Convicted former Ku Klux Klansman Edgar Ray Killen is suing the FBI for millions, claiming violations of his civil rights, reports The Los Angeles Times. Killen, 85, convicted in 2005 of manslaughter in the 1964 slayings of three civil rights workers in Philadelphia, Miss., says the FBI hired mafia hit man "The Grim Reaper" to pistol whip witnesses into providing information in the case.
"Money is secondary, we really just want the truth out," lawyer Robert A. Ratliff of Mobile, Ala., who represents Killen, told a reporter. "What we're looking for is the complete, unredacted FBI file. Stand up and tell us what happened."
During Freedom Summer in 1964, civil rights workers James Chaney, Andrew Goodman and Michael Schwerner disappeared. Authorities found their bodies buried in an earthen dam weeks later. Witnesses identified Klan members, including Killen, in connection with their abduction and slayings. An all-white jury in the original 1967 trial could not reach a verdict.
See the Jackson Free Press coverage of Killen's 2005 trial.
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