Audio Transcript

Ms. Ballew: This case is about a murder in Mississippi in the 1960s.

Mr. Rust: “A 64-year-old black male was picked up at his house by three white males, taken to a bridge in the national forest where he was shot repeatedly with a rifle and then with a shotgun.”

Ms. Ballew: Special Agent Kevin Rust from FBI Jackson, who says the body was then thrown over the bridge into a creek.

Mr. Rust: “One of the individuals that had committed this murder had been acquitted in state court back in 1966.”

Ms. Ballew: The individual confessed to two FBI agents after the murder, but claimed in court the victim was already deceased.

Mr. Rust: “ The murder had actually happened on federal property in a national forest, therefore making it a federal crime.”

Ms. Ballew: The FBI opened a case in 1999. In 2002, a trial, revealing one of the motives…

Mr. Rust: “T hat they were committing this murder in an attempt to lure Martin Luther King to the Natchez, Mississippi area where an attempt could be made on Dr. King’s life.”

Ms. Ballew: The defendant was found guilty of murder and sentenced to life in prison, where he died in 2007. I’m Denise Ballew of the Bureau, and that’s the FBI’s Closed Case of the Week.