Killen convicted of manslaughter for 1964 civil rights workers murders

June 21, 2005

Edward Killen, an 80-year old former Ku Klux Klan member, was convicted of three counts of manslaughter today for the murder of three civil rights workers exactly 41 years ago this very day.

Michael Schwerner, 24, Mr Chaney, 21, and Andy Goodman, 20, were killed in 1964. Killen was originally a suspect and was rearrested when new evidence emerged.

Killen now faces twenty years in jail. He was cleared of carrying out the murder, but convicted of recruiting a gang of Klansmen and police, who abducted the three men, shot them and beat them to death before burying them in a dam.