Reputed Klansman arrested in 1964 Neshoba County (MS) civil rights slayings

Ledger-enquirer.com ^ | 11-6-05 | SHELIA BYRD

[WKB]

PHILADELPHIA, Miss. - Reputed Ku Klux Klansman Edgar Ray Killen was arrested late Thursday on murder charges in the 1964 slaying of three civil rights workers in Neshoba County, officials said.

Neshoba County Sheriff Larry Myers told The Associated Press that Killen, a 79-year-old preacher, was arrested at home without incident.

The arrest came after a daylong grand jury meeting Thursday that apparently included testimony from people believed to have knowledge about the killings.

"We've got several more to arrest, but we went ahead and got him because he was high-profile and we knew where he was," Myers said.

Myers said Killen was being held on three counts of murder. Calls to Killen's home late Thursday were answered by a recording.

Neshoba County District Attorney Mark Duncan said during the grand jury hearing that arraignments would be held Friday morning.

The grand jury considered whether sufficient evidence existed after 40 years to bring charges in the crimes that were dramatized in the movie "Mississippi Burning." Killen was identified in testimony in earlier federal court proceedings as having a role in the killings.

Mississippi has had some success reopening old civil rights murder cases, including a 1994 conviction of Byron de la Beckwith for the 1963 assassination in Jackson of NAACP field secretary Medgar Evers.

But until recently there has been little progress in building murder cases against those involved in the Ku Klux Klan slayings of civil rights workers James Chaney, Andrew Goodman and Michael Schwerner.

Seven Klansmen were convicted of federal conspiracy charges in the killings and sentenced to prison terms ranging from three years to 10 years. None served more than six years. But the state never brought murder charges.

"After 40 years to come back and do something like this is ridiculous ... like a nightmare," said Billy Wayne Posey, one of the men convicted. The graying Posey, supported by a cane, refused to say what he expected to be asked by the grand jury.

Goodman's mother, Carolyn Goodman, said she "knew that in the end the right thing was going to happen."

"As I have said many times before, I'm not looking for revenge. I'm looking for justice," Goodman, 89, said from her home in New York.

Chaney, Goodman and Schwerner were among hundreds of Freedom Summer volunteers, mostly white college students, who came to Mississippi in 1964 to educate blacks and help them to vote. The three were beaten and shot to death. Their bodies were found later in an earthen dam.

Chaney, a 21-year-old black man, was from Meridian, Miss. Goodman, 20, and Schwerner, 24, were from New York.

Jackson attorney James D. McIntyre, who declined to identify his client but said he was on the defense team during the 1967 trial, was critical of prosecutors.

"It appears to be a sad day for the state of Mississippi," McIntyre said. "The investigation that has being brought forth - the prosecutors, news media - I just hate to see it happen."

McIntyre said all he new of the reopened case is "what I read in the newspaper and it appears there has been a lot of judgment made concerning the guilt or innocence of a lot of these people."

Ben Chaney, the younger brother of James Chaney, called the latest investigation a sham that may target one or two unrepentant Klansmen but spare wealthy and influential whites who he said had a hand in the murders.

He said he and others had asked Hood early last year to turn the case over to the FBI with the goal of having a special prosecutor named to take up the investigation.

[Terabitten]

Tragically S-----, you seem to be a biased and bitter person. If I saw that slogan I would interpret it to mean that since knowledge was withheld from blacks, first through slavery, and then through unequal education, it is all the more to be valued by African-Americans. Very fitting for a historically black college. Your interpretation misses the point. BTW, who is it that the 'we' in your signature phrase would like to kill?

Biased and bitter? Hardly - but thank you for a personal assessment based on two posts. I've been nothing but polite and courteous to you, and I'd appreciate the same in return.

Now, on to a couple of your points. I don't have time right this second to hit on them all (I'll get to it later this evening, I promise), but I can at least touch on one or two. How would you interpret a slogan that said "The whiter the college, the sweeter the knowledge" ? Racism is racism, regardless of the race of the person involved.

Oh, and the song is "The March of Cambreadth" from Heather Alexander, who does Celtic folk music. Although the foe is never named in the song, I'd imagine, given the style, that it's some other Celtic or Gaelic tribal group. If you'll stick around for a while, you'll find that my taglines are usually based on whatever happens to be in my CD player at the time.

[dfwgator]

I remember I spent the longest year and half of my life in Mississippi. I remember my first day of school. The first thing any student said to me was not 'Hello' or anything like that, but 'Are you a Yankee?'. The day I found out we were moving to Florida was the happiest day of my life.

[WKB]

Bless your heart :>)

[Jemima Gaines]

There is nothing racist in the slogan you are citing. What it does say is that blacks and whites have not been similarly situated for all of American history. It is still much more difficult for a black person to obtain a college education than a white one. So, the knowledge would be more precious -- sweeter. That's reality, not racism.

Gator, I'm glad you escaped.