Samuel Bowers - Violent Campaign

Violent Campaign

In 1964, civil rights workers, primarily from Northern states, launched Freedom Summer. Later that year, five of these activists: Charles Eddie Moore, James Chaney, Henry Hezekiah Dee, Michael Schwerner and Andrew Goodman were murdered by Klansmen.

In January 1966, Bowers, along with a number of other members of the White Knights of the KKK, was subpoenaed by the House Un-American Activities Committee to testify about Klan activities. Although Byron De La Beckwith gave his name when asked by the committee (but would answer no other substantive questions), other witnesses, such as Bowers, invoked the fifth amendment even in response to that question.

In 1966 the White Knights firebombed the house of Vernon Dahmer. Dahmer was a civil rights activist with four sons serving in the United States Military, and he was working successfully to register African Americans to vote. Dahmer died of horrendous burn injuries which covered forty percent of his body after the firebombing of his home.

According to later testimony by ex-White Knights member T. Webber Rogers, Bowers gave the direct order to have Dahmer killed "in any way possible." After four previous trials ended in deadlock (a 1968 jury split 11 to 1 in favor of guilty, and in 1969 a jury split 10-2 in favor of conviction), Bowers was convicted for the murder in August 1998 and sentenced to life in prison.

In 1967, the White Knights began a campaign against Jewish targets in Mississippi. Beth Israel Congregation in Jackson and Congregation Beth Israel in Meridian were bombed. Also, the home of Jackson's Rabbi Perry Nussbaum was attacked. The actual perpetrators of these crimes were Thomas A. Tarrants III and Kathy Ainsworth. The pair conducted their terror campaign in complete secrecy.

The FBI became involved in the case and, working with local law enforcement, began to track down the bombers.

The break in the case came when two Klan brothers, Alton Wayne Roberts and Raymond Roberts, met with the FBI and police in exchange for reward money and immunity. Alton Wayne Roberts previously had been sentenced to 10 years for violating the civil rights of Chaney, Schwerner and Goodman. He agreed to cooperate in order to receive a reduced sentence.

A joint FBI and local police operation ambushed Tarrants and Ainsworth. Ainsworth was killed in the gun battle and Tarrants was severely wounded.

Sam Bowers was convicted in the Chaney-Schwerner-Goodman killings and served more than six years at McNeil Island Federal Prison in Washington. He was released in 1976. At the time of his death, the former Imperial Wizard was serving a 1998 sentence of life in a Mississippi prison for the 1966 bombing.