Arrest made in 1964 Mississippi civil rights murders

A reputed Ku Klux Klansman was recently arrested on murder charges in Philadelphia, MS, for the 1964 slayings of three voter-registration volunteers, a case that is one of the last pieces of unfinished business from the civil rights era.

According to Sheriff Larry Myers, Edgar Ray Killen was arrested at his home without incident for the deaths of James Chaney, 21, of Meridian, MS, Andrew Goodman, 20, and Michael Schwerner, 24, both from New York.

"We went ahead and got him because he was high profile and we knew where he was," said Myers. Killen is one of eight suspects in the case who is still living. At JET press time the sheriff said that there would be more arrests.

Killen's arrest followed a grand jury meeting that apparently included testimony from individuals believed to have knowledge about the killings, which were dramatized in the 1988 movie "Mississippi Burning." Killen has denied any involvement in the killings

The grand jury considered whether sufficient evidence existed after 40 years to bring charges in the crime. Killen was identified in testimony in earlier federal court proceedings as having a role in the killings.

Seven Klansmen were convicted of federal conspiracy charges in the killings and sentenced to prison terms ranging from 3 to 10 years. None served more than six years. The jury deadlocked on Killen and two other defendants, leading to mistrials. Eight other defendants were acquitted. The state never brought murder charges.

Chaney, Goodman and Schwerner were among hundreds of Freedom Summer volunteers, mostly White college students, who came to Mississippi in 1964 to educate Blacks and help them vote. The three men were beaten and shot to death. Their bodies were found later in an earthen dam in rural Neshoba County.