Buck vs. Bell
 
 
 

Emmett Till Murder - Pt. 1
 
 
 
Inventing An Investigation

The FBI responded quickly to the kidnapping and murder of Emmett Till. On September 6 1955, less than two weeks after the kidnapping and murder, and less than a week after the body was recovered, J. Edgar Hoover wrote to the Attorney General:

On August 31, 1955, after the receipt of information that the victim's body had been recovered, the above facts were furnished to Mr. A. B. Caldwell, Chief, Civil Rights Section, Criminal Division, by a representative of this Bureau and Mr. Caldwell stated that the facts did not indicate a violation of the Civil Rights Statute and no investigation should be conducted. The opinion expressed by Mr. Caldwell was confirmed by my memorandum to Mr. Olney of September 1, 1955.

The facts in this case indicate a state offense of kidnapping and murder but there is no indication to date of a violation of the Federal Kidnapping Statute or the Federal Civil Rights Statute inasmuch as the action was taken against a private citizen by a group of citizens. There has been no allegation made that the victim has been subjected to the deprivation of any right or privilege which is secured and protected by the Constitution and the laws of the United States which would come within the provisions of Section 241, Title 18, United States Code. It should be noted that recently in Washington, D.C., a group of white boys from the State of Mississippi were beaten and knifed by Negro youths and this Bureau did not conduct an investigation into that matter upon the instructions of the Criminal Division. [1]

It only took a little less than 50 years for the FBI to open an investigation of the Emmett Till case - accompanied by much publicity, of course. The report of the investigation includes 12 pages of background information: covering segregation, the Southern justice system, Brown vs. the Board of Education, Citizen Councils, and earlier killings of blacks in Mississippi that year. Yet nowhere does the report mention the FBI's prior refusal to investigate. The only mention of the FBI's role in the case comes in a single (misleading) sentence:

 
 
It's misleading because the construction of the sentence would lead the reader to believe the FBI participated in "the original 1955 investigation", along with the Mississippi law enforcement agencies, yet the above letter from J. Edgar Hoover confirms that the the FBI refused to investigate.

Nonetheless, the FBI's exercise in revisionist history does offer revealing glimpses into aspects of the case that were not previously widely known, partly through recovery of the long-lost trial transcript. [2]

 
The Day The Lawyers' Lips Stood Still

Names of those still living were removed from the public report but, from the circumstances, it seems likely that this refutation of Carolyn Bryant's story of her encounter with Emmett Till comes from the Juanita Milam, who was the wife of killer J.W. Milam at the time of the trial:

 
 
Indeed, Juanita Milam was not questioned about any aspect of the case, even though Carolyn Bryant alleged that Mrs. Milam was the only other person in the store besides herself and Emmett Till. She was spared the choice of becoming legally entangled in the murder or betraying her family, while the jury was spared the possible embarassment of being faced with more proof that they were about to acquit murderers - yet another indication that the prosecution aided in the cover-up during the sham trial.
 
 
Standard wisdom teaches:

Q.How do you tell when a lawyer is lying?
A. His lips are moving.

We now know that the truly skilled lawyer can deceive while tight-lipped.

Note that, unlike the killers and their accomplice Carolyn Bryant, Juanita Milam did not appear to be celebrating the acquittal.

 
Emmett Till Murder: Resources