New Evidence: Murders in Mississippi

Aug. 30 -- Though the bloody murders of three Mississippi civil rights workers happened nearly 40 years ago, new evidence may lead investigators to finally charge a Ku Klux Klan member for the deaths of the three men who helped blacks registers to vote.

Following is an unedited transcript of PrimeTime's investigation:

CHARLES GIBSON, ABCNEWS Three young men, all in their 20s, all on a crusade to do good work in a hostile place far from home, all murdered. A terrible crime that still sears the American conscience more than three decades later. For all these years, one question has remained: Who was behind the killings of the three civil rights workers? Tonight PrimeTime uncovers new evidence and new witnesses that led us on a trek into rural Mississippi to the prime suspect, a Baptist preacher who still lives about a mile from where the men were shot. Connie Chung has the real life events behind "Mississippi Burning."

CONNIE CHUNG, ABCNEWS (VO) It happened near here one steamy summer night almost 40 years ago. But a few people must still know the terrible truth about the bloody murders. And now, the pressure to speak up might finally be pushing that dark secret out of these back woods.

(OC) This setting just feels eerie, doesn't it?

BOB STRINGER Perfect.

CONNIE CHUNG In what way?

BOB STRINGER Perfect with the ghosts of Mississippi.

CONNIE CHUNG (VO) Ghosts, some might say, that come back to haunt an elderly Baptist preacher, a Baptist minister still leading the faithful from his sanctuary. Mississippi Attorney General Mike Moore.

MIKE MOORE Preacher Killen would have to be on the top of the list of the people we're targeting at this time.

CONNIE CHUNG (VO) Though the Ku Klux Klan has been suspected, Moore is confident he will at last be able to charge someone for the infamous murders of Michael Schwerner, Andrew Goodman and James Chaney, the three civil rights workers who were killed in these woods in 1964 for helping blacks register to vote. And now, a PrimeTime investigation reveals new evidence in old FBI files. The surprising secret of a jury that set the preacher free. An old Klansman prepared to go public with new evidence. And there is this man:

(OC) Was your conscience bothering you?

BOB STRINGER For a long time.

CONNIE CHUNG (VO) Bob Stringer says he can trace the case back to a Klan meeting at an old church deep in this forest. He came back to the church, he says, at the center of it all. The secret starts here, he says. This is where the Klan put out the order to kill.

(OC) Did you have an urge to go tell someone?

BOB STRINGER No. If I had told someone then I wouldn't be here today to tell anybody probably.

CONNIE CHUNG (VO) The church is packed at that moment in 1964 when imperial wizard Sam Bowers delivers his speech, calling for action against civil rights workers. At his side, a teenager, a loyal protege named Bob Stringer.

BOB STRINGER Sam Bowers was my idol.

CONNIE CHUNG (VO) Outside, Stringer says Bowers turns to this man, a young preacher named Edgar Ray Killen, and orders him to kill Goatee, the name he used for Michael Schwerner.

BOB STRINGER Sam made a statement, to the preacher, he said Goatee was like the queen bee of a beehive. If you eliminate the queen bee in the beehive, the workers will go away.

CONNIE CHUNG What did he mean by that?