When Schwerner, Goodman, and Chaney were heading back to Philadelphia they decided to take a different highway instead of the main one. As they were driving down the highway, a deputy sheriff named Cecil Price saw them and pulled them over for "speeding". The sheriff was working with the KKK and recognized Michael Schwerner as one of their main targets. The law-man wrongly took the three victims to the police station, where they were detained.
Michael Schwerner, Andrew Goodman, and James Chaney were three civil rights activists part of the C.O.R.E. (Congress of Racial Equality). They were traveling from Philadelphia to Mississippi to investigate an arson on Mount Zion Church, most likely started by the KKK. They were told to call CORE by 4:30 to make sure that they hadn't been harmed. They arrived in Mississippi fine and their investigation went as planned. As of then, the KKK didn't know they were there.
After being held for seven hours while not being able to make a phone call, they were released while having to pay a $20 fine to the Neshoba County police station. Although they had been released, the Sheriff had called members of the KKK to organize the murder. While driving back the second time, Chaney, Goodman, and Schwerner passed Rock Cut Road, a dirt country-side road that is off the beaten path. This time though, they were pulled over again. It was the sheriff, but now his police car was accompanied by two carloads of Klan members.
On June 21st, 1964, around ten P.M., Klansmen approached the peaceful civil worker’s Station Wagon. They then proceeded to order them out of the car and shoot them at point blank range. Schwerner was shot first, then Goodman, and finally Chaney. It is not clear if the men were beaten or not, but author Brenda Wilkinson in the book The Civil Rights Movement said a pathologist investigated their bodies and he stated he had never seen such severe bone breakage. After being shot, the Klan members used a hired bulldozer to hide their bodies in an earthen dam.
When the three men were finally reported missing, it kicked off a frenzy in the press. Over 200 FBI agents were sent to the scene to investigate and try to find the men who did it. After a long time of searching, an anonymous person, presumably a member of the KKK, gave the location of the bodies of Schwerner, Goodman, and Chaney. After 44 long days of searching, the FBI finally found their bodies under tons of dirt. The FBI took over 20 Klansmen to court, but only 7 of them were sent to jail, and on meager sentences of 3-10 years.
In 2005, an 8th member , Edgar Ray Killen, was put to jail for the crime, exactly 41 years later to the day after the crime was committed. Edgar Ray Killen was convicted of three counts of manslaughter (Schwerner, Goodman, and Chaney) and had to serve 20 years for each. In total, he was sentenced for 60 years in jail which is considerably more than other members got in 1964. The Klansman was the supposed leader of the KKK in 1964 when the murder took place. Killen will most likely spend the rest of his life in prison because he was 80 at the time he was convicted and he is serving for 60 years.