Heavy Police Involvement
Though the men who shot and killed Chaney, Goodman, and Schwerner were members of the KKK, some of the people involved in their deaths were police officers and government officials. In an interview to his attorney, Max Kilpatrick, Cecil Price, a main suspect in the murders, revealed gory details into the deaths of the three men. In fact, Price himself was a police officer. On the day of the felonies, Price was the officer who pulled the three men over, and brought them back to the jail. When they were released and captured again later, Price helped Klansmen shove the men into the back of Price’s police vehicle. When Chaney entered the car, officer Price even hit him. Price sat in the passenger seat of his car as the vehicle sped down Highway 19, eventually stopping on a gravel road. Price witnessed, and did nothing to contradict the man, Wayne Roberts, who took Chaney, Schwerner, and Goodman out of the car, and shot them one by one. Cecil Price never told anyone of the crime, and later said that he did join the KKK after the three murders.
Premeditated Murders
The murders of Chaney, Goodman and Schwerner were not a last minute decision, but instead a planned assassination. All three men were members of CORE, the Congress of Racial Equality. Schwerner organized libraries and activities for blacks, and believed in desegregated churches, stores, and businesses. Chaney and Goodman both fought for black voting, and were in Mississippi at the time of the murders to help with the Freedom Summer voting registration. The day of the killings, June 21, 1964, the men were arrested for speeding, and taken to a local jail. Just hours later, they were released, and they continued driving through Philadelphia, MS. Almost immediately, the men were again pulled over, where they were then forced into the back of a police car, driven down an abandoned gravel road, and then repeatedly shot and murdered. Months after the crimes, in an interview with Cecil Price, an officer present at the shooting, Price confessed that after the arrests, Edgar Ray Killen, a former KKK leader had said, “Oh good we have been looking for Schwerner.” Sam Bowers, another former KKK leader, had told multiple Klansman to kill Schwerner all the way back in May. Chaney’s family received death threats and random gunshots to their home for months before the homicides.
Throughout the investigation conducted by police officers and FBI agents, few suspects were arrested, and even fewer were given jail time. Overall, there were around 100 FBI agents assigned to the task of finding Chaney, Goodman, and Schwerner. The bodies were found on August 4, 1964, after almost two months of searching. Just months later, on December 4, 1964, 18 men were arrested for the deaths of the three men. After months of trial, seven men were convicted, eight were acquitted, and three were released. No man of the convicted seven served more than six years in prison, however. In the 1980s, there was multiple counts of vandalism on James Chaney’s grave. Since police did nothing to stop the vandals, Chaney’s brother Ben created the James Earl Chaney Foundation to put a stop on the crimes. In the long run, the lack of justice for Chaney, Goodman, and Schwerner has brought the murders more publicity, and eventually has helped the Civil Rights Movement succeed.
Although the assassinations of Chaney, Goodman, and Schwerner receive the most attention, the investigation carried out by the FBI was lengthy, difficult, and incredibly depressing. The FBI investigation began by searching the burned church that the three men had been heading to, before they were arrested. From there, they searched through forests, highways, and woods, but little was found. Shortly after the search started, FBI agents found the three men’s blue, Ford station wagon, burned right off the highway. The wagon brought few clues to the 100 FBI agents assigned to the missing men. A $30,000 ransom was offered for leads, and indications. Police interviewed near 1000 people, claiming to have been witnesses. It took a total of 44 days before Chaney, Goodman, and Schwerner’s bodies were found underneath close to fifteen feet of soil in a dam, near Philadelphia, in Neshoba County, MS. After autopsies had been conducted on the worn, damaged bodies, the FBI stepped out of the investigation mostly, leaving a lot of suspects and trials to the police in rural Mississippi.
Killen Declared a Killer
41 Years Later- It is extremely hard to believe that it took police and FBI agents 41 years to convict Edgar Ray Killen of manslaughter. On June 21, 2005, 80 year old Killen was put on trial for the murders of Chaney, Goodman, and Schwerner. In less than six hours, Killen was headed to prison for the rest of his life- a 60 year minimum. Many were astonished and flabbergasted, that he was found guilty to begin with, let alone that the timing was 41 years off. Edgar Ray Killen was a part-time Baptist minister in his young life in Mississippi. A white supremacist, he was like many others in the South in the 1960s. Also in his previous days, Killen was a KKK leader, and despised integration. In an interview with Cecil Ray Price conducted in the 60’s, Price stated that Killen, “organized the entire crime and murder.” He later stated in the same interview that Killen has once said “hope they (FBI) don’t look in any pond dam,” which essentially proves that Killen knew everything about the murders. Insufficient evidence was all that stopped the jury from sentencing Edgar Ray Killen for more time, and for convicting him for murder.
Current Event
On November 24, 2014, Chaney, Goodman, and Schwerner were awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom. Their courageous acts, and bravery, made them ideal candidates for the award, presented by President Barack Obama. The medals were given to the slain men’s families. The three men’s fearless acts in the Freedom Summer voting movement inspired many, and their murders enlightened the entire country.