Former FBI Special Agent Floyd Thomas told a group of Massachusetts High School students this week about the investigation into the disappearance of three civil rights workers, Michael Schwerner,James Chaney, and Andrew Goodman in 1964, and the subsequent discovery of their bodies and investigation into the murders:
The students sat quietly, listening to Thomas as he recounted the facts, the investigation and the outcome of one of the South's most publicized murder cases.
"I was a special agent for the Federal Bureau of Investigations 1951 to 1973," he said, beginning his tale.
The Freedom Summer Murders were attributed to Ku Klux Klan members in Philadelphia, Miss. Thomas spent three months away from his family in Arkansas investigating the case.
"I received a phone call from headquarters advising me to leave immediately and go to Meridian, Miss.," he said.
He continued, "Down in the area of Philadelphia, there had been three people reported missing down there, plus a rented station wagon."
A bystander's tip led Thomas and his partner to look through the woods nearby, where they located a station wagon matching the description of the missing vehicle.
"You could just barely see it in the weeds out there — the top of a vehicle. The doors were partially open...and everything that was flammable was burned."
"The outside of the car wasn't burned or anything, and the weeds weren't burned, so they had it towed in," he continued, "So now we had found our vehicle, but still had three missing persons."
Thomas let the group in on the methods he used when working a case, saying, "Working a crime investigation is just like putting a jigsaw puzzle together.
"You've got all these pieces and you've got to get the pieces all together to get the picture," he said.
Thomas and his partner then learned that the three missing individuals had been arrested some time previously and detained at the Philadelphia jail after a traffic stop.
It's believed that during their detainment, the sheriff conspired with local KKK members to release the three men in time for them to be intercepted on the highway by men with bad intentions.
Thomas and his partner worked with a local naval base to use ultraviolet photos viewing recently disturbed plots of land.
"So we dug all that. We had 30 sailors from over at the base there helping us drag ponds," he said, adding a brief anecdote about other pastimes the sailors found to entertain themselves.
"I don't know how much money the government spent on chickens," he said with a chuckle.
He explained, "Those sailors figured out they could throw a fire cracker into the chicken houses and when it went off all the chickens around would suffocate. They had dead chickens scattered around all over there."
Thomas spent his time checking for decomposition in the soil and looking for new construction sites.
It was in one such location, a dam still under construction, where Thomas and the other investigators found the bodies of the missing men 44 days after they vanished.
Thomas continued, "I heard on the radio just before I got there — 'I think we found them. We found a shoe heel.'"
"The shoe heel turned out to be the shoe heel of one of the boys that was buried in the dam."
He described how the men were laying, the intricate procedure of trying to excavate the bodies without destroying the evidence and a joke Thomas attempted that "went over like a lead balloon" with the man he told it to.
"We got to this one kid, and he had a little place under his arm here," Thomas said as he pointed to his left side.
"You've got to have a little humor to go along, or else you'll go nuts," he said.
"I said to the kid in the hole with me, 'This guy's been hurt! Go get us a doctor!'"
The man climbed out of the hole, now at 25 feet deep, and reported to those around, "This guy's crazy. Obviously (the victim)'s dead, he's been down there for three months."
3 comments:
I joined the Navy when I was 17 in 1961, and during my service I had the privilege of serving during two historic events. The first one was while I was serving aboard the USS SARATOGA CVA60, an aircraft carrier, during the Cuban missile crisis, and the second one was looking for the three civil rights workers in Mississippi. So I am a little upset to read about the FBI agent and his partner with 30 apparently not very bright sailors from the Naval Air Station who, according to agent Thomas, were blowing up chickens to pass the time(killing chick Since he is making this speech to schools across the country he needs to have his facts correct.
These are the facts agent Thomas left out of his story. To begin with there were more than 30 sailors looking for the three young men. Early every morning about 15 or 20 school busses arrived to pick us up and we had one FBI agent on each bus. I am not sure how many sailors were used every day but we had at least 200 or more. We would then drive the country roads, and we stopped at every swamp and field and then we would line up in a line and walk across the swamp or field with only our walking sticks to keep the snakes and other animals away as we searched for the young men's bodies. The FBI agent would stay at the bus with a grid map and mark off each area we searched. I also disagree with Mr. Thomas' statement that when he let his group in on the method he used when working a case that it was because he was saying, “working a crime investigation is just like putting a jigsaw puzzle together. We would still be looking for the three young men if the FBI worked the case that way. What agent Thomas forgets was most of the facts of the case, and the only way they were able to find the young men was to offer a $25,000 reward for information.
I believe I speak for all of my fellow Navy comrades that we were honored to have had a part in searching for the lost men. Sadly, the offer of a reward was the action that helped find those lost workers . I joined the Navy when I was 17 in 1961, and during my service I had the privilege of serving during two historic events. The first one was while I was serving aboard the USS SARATOGA CVA60, an aircraft carrier, during the Cuban missle crisis, and the second one was looking for the three civil rights workers in Mississppi. So I am a little upset to read about the FBI agent and his partner with 30 apprarently not very bright sailors from the Naval Air Station who, according to agent Thomas, were blowing up chickens to pass the time. Since he is making this speech to schools across the country he needs to have his facts correct.
I joined the Navy when I was 17 in 1961, and during my service I had the privilege of serving during two historic events. The first one was while I was serving aboard the USS SARATOGA CVA60, an aircraft carrier, during the Cuban missile crisis, and the second one was looking for the three civil rights workers in Mississippi. So I am a little upset to read about the FBI agent and his partner with 30 apparently not very bright sailors from the Naval Air Station who, according to agent Thomas, were blowing up chickens to pass the time(killing chick Since he is making this speech to schools across the country he needs to have his facts correct.
These are the facts agent Thomas left out of his story. To begin with there were more than 30 sailors looking for the three young men. Early every morning about 15 or 20 school busses arrived to pick us up and we had one FBI agent on each bus. I am not sure how many sailors were used every day but we had at least 200 or more. We would then drive the country roads, and we stopped at every swamp and field and then we would line up in a line and walk across the swamp or field with only our walking sticks to keep the snakes and other animals away as we searched for the young men's bodies. The FBI agent would stay at the bus with a grid map and mark off each area we searched. I also disagree with Mr. Thomas' statement that when he let his group in on the method he used when working a case that it was because he was saying, “working a crime investigation is just like putting a jigsaw puzzle together. We would still be looking for the three young men if the FBI worked the case that way. What agent Thomas forgets was most of the facts of the case, and the only way they were able to find the young men was to offer a $25,000 reward for information.
I believe I speak for all of my fellow Navy comrades that we were honored to have had a part in searching for the lost men. Sadly, the offer of a reward was the action that helped find those lost workers.
I've know David Boone since 1968. He was there and did participate in the hunt for the victims. Not a lot of fun. Bob Pope Dallas, Tx
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