Edgar Ray Killen, the preacher and Ku Klux Klansman convicted for plotting the 1964 killing of three civil rights activists in Mississippi, died in prison on Jan. 11. It had been 41 years to the day since the killing of three civil rights workers on a country road in the old lumber town of Philadelphia, Miss. Edgar Ray Killen (Mississippi Department of Corrections)But prosecutors were challenged by the dearth of live witnesses decades after the killings. The three civil rights workers had been arrested for speeding in 1964 and were attacked after their release. “Finally, finally, finally,” said Jim Prince, the editor of the local weekly newspaper, The Neshoba Democrat, according to the New York Times.

Source: Washington Post January 13, 2018 01:30 UTC