klansmen on June 21, 1964, didn't just kill the black civil rights activist, they tortured him before he died.
That report says Chaney had a left arm broken in one place, a right arm broken in two places and "a marked disruption" of the left elbow joint. That picture suggests he may have suffered other trauma to the groin area that white activists, Andrew Goodman and Michael Schwerner, did not....
For 36 years, countless books and movies have portrayed the killings of all three as quick executions, but experts now agree with what a second opinion then suggested — the damage Chaney suffered suggests he was treated differently than the other two.
"If he had broken one arm, you might could rationalize it," said Dr. Joe Burton, chief medical examiner for metropolitan Atlanta, who examined the trio's autopsy photos under intense magnification. "To break both of them would be more like torture. He was not only shot, he was tortured for some reason."
(Emphasis added.)
The question again: why only Killen?
What happened the night Chaney and the others were killed is detailed in confessions from two participants — James Jordan and Horace Doyle Barnette.
Those confessions identify Edgar Ray Killen of Union, otherwise known as "Preacher" Killen, as directing Klansmen where to go and what to do that night. (Killen insists he is innocent.)
After Neshoba County Deputy Cecil Price released Schwerner, Goodman and Chaney from jail at about 10 p.m., Klansmen chased down the trio in their station wagon. Price struck Chaney with a blackjack before Klansmen loaded the trio into Price's car to take them where they would be killed.
When Price stopped his deputy's car on a nearby gravel road, Klansman Alton Wayne Roberts pulled Schwerner out, put his hand on Schwerner's shoulder and shot him dead.
Roberts then removed Goodman from the car and shot him.
According to Barnette's confession, Jordan jerked Chaney out of the car. As he and others shot Chaney, Jordan said, "You didn't leave me anything but a n-----, but at least I killed me a n-----."
Killen received a mistrial. Barnette, Jordan, Roberts and Price were each convicted of federal charges of conspiring to deprive the trio of their civil rights. Of the five, Killen and Price are still alive.
Philip Dray, co-author of the 1988 book about the killings, We Are Not Afraid, said what dumbfounds him about the suggestion Chaney was beaten is Klansmen were angrier with Schwerner: "He was the one they really, really hated."
The secret of why Chaney may have been treated differently can be found in the long-sealed records of the Mississippi Sovereignty Commission, a segregationist spy agency headed by the governor from 1956 to 1973.
"James Chaney, the colored member of this group, is alleged to have broke (sic) away from the group of men that were holding them captive," commission investigator Andy Hopkins wrote in his Jan. 26, 1965, report for the Sovereignty Commission's files. "Shortly after he made the break, he was shot at several times by several different people but was struck by only three bullets, each of which was alleged to have been fired from a different firearm."
That coincides with Jordan's statement Chaney died perhaps 40 feet away from where Schwerner and Goodman were killed.
The autopsy report offers other possible evidence Chaney broke free. He was shot in the back, an indication he may have been hit while trying to evade his killers.
John Dittmer, author of the 1994 book on the Mississippi civil rights movement, Local People, said Klansmen may have beaten Chaney before finishing him off.
"There are books on lynching and mob psychology," Dittmer said. "To kill a person isn't enough. People go berserk. If this happened, it was because Chaney decided to run away."
Jordan's statement appears to support a gap of time between the first round of shots fired and the last ones fired: "A volley of shots, approximately six or seven in number, were heard, followed by two separate shots."
The two last shots that Jordan described could have been the shots that killed Chaney, one that struck him in the abdomen and the final bullet that fractured his skull.
Former FBI agent Jim Ingram, who headed the civil rights desk for the FBI in Mississippi in the 1960s, said he believes the Klansmen's motive was clear: "It seems to me they would have gotten their licks on Chaney since he was a Mississippi black associating with these whites from up North."
(Emphasis added.)
James Chaney was tortured and there is evidence that he was shot by more than one person.
Mississippi in 2005 is protecting white, racist murderers.
Further reading:
Mississippi Autposy, by Dr. David Spain
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This is such complexity to this case. I was looking at another source, the book regarding the paid FBI informant, Delmar Dennis, that was used by DeLaughter for the Medgar Evers trial, (Wm H. McIlhaney II, “Klandestine,” (New York: Arlington House Publishers, 1975)
… and came up with this:
At the FBI’s request, Dennis had reactivated his Klan membership. After Dennis (who became the FBI’s paid informant) heard that the three were missing, “he recalled his thoughts…
“I began to see how it all fit together. First they had beaten the Negroes at the meeting and then burned their church down. If that wasn’t enough to get Schwerner over to investigate I didn’t know what would. I later learned that a young Negro boy had recognized one of the Philadelphia Klansmen who had taken part in the beatings. That same week he was killed in a mysterious car accident.” p. 28, cites p. 8 of the Dennis manuscript
“By November much talk of the triple murder of June 21 was already circulating among Klansmen. Dennis heard some of this talk and was able to relay it to the agents with whom he worked. In one conversation, he heard James Jordan and Neshoba County deputy sheriff Cecil Price discuss the killing of the Mississippi black youth, James Chaney. Before Jordan shot Chaney to death, Price had hit the boy in the head with a blackjack. Price told Delmar that Jordan was the only man who knew that. This statement was important when Jordan claimed several years later that he had not witnessed the killings of the boys, but had been elsewhere nearby when they were taken out of their car and shot.” (p. 34)
Note how this differs from Dr. David Spain’s examination notes.
Then, according to Klandestine’s author, during the federal government’s trial …
“Jordan took the stand Thursday afternoon after Dennis’ testimony. His testimony, along with a statement taken from Horace Doyle Barnette in November 1964, proved to be the most incriminating testimony presented in the entire trial.
“But the two statements did not coincide in every particular. Jordan had lied abut his participation in the shooting. Naturally he would not confess that he had murdered Chaney. He said the he served as “a lookout” when the trie were killed and did not actually sitness the shooting.
“Before Judge Cox would admit the Barnette statement, he bowed to objections by the defense attorneys, who charged that the confession would be prejudicial to the other defendants. The import of Cox’s actions wasd to strike the names of all the accused in the case with the exception of Barnette and Jordan.
“The Barnette statement placed Jordan right at the scene of the crime and charged that he did, in fact, kill Chaney. One uncensored portion of the statement said:
“Schwerner fell to the left so that he was lying alongside the road. Goodman spun around and fell back toward the bank in back. At this time, Jim Jordan said, “Save one for me.” He then got out and got Chaney out. I remember Chaney backing up, facing the road and standing on the bank on the other side of the ditch and Jordan stood in the middle of the road and shot him. I do not remember how many time Jordan shot. Jordan then said, “You didn’t leave me anything but a nigger, but at least I killed me a nigger.”
“The Barnette statement concluded the case for the prosecution.” (p. 87-88)
Still more …
“The defense launched its attack late Friday afternoon. One Al Keene took the stand and charged that Jordan had admitted he actually killed all three of the civil rights workers. Keene, a resident of Mississippi City on the Gulf coast, said that Jordan lived with him and his wife in 1964.
“This was when Jordan supposedly described the Neshoba killings. Defense attorneys then began examining a long list of witnesses …” (p. 88)
“Just before the case was turned over to the jury, the prosecutor, John Doar, surprised the court by requesting a not-guilty verdict against Travis Barnette. Apparently Doar felt that the government had not built the proper case against Barnette.” (p. 89)
My students and I worked along with Jerry Mitchell and the Chaney and Schwerner families to get the case reopened. Our website: http://www.mississippiburning.org details that torturous process.
We came away with great respect for Attoney General Hood and his staff. They were sincere, hard working, and committed. However, we also were mystified by the decision to charge Killen only. There are others alive who were involved ad could be charged.
If you’d like to learn a less well known story of the era, please also check out our website at http://www.clydekennard.org
I’ve often wondered whether there’s any actual evidence connecting Preacher Killen or the members of the White Knights of the KKK to these three murders. I don’t think I’ve ever seen anything other than suspect verbal claims. After all, the confession of Barnette and the court transcript of Jorden’s interrogation do not agree on numerous points, which makes it hard to decide which man, if either, is telling the truth. So is there any material, i.e., forensic, evidence? And if not isn’t it a bit odd to accuse or find people guilty of of a crime when there’s no evidence?