Criminology - Mississippi Burning

Episode Date: February 23, 2019

n the summer of 1964, three civil rights workers went missing in Mississippi. They were in the state working to help African Americans get registered to vote. Their station wagon was found burned and then their bodies were found after a 44-day search. The murders sparked a national outcry for justice and led to the first successful federal prosecution in a Mississippi civil rights case. There was a tremendous amount of media coverage on this case. The individuals responsible included members of the KKK as well as local law enforcement. But it wouldn't be easy to get convictions on all involved, and the fight for justice would take many years. You can help support the show by going to patreon.com/criminology An Emash Digital production Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

If you love chilling mysteries, unsolved cases, and a touch of mom-style humor, Moms and Mysteries is the podcast you've been searching for. Hey guys, I'm Mandy. And I'm Melissa. Join us every Tuesday for Moms and Mysteries, your gateway to gripping, well-researched true crime stories. Each week, we deep dive into a variety of mind-boggling cases as we shed light on everything from heist to whodunit.

We're your go-to podcast for Mysteries with a Motherly Touch. Subscribe now to Moms and Mysteries wherever you get your podcast. Criminology is a true crime podcast that may contain discussion about violent or disturbing topics. Listener discretion is advised. I'd like to welcome everyone to episode 49 of criminology. I'm Mike Ferguson. And this is Mike Morford. And we have a really great case for you on this episode.

But before we dive into that, more if I want to ask you how you're doing, how's your week going? It's going good. As always, I don't have too many complaints and I'm always ready to get to these episodes. I like that about you. Not too many complaints and you're always ready to dive into these cases. And I know you and I are both really excited about this one. But before that, let's do our Patreon shoutouts. We had Melissa Fultor, Sandy McDaniel, Courtney Shows, Holeshoe, Chris Padretti,

Amanda Massey, Kimberly Key, D.L. Sasha Skullick. Danny Jordan, Melissa Buffonos. I might have butchered that one pretty badly more, if I don't know. And Crystal Elginian. Not exactly sure about that one either. We'll see how it goes. But we do appreciate that new support.

We appreciate the continued support. We say it all the time, morph, but it goes a long way towards helping you and I continue to put out this podcast. Yeah, every week I'm amazed by all these people that come forward and decide to help the show, and it means a lot. And we've had a lot of positive responses about some of the stuff we put in the Patreon feed. And we're excited to let people know that we're going to have a conversation coming up in that Patreon feed with Carrie Timmons, who's the mom of Libby German, who we just covered in the last episode. And a lot of people have wanted

to hear from her. She hasn't been as vocal or is out in public eyes as some of the other family members. So that conversation is going to be pretty interesting. And I think people will like that conversation. And we'll put that on Patreon in the coming weeks. And if you'd like to support Criminology on Patreon, you can do so by visiting patreon.com slash criminology. And don't forget about CrimeCon. If you're buying your badge on the CrimeCon website, make sure you use our promo code. Criminology 19. That will save you 10% off the standard. badge price. All right, Morph, are you ready to dive into this case? I'm ready. It's a big one that happened in the South during a very volatile time.

So we all know, February is Black History Month and we wanted to cover a historic case related to the civil rights movement. This case happened during the summer of 1964 when three male civil rights workers, two white, one African American, disappeared from Nishoba County, Mississippi. Their bodies were found 44 days later in a dam on a property belonging to a member of the Ku Klux Klan. Their murders at the hands of several members of the Mississippi KKK sparked a national outcry for justice and really led to the first successful federal prosecution in a Mississippi civil rights case. While the hate of a few is what led to the murders of these three men, it was through the hard work and effort of many people that helped solve this case and help to

provide justice in a case that really was about good versus evil. Mike, I think that think you and I are both history buffs, and it's interesting to learn about some of the big events in this nation's history, some good, some not good, and unfortunately, the murders of these three men weren't good, but the way that people worked together to get justice for them was a good thing. To know and understand the civil rights movement of the 1950s and 1960s, we have to go back to where it all started. On April 12, 1861, the U.S. Civil War began when Confederate Shore batteries, under General P.G.T. Beauregard opened fire on Union-held Fort Sumter at Charleston Bay, South Carolina. The ongoing conflict between North and South over the issue of slavery led southern

leaders to discuss a unified separation from the United States. By 1860, the majority of slave states publicly threatened secession if the Republicans, who were opposed to slavery, won the presidency. When Abraham Lincoln was inaugurated in 1861, seven states seceded from the Union. That year, more than 4 million people, nearly all of African descent, were held as slaves in 15 southern and border states. For the next four years, the Civil War raged on, finally ending on April 9, 1865. On December 18th of that year, the 13th Amendment to abolish slavery was officially adopted into the U.S. Constitution. However, the legacy of slavery and efforts to overcome it remained a central issue in politics

during the post-Civil War reconstruction era and the Civil Rights Movement almost 100 years later. In 1955, the Civil Rights Movement began in Montgomery, Alabama, when Rosa Parks, who was sitting in the colored section of a bus, refused to give up her seat to a white man and moved to the back. of the bus. She was arrested and was made to pay a $10 fine plus $4 in court fees. And it's really bizarre to think back that just 60 years ago, this country had segregated bus seats for African Americans and that they were literally designated for quote unquote colored people. And the same was true with schools, water fountains and so much more.

It really makes you think how far we've come as a nation. Martin Luther King Jr. organized a year-long bus boycott known as the Montgomery bus boycott by the community. This eventually led to the desegregation of the bus line and it launched protests across the South. In 1960, lunch counter sit-ins by students began throughout the southern states. the most famous of which occurred on February 1st, 1960, when a group of activists, later known as the Greensboro 4, sat down at a Woolworth's lunch counter in Greensboro, North Carolina. The staff refused to serve them and asked them to leave.

But the group refused to leave and stayed until the evening. The sit-in led to Woolworth's removing its racial segregation policy. in the southern states. In 1961, another group of activists called Freedom Riders participated in Freedom Rides, where they boarded interstate buses to protest segregated bus terminals. Freedom Rides were organized by the Congress of Racial Equality, known as Core, which was founded in 1942 on the University of Chicago campus. By the early 1960s, Corps was working with other civil rights groups and launched the Freedom Rides,

Freedom Summer, and the historic 1963 March on Washington. While the Freedom Riders were peaceful, protesters often countered them with violence and brutal force. Two years later, on June 12, 1963, Civil Rights activist Medgar Evers, was shot in the back in the driveway of his home in Jackson, Mississippi. Two months later, Martin Luther King Jr. delivered his iconic, I Have a Dream speech in Washington, D.C., during the March on Washington for Jobs and Free. freedom. On September 15th, four little girls were killed in the Birmingham, Alabama, church bombing. So while 1963 was a very violent year in the civil rights movement, 1964 proved to be even more so. This was an important year, full of many historical moments and events throughout the United States. The Beatles landed in New York City,

starting the British invasion. Jack Ruby was found guilty of killing Lee Harvey Oswald. Martin Luther King Jr. was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in Oslo, Norway. And President Lyndon Johnson defeated Republican Barry Goldwater in the presidential election with over 60% of the popular vote. But for the civil Rights Movement, 1964 was a year full of threats and violence, especially in the state of Mississippi. At the time, people living outside of the Magnolia State had no idea what was really going on there. In reality, the state was experiencing its most violent year since Reconstruction. And it all began with Freedom Summer, also known as the Mississippi Summer Project, Freedom Summer was a 1964 voter registration drive sponsored by Corps and the student nonviolent

coordinating committee commonly known as SNCC. It was run by the local council of federated organizations, an association of civil rights groups in which SNCC was its most active member. 29-year-old Robert Moses did most of the planning for the project at that time. Moses developed as one of the most influential black leaders of the civil rights struggle, and he had a vision of grassroots and community-based leadership. Although Moses' leadership style was different from Reverend Martin Luther King, Jr., King appreciated the contributions that Moses made to the movement, calling them inspiring. Moses initiated and organized voter registration drives in the south, sit-ins, and freedom schools for the SNCC.

Freedom Summer's goal was to increase black voter registration in Mississippi. The project included black Mississippians and over 1,000 predominantly white volunteers from across the country. Mississippi was chosen as a site for Freedom Summer because of its historically low levels of African-American voter registration. In 1962, less than 7% of the state's eligible black voters were registered to vote. Roughly, 100 white college students had helped register votes in 1963, and several hundred more students were invited in 1964 for Freedom Summer. On January 16, 1964, 24-year-old Michael Mickey Schwerner and his 22-year-old wife, Rita, arrived in Mississippi as field staff workers for Corps. A few days later, they drove to Meridian Mississippi with the purpose of establishing a community

center, which would provide services for black citizens that the state and local authorities would not. Shortly after they arrived, the couple met 21-year-old James Earl Cheney. James worked with them and eventually became. part of the core staff. That spring, 21-year-old Andrew Goodman was one of the many people who applied for Freedom Summer. He was selected for the program, and he went to Ohio in June for volunteer training. This is where he met Mickey Schwerner and James Cheney. James Earl Cheney was born on May 30, 1943 in Meridian, Mississippi. During high school, he was captain of the track and football team.

It was during this time that James decided to plunge into the Civil Rights Movement. He was once suspended from school for wearing an NWACP badge. After high school, he worked as a trade union apprentice and became more involved in the civil rights movement. In 1962, he participated in the Freedom Rides and joined Corps the following year. James worked on getting African Americans in his community registered to vote. Ben Cheney, James' surviving brother, who was only 12 years old when James died, and he was. once said that James was a practical joker who liked to gather his friends on the corner to sing Motown

songs. Michael Schwerner was born on November 6, 1939, in New York City. He and his brother, Stephen, attended Walden School. His father was in the manufacturing business and his mother was a biology teacher. The family moved out of the city in the late 40s. Mickey, his friends and family called him, went to high school in Pelham, New York. After he graduated, he first attended Michigan State University, but later transferred to Cornell, ultimately graduating in 1961. Afterwards, he enrolled in a master's program at Columbia University School of Social Work, but dropped out and took a job as a social worker at a housing project on New York's Lower East Side. He really became involved at this point in time in the civil rights movement. He joined the Corps chapter in the area. However, after the

Birmingham riots in 1963, he moved to the south to work with Corps there. Andrew Goodman was born on November 23, 1943 in New York City. He grew up on the city's Upper East Side with his parents, Robert and Carolyn, and brothers Jonathan and David. Like Mickey, he had attended the Walden School. As a teenager, Andrew became involved in the fight for racial equality. He participated in the 1958 Youth March for Integrated Schools in Washington, D.C., and a 1960 protest at a New York Woolworths. In 1962, Andrew enrolled at Queens College. He participated in the 1963 March on Washington and protested outside the 1964 World's Fair in New York. That year, he joined Freedom Summer and went to Ohio for the training,

met up with Mickey and James. During the training, Mickey and James had to leave the event early to investigate an attack on a Mississippi church that had agreed to work with Corps. Andrew decided to join them. On June 15, 1964, the first 300 volunteers arrived in Meridian, Mississippi, and Freedom Summer began. Andrew wrote a postcard home to his parents. He described the place as a wonderful town, and that the reception from the local community was very good. Since the Schwerner's arrival in Meridian in January, Mickey had caught the attention of the local KKK. Both the group and local residents were not happy they were there. After a few weeks, the Scherner's had to change residences several times because the African-American families who took them in received harassing phone calls.

They were too afraid to house the couple any longer. and the Schwerner's themselves began receiving numerous threatening phone calls, both at home and at the office where they worked. The caller said horrific, abusive things to the couple. They tried to intimidate them into leaving, but it didn't work. During this time, Mickey made about 30 trips into Neshoba County while Rita stayed in Meridian. The county was known to be very dangerous and so volatile. that it was nicknamed Bloody Neshoba,

and many civil rights workers declined to work in that area. At the end of April, Mickey was arrested on two counts of blocking a crosswalk. He was held in the Meridian City Jail until after his trial two days later. Another prisoner warned Mickey to not say anything because he overheard an officer saying that if he didn't keep quiet, he would get other prisoners to beat Mickey, and no action would be taken by police. Mickey narrowly escaped the beating.

On Friday, April 18th, the Schwarners were visiting Reverend R.S. Porter when Porter received word that a cross was burning in front of his church, the First Union Baptist Church. Then at the beginning of June, a large group of activists were arrested in Meridian. They attempted to form a picket line in front of a few five-and-dime stores and were arrested. Mickey went down to the police station to find out what the charges were. all the protesters had been charged with obstructing traffic. The death sergeant that day, Officer Kirkland, threatened Mickey saying, if you get any more of these kids arrested, Schwerner, I'm going to get you.

And that's a promise. All of these events that we've been talking about, they're leading up to one big national tragedy. And Mickey Schwerner was the target. On June 16th, 1964, a routine meeting of Church O'Archewrower. officers was held at Mount Zion United Methodist Church. As they exited the church, local members of the Ku Klux Klan met them outside and ordered them out of their vehicles. The men proceeded to beat Bud Cole, Georgia Rush, and her son John Thomas.

Then the Klansmen set fire to the church that evening, completely destroying it. All that remained was the 40-year-old bell. that was used to announce the beginning of church services. On June 21st, in a blue station wagon owned by Corps, James, Mickey, and Andrew drove to Longdale to encourage Mount Zion church members to not give into intimidation. But the men never arrived at the church.

Rita Schwerner, who was still in Ohio at the training, was worried when she had not heard from Mickey, who always checked in with her. When she hadn't heard from him by 4.30 p.m., she became concerned. A few days went by without any word from the men, and many people, including Rita, knew something bad had happened, and the trio was most likely dead. On June 24th, 1964, the Blue Station wagon was found in a swampy area of Philadelphia, Mississippi. The tires, windows, the interior, and the exterior were completely burned. There were no sign of the three men in the car.

When local and state authorities refused to search for the three men, the FBI stepped in and sent an agent to investigate. Attorney General Robert Kennedy sent 150 federal agents to Mississippi. The investigation was dubbed Myburn for Mississippi burning. Sailors from the nearby naval base in Meridian were ordered to help in the search. They trudged through muddy swamps in Neshoba County and search cotton fields for freshly turned earth. But after a month of searching, they found nothing. Prieta and other Freedom Summer volunteers realized how dangerous going to and being in Mississippi was for all of them. Organizers of Freedom Summer told the volunteers to think long and hard before getting on a bus to go to Mississippi and suggested they call their families for advice.

most of them courageously hopped on the buses and went to Meridian. While there, volunteers established freedom schools in order to educate, encourage, and register the black citizens to vote. One of the most wonderful things about 1964 Mississippi summer were the freedom schools. The state of Mississippi deliberately and systematically kept black people uneducated and ignorant. and then turned around and made education a requirement in order to participate in the political process. We were able to do the Freedom Schools in the summer of 1964 because we had almost a thousand students

coming to the state of Mississippi, thus the human resources to actually conduct classes. We hope to find and develop and mold mold local leadership among the young people. We also hope to promote a better self-image among the local Negroes. While in Mississippi, volunteers had to live with members of the local African-American community who agreed to let them stay in their homes. When word got out to some of the unsupportive white population, the volunteers were treated exactly like the African-American people were being treated in the South.

In one instance, a volunteer was walking along a road when two white men in a truck approached her. I was walking along the road. We were told never to leave the place we were staying by ourselves. They jumped out of the car. They started calling me, we got you. We finally got you. We ain't killed ourselves a white girl yet.

You're going to be the first. They get this lynch rope. It really was a noose like you see, like I had seen in the pictures of the hangings, right? They put this noose over my head and it's attached to a long rope. They jump back into the car and I just saw myself being dragged to death. I'm walking like this and they're laughing and calling me all kinds of names. And then they moved along slowly, a little bit faster. I'm walking faster.

And it was like, okay, this is it. And then they dropped the rope. And I just stood there because we had to wear skirts. We weren't allowed to wear pants in those days. So we all had our little shifts on and everything. I peed all over myself, just stood on there and just peed. The volunteers knew the dangers, especially after the disappearances of James, Mickey, and Andrew, but they chose to stay in Mississippi and continue their important mission of educating and helping

African-American families register to vote. On June 25th, Rita Schwerner went to the state capital in Jackson with John Robert Zellner, an SNCC field secretary, and Reverend Edwin King, the Tugolo College chaplain. Rita attempted to see Governor Paul B.J. Johnson, Jr. to ask for his promise to help in the search for the three men. However, Senator Barber stepped in and told them that the governor was out for the afternoon. Barbara was extremely rude to Rita. The group walked over to the governor's mansion, arriving just as Governor Johnson walked up the steps with Governor George Wallace of Alabama. The group requested to speak with Governor Johnson, but once he heard Rita's name, he ran into the mansion and locked the door.

Then a group of Mississippi Highway Patrolmen surrounded the group. Police refused to let them set up an appointment with the governor. The next day, determined to get help to find the three men, the group went to speak with Neshoba County Sheriff Lawrence Rainey. On their way there, they were followed by a blue late model pickup truck with no license place. Two white men were in the truck and blocked them off in front while a white late model car blocked them from behind. Luckily, the group was able to turn their vehicle around, get past the white car, but the blue truck followed close behind them. The group continued to the police department and reported the incident to FBI agents. Rita was able to speak with Rainey, but he denied knowledge of the circumstances of,

the disappearances of the three men. However, the group did obtain permission from Rainey and FBI agents to follow Rainey to the garage where the burn station wagon was being kept. Rita wanted to see the car her husband had been driving while they were there. A group of young white men who worked at the garage began laughing at them and made screams which were referred to as rebel yells. A rebel yell was the Confederate soldiers' battle cry during the Civil War. It was used to intimidate the enemy. When the group left the garage, the sheriff's car was following close behind, and the blue pickup continued following them to the outskirts of town.

Rainey made no attempt to stop the men in the truck. Meanwhile, during a search for James, Mickey, and Andrew, some members of the local white community were interviewed on camera by reporters and stated their ideas regarding the disappearances of the men. Some said that the whole thing may have been a hoax. Another opinion was that the men had taken off to Canada, watching everything on TV and were laughing as the searches were going on, while others thought that the men were dead and probably deserved it.

They didn't care either way and wanted the FBI and sailors to leave town, but they didn't leave. And that just amazes me more that people would choose to make those type of comments on camera, right? This is not them making comments in their own house to their family. They're literally making these on camera to reporters. It's going to go out. They just didn't care. The FBI continued investigating the disappearances. It was only when the FBI agreed to pay an informant $25,000 that they learned the bodies of the three men were buried in a dam on a property owned by a man named Olin Burrage.

Burrage was a member of the Ku Klux Klan. The identity of the paid informant remained unknown for decades after the murders and was only referred to as Mr. X. But it was on August 4th, 1964. FBI agents armed with a search warrant went to the site as directed by the informant. They dug about 20 feet into a mound of dirt that had been pushed up to form this dam on a pond. The bodies were found in a shallow grave about three feet deep beneath the mound of dirt. They were then transferred to Jackson, Mississippi for identification, an autopsy was performed on the bodies.

X-rays were used to see if any metal objects such as bullets were embedded in the, the decomposing bodies, and sure enough, bullets were found. All three men had been shot to death. Evidence on one of the bodies showed signs of a brutal beating prior to death. The bodies were identified through fingerprints and dental records as Andrew Goodman, Michael Schwerner, and James Cheney, the three missing civil rights activists. It didn't take long for investigators, to uncover the details of the brutal murders, these murders had been planned in advance. The White Knights of the KKK had specifically targeted Mickey because he was working with members of the Mount Zion Methodist Church. The Klansmen decided to trap Mickey by attacking members

of the church. After the three men were arrested and released on June 21st, they hopped into the blue station wagon and drove towards Meridian. They avoided back roads and took the highway through Philadelphia, Mississippi. Just as they drove into town, Neshoba deputy sheriff, Cecil Price, pulled them over for driving 65 miles per hour in a 30 mile per hour zone. He arrested all three men and hauled them into the county jail where he locked them in a cell for seven hours. He eventually released the three men. During the seven hours that the men were in jail, Deputy Sheriff Price summoned clan members, letting them know he was releasing the men. The clan members were waiting when Price hopped into his police car and raced after the station wagon.

Price pulled the men over again just before they reached the county line. The clan members took the men to a secluded area. Then clan member Wayne Roberts shot Mickey in the heart and then walked over to Andrew and killed him. Clansman James Jordan ran over to James and shot him in the abdomen, where Roberts fired a shot into James' back. To make sure James was dead, Roberts put another bullet into his brain. After the Klan killed the three activists, they bulldozed the bodies into this earthen dam under about 10 tons of dirt, believing the bodies would never be found. But they underestimated the media attention on this case.

James Cheney was African American. Andrew Goodman and Mickey Schwerner were Caucasian. Mickey's wife Rita Schwarner later said that she felt the only reason this case received so much attention was because two of the victims were white. If the victim had only been James, it's very possible no one would have ever known about it. And I believe that's true, Morph. And it's extremely sad. It's extremely disconcerting that that was what was going on during that time period. You know, the entire country watched this unfold from their television sets as the FBI recovered this charged station wagon from the swamp.

And then again, when the bodies were found, folk singer Pete Seeger was in town for a Freedom School convention during this time. And so he gave a concert that night. And I don't know how we would have gotten through that day without the singer. and the camaraderie and the strength that comes from being together and singing together. Last August I was singing in a little Baptist church in Meridian, Mississippi. About 150 people were in the audience.

And in the middle of my program, I had to announce to them the news that had just come in that the bodies of the three young civil rights workers had just been discovered. I didn't see anybody or hear anybody shout for revenge, but I could see lips moving. I could see the most intense kind of determination on everybody's face. And afterwards, several people came up to me

and asked if they could get the words of a new song which I just learned myself and had sung that night. and down your walk upon wash the law. In 1963, Seeger helped organize a landmark Carnegie Hall concert featuring the youthful freedom singers as a benefit for the Highlander Folk School in Tennessee. This event and Martin Luther King's March on Washington in August of that year brought the Civil Rights anthem, We Shall Overcome, to wide audiences. They sang this on the 50-mile walk from Selma to Montgomery, Alabama. Several months after the murders, Lewis Lomax, an African-American author, wrote a piece for Ram 11 parts, a Catholic layman's magazine. He wrote about eyewitness accounts describing the murders in detail.

The New York Times recounted the author's work in their October 26, 1964 article titled, author described slang of three civil rights workers in Mississippi. Mr. Lomas gave this account. It is not known precisely how many men were in the mob. Six, at least, have been identified by eyewitnesses. But because they have not been charged with the crime, their names cannot now be revealed. The frogs and the varmints are moaning in the bayous.

By now the moon is midnight high. Cheney, the negro of the three, is tied to a tree and beaten with chains. His bones snap and his screams pierced the still midnight air, but the screams are soon ended. There is no noise now except for the thud of chains crushing flesh and the crack of ribs and bones. Andrew Goodman and Michael Schwerner look on in horror. Then they break into tears over their black brother. You goddamn N-word lovers, shouts one of the mob.

What do you think now? Schwerner cracks. He breaks from the men who are holding them and rushes toward the tree to aid Cheney. Michael Shorner takes no more than 10 steps before he is subdued and falls to the ground. Then Goodman breaks and lunges toward the fallen Schwerner. He too has wrestled into submission. The three civil rights workers are loaded into a car, and the five-caravan makes its way toward the predetermined burial ground.

Even the men who committed the crimes are not certain whether Cheney is dead when they take him down from the tree. But to make sure, they stop about a mile from the burial place and fire three shots into him, and one shot each into the chest of Goodman and Schwerner. The names of the witnesses were never released in order to protect them. And I don't know about you, Morph, but that's very powerful writing. It's very vivid, and it puts a picture into your mind of what's going on with these three men, and it's very sad. And it's not a good picture, but like you said, it is very vivid.

It's very descriptive. Now, on August 7, 1964, a memorial service, was held for James Cheney with a very powerful emotional eulogy. The decision had been made by family members and local leaders and others that they want to keep this very quiet and then low-key, brother, that their eulogy. I want to talk about is really what I really grieve about. I don't grieve for Cheney because of the fact I feel that he lived full of life

than many of us would ever live. I feel that he's got his freedom who's still fighting for him. Dave Dennis's speech was a turning point in the summer because everybody wanted him to say the usual

things that you would say at a funeral. And Dave Dennis just couldn't do it. He challenged the people at the memorial and he challenged the whole You see, we all tired. You see, I know what's going to happen. I feel it deep in my heart where they find the people who kill those guys in the

Shover County. All the different emotions of things that have been going through, leading up to this particular moment, begin to come out, boil up, and we might call this. And then looking out there and seeing Ben Cheney. James Cheney's little brother. little brother. I lost it.

I totally just lost it. Don't bow down anymore. We want our freedom now. I don't want to have to go to another memorial. The following Sunday, August 9th, Andrew's funeral and a memorial service for Mickey were held separately in New York City. James's mother, Fannie Lee Cheney,

attended both services. thousands of people came to pay their respects to the civil rights workers and some attendees had to listen to a loudspeaker from a basement in both churches. That's how many people were there. Those who couldn't fit into the crowded churches waited outside on the sidewalk. At Andrews service, the hundreds who had waited on the sidewalk began quietly singing, We Shall Overcome. They were joined by those who emerged from the church, and soon the Civil Rights song filled the block of 64th Street west of Central Park. Andrew was buried in Mount Judah Cemetery at Cypress Hills in Brooklyn. His headstone reads, he traveled a short while towards the sun and left the vivid air signed with his honor.

Michael Schwerner was cremated. For decades after the Civil War Reconstruction, U.S. Congress did not pass one Civil Rights Act, but in 1957, it did establish the civil rights section of the Justice Department, along with the Commission on Civil Rights to investigate discriminatory conditions. Three years later, it provided for court-appointed referees to help African Americans to register to vote. In 1961, John F. Kennedy became the 35th President of the United States. Two years later, in June, 1963, he proposed the most comprehensive civil rights legislation. legislation to date, saying the U.S. will not be fully free until all of its citizens are free. Following JFK's assassination on November 22, 1963, President Lyndon B. Johnson took up the cause.

During the summer the men disappeared, President Lyndon B. Johnson signed into law the 1964 Civil Rights Act. Johnson said in his first State of the Union address, let this session of Congress be known as the session, which did more for civil rights than the last. last hundred sessions combined. The Senate voted 73 to 27 in favor of the bill, and Johnson signed it into law on July 2nd, 1964. And apparently he used at least 75 different pens, which he then later handed out to congressional supporters of the bill, including future vice president Hubert Humphrey and Martin Luther

King Jr. But keep in mind, this was not popular with everyone, especially many people in the South. Johnson allegedly told an aid later on that day, quote, it is an important game, but I think we just delivered the South to the Republican Party for a long time to come. The Civil Rights Act of 1964 was wide sweeping. It prohibited discrimination in the workplace, public accommodation. public facilities, and agencies receiving federal funds, it also strengthened prohibitions on school segregation

and discrimination in voter registration. Following the passing and signing of the Civil Rights Act came the Voting Rights Act of 1965, signed in the law by President Johnson. It aimed to overcome legal barriers at the state and local levels that prevented African Americans from exercising their right to vote as guaranteed under the 15th Amendment of the U.S. Constitution. By December 1964, the Justice Department had enough information to authorize arrest in the murders

of the civil rights workers. On December 4th, federal agents arrested 19 men in Neshoba and Lauderdale counties for conspiring to deprive Mickey Scherner, James Cheney, and Andrew Goodman of their civil rights under the color of state law. But six days later, a U.S. commissioner dismissed the charges, stating that the confession on which the arrest were based was hearsay. One month later, government lawyers secured indictments against the conspirators from a federal grand jury in Jackson, Mississippi. On February 24, 1965, federal judge William Harold Cox, a passionate segregationist, threw out the indictments against all the conspirators, except for Sheriff Rainey and Deputy Price. Over a year later in March 19,

the U.S. Supreme Court overruled Judge Cox and reinstated the indictments. As the Justice Department prepared for trial, defense attorneys made the argument that the original indictments were flawed because the pool of jurors from which the grand jury was drawn contained insufficient numbers of minorities. Rather than attempt to refute this charge, the government summoned a new grand jury. and on February 28, 1967, won re-indictments. The list of those indicted differed slightly from the original list and included the names of 18 Klansmen. The trial of the 18 Klansmen, including Sheriff Rainey and Sheriff Deputy Cecil Price,

began on October 7, 1967 in the Meridian Mississippi courtroom of none other than Judge William Cox, who once referred to a group of African Americans, set to testify in a voting rights case as a bunch of chimpanzees. The jury consisted of seven white men and five white women, all ranging in ages from 34 to 67. Klansman James Jordan and Horace Doyle Barnett pleaded guilty to the murders and gave confessions implicating others. However, their confessions were never heard at trial.

Regardless, Jordan and two other Klansmen, Wallace Miller, and Delmar Dennis, did testify. and their testimonies became the heart of the prosecution's case. In the suburbs of D.C., a woman fails to show up for work and is found brutally murdered. No one, which emergency? We just walked in the door, and there's blood in the foyer. For the next two decades, the case remained unsolved, until new technology allowed investigators to do what had once been impossible. A new series from ABC Audio in 2020,

Blood and water. Listen now, wherever you get your podcasts. Wallace Miller described the organization of the Lauderdale County Clavern, which is a KKK term, used to describe a unit of the clan, and described his conversations with two high-ranking members, Frank Herndon and Edgar Ray Killen, about the June 21st operation in the Shobah County. Delmar Dennis incriminated Samuel Bowers, the Imperial Wizard of the White Knights of Mississippi's KKK. James Jordan was the government's only witness to the actual murders. And they were fearful that he would be assassinated before he could even testify. So they arranged to have him hustled into court by five agents with their guns drawn.

And Jordan didn't do so well in court. You know, at one point, he began hyperventilating and required hospitalization. Another time, he collapsed and had to be carried out of the courtroom on a stretcher, but he did finally manage to take the witness stand and describe the events of June 21st and the morning of June 22nd. He started with the gathering of clan members in Meridian all the way to the burial of the bodies at Olin Burge's property. The defense's case consisted of a series of alibi and character witnesses. Local residents testified as to the reputation for truth and veracity of various defendants or claimed they have seen them on June 21 at various locations, such as funeral homes or hospitals. John Doer, one of the government attorneys, presented the closing argument for the government on October 18th.

He told the jury this was a calculated, cold-blooded plot. Three men, hardly more than boys, were its victims. Dorr pointed to Price and said, Price used the machinery of law, his office, his power, his authority, his badge, his uniform, his jail, his police car, his police gun. he used them all to take, to hold, to capture, and kill. Dork concluded his closing statement by telling jurors that what he and the other lawyers said will soon be forgotten. But what you 12 do here today will long be remembered.

One day after deliberations began, the jury was unable to reach a verdict. Judge Cox gave the jury what is called the Allen charge or the dynamite charge for its purpose. purpose of cracking a deadlock jury. And this is basically where the judge goes back to the jury and says, hey, keep going until you're able to reach a verdict. 13 days after the trial began, the jury returned its verdict on the morning of October 20th, 1967. Seven defendants, mostly from Lauderdale County, were convicted. The list of convicted men included,

Deputy Sheriff Cecil Price, Imperial Wizard Sam Bowers, Wayne Roberts, Jimmy Snowden, Billy Wayne Posey, and Horace Barnett. Seven men mostly from Neshoba County were acquitted, and this included Sheriff Lawrence Rainey, Olin Burridge, and Frank Herndon. In three of the cases, the jury was unable to reach a verdict. The convictions in the case represented the first ever federal convictions in Mississippi for the killing of a civil rights worker. Sentencing took place on December 29, 1967. Roberts and Bowers got 10 years. Posey and Price received six years, and the other three convicted defendants got four. Roberts and Bowers served no more than six years of their 10-year sentence. Price only served four years of his six-year sentence.

In 1983, in a secret interview with the Mississippi Department, of archives and history, Samuel Bowers alleged that Edgar Ray Killen was the main perpetrator of the 1964 killings. He also admitted that he thwarted justice in the case, but denied direct involvement in the murders. He said, if authorities wanted to put a charge on me, they could have gotten me for obstruction of justice. I did everything I could to frustrate this investigation. I was up there doing everything I could to keep those people from talking and everybody else. I was quite delighted to be convicted and have the main instigator of the entire affair walk out of the courtroom a free man. Everybody including the trial judge and the prosecutors and everybody else, no, that's what happened.

Samuel Bowers was later convicted in 1998 for the 1966 firebombing of the home of shopkeeper Vernon Dahmer, who had allowed fellow African Americans to pay their poll taxes and register to vote. in his store. The New York Times reported that Mr. Bauer sent two car loads of Klansmen with 12 gallons of gasoline, white hoods, and shotguns to the Dahmer house near Haddysburg, Mississippi. They tossed the burning gasoline into the house and 58-year-old Vernon Dahmer, his lungs seared, held these attackers at bay so his family could escape. And then he died later in the arms of his wife. Prior to his conviction, Bowers had been brought the trial five times for the killing of Vernon Dahmer. He died in prison in 2006 at the age of 82. As part of

an agreement with state archivist, Bowers' tapes were to remain sealed until his death. However, in 1998, investigative reporter Jerry Mitchell gained access to portions of the tapes, and his paper published excerpts. Bowers' admission to obstructing justice led Rita Schwerner to write Philadelphia, Mississippi District Attorney Ken Taylor in 2000. Rita wrote, it's past time for the state of Mississippi to fully investigate and acknowledge responsibility for these murders. She then asked Taylor to reopen the case. That same year, Mississippi Attorney General Mike Moore announced that the state was asking the FBI to turn over its files on the case and the 1967 trial transcripts. Moore said,

It's a chance for us to do justice for the families of those three young men. It's a mean-spirited murder case. Maybe one of the most mean-spirited murder cases that I've ever seen. Our investigators are now out in the field interviewing witnesses. Jerry Mitchell's work over the years helped get convictions in many civil rights cases, including the killing of Medgar Evers and Samuel Bowers for Vernon Dahmer's murder. In 1988, the film Mississippi Burning, loosely based on the 1964 civil rights murders, was released, and it inspired Mitchell to take a closer look at the 1964 case. During his investigation, he uncovered the identity of the 1964 informant who the FBI paid $25,000 to.

At the time, he was only known as Mr. X. Mitchell narrowed the list of possible candidates in his thorough investigation. when author Barry Bradford provided key information from his interview with retired FBI agent Don Cassary, Mitchell was able to conclude that Highway Patrolman Maynard King was Mr. X. And by the way, I'd highly recommend the film Mississippi Burning starring Gene Hackman and Willem Defoe. What did you think of that movie, Mike? No, I liked it. And I would agree with that recommendation. It's a very powerful film.

Almost 41 years after the murders, Edgar R. Killing's trial in the killings began on June 15th, 2005. Killing was a preacher and a sawmill operator. He never confessed to the murders. His lawyer said that he was a clan member and recruited people to help beat up the three workers. But the prosecution accused Killing of being the mastermind behind the whole thing. The state attorney general said the state intends to prove, not only did he plan the murders and bring back people and tell people where to hide the bodies, the state believes you will find the defendant guilty of three counts of murder. This time around, the jury was more diverse with nine white women, four white men, two black women,

and two black men. Five of the jurors were alternates. Both sides agreed that Killen, who was 80 years old at the time of the trial, was not present when the men were shot or buried. But witnesses said that he was a Klegal or a local clan recruiter and plotted out what would happen when James, Mickey, and Andrew were released from jail, where the clan members should meet and where the men would be shot. Prior to the trial, Killen broke both his legs while chopping lumber at his rural home.

He was in a wheelchair during trial. Prosecutor told jurors not to be swayed by this, his age, or the fact he was a preacher. Finally, on June 21st, 2005, the anniversary of the murders, Killen was convicted on three counts of manslaughter. He was sentenced to a maximum of 60 years in prison, 20 years for each count of manslaughter. He died in prison in 2018 at the age of 92. Olin Burridge, the man who owned the property where the men's bodies were found, passed away in 2013. at the age of 82. According to witness testimony during one of the early trials,

Burge bragged just days before the killings that a dam he was digging on his farmland would be a good place to bury civil rights workers. But Burge was never convicted of anything. Rita Schwerner, Michael Schwerner's widow, continued her efforts to improve voting issues following the murder of her husband. She received a law degree and worked as a public defender for the American Civil Liberties Union.

She returned to Mississippi for Killen's trial. Rita remarried to a man named Bill Bender and both are lawyers in Seattle and remain deeply involved in civil rights. Michael Schwerner's mother, Anna Schwerner, passed away in 1996 in Ohio from Alzheimer's disease. She was 84. After their son's death, she and her husband Nathan helped raise money for various civil rights groups. and lobbied for federal voting rights legislation. Stephen is now in his early 80s and has been an activist for over 60 years. Andrew Goodman's mother, Carolyn Goodman, a clinical psychologist,

became a prominent civil rights activist after the murder of her son. She died in New York City in 2007 at the age of 91. In 1966, she and her husband, Robert, started the Andrew Goodman Foundation, which supports a variety of social causes. Andrew's brother David is now the president of the foundation. Andrew's mother and brother also attended Edgar Ray Killen's tribe. Fannie Lee Cheney, James's mother, passed away in 2007, three months before Carolyn Goodman.

She was 85. After her son's murder, Cheney sued five restaurants in Meridian for racial discrimination. Due to her lawsuit and speaking out about the crime, she was fired from her job and no one else in town would hire her. Crosses were burned on her lawn and a fire bomb intended for her family's house destroyed that of a neighbor. She moved to New York City where she worked in a nursing home. After 30 years, she retired and moved to New Jersey.

In 2005, she testified for the state of Mississippi in the murder case against Edgar Ray Killen. Ben Cheney, James' brother was only 12 years old when his brother died. got into some trouble. He served 13 years in prison from 1970 to 1983. He and two other men drove to Florida with a plan to buy guns. Five people ended up dead in Florida and South Carolina. Now, Ben didn't witness any of the slings. He was acquitted of murder in South Carolina, but in Florida, he was convicted of murder in the first degree and sentenced to three life terms. But he was released after serving only 13 years. In 1983, he founded the James Cheney Foundation, which aims to further advance and promote achievements in the area of human and civil rights and voter

registration. James Cheney left behind a daughter, Angela Lewis, who was born a week after her father's murder. She didn't know the details of her father's death until she was 13 years old. Her mother never talked about James before or after she told Angela about him. But to her, James was a stranger. Angela told CNN in 2014, My reading about him today is like reading about a stranger. Angela lives in Meridian, Mississippi, and is a nurse. She's married to a police officer, and they have four children.

In 2014, President Barack Obama posthumously awarded James Cheney, Michael Schwerner, and Andrew Goodman with the presidential Medal of Freedom. In 52 years after the murders, the Mississippi burning case was officially closed. In a press conference in 2016, the Mississippi Attorney General said, there's nothing else that can be done. I'm convinced that during the last 52 years, investigators have done everything possible under the law to find those responsible and hold them accountable. absent any new information presented to the FBI or my office, this case will be closed. The Mount Zion United Methodist Church was rebuilt after the KKK destroyed at 1964.

Today, a memorial headstone sits on its land in memory of the three civil rights workers. At the corner of County Road 515 and Highway 19, between Philadelphia and Meridian, Mississippi, sits a historical marker dedicated to the men. Today, Mississippi has more African-American elected officials than any other state in the country. And I think, Morph, that is an amazing statistic. I think it's a testament to just how far we've come as a country since the 1964 murders of these three civil rights workers. But that's it. That's the case of the Mississippi burning murders. A special thanks, as always, goes out to writer and researcher,

Debbie Buck at truecrime diva.com for help with this episode. If you like the show and you haven't done so already, go out, give us a five-star rating. It goes a long way towards helping new people find the show. If you want to find Criminology on social media, you can find us on Twitter with the handle at Criminology Pod. You can also find us on Facebook by searching for Criminology Podcast or by joining the Facebook discussion group, criminology discussion and fans. So Morph and I will be back next week with an brand new episode of criminology.

And it's a big one. Morph, it's a milestone. It's episode number 50. And it's a case that's really bizarre. And it fits right in for a 50th episode. It's one that I think people will really be interested in listening to. Ooh, that's a good tease. That's a way to tease them on the way out.

All right, everyone. We will talk to you next week. Take care, everyone.