Mississippi Civil Rights Workers' Murders - Masterminding The Conspiracy

Masterminding The Conspiracy

Nine men, including Neshoba County Sheriff Lawrence A. Rainey, were called parties to the conspiracy. The Sheriff denied he was ever apart of the conspiracy, but Rainey was accused of ignoring the offenses committed in Neshoba County. Worse yet, Rainey has been accused of murdering of several Black Americans. At the time of the murders, the thirty-seven year old Rainey insisted he was visiting his sick wife in a Meridian hospital and later with family watching Bonanza. As events unfolded, Rainey became emboldened with his newly found popularity in the Philadelphia, Mississippi community. Known for his tobacco chewing habit, Rainey infamously photographed and quoted in LIFE magazine as saying “hey, let’s have some Red Man” while other members of the conspiracy laugh while waiting for an arraignment to start.

Fifty-year-old Bernard Akins had a mobile home business which he operated out of Meridian; he was a member of the White Knights. Other N. Burkes, who usually went by the nickname of Otha, was a Philadelphia Police officer. The seventy-one year old was a twenty-five year veteran on the city police force; the World War I veteran had a cruel disposition, especially for colored people, and in particular Black Americans. At the time of the December 1964 arraignment, Burkes was awaiting a previous indictment for a different civil rights case. Olen L. Burrage, who was thirty-four at the time, was the owner of a trucking company. Burrage’s Old Jolly Farm is where the civil rights workers were buried. Burrage is quoted as saying “I got a dam big enough to hold a hundred of them.” Edgar R. Killen was a Baptist preacher and sawmill owner; he is accused, a later convicted, of masterminding the entire event.

Frank J. Herndon, forty-six, was the operator of a Meridian drive-in called the “Longhorn.” He was the exalted Grand Cyclops of the Meridian White Knights. James T. Harris, also known as Pete, was a White Knight’s investigator. The thirty-year old would keep ‘tabs’ on the three civil rights workers every move. Oliver R. Warner, known as Pops, was a Meridian grocery owner. Warner, 54, was a member of the White Knights. Herman Tucker lived in Hope, Mississippi located a few miles from the Neshoba County Fair grounds. Tucker, 36, was not a member of the White Knights, but he was a building contractor who worked for Burrage. Tucker was also tasked by the White Knights to dispose the CORE station wagon. White Knights Imperial Wizard Samuel H. Bowers, who served with the U.S. Navy during World War II, was not apprehended the day of December 4, 1964, but he would be implicated the following year. Bowers, 39, is credited with saying “this is a war between the Klan and the FBI. And in a war there have to be some who suffer.”

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Famous quotes containing the word conspiracy:

    Impenetrable in their dissimulation, cruel in their vengeance, tenacious in their purposes, unscrupulous as to their methods, animated by profound and hidden hatred for the tyranny of man—it is as though there exists among them an ever-present conspiracy toward domination, a sort of alliance like that subsisting among the priests of every country.
    Denis Diderot (1713–1784)