"I have hoped and prayed for over 40 years for justice including full disclosure and the complete prosecution of all those involved in the murder of my son James, and his companions, Andrew Goodman and Michael Schwerner." (Fannie L. Chaney, August 1, 2006)
Last night, Fannie Lee Chaney's soul left her body. She was the mother of slain civil rights worker James Earl Chaney.
Today (5/24) the soul of Henry Dee drew a little more near. The one known image of him came to light, after having been lost for 43 years.
In life Henry Dee and Charles Moore from southwest Mississippi had nothing to do with James Chaney, Michael Schwerner and Andrew Goodman. Circumstances following their violent deaths at the hands of Klansmen brought them close together.
On July 12, 1964, at 8:00 PM, phone calls started coming across the Council of Federated Organizations' (COFO) WATS line. A body had been found in the Mississippi River earlier that day, mid-state on the Mississippi-Louisiana state line. It was only the lower half of a body. It had a belt with a "buckle and letter M . . . like one Mickey [Schwerner] is supposed to have had, also [a] gold watch." By about 8:55 PM they heard back from Mickey's widow, Rita. The information did not check. By 6:45 PM the next day, the word was out that there were two bodies and their names were Charles Moore and Henry Dee.
The bodies of James Chaney, Michael Schwerner and Andrew Goodman were found almost a month later, on August 4, buried in an earthen dam, in Neshoba County, on the property of Olen Burrage. They had been missing since June 21.
In 2005, Mrs. Chaney saw a small measure of justice in her son's case, when Edgar Ray Killen was indicted on state murder charges and convicted for manslaughter.
[T]he 82-year-old mother of five returned [to Mississippi] from New Jersey to testify in the trial of Edgar Ray Killen, sharing her last encounters with her son, whom she called J.E., at her Meridian home on the morning of June 21, 1964.
She fixed breakfast for J.E. and his friends, Michael Schwerner and Andrew Goodman, "but J.E. never come back," she said....
Before another year passed, Fannie Lee Chaney left Mississippi after a series of threats, including one to dynamite her house and another to put her "in a hole like James was."
In 1967, a U.S. District Court jury in Meridian convicted Imperial Wizard Sam Bowers, Neshoba County Deputy Cecil Price and five others on federal conspiracy charges, but the other suspects walked free.
No one was ever charged for murder in the case until 2005 when Killen was charged. (Clarion Ledger)
Schwerner's widow, Rita Schwerner Bender of Seattle, said Wednesday that she and her late husband visited the Chaney home for meals and fellowship in the months before the killings. She said the 2005 trial was the last time she saw Fannie Lee Chaney.
"It sounds trite when you say it; she loved her children dearly. She was devastated by J.E.'s death." (AP)
A full measure of justice has yet to be rendered. There was sufficient evidence to arrest and/or indict on federal charges related to the murders eight men in the 1960s, who are still alive today, in addition to Edgar Ray Killen. The Neshoba County Grand Jury has met at least four times since the Killen trial, most recently on April 30, but has indicted no one else for the murders of James Chaney, Michael Schwerner and Andrew Goodman.
The trial of James Ford Seale begins next week. He has been charged with two counts of kidnapping and one count of conspiracy leading to the deaths of Charles Eddie Moore and Henry Hezekiah Dee.
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Photo: Fannie L. Chaney testifying at the trial of Edgar Ray Killen, June 18, 2005. (AP)
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