Strange Sight | CONSPIRACY THEORIES AND UNSOLVED CASES

Emmett Till Case

[OVERVIEW]

Emmett Till, a young black male, was born on July 25, 1941 in Chicago Illinois. In 1955 him and his family went to Mississippi in order to visit some family.

In August of 1955 Emmett Till entered a store owned by a white woman and because of it tragedy struck.

[LEADING UP TO THE DEATH]

Emmett Till entered a small store owned by Carolyn Bryant, 21, and her family. Emmett was accused of making sexual advances towards Carolyn and cat calling her, although many say his whistling was a way to help him with his stutter.

Carolyn testified that Till grabbed her by her waist and uttered obscenities. She said that she never told Roy and that someone else told him. She said she didn't want to tell Roy because she was afraid of his reaction, she was afraid he'd do something to Till. She went on to say that nothing Till did to her warranted that level of abuse.

Decades after however Carolyn admitted she had fabricated part of the story. She said he never grabbed her or said anything obscure to her. But she also couldn't remember a lot because when she was asked she was in her 70s and her memory was fading.

[DEATH OF EMMETT]

Several nights after the store incident Carolyn's husband, Roy, and her half brother, J.W. Milam, armed themselves and went to Emmett's uncles house where they abducted Till.

The two men made Emmett carry a 75 pound cotton gin fan to the bank of the Tallahatchie River where they ordered him to undress. The two men beat him nearly to death, gouged out his eyes before shooting him in the head, finally killing Emmett. They then threw his body into the river while tied to the cotton gin fan with barbed wire.

Three days later his body was recovered from the river and his family and his body went back to Chicago.

His mother insisted on an open casket that was open to the public. This was because she wanted to show the world how cruel people were towards people of color. Her decision focused attention not only on U.S. racism and the barbarism of lynching but also on the limitations and vulnerabilities of American democracy

Over a thousand people attended, most of whom didn't know the young boy. images of his mutilated body were published in black-oriented magazines and newspapers, rallying popular black support and white sympathy across the U.S. Intense scrutiny was brought to bear on the lack of black civil rights in Mississippi, with newspapers around the U.S. critical of the state. Although initially local newspapers and law enforcement officials decried the violence against Till and called for justice, they responded to national criticism by defending Mississippians, temporarily giving support to the killers.

[TRAIL AND OUTCOME]

The day before the start of the trial, a young black man named Frank Young arrived to tell that he knew of two witnesses to the crime. Levi "Too Tight" Collins and Henry Lee Loggins were black employees of Leslie Milam, J. W.'s brother, in whose shed Till was beaten. Collins and Loggins were spotted with J. W. Milam, Bryant, and Till. The prosecution team was unaware of Collins and Loggins. Sheriff Strider, however, booked them into the Charleston, Mississippi jail to keep them from testifying.

The trial was held in September 1955 and lasted for five days. The courtroom was filled to capacity with 280 spectators; black attendees sat in segregated sections.

Press from major national newspapers attended, including black publications; black reporters were required to sit in the segregated black section and away from the white press, farther from the jury. Sheriff Strider welcomed black spectators coming back from lunch with a cheerful, "Hello, [n word]!"

Some visitors from the North found the court to be run with surprising informality. Jury members were allowed to drink beer on duty, and many white male spectators wore handguns.

The defense sought to cast doubt on the identity of the body pulled from the river. They said it could not be positively identified, and they questioned whether Till was dead at all. The defense also asserted that although Bryant and Milam had taken Till from his great-uncle's house, they had released him that night. The defense attorneys attempted to prove that Mose Wright-who was addressed as "Uncle Mose" by the prosecution and "Mose" by the defense-could not identify Bryant and Milam as the men who took Till from his cabin. They noted that only Milam's flashlight had been in use that night, and no other lights in the house were turned on. Milam and Bryant had identified themselves to Wright the evening they took Till, Wright said he had only seen Milam clearly. Wright's testimony was considered remarkably courageous. It may have been the first time in the South that a black man had testified to the guilt of a white man in court-and lived.

Mamie Till Bradley testified that she had instructed her son to watch his manners in Mississippi and that should a situation ever come to his being asked to get on his knees to ask forgiveness of a white person, he should do it without a thought. The defense questioned her identification of her son in the casket in Chicago and a $400 life insurance policy she had taken out on him.

While the trial progressed, Leflore County Sheriff George Smith, Howard, and several reporters, both black and white, attempted to locate Collins and Loggins. They could not, but found three witnesses who had seen Collins and Loggins with Milam and Bryant on Leslie Milam's property. Two of them testified that they heard someone being beaten, blows, and cries. One testified so quietly the judge ordered him several times to speak louder; he said he heard the victim call out, "Mama, Lord have mercy. Lord have mercy."

Judge Curtis Swango allowed Carolyn Bryant to testify, but not in front of the jury, after the prosecution objected that her testimony was irrelevant to Till's abduction and murder. It may have been leaked in any case to the jury. Sheriff Strider testified for the defense his theory that Till was alive, and that the body retrieved from the river was white. A doctor from Greenwood stated on the stand that the body was too decomposed to identify, and therefore had been in the water too long for it to be Till.

In the concluding statements, one prosecuting attorney said that what Till did was wrong, but that his action warranted a spanking, not murder. Gerald Chatham passionately called for justice and mocked the sheriff and doctor's statements that alluded to a conspiracy. Mamie Bradley indicated she was very impressed with his summation.

The defense stated that the prosecution's theory of the events the night Till was murdered were improbable, and said the jury's "forefathers would turn over in their graves" if they convicted Bryant and Milam. Only three outcomes were possible in Mississippi for capital murder: life imprisonment, the death penalty, or acquittal.

In September 1955, Bryant and Milam were acquitted by an all-white jury of Till's murder.

In November 1955, a grand jury declined to indict Bryant and Milam for kidnapping, despite their own admissions of having taken Till.

Protected against double jeopardy, the two men publicly admitted in a 1956 interview with Look magazine that they had killed Till.