Reward Offered for Civil Rights Slay Info

[Rose Siding]

JACKSON, Miss. - An anonymous donor has posted a $100,000 reward for information leading to murder charges in one of the most notorious crimes of the civil rights era — the "Freedom Summer" slayings of three civil rights workers in 1964.
...
"There are people who have been harboring some of this information for a long time. There was a lot of common knowledge about this," said the Rev. James White, treasurer of the Mississippi Religious Leadership Conference, which is overseeing the reward money.

In 1964, the three volunteers helping to register black voters were murdered on a lonely dirt road as they drove to a church to investigate a fire. They were allegedly stopped by Klansmen, beaten and shot to death. Several weeks later, their bodies were found buried in a dam a few miles from the church.

Nineteen men, many of them Klansmen, were indicted. Seven were convicted of federal civil rights violations and sentenced to prison terms ranging from three to 10 years.

But the state never brought murder charges and none of the men convicted served more than six years.

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=519&ncid=718&e=9&u=/ap/20041220/ap_on_re_us/civil_rights_slayings

[Hobarticus]

1. The information's there...doesn't mean they'll bring up murder charges

Wasn't that the problem the first time around?

How about $100,000 to hire a prosecutor that will actually bring up murder charges?

[hickman1937]

2. I hate to be cynical

But these guys are heros in Miss. If no one has rolled over yet, I doubt it will happen now.

[quaoar]

4. The sheriff in Neshoba County at the time

was Lawrence Rainey. He was tried and acquitted in the case.

Rainey's term as sheriff ended in November, 1967. After his trial, Rainey was unable to find employment in law enforcement. He accepted work as a security guard first at a supermarket, then at the Meridian Mall. Rainey complained in the mid-seventies, "The FBI set out to break me of everything l had, then keep me down where I could never get another start, and they done it."

He died of throat and tongue cancer in 2002.

Neshoba County today is probably best known for its huge Choctaw Indian casino and the annual Neshoba County Fair.

[NNN0LHI]

5. The idea of this reward is to remind us of Americas sometimes dark history

For some strange reason they don't teach too much about this period of Americas history in our schools. And if it is mentioned, you can bet the teachers don't dwell on it.

Don

[livinginphotographs]

6. And realistically, most of them are probably dead.

I think this a great idea, just wish it could've happened sooner.

[quaoar]

3. The case was reopened, but I'm not sure what the status is now

This is from 2000:

http://www.clarionledger.com/crimes/burn2-8.html

Activist slayings reopened

Jerry Mitchell
Clarion-Ledger Staff Writer

A thorough investigation into the nation's most famous killings of the civil rights era is under way.

FBI spokesman Mike Turner said Monday the agency has turned over 40,000 pages of its files to Attorney General Mike Moore in the investigation of the 1964 killings of three civil rights workers in Neshoba County.

"We along with District Attorney Ken Turner (of Philadelphia) are reviewing the files and the case to explore the possibility of pursuing state charges against those involved," said Special Assistant Attorney General Lee Martin. "That is something we are actively doing at this time."

Last year, Turner began looking into the June 21, 1964, killings of Michael Schwerner, Andrew Goodman and James Chaney after The Clarion-Ledger reported one-time Imperial Wizard Sam Bowers admitted in a secret interview that he had "obstructed justice" in the case and 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 — knows that that happened."

[zann725]

7. This was RE-investigated in 2000? The year Shrub was first President?

The FBI "turned over papers..."

Now it's surfacing again? The Sheriff died in 2002? Perhaps a death-bed confession?

Do I smell "smoke?"

[zann725]

8. This was investigated in 2000? The year Shrub was first President?

The FBI "turned over papers..." then.

Now it's re-surfacing? Sheriff died in 2002? Perhaps a death-bed confession?

And a $100,000 offer...same amount as in offer for 9/11 truth?

And the timing of this. Do I smell "smoke?"