Suspect in Klan case dies

Upon learning Friday morning of Posey’s passing, Sykes replied, “Oh, damn, damn, damn, damn.”

Sykes later described the death as a “major setback in our continuing pursuit of truth and justice for Chaney, Goodman and Schwerner. However, at least he went to his grave knowing that the next knock on the door would be for him.”

He said he has strongly urged Holder and other Justice Department officials “to continue the investigation into the four living suspects and all unsolved civil-rights-era murders.”

On Friday afternoon, Alejandro Miyar, a spokesman for the Justice Department, said the death does not “alter our cold-case investigation.”

He said their goal remains the same – “to lend our assistance to authorities in Mississippi so that they may make a determination whether sufficient evidence exists for a state prosecution.”

Goodman’s brother, David, of New York City, said Friday that he hopes the Justice Department will continue to pursue the matter. “This is still the country of law and order, and the laws are clear,” he said. “There is no statute of limitations on murder.”

Time is passing by, he said, “but I never rejoice over a person’s passing. I’ve never felt any animosity toward the specific individuals who murdered my brother. They just pulled the trigger.”

In the summer of 1964, hundreds of FBI agents investigated the trio’s disappearance, leading to the grisly discovery of their bodies buried 15 feet beneath an earthen dam. In 1967, 18 men went on trial on federal conspiracy charges, and seven of them were convicted.

But the only murder prosecution took place in 2005 when a Neshoba County jury convicted reputed Klan leader Edgar Ray Killen on three counts of manslaughter. He is serving 60 years in prison.

Civil rights activists repeatedly have called for the prosecution of others besides Killen.

Posey came within one vote of being indicted by that same Neshoba County grand jury that indicted Killen, with a deciding vote against indictment cast by his relative. In a 2007 series, “Buried Secrets,” The Clarion-Ledger revealed three potential new witnesses against Posey.

In a 2000 statement, Posey told investigators there were “a lot of persons involved in the murders that did not go to jail.”

He did not name those people.

Posey admittedly was among those who pursued the trio that night, was there when they were killed and helped haul their bodies to the dam to bury them.

But the statement could never be used against Posey in state court because he was given immunity.

Then-Neshoba County Deputy Cecil Price told authorities prior to his 2001 death that he told Posey in 1964 he had just jailed the three civil rights workers and asked Posey to get in contact with Killen, who helped to orchestrate the killings.

Earlier this year, Chaney’s brother, Ben, met in Washington with Justice Department officials, asking them to pursue the case against the living suspects: Posey and Pete Harris, both of Meridian; Olen Burrage of Philadelphia; former Philadelphia police officer Richard Willis of Noxapater; and Jimmie Snowden of Hickory.

In the documentary Neshoba, which premiered earlier this year, Killen’s wife, Jo, was quoted as saying, “I feel like Billy Wayne Posey was there, and I feel like he was more responsible than Edgar Ray was.”

Although Posey told authorities he never belonged to the Klan, his own brother, Richard, suggested otherwise.

“Ninety percent of the people in Neshoba County, Mississippi, were Klansmen,” his brother told the filmmakers. “Hell, I was in there. A man keeps coming to your house, sticking (his) nose in your damn business, (he’s) going to get it chopped off sooner or later.

“And that’s what they did down here. They kept on agitatin’ and agitatin’. They were warned to get the hell out. They didn’t do it, so they wound up out there in the earthen dam.”

He paused.

“Damn good place for ‘em,” he said, chuckling.