Murders Around Mississippi

Neshoblog:
Coming from the neshoblog this morning ...

"Newsday: Former Killen Associate Will Testify
John Gonzales of Newsday caused something of a stir at the Neshoba County Courthouse on Tuesday, and this morning, I see why.

According to Gonzales, a former Neshoba County resident named Wilmer Faye Jones is on the witness list for the Edgar Ray Killen trial. Jones was apparently a Klan compatriot of Killen's, and just weeks before the murders of three civil rights workers in 1964, Jones observed as Killen orchestrated a kidnapping similar to that of Andrew Goodman, Michael Schwerner and James Chaney.

Here's an excerpt:


Court documents examined yesterday list subpoenas for several living former Klan members who would have done much of the bidding of Killen, 80, who prosecutors say orchestrated the 1964 murders of civil rights workers James Chaney, Andrew Goodman and Michael Schwerner. They also revealed a witness petition for former local resident Wilmer Faye Jones, who unlike the ex-Klan members was not called during the 1967 federal trial in which Killen was acquitted.

According to court documents and a brief interview with Jones yesterday, Killen wanted the black youth [who supposedly wanted to date a white girl] dead even though the date never occurred and, it turned out, it was the girl who had asked Jones out. As was allegedly the case with the three civil rights workers, Jones was held by local police and released to the white supremacist group.

'He was incarcerated in the Neshoba County, Miss., jail for several hours for no legitimate purpose,' an April 2005 witness request reveals of the incident that took place only three weeks before the slain civil rights trio went missing. 'As he was released from the jail, Edgar Ray Killen and other members of the Ku Klux Klan were waiting for him.'


Kudos to Gonzales on a good story. I can"

And Kudos to blogster Bardwell of Meridian. He's doing a great job to keep us informed. Beats hearing about the Jackson trial. Right?
susan