Editing Freedom Summer murders (section)

===Criminal proceedings===
Mississippi state authorities were unwilling to properly investigate the disappearence of the activists, so the FBI was asked to investigate. Director [[J. Edgar Hoover]] was initially reluctant but was forced to send agents to investigate by President Lyndon B. Johnson. Meanwhile, Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy sent 150 federal agents from New Orleans to deal with the case. The burnt station wagon was swiftly found, but the bodies of Chaney, Goodman and Schwerner remained undiscovered despite the FBI offering a $25, 000 reward for information. However, the bodies were eventually discovered on August 4 after a confidential informant (later confirmed to be highway patrolman Maynard King) called in the location to the FBI. An autopsy suggested that Goodman had survived being shot and had been buried alive; fragments of red clay were found in his lungs and clutched in his fists. 

By November 1964 the FBI had named 21 suspects in the murders. Eventually one of the suspects, James Jordan, confessed to the murders and agreed to testify in return for immunity. Mississippi state authorities refused to prosecute the case, so the FBI charged 18 of the suspects for civil rights violations, a federal crime. Those indicted were:
*'''Samuel Bowers'''
*Sheriff '''Lawrence A. Rainey'''
*Deputy Sheriff '''Cecil Price'''
*'''Edgar Ray Killen'''
*'''Alton W. Roberts'''
*'''Billy Posey'''
*'''Horace Barnette'''
*'''[[Jimmy Arledge]]'''
*'''[[Jimmy Snowden]]'''
*'''Olen Lovell Burrage'''
*'''Herman Tucker'''
*'''Bernard Akin'''
*'''Travis Barnette'''
*'''James T. Harris'''
*'''Frank J. Herndon'''
*'''Richard A. Willis'''
*'''Jerry Sharpe'''
*'''Ethel Glen Barnett'''
The case was presided over by pro-segregation judge [[William Cox]], who attempted to dismiss the charges against all defendants except Rainey and Price, but was overruled by the Supreme Court. The trial proceeded, and was marked by several crises, including star witness James Jordan cracking under the pressure of multiple death threats and being hospitalized. Ultimately, Price, Bowers, Posey, Horace Barnette, Roberts, Arledge and Snowden were convicted and Rainey, Burrage, Tucker, Akin, Travis Barnette, Harris and Herndon were acquitted. The jury failed to reach a verdict on Sharpe, Ethel Barnett and Killen. 

No further charges were brought in the case until 2005, when a grand jury indicted Edgar Ray Killen on three counts of manslaughter following a renewed campaign for justice. Killen, then 80 years old, was convicted on all three counts on January 6, 2005, and sentenced to 60 years in prison. Afterwards the Mississippi Attorney General declared that the case was closed as there was no further evidence to prosecute any living people. 
[[Category:List]]
[[Category:Villainous Event]]
[[Category:Modern Villains]]
[[Category:United States of America]]
[[Category:Mass Murderers]]
[[Category:Xenophobes]]
[[Category:Supremacists]]
[[Category:Torturer]]
[[Category:Mutilators]]
[[Category:Kidnapper]]
[[Category:KKK Members]]
[[Category:Lawful Evil]]
[[Category:Conspirators]]
[[Category:Terrorists]]
[[Category:Wrathful]]
[[Category:Destroyer of Innocence]]
[[Category:Arsonist]]