Reputed Klansman arrested in 1964 slayings

[Roon]

PHILADELPHIA, Miss. - A reputed Ku Klux Klansman was arrested Thursday night on murder charges in the 1964 slaying of three voter-registration volunteers, one of the last unsolved mysteries from the civil rights era, officials said.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/6796865/

[proud2BlibKansan]

1. 60 MInutes

covered this about a month ago. The prosecutor said he didn't care how old the guilty ones were, he was charging them and sending them to prison.

[NNN0LHI]

3. I agree with that prosecutor n/t

[mountebank]

2. This should be bigger news.... n/t

[bluestateguy]

4. Good. Execute him.

n/t

[demosincebirth]

5. I wonder what's his political affiliation?

[Piperay]

6. I would be shocked

if he wasn't a RW fundie repuke. x(

[Bono71]

17. You never know...some of those old timers still vote

democrat, simply because they always did...Democrats in that part of the world do not always resemble democrats elsewhere.

[Name removed]

19. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[Dufaeth]

29. Byrd?

eom

[DemoTex]

7. The KKKer is Edgar Ray Killen, an ordained Baptist minister.

More southern Christian family values. Too bad Faulkner couldn't have lived to write about this. Mississippi Burning indeed, burning in hell.

[Swamp Rat]

8. Good!

'Bout damn time! :grr:

[SoCalDem]

9. Justice delayed is justice denied

This CREEP was allowed to live his life ...and now that he's old, he will be given "extra" mercy because of his age :puke:

[Jesus H. Christ]

10. Why am I envisioning...

a deep swamp and a heavy electric fan?

[AlbizuX]

11. hey guys...my first post

It's nice to see that this mystery of the Civil Rights Movement is being finally brought to justice..

rest the souls of those 3 courageous activists!

Your lives were not in vain!

[DemoTex]

12. AlbizuX, welcome to DU!

Mac

[maddezmom]

15. welcome to DU, AlbizuX

thank god for activists.

[yorkiemommie1]

13. Good!!!

i remember when this happened.

[NVMojo]

14. this is huge news and hope for Cheney and the neocons to face their

own karma in the future ...sick that this guy is a pastor ...why am I not surprised???

here's link to yahoo version ...rate it up!!


http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=533&e=3&u=/ap/20050107/ap_on_re_us/civil_rights_killings

[DemoTex]

16. I wonder if he ever studied at a seminary.

Maybe it was the same seminary that Fred Phelps (Westboro Baptist Church, Topeka, Ks. 66600) attended. Eh? Fred Phelps runs a hate group that certainly rivals the KKK in total wattage of hate generated ( www.godhatesfags.com ). Bad, bad men.

[fortyfeetunder]

18. Goddamn right it's ridiculous

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

Billy Wayne, yes, it's ridiculous you and your racist trash killed three young men in the prime of their youth. So yes, it's your worst effing nightmare, that your sins have come back to haunt you and whoever is alive to stand trial. I hope you rot in some hell hole in your final years.

[rooboy]

21. Gratifying to know that Billy Wayne is experiencing a nightmare. n/t

[kwolf68]

20. Loved the movie

I can barely contain myself from weeping when they lynch the black farmer...sad thing is that shit happened...Glad justice is being served, even if its too damn late.

[Hosnon]

22. Good to hear. At school in Jackson and thought the reopening of the case

would fizzle after the fair fiasco we had. Good to hear that murder is still murder.

[Oldpals]

23. Klansman

At last these creeps are being brought to justice.
Unfortunately, with the likes of Savage and Limbaugh spewing their hate it will not be long before more of these jerks start to appear.
For anyone that has not heard what Limbaugh and Savage have said recently about the Tsunami victims go to MediaMatters.org. I thought that we in this country were above this.

[msanthrope]

24. He should be defrocked, or expelled, or whatever---

but I doubt that his denomination will have the courage to do so.

[Solly Mack]

25. Good! (finally)

the fuckers

[Zhade]

26. Man, I read that wrong, thought he'd killed over a thousand people.

:P

Hope justice prevails!

[Judi Lynn]

27. Better late than never. Here's another look at this cretin:

Edgar Ray Killen, a thirty-eight-year-old, ordained Baptist minister, was the point man in the conspiracy to murder three civil rights workers in Neshoba County, Mississippi on June 21, 1964. It was Killen ("the Preacher") who Deputy Sheriff Price contacted that Sunday afternoon to get the word out to local klansmen that he was holding for their later disposal three men, including Mickey Schwerner, the much despised "Goatee."
Killen, the owner of a local sawmill and a former unsuccessful candidate for sheriff, was a marginal character until Sam Bowers appointed him "kleagle," or klavern recruiter and organizer, for the Neshoba and Lauderdale County klan. He zealously performed his duties, as evidenced by the over seventy men who met on June 16 in Meridian to plan a trip to Mount Zion Church in Longdale, where they hoped to find and kill Schwerner. Instead of encountering Schwerner, they found only local blacks, who the klan badly beat before burning down their church.

After Killen received word from Price that Schwerner and the other two civil rights workers were being held in jail, he travelled to Meridian in Lauderdale County to meet with other klan bigwigs at the Longhorn Drive-In. Phone calls were made and recruits signed up for a trip that evening to Neshoba County. A larger group of Klan met at Akin's Mobile Homes in Meridian, where Killen informed them of the plan he had worked out with Price for the three men's release shortly after dark. He told klan members participating in the murderous expedition to get rubber gloves. A meeting was scheduled near the courthouse in Philadelphia for 8:15. When the Meridian klan arrived in Philadelphia, Killen took them on a driveby tour of the jail that held their quarry, then rushed off to establish his alibi by attending a wake for an uncle at the local funeral home.

The FBI was informed of Killen's role in the conspiracy by informant Wallace Miller, Killen's first klan recruit. Killen was one of nineteen men arrested on December 4, 1964. At his trial in 1967, Killen created a stir by passing to his defense attorney a question for a prosecution witness, Reverand Charles Johnson. His attorney then asked the question in cross-examination. Is it true, Killen asked, that Johnson and Michael Schwerner had tried to "get young Negro males to sign statements that they would rape one white woman a week during the hot summer of 1964 here in Mississippi?" The judge was not amused by the question, and demanded to know where it came from.

The jury was unable to reach a verdict on Killen's guilt. He was never retried.
(snip/)

http://www.law.umkc.edu/faculty/projects/ftrials/price&bowers/Killen.htm

[elaineb]

28. This story made my day. n/t