thumb|right|250px|mt. zion church state history marker. edgar ray "preacher" killen (born january 17, 1925) is a former ku klux klan organizer who planned and directed the murders of three civil rights activistsâjames chaney, andrew goodman and michael schwernerâin 1964.'mississippi burning' case begins new chapter, as prof. ken bode previews trial lcivil rights movement veterans website - neshoba murders case â a chronology he was found guilty in state court of three counts of manslaughter on june 21, 2005, the forty-first anniversary of the crime. he appealed the verdict, but his sentence of three times 20 years in prison was upheld on january 12, 2007, by the mississippi supreme court. ==biography== edgar ray killen was born on january 17, 1925, in philadelphia, mississippi, the second of eight children of lonnie ray killen (1901â1992) and etta hitt (1903â1983). killen was a sawmill operator and a southern baptist minister.http://law2.umkc.edu/faculty/projects/ftrials/price&bowers/killen.htm he was also a kleagle, or klavern recruiter and organizer, for the neshoba and lauderdale county chapters of the ku klux klan. ==murders==  during the "freedom summer" of 1964, james chaney, 21, a young black man from meridian, mississippi and andrew goodman, 20, and michael schwerner, 24, two jewish men from new york, were murdered in philadelphia, mississippi. killen, along with cecil price, then deputy sheriff of neshoba county, was found to have assembled a group of armed men who conspired against, pursued, and killed the three civil rights workers. samuel bowers, who served as the grand wizard of the local white knights of the ku klux klan and had ordered the murders to take place, acknowledged that killen was "the main instigator." the mississippi civil rights workers' murders galvanized the nation and helped bring about the passage of the 1964 civil rights act and the 1965 voting rights act. at the time of the murders, the state of mississippi made little effort to prosecute the guilty parties. the fbi, under pro-civil-rights president lyndon johnson and [[united states
1925_births American_people_convicted_of_manslaughter American_prisoners_and_detainees Baptists_from_the_United_States History_of_African-American_civil_rights Ku_Klux_Klan_members Living_people Manslaughter_trials People_from_Neshoba_County,_Mississippi Prisoners_and_detainees_of_Mississippi