His part in the murder/interview

DSA: How old were you, and where were you living at the time of the Emmett Till murder case?

HSW: I was fifteen years old. I was living in Charleston, one of the two (the larger) county seats in Tallahatchie County. Maps in my thesis show it. My stepfather, N. Z. Troutt, was Chief of Police in Charleston. He considered running for sheriff in 1955 and decided that he did not have the money necessary to run a campaign. He was deputized by Strider to assist with the trial. A bomb was stuck under my bedroom window (on the front porch) about six feet from my head, during the trial. I jumped out of bed and the culprit removed the bomb and ran to a car and sped off.


DSA: How old were you, and where were you living at the time of the Emmett Till murder case?

HSW: I was fifteen years old. I was living in Charleston, one of the two (the larger) county seats in Tallahatchie County. Maps in my thesis show it. My stepfather, N. Z. Troutt, was Chief of Police in Charleston. He considered running for sheriff in 1955 and decided that he did not have the money necessary to run a campaign. He was deputized by Strider to assist with the trial. A bomb was stuck under my bedroom window (on the front porch) about six feet from my head, during the trial. I jumped out of bed and the culprit removed the bomb and ran to a car and sped off.

DSA: Did you know any of the players in the trial?

HSW: I knew everyone who was involved in the trial -- sheriff, prosecutor, judge, defense attorneys, and all the jurors, I believe, at least casually. Most had children in school with me. I did not know the defendants except by reputation, or any of the African American people from Money, Mississippi.

Money was not really incorporated. Most of the “town,” which was really small, was located on or near the west bank of the Tallahatchie River (again see the maps in the theses online). The river, at that point, separates Tallahatchie County from Leflore County.

The kidnapping occurred in Leflore County, near the west bank of the river. The murder occurred near a bridge, but on the east bank of the river, making Tallahatchie County the actual murder site. Money would have been about 15-20 miles from Charleston. Again see the maps in the thesis. The prosecutors decided to select jurors primarily from the northeast section of the county -- the hill county, rather than the Delta. The Delta had very rich soil, was totally flat, and had large plantations or farms. Sheriff Strider lived on the west bank of the river, and had a farm of several thousand acres, planted almost totally in cotton, and employed hundreds of African American farm hands. He had a road from Highway 32 to his home, and there were seven white concrete block, well manicured homes, occupied by seven African American families -- employees. On the top of each roof, facing west, was one ten-foot high word -- S-T-R-I-D-E-R (a little aside).

The prosecutorial strategy was to get jurors from as far away from Money as possible, thinking this was the best strategy. However, this led to the selection of mostly farmers who farmed mainly small farms with poor soil, in the hill area, and who viewed African Americans as competitors -- much the same as many in the same situation today view Hispanics. Also, most of the people who knew J. W. Milam, and to a lesser degree, his half brother Roy Bryant, disliked and/or feared them. So the jury selection strategy backfired and played into the defense's hands. Clearly it would have been possible to find jurors who would have voted for conviction based on the evidence. In fact one of the jurors told his son, who was about my age, that the original vote was 9-3 for acquittal. Unanimity came on the second ballot. In 1962-63, when I interviewed them, no one mentioned two ballots.


DSA: Did Sheriff Strider talk to you about his theory at the time of the trial that the body recovered from the Tallahatchie River was not that of Emmett Till? Especially in light of the confession article that was published in Look magazine?

HSW: Sheriff Strider talked with me quite freely on this. He gave me his (I think) entire collection of hate mail, as well as many from people who supported his actions. He and County Attorney Hamilton Caldwell both confirmed that neither of them, nor really anyone involved with the case, had ANY doubts that the body was that of Emmett Till. It was unclear whether Strider or the defense attorneys came up with the idea to create a "smoke screen" which would give the jurors an "out". Both the sheriff and the lawyers implied to me that the “smoke screen” was their idea. The jurors selected were going to acquit. This "smoke screen" gave the jurors an "out", and kept them from receiving as much scorn as everyone involved felt would be coming at them. Not one juror stated to me that he had any doubt about the body's identity, or that the accused had actually murdered Till. Strider, the jurors, and everyone involved really resented the Look article. It clearly made them all look like fools for having supported the brothers.

I interviewed Huie at his home in Alabama for an entire day. Huie gave me complete information on all that had transpired, and copies of all his books. Huie also gave me many ideas about writing style, and about being courageous in seeking to be fair, accurate, and honest. He was very strong in his attitudes about civil rights, and was a great influence on my research and upon the rest of my life. It was not easy for him to be a white supporter of equality and justice in Alabama in the early 1960's.

I should finally say that neither Strider nor anyone involved with the case ever doubted the identity of the body or who the killers were. And no one expressed anything but extreme dislike and disapproval for Milam and Bryant. All hoped they would never return to Mississippi, even for a visit. I should say that the defense attorneys confirmed the accuracy of the Look article. They also confirmed that the brothers acted alone. My suspicions about this last theory are shown on page 150 of the thesis. It was unclear to me why Sheriff Strider had locked up two of the three African American men -- under false identities -- thought to be "involved" with the murder, before and for the duration of the trial, unless they were involved or had direct knowledge of the murder. Huie never expressed to me any doubts that the two brothers acted alone. He was pretty adamant about this. And I felt the brothers -- especially Milam -- had such enormous egos that it would not have occurred to them that it was necessary to involve anyone else.

DSA: Did Sheriff Strider talk to you about his theory at the time of the trial that the body recovered from the Tallahatchie River was not that of Emmett Till? Especially in light of the confession article that was published in Look magazine?

HSW: Sheriff Strider talked with me quite freely on this. He gave me his (I think) entire collection of hate mail, as well as many from people who supported his actions. He and County Attorney Hamilton Caldwell both confirmed that neither of them, nor really anyone involved with the case, had ANY doubts that the body was that of Emmett Till. It was unclear whether Strider or the defense attorneys came up with the idea to create a "smoke screen" which would give the jurors an "out". Both the sheriff and the lawyers implied to me that the “smoke screen” was their idea. The jurors selected were going to acquit. This "smoke screen" gave the jurors an "out", and kept them from receiving as much scorn as everyone involved felt would be coming at them. Not one juror stated to me that he had any doubt about the body's identity, or that the accused had actually murdered Till. Strider, the jurors, and everyone involved really resented the Look article. It clearly made them all look like fools for having supported the brothers.

I interviewed Huie at his home in Alabama for an entire day. Huie gave me complete information on all that had transpired, and copies of all his books. Huie also gave me many ideas about writing style, and about being courageous in seeking to be fair, accurate, and honest. He was very strong in his attitudes about civil rights, and was a great influence on my research and upon the rest of my life. It was not easy for him to be a white supporter of equality and justice in Alabama in the early 1960's.

I should finally say that neither Strider nor anyone involved with the case ever doubted the identity of the body or who the killers were. And no one expressed anything but extreme dislike and disapproval for Milam and Bryant. All hoped they would never return to Mississippi, even for a visit. I should say that the defense attorneys confirmed the accuracy of the Look article. They also confirmed that the brothers acted alone. My suspicions about this last theory are shown on page 150 of the thesis. It was unclear to me why Sheriff Strider had locked up two of the three African American men -- under false identities -- thought to be "involved" with the murder, before and for the duration of the trial, unless they were involved or had direct knowledge of the murder. Huie never expressed to me any doubts that the two brothers acted alone. He was pretty adamant about this. And I felt the brothers -- especially Milam -- had such enormous egos that it would not have occurred to them that it was necessary to involve anyone else.

DSA: Moses Wright said that there was a third person on the doorstep when Milam and Bryant came to his home. Do you, or did Huie consider the accuracy of this testimony, if the men did act alone? Do you think the third man was simply there to show them the way to Wright’s cabin and then had no further involvement?

HSW: Huie and his lawyers both believed Milam and Bryant when they said in the interview for Look Magazine that no one else was along. While it is possible someone showed them the house, I tend to doubt it.

DSA: When you did your research, did you consider the conflicting conclusions between Huie’s article and other investigative articles of the time, such as the booklet Time Bomb, and the articles by “Amos Dixon” in the Black newspaper, the California Eagle, that say there were accomplices?

HSW: I used every press article and magazine article available to me at the time of the writing. I never saw either of those, that I can remember. Huie was the only journalist to have access to the defendants. There was never any doubt as to guilt or who had killed Till, in the area -- not among anyone connected to the case. I searched my old copy of the Mississippi Code, which was applicable then, and most crimes had a two-year statute of limitations, excluding murder. It seems that an article in the past month in Mississippi newspapers seems to indicate that a truck the same color as Milam's was at the Drew location on the date it was seen. The occupants were said to be going fishing. This refers to the Willie Reed story, and the recent press reports seem to refute this. I did research on the 1955 press coverage at Florida A & M University library, and also through interlibrary loan. Hard as it is for today’s young people to believe, there was no Internet then. I was the first white student allowed to use the library. I had to sneak in a back door and work in a carrel in the stacks. One day I tired of this, and just exited through the main lobby and front door. You could have heard a pin drop. From then on, Florida State University had to open its doors to Florida A & M students.

DSA: In the Huie papers, there is a letter of Huie's, written to Roy Wilkins, Executive Secretary of the NAACP, on October 12, 1955, before the Look article came out, stating that the "torture and murder party" included two other men, but that he needed their releases in order to publish their names "or no publisher will touch it." He went on to say that "I know who these men are: they are important to the story, but I have to pay them because of their 'risks'." He considered four releases (including Milam and Bryant's) as "too heavy a handicap," and said "we can if necessary, omit the names of the other two. We can even avoid all reference to them." Huie does appear to change his mind about accomplices after meeting with Milam and Bryant on October 23.

HSW: Huie never mentioned any involvement of any other persons in his day-long visit with me. He shared his notes, but of course did not give them to me. He never mentioned any other parties being involved. He did tell me he paid $7000 to the brothers for their stories. Milam and Bryant said they got $3500. Either EACH of them got $3500, and this was what the brothers meant, or the lawyers took half for arranging the meeting. He never mentioned either of the sources you list.

DSA: What do you think, then, about the testimony of Willie Reed, who said he saw the truck and the men, in addition to hearing sounds of a beating on the plantation near Drew, Sunflower County, the morning after the kidnapping?

HSW: I have reread my thesis, and I see the testimony of Willie Reed. First, the route of the truck that night, as showed to Huie (he actually drove the entire route of the supposed kidnapping) did not pass near the spot identified. This is the story referred to above, concerning a pickup truck of similar color to the one owned by Milam. As you can see from the thesis, I had doubts in 1962 about whether the brothers acted alone. I could never get any definitive statement from anyone, not even my stepfather, as to why, if the three persons I mentioned were not "involved" or witnesses, they were locked in jail under false identities before and during the trial, on Sheriff Strider’s orders. I assumed that one of them had washed the blood from the truck Sunday morning, though Milam had assured Huie and the lawyers that he alone washed out the truck. Milam was not one to do manual labor if he could pass the chore along, especially to African Americans.