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by Edgar Ray Killen (Author), Larry Ellis (Illustrator), Larry Ellis (Author)
Edgar Ray Killen was indicted for manslaughter on June 21, 2005 for the KKK murders of the three Civil Rights workers in Neshoba County, Mississippi on June 23, 1964, which gave us the terror of Mississippi Burning, from the same name as the FBI files. Neshoba County, and newly appointed Mississippi Attorney General Jim Hood, had prepared for this court case in one form or another for over 40 years, ever since Edgar Ray's acquittal for the murders in a rigged court in Meridian in 1967. Edgar Ray Killen was found guilty and sentenced for the rest of his life to be served in the Mississippi Correctional System. He was convicted despite there being no living witness who could corroborate the allegations or by any direct evidence against him. The state had determined the outcome long before the first court date according to Killen. He appealed the conviction immediately and had kept high hopes that seen from a higher court and having friends in high places he would get a new trial. Once convicted Edgar's appeal began and with it a new burning desire to tell his side of the story, even if he had to finally tell it from behind bars. His desire and manipulations finally led to Larry Ellis - a self-described author and artist who had been imprisoned half his life from the age of twenty-five. Larry landed in jail with a prescription drug addiction developed in the hospital after a car accident, and one that would in many ways systematically destroy his life. The two only had a couple of things in common, being white men in a Mississippi prison and being so-called "God fearing." This is the story of their conversations which took place for 30 days in Rankin County's Central Mississippi Correctional Facility. Edgar had arranged for Larry to be transferred from within the prison next to his cell so they could write a book, his book - Edgar Ray Killen's manifesto to the world - the true story of the KKK and the summer of Mississippi Burning. From the beginning, the relationship between Larry and Edgar was contentious yet both felt it was fated and began to work on the book in earnest. Larry being a self-taught artist and as a way to cope with prison did many drawings to illustrate the conversation, condition and the demeanor of Edgar Ray Killen and the environment of every day prison life. All of this activity was illegal in the prison system and all material was contraband. Larry was taking a big risk on many fronts to write this book and the threats kept coming throughout the process - as he describes in detail. Edgar told many tales in jail including his own complicity in murders and he threatened Larry if he went public because he realized that his appeal was exhausted and many of his confessions are actually hand written, as this was how the communication is in the confines of a prison - notes passed between convicts. The FBI fully vetted and authenticated the handwriting of Edgar Ray Killen when they took all the papers from Larry's home for investigation. Larry passed December 2014 of cancer and he left the book to Mr Robert J. Ray to have it published. Edgar Ray Killen passed in January 2018. This is the book that many in Mississippi and Washington wanted to keep buried.
