Emmett Till's Body to Be Exhumed | Jackson Free Press | Jackson, MS

Emmett Till's Body to Be Exhumed

The Chicago Sun-Times reports today:

The FBI will order the exhumation of the body of Emmett Till, a 14-year-old Chicago boy who was taken from a Mississippi farmhouse in 1955 and killed for whistling at a white woman, the Chicago Sun-Times has learned. Till's body, which is buried next to his mother's at Burr Oak Cemetery in Alsip, will be exhumed within the next few weeks, and an autopsy will be conducted by Cook County Medical Examiner Ed Donahue, according to a source. "The FBI wants to know who killed Till, and due to the brutal beating he received, an exhumation may provide the evidence they need" to make a case, said the source. The murder of Till, an unsolved case standing at the center of the American civil rights movement, gave meaning to the term "Mississippi Justice." [...]

The U.S. Justice Department reopened the case following a documentary by African-American filmmaker Keith Beauchamp, 32, who claimed to have uncovered new evidence. The documentary, "The Untold Story of Emmett Louis Till," chronicled Till's nightmare death and the sham trial of his alleged murderers.

It was the lack of convictions in the face of overwhelming evidence that lead Beauchamp to make his startling documentary, which took nine years to research and produce.

Beauchamp believes five people who are still alive could lend new insight into the case and that as many as 10 people either observed or took part in the slaying.

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