Edgar Ray Killen
Edgar Ray Killen was born in Philadelphia, Mississippi, as the eldest of eight children to Lonnie Ray Killen and Etta Killen. Killen was a sawmill operator and a part-time minister. He was a kleagle, or klavern recruiter and organizer, for the Neshoba and Lauderdale County chapters of the Ku Klux Klan. Cecil Ray Price Cecil Ray Price, at the time of the murders, was 26 years old and a deputy sheriff in Neshoba County, Mississippi. He was a member of the White Knights of the Ku Klux Klan. Although he was never charged with the murders, Price was convicted in October 1967 of violating the civil rights of the three victims. He was sentenced to a six-year prison term and served four and a half years at the Sandstone Federal Penitentiary in Minnesota. Lawrence A. Rainey Lawrence Andrew Rainey was a native Mississippian who was elected Sheriff of Neshoba County, Mississippi during the 1960s. He gained notoriety for allegedly being involved in the June 1964 murders of Chaney, Goodman, and Schwerner. Rainey was likely a member of Mississippi White Knights of the Ku Klux Klan Samuel H. Bowers Samuel Holloway Bowers was a convicted murderer and leading white supremacist activist in Mississippi during the Civil Rights Movement. In response to this movement, he co-founded the White Knights of the Ku Klux Klan and became a Ku Klux Klan Imperial Wizard. He also was accused of bombings of Jewish targets in the cities of Jackson and Meridian in 1967 and 1968 (according to the man who was convicted of some of the bombings, Thomas A. Tarrants III). He died in prison at the age of 82. Olen L. Burrage Olen Lovell Burrage was a native Mississippian and businessman. He was linked to the murders of Chaney, Goodman, and Schwerner who were murdered in June 1964. The bodies of the Civil Rights workers were buried in an earthen dam owned by Burrage. Herman Tucker Herman Tucker was a native Mississippian and a heavy equipment operator. He was linked to the murders of Chaney, Goodman, and Schwerner who were murdered in June 1964. The bodies of the civil rights workers were buried in an earthen dam that Tucker had helped to construct. |