An FBI agent dealing with racial killings in the U.S. South half a century ago has asked for public help in tracking the relatives of 36 victims.
Cynthia Deitle, the head of the Civil Rights unit, reported on the progress of the cold case effort, The (New Orleans) Times-Picayune said. She told a standing-room-only crowd at Southern University no arrests may be possible.
The FBI compiled a list of 100 open cases, she said.
Deitle said investigators hope to identify suspects even if they have died and to find the families of victims to let them know what happened.
Some of the victims were actively engaged in civil rights work. William Lewis Moore, a postal worker, was shot in 1963 in Alabama as he walked to Mississippi to give the governor a letter, and Izell Henry was beaten to death in 1954 the day after he voted in Greensburg, La.
Others may have been random targets, the newspaper said. Johnnie Mae Chappell was shot in Jacksonville, Fla. Shelton Chappell, the youngest of her 10 children, was in the audience and watched a documentary about the failed prosecution of four men.
UPI
