June 27, 2004
Bowers: Klansman organized slayings
* Former Imperial Wizard names ringleader in 1964 Miss. murders
By Jerry Mitchell
jmitchell@clarionledger.com
One-time Imperial Wizard Sam Bowers acknowledged recently that a reputed Klan leader carried out the 1964 plot to kill Michael Schwerner, James Chaney and Andrew Goodman, documents show.
That person is Edgar Ray "Preacher" Killen, Bowers confirmed to state authorities in a May 7 interview in the Central Mississippi Correctional Facility, where Bowers has been serving a life sentence since 1998 for ordering the 1966 fatal firebombing of Vernon Dahmer Sr.
Killen is a prime target in the renewed federal-state investigation into the killings of the three civil rights workers 40 years ago in Neshoba County.
Testimony in a 1967 federal conspiracy trial identified Killen as the Klan leader who got the order from Bowers to kill Schwerner. Testimony also showed Killen coordinated the Klansmen's activities on the night of June 21, 1964, when the trio were kidnapped and killed. The all-white jury convicted Bowers, but deadlocked 11-1 in favor of Killen's guilt when a lone holdout said she could never convict a preacher.
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http://clarionledger.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20040627/NEWS01/406270349/1002----------
Attaboy, Jerry Mitchell.
Justice is slouching toward Neshoba.