Justice Dept. Vows to Continue Probing 1964 KKK Killings of Civil Rights Workers

Good to know the statute of limitations does not apply to murder. Good to know the Justice Department hasn’t given up on this case. But it better step it up if it wants to eventually file charges before everyone dies off like Bill Wayne Posey.


By Jerry Mitchell

JACKSON, Miss. — Billy Wayne Posey, a key suspect in the Ku Klux Klan’s killings of three civil rights workers in 1964 in Mississippi, has died, but Justice Department officials say they’re continuing their investigation of the remaining suspects.

The 73-year-old Posey died Thursday of natural causes, according to friends. That leaves four living suspects in the June 21, 1964, killings of James Chaney, Andrew Goodman and Michael Schwerner in the Justice Department’s investigation.

Posey’s funeral is set for 3 p.m. today at Stephens Chapel in Philadelphia, with burial to follow in Henry’s Chapel Cemetery.

Alvin Sykes of Kansas City, architect of the bill authorizing the Justice Department’s new cold-case unit, emerged from a recent meeting with U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder, saying Posey was their key suspect in the federal reinvestigation into the trio’s killings.