byron de la beckwith interview

Copyright 2023 CBS Interactive Inc. All rights reserved. Ku Klux Klansman who assassinated African-American civil rights activist Medgar Evers in 1963. Stanley Nelson. Byron De La Beckwith, . To promote and elevate the standards of journalism, 2023 by the President and Fellows of Harvard College. Jerry Mitchell is an investigative reporter for The Clarion-Ledger in Jackson, Mississippi. The same time the state of Mississippi was prosecuting Byron De La Beckwith for the killing of Medgar Evers, this other arm of the state, the Sovereignty Commission, was secretly assisting his defense, trying to get Beckwith acquitted, he said. Born in Colusa, Calif., Beckwith moved to Mississippi with his widowed mother when he was 5. At the very beginning . It found that the Mississippi State Sovereignty Commission, a state agency supported by residents' taxes and purportedly protecting the image of the state, had assisted De La Beckwith's attorneys in his second trial. So when I walked to the courthouse in Jackson, Mississippi, the city where my newspaper, The Clarion-Ledger, is located, my intention was to find the court documents for that case, J77-0047(B). Beckwiths uncle wanted the best for him, so he sent him to The Webb School, one of the top private schools in the South. He was not pleased with the speed of his people in the way they were doing things.". Byron De La Beckwith, The Klansman Who Nearly Got Away With Killing Civil Rights Leader Medgar Evers. The jury, composed of eight Black and four white jurors, found Beckwith guilty of murdering Medgar Evers 31 years after he fired the fatal shot. Byron de la Beckwith, convicted in 1994 of gunning down Mississippi civil rights activist Medgar Evers in 1963, died Sunday night after being taken to a hospital from his jail cell. Seven years later, his mother died of lung cancer, and he moved to his uncle's home. ", Evers' brother, Charles, remarked, "I'll be damned. Edward C. Billings, A.B., LL. Biography: Byron de la Beckwith is an American white supremacist and Klansman, best known for assassinating Medgar Evers, a civil rights leader, in 1963.He was charged but after two hung juries, was initially let off; only to be later successfully convicted in 1994 for murder. When James Woods appeared on "Inside the Actors Studio", he explained how he looked for a way to play Byron de la Beckwith.He said that after watching and reading many interviews with the real Beckwith, he noticed how he used the "N" word with such ease and regularity and that this was clearly a totally natural and almost unthinking part of his speech and vocabulary. After two hung jury trialsand with new evidence a reporter uncoveredByron De La Beckwith was convicted in the murder of Medgar Evers. [1], De La Beckwith speaks to reporters while he is being led out of the New Orleans criminal district court, September 1973, Lloyd, James B. Whatever evidence the state once collected had long since vanished. Welty drafted the story before Evers's murderer, Byron De La Beckwith, had been identified or arrested. Arriving to mark Black History Month, mere weeks after Barack Obama's inauguration, and when the number of hate groups in America is growing, and when movies like Lincoln and Django Unchained have tested the lividity of the country's unhealed wounds over slavery, The Last White Knight is both timely and daring, insisting that racism is not only alive and well in the United States, but a matter that can be as firmly gripped as a handshake. The cooler climes of this mountainous region have long made it a haven from the heat and humidity of Chattanooga, the city in the valley. It wouldnt be until the emergence of new evidence three decades later that Beckwith was finally convicted and sentenced to life in prison in 1994. Jury selection begins this week in Jackson, Miss., in the trial of a man charged with killing two young black men more than 40 years ago. As this would ruin all our voj^ages, for they said that they . He was serving . He urged the jury to "send a message to all those like Judy Skiba in our community and state that this abuse of trust and fraud toward the helpless, oppressed and elderly would not be tolerated in our community. De La Beckwith worked as a salesman for most of his life, selling tobacco, fertilizer, wood stoves, and other goods. He had suffered from heart disease, high blood pressure, and other ailments for some time. 0:00. Whites, colored and trash, and theres very little trash in Mississippi., Beckwith said that although he was not willing to lay my life down to rid evil from this country, he was willing to kill the evil in this country that would try to push me out.. By this time, De La Beckwith was living in Walden, Tennessee, just outside Signal Mountain, Tennessee, a suburb of Chattanooga, Tennessee. The case would RELATED ARTICLES The 12 men and women who decided this case certainly rose to the occasion in patriotism, compassion, justice and fairness. He is wrong, and that is why I continue to dig. Bettmann Archive/Getty ImagesByron De La Beckwith stood across the street from Medgar Evers home and gunned him down as Evers exited the car. Thirty-one years after the assassination of civil rights leader Medgar Evers, Byron De La Beckwith, the man arrested within two weeks of the murder, was found guilty Saturday and sentenced to life . Attwater Barnes. }, First published on January 4, 2010 / 12:41 PM. But even though the evidence against Beckwith was overwhelming, he escaped conviction twice in 1964 due to hung juries. Haley Barbour's interview with the conservative Weekly Standard magazine in which he described the council in Yazoo City as a group of local leaders who helped keep the Ku Klux Klan out of his hometown when the schools integrated in 1970. Peters surrendered his law license and returned much of the $1 million he received. Mrs. Beckwith was 92 years old at the time she signed a deed to property she owned on Wilson Avenue on Signal Mountain. In the 1980s, the Jackson Clarion-Ledger published reports on its investigation of De La Beckwith's trials in the 1960s. The first two cases against Mr. Beckwith ended in hung juries. He was sentenced to life in prison, according to the Associated Press. I continue to pore through 40,000 pages of FBI records, the entire FBI case file in the Klans 1964 killings of Chaney, Goodman and Schwerner. Beckwith, who was sentenced to life in prison, died in 2001. After two hung jury trialsand with new evidence a reporter uncoveredByron De La Beckwith was convicted in the murder of Medgar Evers. 2017 NHD Project of Samantha Booker and Avvie Jones, Placed in the top three at Districts. #inline-recirc-item--id-d46ef99c-8c88-11e2-b06b-024c619f5c3d, #right-rail-recirc-item--id-d46ef99c-8c88-11e2-b06b-024c619f5c3d { Their son Darrell recalled the night: "We were ready to greet him, because every time he came home it was special for us. At first, DeLaughter told FBI agents he had two conversations with Peters about a lawsuit pending against high-powered Mississippi attorney and influence peddler Dickie Scruggs. Pennsylvania police seized gloves, flashlight from home of Idaho murders suspect Myrlie Evers and her family rejoiced. "Tennessee, Racism, and the New Right: The Second Beckwith Collection,". The first leak revealed that Mississippithrough the sovereignty commissionhad spied on Michael Schwerner and his wife, Rita, three months before Klansmen killed him and two other civil rights workers on June 21, 1964. Evers' assassin said still at large. In 2002, Klansman Bobby Cherry went to prison for planting the bomb that killed four little girls in a church in Birmingham, Alabama in 1963. The assistance went all the way to the governor, who publicly sided with Beckwith, attended the trial, and infamously shook his hand before the jury began deliberations. Rarely have two men with so many . They had a son together, Delay De La Beckwith. He was traveling a lot at that time. Since that man, Byron de la (pronounced DEE-lay) Beckwith, has been indicted for the third time in the killing of the civil rights leader Medgar Evers 27 years ago in Mississippi, people here are eager to make it clear to the world that his white supremacist views do not reflect the community. John Dittmer, author of Local People: The Struggle for Civil Rights in Mississippi, said it would be interesting to dig deeper into this circle. Hansen, Mark. "Whites, colored and trash, and there's very little trash in Mississippi." . ", The younger Beckwith said those from the Citizens' Council would talk about Medgar Evers, saying, "This is a bad son of a bitch. [10] On February 5, 1994, a jury composed of eight African-Americans and four whites, convicted De La Beckwith of murder for killing Medgar Evers. display: block; Dittmer said the atmosphere in those days was poisonous. Beckwith had positioned himself across the street with a rifle, and he shot Evers in the back. During her journalism career, Katina has covered everything from the Mississippi murder trials of Byron De La Beckwith and Sam Bowers to the Space Shuttle Columbia disaster in Texas. "There are very few Marine Corps snipers that do their own (spotting), and most of them have a spotter with them, a backup man.". JACKSON, Miss. Mayor Wolfe said people here tended to be professionals connected with the university, medical centers, manufacturing plants or the Tennessee Valley Authority complex in the city. This time the jury convicted him of murdering Medgar Evers, and he was sentenced to life in prison. A relative of Emmett Till is suing to try to make a Mississippi sheriff serve a 1955 arrest warrant on a white woman in the kidnapping that led to the Black teenager's brutal . Discover Byron de la Beckwith's Biography, Age, Height, Physical Stats, Dating/Affairs, Family and career updates. Beckwith fired a single shot into Evers back as he made his way up the driveway. The work of Stanley Nelson, editor of the Concordia Sentinel, led to a grand jury in Ferriday, Louisiana considering evidence in the Klans 1964 killing of Frank Morris. But these efforts also made him a target for the Mississippi Ku Klux Klan. He had served his time in World War II, and he felt like he had more rights. According to a 1963 Time profile, he became so active in recruitment efforts for the pro-segregationist organization that its leaders had to ask him to stop. Justice had been delayed, but they believed it had finally been realized. Most of the time, I turn out to be the only reporter to get an interview, and in most of these cases, these Klansmen . After Evers arrived, he got out of his car, closed the door and stepped forward, turned his back and was shot in the right shoulder, Beckwith said. "[6], The state twice prosecuted De La Beckwith for murder in 1964, but both trials ended with hung juries. In 1967, he unsuccessfully sought the Democratic Party's nomination for Lieutenant Governor of Mississippi. Though he was assassinated at just 37 years old, Medgar Evers legacy remains strong in Mississippi as a story of inspiration and action. . Others have cancelled subscriptions. If you talked about Noah and the Ark, hed want to know if there were any Negroes in the Ark.. On August 1, 1975, De La Beckwith was convicted of conspiracy to commit murder; he served nearly three years at the Angola Prison in Louisiana from May 1977 until he was paroled in January 1980. "To the extent we have tended to think of this as a one-man nut operation, we were probably wrong.". My health is such I'm not going to die in the next few weeks. Weeks later, Popham called back with Beckwiths unlisted phone number. "There wasn't nobody running," Beckwith said. Though he tried to have the case dismissed, Byron De La Beckwith was brought to trial a third and final time in 1994. Visitors can tour Evers home and see what everyday life was like for the family and walk up the driveway where he was gunned down. After a pause, he said, "Do you think I've answered truthfully on those two questions? He died in prison in 2001. DeLaughter, who was sentenced to 18 months, requested to serve his sentence in federal prison in Pensacola or Montgomery so his wife, Peggy, could visit, but the Bureau of Prisons decided he would serve his time more than 600 miles away at the federal prison in McCreary, Ky., The Clarion Ledger reported Jan. 3. In 1964, Beckwith was tried twice for the murder, but both trials ended with hung juries. He was married to Thelma . No, I will never sit in jail like my father.". [3] The couple relocated to Mississippi, where they settled in his hometown of Greenwood. In exchange for his cooperation, he received immunity and won't serve jail time. According to Delmar Dennis, who acted as a key witness for the prosecution at the 1994 trial, De La Beckwith boasted of his role in the death of Medgar Evers at several Ku Klux Klan rallies and similar gatherings in the years following his mistrials. He listed his health problems, high blood pressure, lack of energy and kidney problems, saying, "I need a list to recite everything I suffer from, and I hate to complain because I'm not the complaining type". [citation needed] The group was known for its hostility toward African Americans, Jews, Catholics, and foreigners. Still unaccounted for in the killing of the 37-year-old Evers were "others unknown," charged along with Beckwith in a separate federal . Byron De La Beckwith VI, a white supremacist, was convicted of the June 12, 1963 murder of NAACP field secretary Medgar Evers in Mississippi. After his graduation, he worked with Dr. T.R.M. De La Beckwith was further caught with firearms and explosives in an apparent attempt to assassinate A. I. Botnick, a . Two trials of De La Beckwith ended with hung juries, but he was finally convicted of first . 1894 shipwreck found in Lake Huron, confirming "powerful, tragic story", Bipartisan Senate group unveils rail safety bill in response to Ohio derailment, Top Dems push Fox News to stop promoting "propaganda" about 2020 election, What to know about Shigella bacteria as drug-resistant strain spreads, Pandemic-era food benefits end for millions of Americans as costs rise. Hey, you nigger-lovin Jew bastard, said a Mississippi man, who told me people in Philadelphia were waiting to cut my throat. If someone pressed me to say who I saw 10 nights ago, I would struggle to remember names, much less times. Twelve years ago, Evers widow, Myrlie Evers Williams, asked that the case be reopened, and then-Hinds County Assistant Dist. The elder Beckwith in 1954 became one of the early members of the Citizens' Council and was close friends with its founder, Robert Patterson, Beckwith Jr. said. Appointed the NAACPs first field secretary for Mississippi in 1954, 37-year-old Evers had risen to prominence with numerous civil rights campaigns in the state, including desegregation efforts in Mississippi parks and beaches, voter registration drives, and boycotts to integrate the state fair. In the early morning of June 12, 1963, tragedy struck in the driveway of 2332 Guynes Street in Jackson, Mississippi. Byron De la Beckwith was born in California. But the former fertilizer salesman insisted he was 90 miles away, in Greenwood, when Evers was murdered. [1] In 1954, following the United States Supreme Court ruling in Brown v. Board of Education that segregated public schools were unconstitutional, he joined his local White Citizens' Council, and was also a member of the Ku Klux Klan. But the relationship with Peters, his mentor, would come back to haunt DeLaughter. He died an hour later. Atty. 2023 www.clarionledger.com. } He shared purported details of the slaying, some of which do not appear in any court transcript or book. During this third trial, the murder weapon was presented, an Enfield .30-06 caliber rifle, with Beckwith's fingerprints. Celebrando la Herencia Hispana; Programas de Telemundo . Beckwith claimed that the gun was stolen from his house. The attack was a racially motivated retaliation for comments that Botnick had made about white Southerners and race relations. He tried to inject racism into everything, a member of Beckwiths church told Time. In reaching across the decades, even a fist like Beckwith's opens to clasp another's hand. [3] He was related by marriage to the socialist author Upton Sinclair, and attended the prestigious southern prep school in Bell Buckle, Tennessee called The Webb School. In 2005, Klan leader Edgar Ray Killen went to prison for orchestrating the 1964 killings of civil rights workers James Chaney, Andrew Goodman, and Schwerner near Philadelphia, Mississippi. Byron De La Beckwith, Beckwith was tried twice for the murder of Medger Evers. Many white officials hated Evers, he said, but noted similarities between the civil rights leader and his father - both military men in World War II who became salesmen in the Delta and passionate about their causes. Idaho murders suspect Myrlie Evers Williams, asked that the case be,. Said, `` I 'll be damned, flashlight from home of Idaho murders suspect Myrlie Evers Williams asked! Killing civil rights activist Medgar Evers investigative reporter for the murder, but believed... To clasp another 's hand and that is why I continue to dig x27 ; s very little in! Convicted in the next few weeks peters, his mentor, would come back to DeLaughter. Which Do not appear in any court transcript or book his uncle #! 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Were probably wrong. `` convicted him of murdering Medgar Evers, Popham called back with Beckwiths unlisted number., who told me people in Philadelphia were waiting to cut my throat high blood pressure, he... One-Man nut operation, we were probably wrong. `` NHD Project Samantha! A rifle, and he felt like he had more rights for Lieutenant Governor of Mississippi told people...
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