Read the Full '20/20' Transcript
— -- This is an uncorrected and unedited transcript of the "20/20" broadcast which first aired June 14, 2000.
ABC NEWS
Good evening. And welcome to 20/20 WEDNESDAY. Diane and Charlie areoff. Tonight, we are devoting most of this hour to a special report.Explosive new developments in a continuing investigation. Threemurders that have never been solved. They occurred during one ofthis country's darkest chapters when bigotry bred violence and thelaw looked the other way. Two black teen-agers offered a ride andthen killed in cold blood. An elderly black farmhand shot to deathat close range. Decades have passed and their stories have faded.But now, our investigation has brought these cases back to life andjust maybe justice will prevail at last.
(VO) THOMAS MOORE visits the grave of his brother Charles whowas murdered along with a friend 36 years ago. There was evidence,informants, even two arrests, but nobody was ever convicted ofmurder.
(OC) What kind of men would do that to someone like yourbrother?
THOMAS MOORE
Hate. Ignorant. Not being able to accept a person as who they are.
ABC NEWS
(VO) He owns only a single image of his younger brother, a collegestudent. Of the other victim, Henry Dee, there isn't even a photo.Thomas has been plagued by the murders. When he returned fromVietnam, he earned a second college degree and dedicated it in thename of his brother and in the name of justice.
THOMAS MOORE
I will pursue this as far as I can until I die trying to find out whodid this and why.
ABC NEWS
(VO) It was May 2nd, 1964, Charles Moore and Henry Dee, both 19, wereoffered a ride in Meadville, Mississippi, taken deep into the nearbyHomochitto National Forest and beaten, their bodies dumped into theMississippi River. Two alleged Klansman, James Ford Seale andCharles Marcus Edwards were arrested.
JT ROBINSON
When they made the arrests on those people, I didn't have any doubtin my mind that that's the one that done it. I didn't.
ABC NEWS
(VO) J.T. Robinson was police chief in nearby Natchez.
(OC) You think that Charles Marcus Edwards killed those two men?
JT ROBINSON
I think he was part -- he was with James Seale and they done it.
ABC NEWS
(VO) Both suspects were soon freed. An FBI investigation peteredout. And as we learned in a surprising response to our inquiry, theentire FBI file on the case was destroyed in 1977 or so they thought.Until this headline appeared recently in the Jackson-Clarion Ledgerover a story by reporter Jerry Mitchell.
JERRY MITCHELL
And so then I was able to go back to the FBI and go, 'Wait a minute,you know, those files weren't destroyed, here are copies.'
ABC NEWS
(VO) From a different source, 20/20 obtained an unredacted copy ofthe FBI file. Nearly a thousand pages of reports, notes, diagrams,maps and photographs. But most revealing was the fact that the FBIhad one very important informant. An informant who remainedanonymous, refusing to testify in open court for fear of retaliationfrom the Klan. Retired FBI assistant director Jim Ingram was at thetime a special agent assigned to the case. He remembers theinformant code name JN-30.
JIM INGRAM
JN-30 was so important to the FBI that the agents themselves did notknow his identity, except two agents that worked or handled him.
ABC NEWS
Informant JN-30 provided the FBI with crucial information about themurders of Charles Moore and Henry Dee. From the beginning here onHighway 84 in tiny Meadville to the murky depths of the MississippiRiver some 40 miles away. According to JN-30 the killers confided inhim in horrifying detail about what transpired just after the twoyoung men were last seen near this roadside drive-in.
(VO) JN-30 said James Ford Seale picked up Charles Moore andHenry Dee. Followed by Charles Edwards and Seale's father, Clyde, ina pickup, they drove into the forest, tied the victims to a tree andbeat them. Reeling a shotgun, James Seale harangued them about animagined black Muslim plot to arm local blacks.
(OC) At that time, did you think it was possible that yourbrother was killed just because the color of his skin?
THOMAS MOORE
Absolutely. No other reason. No other reason.
ABC NEWS
Did you suspect that Klansmen had killed him?
THOMAS MOORE
Yes.
ABC NEWS
(VO) According to JN-30, James Seale's brother, Jack, and a prominentlocal landowner, Ernest Parker, put the victims into the trunk of acar and drove to a remote landing on the Mississippi River. Mooreand Dee were tied to a jeep engine block and dropped into the muddywater. Six months later, Navy divers found the engine block, a skulland other evidence exactly where JN-30 told them to look. The FBIwas convinced their suspects were the killers. But in 1964, ThomasMoore knew not to expect justice.
THOMAS MOORE
Did I believe that they would be arrested and convicted? No. No. ABC NEWS
No way?
THOMAS MOORE
No way.
ABC NEWS
(VO) And he was right. The FBI investigation soon hit a wall.
JIM INGRAM
We, in the FBI, felt there was sufficient evidence. But if theprosecutor is not going to move forward, that -- that stops it at thetime.
ABC NEWS
(VO) The FBI file shows that with the informant too fearful totestify and a lack of other witnesses, the district attorney felt hecould not prosecute the suspects. Three of them lived out theirlives and died free men. The two who were arrested briefly in 1964are still alive. According to the file during questioning, one ofthem, James Ford Seale, was told the FBI knew he was involved in themurders. Seale replied: 'Yes, but I'm not going to admit it. Youare going to have to prove it.'
MAN
Hello. Mr. Seale?
JAMES SEALE
Yeah.
MAN
How you doing?
JAMES SEALEPretty good.
ABC NEWS
(VO) Today, James Seale travels the country in his luxury motor home.We found him camped near Natchez.
JAMES SEALE
I have nothing to say to you.
MAN
Nothing to say? JAMES SEALE
The best thing for you to do is get your ass up that hill.
MAN
All right, sir. All right. Did you have anything to do with thekilling of those two boys?
JAMES SEALE
Get up the hill.
ABC NEWS
(VO) According to the FBI file, when he was under arrest, CharlesMarcus Edwards confessed that he, Seale and others took the victimsto some woods and whipped them. But he said they were still alivewhen he left. We found Edwards last year living quietly in thecountry outside Natchez.
(OC) Did you murder Henry Dee and Charles Moore?
CHARLES EDWARDS
I did not. I did not murder those two kids.
ABC NEWS
The investigators said that you told them that you and a couple ofother guys picked up Henry Dee and Charles Moore, took them to theforest…
CHARLES EDWARDS
They told you a lie because I hadn't said that.
ABC NEWS
Mr. Edwards, back in the 1960s, do you think you would have calledyourself a racist?
CHARLES EDWARDS
Well, I was prejudice, yeah.
ABC NEWS
(VO) To this day, the entire case remains in limbo. But that couldsoon change. We have found the FBI's star informant, JN-30, and nowhe is ready to go public.
ERNEST GILBERT
I wish to God I would never have known about this. I really do.
ABC NEWS
In a moment, you will meet the man they call JN-30. We'll be rightback.
ANNOUNCER
He was an imperial wizard of the KKK. Now he is speaking out for thefirst time about the unsolved murders of two teen-age boys.
ERNEST GILBERT
They were taken to the Mississippi River, weights were tied on themand they were thrown in the river alive.
(Commercial break)
ABC NEWS
When the bodies of Charles Moore and Henry Dee, two black19-year-olds, were discovered in the Mississippi River in 1964, theirfamilies suspected it was the work of the Ku Klux Klan. They neverthought they would see the murders solved. But little did they knowthat one was quietly trying to seek justice. Now, he tells his storyfor the first time.
ERNEST GILBERT
(From tape) The white people in this state are going to war. And tohell with who tries to stop them.
ABC NEWS
(VO) He was a leader of the Ku Klux Klan who says he knew the killersof Charles Moore and Henry Dee.
Mr. GILBERT: They murdered those two young boys, cold-bloodedmurder.
ABC NEWS
(VO) Now 36 years later, he's decided to go public for the first timeand reveal what he knows.
ERNEST GILBERT
I'm doing that because I'd like to clear my conscience.
ABC NEWS
(VO) His name is ERNEST GILBERT
. (OC) Mr. Gilbert, were the killers of Charles Moore and HenryDee white knights of the KKK?
ERNEST GILBERT
Yes, they were.
ABC NEWS
Every single one of them?
ERNEST GILBERT
Yes.
(From tape) We the officers and members of the original knightsof the Ku Klux Klan of Mississippi…
ABC NEWS
(VO) ERNEST GILBERT
was once the KKK's chief spokesman and for a timeits leader in Mississippi.
(OC) Were you elected to the position of imperial wizard?
ERNEST GILBERT
Imperial wizard.
ABC NEWS
That was your title?
ERNEST GILBERT
And the white knights.
ABC NEWS
(VO) He was also chief organizer, secretly recruiting officers of thelaw.
(OC) Did you recruit sheriff's deputies? Sheriffs themselves?
ERNEST GILBERT
Yes, I did.
ABC NEWS
Police officers?
ERNEST GILBERT
Yes.
ABC NEWS
And they all secretly belonged to the Klan?
ERNEST GILBERT
They secretly belonged to the Klan.
ABC NEWS
(VO)Ernest Gilbert's home movies form a silent archive of racistrallies, marches, parades and cross burnings. His wife happily showsoff a shotgun. Here Gilbert pours himself a drink and reloads hisnub-nose revolver before going to bed. The audio is from one of hisspeeches.
ERNEST GILBERT
(From tape I'll tell you this. I am a man of violence. I am. IfERNEST GILBERT
's going to do something, I'm damn well going to getthe job done and ain't nobody ever going to know about it.
ABC NEWS
(VO) Today, ERNEST GILBERT
says that was all just talk. That all thewhile he was torn up inside because a friend and fellow Klansman JackSeale and others confessed to him that they murdered Charles Mooreand Henry Dee.
(OC) How did you find out who killed Moore and Dee?
ERNEST GILBERT
I was told by the members that committed the act. They came to meand told me all the gory details of it. And I asked them, `Why inthe hell are you telling me this?'
ABC NEWS
What did they say?
ERNEST GILBERT
They said, `Well, if anything ever comes of it and--and we want youto know so you can protect us.'
ABC NEWS
(VO) Even now Gilbert finds it difficult to repeat what he was told.
ERNEST GILBERT
Those kids were abused awful and beaten, and -- and they begged fortheir lives. I was told all of this. And then they were taken tothe Mississippi River, weights were tied on them and they were thrownin the river alive.
ABC NEWS
Alive?
ERNEST GILBERT
Alive.
ABC NEWS
How did you react to them?
ERNEST GILBERT
Like I said, I lost my mind. I lost my soul. And I finally decidedthat something had to be done.
ABC NEWS
(VO) You went to the FBI?
ERNEST GILBERT
Because there was no one else I could turn to. I couldn't sleep. Icouldn't eat. I was beginning to die. Well, I did die inside. AndI couldn't live with it.
ABC NEWS
(VO) And yet, in his home movies, Gilbert appears at ease with JackSeale, one of the alleged killers. Here they prepare for a Klanrally, Seale wearing sunglasses. Here Seale drives while tauntingthe camera. And so began the dual life of Ernest Gilbert asinformant JN-30, an FBI mole inside the KKK, activated in Natchez,Mississippi, in 1964. Today, Natchez is a genteel place, overflowingwith southern charm. But in the mid '60s, it was an armed camp in avirtual war between the White Knights and civil-rights groups.
JT ROBINSON
The black people would watch at 10:00 in the morning on Saturday andthe Klan would ride all night long.
ABC NEWS
(VO) Police chief J.T. Robinson patrolled the streets with a shotgunin this upside-down town where the Ku Klux Klan had an office on MainStreet and the NAACP worked underground.
(OC) Which group did you most fear?
JT ROBINSON
The White Knights.
ABC NEWS
(VO) In this rarified atmosphere, Gilbert went to work preachinghate…
ERNEST GILBERT
(From file footage) I am damn proud of what I am because I know whata Klansman really is.
ABC NEWS
(VO) …while plumbing the depths of his friendships and generatingenough information for this stack of documents obtained by 20/20. Inthem, he names and quotes the alleged killers. Jack Seale, sayingthe victims were dumped in the river alive because shooting themwould have gotten blood all over the boat. James Ford Seale sayinghe had taped the victims' mouths and wrists. Ernest Parker, worriedthat the jeep-engine block the victims were tied to would be tracedto him. Clyde Seale saying that Charles Edwards had a bad case ofconscience.
(OC) Was it difficult for you to try and remain friends withthem even though in you knew in your heart that you had told the FBIwhat they did?
ERNEST GILBERT
You better believe it. It's difficult to this minute. Were theyfriends? Yes, they were. And did I rat on my friends? Yes, I did.
ABC NEWS
Were you personally ever involved in the killings of Moore and Dee?
ERNEST GILBERT
Hell no, I was never personally involved.
ABC NEWS
(VO) The passing years have erased many of the details from hismemory. For example, he remembers nothing of Charles Edwards. Buthe remains riddled with guilt because he does remember everything ofthe fiery speeches he gave when he was the leader of the Ku KluxKlan.
ERNEST GILBERT
(From file footage) I think they ought to shoot down every damnnigger that goes out here to burn a building. Or, goes out here todemonstrate. I think they ought to take them guns and kill them justas fast as they stick their heads up. How did I know that I'm notthe cause of--if you was in the Klan, you had something to do with itbecause you represented the biggest hate group that ever walked theearth.
ABC NEWS
Do you now regret being a member of the Klan?
ERNEST GILBERT
You damn right I do. I would give anything in the world if I hadnever heard the name of the Ku Klux Klan.
ABC NEWS
Do you regret the violence that occurred?
ERNEST GILBERT
You better believe I regret the violence that occurred. Why elsewould I be here?
ABC NEWS
(VO) Apparently, he does not want to offer himself as a witness,should this interview revive the case against the two survivingsuspects.
(OC) If James Ford Seale and Charles Marcus Edwards are broughtto trial, will you testify against them?
ERNEST GILBERT
I will not testify against them. They have all of the information.What good is it going to do me to get up there and testify -- and thepeople say, 'Well, hell he was one of them, how can he testifyagain?' Any juror is going to turn them loose.
ABC NEWS
(VO) Charles Edwards was turned loose soon after he was arrested backin 1964. He said he's a religious man who has been blessed with afull life ever since.
CHARLES EDWARDS
It's been good. I've raised -- I've had a good job all my life, and Iraised five kids, had the American dream.
ABC NEWS
(VO) After 36 years when Thomas Moore visits his brother's grave, hestill speaks of pain.
THOMAS MOORE
I love you and I miss you.
ABC NEWS
(VO) But now, he also speaks of hope and justice.
THOMAS MOORE
Hopefully, the end will come to this and we can rest, and you canhave peace that justice did prevail.
ERNEST GILBERT
God told Cain, "Your brother's blood cries out to me from theground." I want -- I want -- I want justice for those kids, that's what Iwant.
ABC NEWS
That's why you've come forward now?
ERNEST GILBERT
Yes. This is not about me. This is not about you. This is abouttwo little kids that were brutally murdered. And were innocent.
ABC NEWS
In light of our interview, Justice Department sources tell us the FBIis reactivating the Dee/Moore murder case. FBI agents reportedlywill meet with Ernest Gilbert. As one source put it, "It's a wholenew ball game." Gilbert says he is still fearful of the KKK and askedus not to reveal his whereabouts. When we come back, new evidence,new twists in another unsolved murder. And you'll hear from menwhose racist words will absolutely stun you.
ANNOUNCER
An innocent man brutally murdered. A confession read in court. Sowhy did this juror vote, not guilty?
JOHN DAWSON
The only thing they ever proved to me was that that…(censored bynetwork)…was dead.
ANNOUNCER
Thirty-four years later, is it too late for JUSTICE AT LAST, when20/20 continues?
(Commercial break)
ABC NEWS
Now to Adams County, Mississippi to the scene of another horrificmurder from the darkest days of the civil-rights era. Now we shouldwarn you that some of the language you'll hear is racially chargedand offensive, but we've left it in our story so you can judge foryourself the state of mind of some of the people involved.
(VO) Deep in the Mississippi forest, Jesse White visits theplace where his father's bullet-riddled body was dumped over a bridge34 years ago.
JESSE WHITE
I miss him very much. I often think about the tragic fate that wasdealt to him.
ABC NEWS
(VO) Ben Chester White was a simple man, a 67-year-old farmhand whokept to himself.
JESSE WHITE
He was a mild man, a quiet fellow.
ABC NEWS
(VO) He was not active in civil rights, yet he was killed by the KuKlux Klan. And despite the reported confessions of two suspects,there has been no justice for White's family for more than threedecades.
JESSE WHITE
There's something that kind of like eats away at you, and knowingthat this isn't right --that -- when will it be right?
ABC NEWS
(VO) It was hot and sunny on June 12, 1966, the day Ben ChesterWhite's body was found face-down in this creek near Natchez,Mississippi. He had been shot more than a dozen times with anassault rifle and once with a shotgun blast so powerful it blew thebrains out of his head.
JT ROBINSON
Shot him with a shotgun.
ABC NEWS
(VO) Former Natchez police chief J.T. Robinson says during alate-night rendezvous shortly after the murder, he received aconfession from a Klansman named James Lloyd Jones.
JT ROBINSON
He said, "I'm going to tell you something." He said, "I was involvedwith something that's absolutely -- it's terrible." And he said, "Ican't live with it."
ABC NEWS
He confessed to you?
JT ROBINSON
What he said, he told me that Fuller, Avants had killed Ben ChesterWhite.
ABC NEWS
Claude Fuller and Ernest Gilbert.
JT ROBINSON
That's right.
ABC NEWS
(VO) He fingered 43-year-old Claude Fuller and 35-year-old ErnestAvants as the triggermen. In a then-secret FBI document, both werenamed as members of the White Knights of the Ku Klux Klan. JamesLloyd Jones, a World War II veteran, confessed that he drove them andBen Chester White to the bridge where the murder took place. ButChief Robinson knew that even with a confession, there would likelybe no justice.
(OC) Did you really feel it was impossible to convict a whiteman of killing a black man?
JT ROBINSON
Yeah, I did then. Yes, I did.
ABC NEWS
(VO) He says what happened in this Natchez court room proved himright. There was a hung jury in the trial of James Lloyd Jones.Avants received an outright acquittal. Fuller was not even put ontrial. All three accused were set free, which is where the casestood for more than 30 years, a grave injustice says Chief Robinson,one he still wishes could be rectified.
JT ROBINSON
I'm at a loss at how you can dig up anything on them. I mean, I'mjust, complete loss. I've tried to think, you know, what can we dofor these kind of cases, you know?
ABC NEWS
There were many questions about the murder of Ben Chester White. So,last spring we at 20/20 launched our own investigation. We wanted toknow how three accused murderers could be set free, even though atleast one confessed. What happened to the evidence? We came here toa musty basement in the Historic Natchez Foundation, where wediscovered not only the transcript of the James Lloyd Jones trial,but his confession, in which he describes in mind-numbing detail theplanning and the execution of the murder, implicating himself and histwo co-accused, Claude Fuller and Ernest Avants.
1ST OFFSCREEN VOICE
(Reading from Jones' confession) We rode on down there in thatforest, Claude Fuller claimed he had lost a shepherd dog and got BenChester White to go with us to hunt the dog.
ABC NEWS
(VO) We had an actor read excerpts from Jones' lost confessions, justas they were read into the record at his trial.
1ST OFFSCREEN VOICE
(Reading from Jones' confession) Fuller told me just as I got to thebridge to stop. That's the bridge where we killed him. He reachedand got his rifle and throwed a shell in it, and then he opened thedoor where the old darky was sitting and said, 'All right, pop, getout!' When the darky seen him with that rifle, he said, 'Lord, whathave I done to deserve this?' He just withered down in the back seat.The first shots were made by Fuller. He opened up that rifle andthere was two bursts of it. Then Fuller told Ernest Avants, 'Allright, now you shoot him.' And Avants shot him.
JT ROBINSON
It blew his brains and things, in the car, on Mr. Jones.
ABC NEWS
Y -- you mean Mr. White's brains splattered on Mr. Jones?
JT ROBINSON
Yeah, on Mr. Jones. Inside the car.
1ST OFFSCREEN VOICE
(Reading from Jones' confession) I got out of the car and helped themdrag him out, and throwed him over the rail.
ABC NEWS
(VO) At the end of the week-long trial, a 12-man jury, nine white andthree black, went behind closed doors to deliberate Jones' fate. Butthey were unable to reach a verdict.
(OC) It was a hung jury?
JT ROBINSON
That's right.
ABC NEWS
How is that possible?
JT ROBINSON
The Klansmen.
ABC NEWS
The Klansmen?
JT ROBINSON
On the -- on the -- on the jury.
ABC NEWS
(VO) We returned to that old building in Natchez and uncovered thejury list. We found seven had died. Of the survivors, four agreedto return to the courtroom to talk about the case. Among them therewere no dissenters.
(OC) How many of you thought that James Lloyd Jones was guilty?Without any doubt?
RAY COLTER
Yes.
ABC NEWS
(VO) Alternate juror Ray Colter and the rest of this group sharedsuspicions about other members of the jury.
RAY COLTER
The remarks that -- that we heard, you know, in -- at lunch, dinner, backat the hotel, that I just got the feeling there were a couple ofjurors that were not going to vote for him to be guilty.
ABC NEWS
But they had their minds made up before hearing the evidence?
RAY COLTERYes.
ABC NEWS
Were these jurors white?
RAY COLTER
Yes.
ABC NEWS
In fact, they were determined not to find a white man guilty ofkilling a black man?
RAY COLTER
That was a feeling I had.
ABC NEWS
(VO) So if the Klan had a sinker in the jury room, who was it? Thedocuments we recovered include the names of two other survivingjurors: Frank Nolan Dungan, who would not tell us how he voted, andJohn Dawson, who agreed to meet with our producer.
JOHN DAWSON
Come in.
PRODUCER
How you doing?
ABC NEWS
(VO) We used a home video camera to tape an interview in which Dawsonconfirmed he voted not guilty.
JOHN DAWSON
Only thing they ever proved to me was that that nigger was dead.That's all they ever proved to me, he -- he died, and he's dead. Whodone it? Ain't never proved a…(censored by network).
ABC NEWS
(VO) But what about the confession?
JOHN DAWSON
Well, I never heard it if there was. Nobody ever -- never -- they neverbrought that out in no courtroom.
ABC NEWS
(VO) Actually, the confession took up about a third of the trialtranscript. But if Dawson didn't remember that, he did recallconfronting a black juror during deliberations.
JOHN DAWSON
I asked one of them niggers one day, I said, `How you know he'sguilty?' He says, `They say he is.' They say? Well...(censored bynetwork)…I could have said it, you could have said that, it don'tmake it true.
ABC NEWS
(VO) We asked Dawson, was he a member of the Ku Klux Klan?
JOHN DAWSON
Nope. Now, you may get some people say I was, but I tell it to youor anybody else to prove it that I was.
ABC NEWS
(VO) We took up the challenge and found records from this bank inNatchez dating back to 1965. A signature card revealed that JohnDawson was a signing officer for the United Klans of America, Realmof Mississippi. Several cancelled checks bear his signature and theimprint of the Klan. The signature appears to match one on a34-year-old hotel reservation, which includes the address where JohnDawson lives to this day. We paid him another visit, but this timethe reception wasn't as friendly.
(OC) (At Dawson's front door) Hello, Mr. Dawson, my name isABC News, I'm with ABC News. And we have cameras. Mr. Dawson?
(VO) There was no retrial of James Lloyd Jones. In the case ofClaude Fuller, there was no trial at all. We found out why in thoseboxes of court records. It seems Jones and Fuller later claimed theywere physically unable to endure a rigorous murder trial. They gavethe identical excuse of ulcers and arthritis. Incredibly, the judgeagreed, ordered the charges withdrawn, and set Jones and Fuller free.
Ernest Avants was also freed after a brief trial ended with a juryfinding him not guilty.
(OC) Just recently, the FBI discovered a key piece of evidence,another confession by James Lloyd Jones, one given at a preliminaryhearing here at the courthouse in Natchez. And lately, even morelost court documents have been turning up. In this document dug upby the Clarion Ledger, Ernest Avants confirms he was there on thebridge the night Ben Chester White was murdered.
JERRY MITCHELL, REPORTER, THE CLARION LEDGER
It showed that Avants showed up at the sheriff's doorsteps, wasfrightened.
ABC NEWS
(VO) And made his admission to the sheriff, Odell Anders and countyattorney Edwin Benoit (ph).
JERRY MITCHELL
Here you have a confession to -- not only to the sheriff, but to theprosecutor in the case, and they don't use it.
ABC NEWS
(VO) The prosecutor Benoit is deceased. But he told the FBI hedidn't use the confession in part because avants had been drinkingwhen he gave it. The sheriff Anders is still alive, but declined togive us an interview. We had other questions for him: about thisletter from the FBI to the governor of Mississippi and at least twoother independent FBI reports naming him as a secret member of the KuKlux Klan. In the past, Anders has denied it. As for the suspects,Claude Fuller and James Lloyd Jones both lived out their lives anddied free men. We found Ernest Avants last August living in atrailer home parked in the tiny southern Mississippi town of BogueChitto.
ERNEST AVANTS
I can't hardly believe this.
ABC NEWS
Ernest Avants was happy to sit down and talk. Tried and acquitted 33years ago for the murder of Ben Chester White, he thought he was homefree. But 20/20 uncovered something that was about to give ErnestAvants the surprise of his life.
ANNOUNCER
An unsolved murder and a startling 20/20 discovery leads to an arrest34 years after the crime.
ABC NEWS
Mr. Avants! Mr. Avants!
ANNOUNCER
When 20/20 continues after this from our ABC stations. (Commercial break)
Ernest Avants is the last surviving suspect in the unsolvedmurder of an elderly black farmhand. For 34 years, the family of BenChester White has waited for justice. And right now, it could becloser than ever.
(VO) The place where Ben Chester White has murdered has changedover three decades. The bridge is broken down. The road abandoned,taken back by the forest. And the victim forgotten by Mississippijustice. But for the man found not guilty, Ernest Avants, somethings never seem to change. For example, his racist beliefs.
ERNEST AVANTS
A white man has run this world. A white man has run this UnitedStates. That's why it's great like it is.
ABC NEWS
(VO) On local society in the '60s…
ERNEST AVANTS
The Jews own Adams County and the Catholics run it and the niggersenjoyed it.
ABC NEWS
(VO) But on the murder of Ben Chester White.
(OC) Did you kill Ben Chester White?
ERNEST AVANTS
No, I did not.
ABC NEWS
Did you shoot him with a shotgun?
ERNEST AVANTS
No, I did not.
ABC NEWS
Did you have anything to do with the murder of Ben Chester White?
ERNEST AVANTS
No, I did not.
ABC NEWS
This is part of the confession that was read at James Lloyd Jones'trial. `How many times did the shotgun shoot?' And Jones said, `Onetime.' `Who was the man who shot the shotgun?' `A fellow namedAvants.' That's you.
ERNEST AVANTS
But I didn't hear -- hear that read. Whatever was read, and whateverJames Jones said, was a bold faced lie.
ABC NEWS
Why would he lie?
ERNEST AVANTS
Why?
ABC NEWS
Why would he implicate…
ERNEST AVANTS
Why if this nigger was killed like they said he was, why wouldn't thebuzzards eat him? The buzzards won't eat nothing that die of rabiesor poison.
ABC NEWS
So let me get this straight. You are saying that because thebuzzards didn't get at Ben Chester White's body, that he had to havedied of either rabies or poison?
ERNEST AVANTS
Evidently.
ABC NEWS
Not gunshot wounds?
ERNEST AVANTS
Evidently.
ABC NEWS
(VO) But when Ernest Avants went on trial, two FBI agents testifiedthat he also confessed. They were questioning him on the truckbombing of a civil rights worker, when suddenly Avants changed thesubject to Ben Chester White.
ALAN KORNBLUM
He said, and I'm quoting him, "Yeah, I shot that nigger."
ABC NEWS
(VO) One of the agents, Alan Kornblum, agreed to an interview on thecondition that his face be concealed because he now works inintelligence. ALAN KORNBLUM
We were both stunned about his admissions, they were graphic, werevery specific. He said that the other individual had emptied hiscarving, the full magazine, into Ben Chester White after which heemptiedb -- bhe fired the shotgun.
ABC NEWS
You were interviewed by two FBI agents, Alan Kornblum…
ERNEST AVANTS
Kornblum was from New York and he was a Jew.
ABC NEWS
(VO) According to Kornblum, Avants bragged that while he did shootBen Chester White, he could not be found guilty of murder.
ALAN KORNBLUMHe said he 'blew his head off with a shotgun, but he was alreadydead. And my lawyers told me you can't convict me for killing a deadguy.'
ERNEST AVANTS
No, my lawyers didn't tell me that. My lawyers told the -- jumped upand told the court that. Read the transcript.
ABC NEWS
So your lawyers said you shot a man in the head, Ben Chester White,who was already dead?
ERNEST AVANTS
Yeah.
ABC NEWS
Is that true?
ERNEST AVANTS
No, it's true he said it. But it ain't true that I done that.
ABC NEWS
(VO) It was a racially mixed jury that acquitted Avants. And whiletwo jurors told us they felt he did murder Ben Chester White, theycouldn't convict Avants on the evidence produced at his trial.
JAY LEHMAN, JUROR
There must have been some more evidence that wasn't presented. Theremust have been.
WILLIAM BELL, JUROR
The district attorney, he did a poor job.
ABC NEWS
(VO) Whether or not the DA botched the case may never be knownbecause the Avants transcript remains missing. But his acquittal isamazing. If only for the evidence that he confessed to Special AgentAlan Kornblum.
ALAN KORNBLUM
I was shocked. I thought with that confession he would have beenconvicted.
ABC NEWS
(VO) But now, time may be running out for this suspected murderer.
(OC) 20/20 has made a discovery that could give new life to thecase against Ernest Avants. We returned here to the scene of thecrime and discovered a simple fact that's been overlooked for 33years. The murder of Ben Chester White occurred on federal land,inside the boundaries of the Homochitto National Forest, making thecrime a federal offense for which Ernest Avants could still indictedafter all these years.
RON RYCHLAK
That's of crucial significance.
ABC NEWS
(VO) Professor Ron Rychlak is associate dean at the University ofMississippi Law School.
(OC) This actually means he could be charged again, tried againand potentially found guilty.
RON RYCHLAK
Charged, tried and found guilty.
ABC NEWS
(VO) Last fall in response to our original broadcast, the FBI openeda new investigation. And last week, armed FBI agents entered atrailer home in Bogue Chitto, Mississippi.
2ND VOICE
Get out.
ABC NEWS
They arrested 69-year-old Ernest Henry Avants for the murder of BenChester White, 34 years ago.
ABC NEWS
Mr. Avants? Mr. Avants?
2ND VOICE
Get her out of here or I'm going to blow her brains out. Get out!Leave him alone. Ain't you got any Christian in you?
GROUP OF PEOPLE
(In unison) No.
BRAD PIGOTT, US ATTORNEY, SOUTHERN DISTRICT OF MISSISSIPPI
The federal grand jury returned a one count murder indictment againstMr. Avants this afternoon. I, for one, want to express, on behalf ofour office, the gratitude to the diligence of the 20/20 program ofABC News.
ABC NEWS
US Attorney Brad Pigott says it's the first known federal prosecutionof a civil rights murder case.
MAN
It's our -- it's our professional judgment that we have enoughadmissible evidence to justify today's grand jury indictment of Mr.Avants and to try him for murder.
ABC NEWS
(VO) Federal prosecutors may rely on records uncovered by 20/20. Forexample, a motive, we found, in the lost confession of James LloydJones.
ACTOR
(Playing James Lloyd Jones) Fuller told me he had orders from higherup that the man had to go. The deal was that they thought maybe theymight get old Martin Luther King.
RON RYCHLAK
It's chilling to read really, and they were trying to use this murderperhaps to lure Dr. Martin Luther King to that area and maybe make anattempt on his life.
ABC NEWS
(VO) At his arraignment in US district court, Ernest Avants pleadednot guilty. As he was led away in hand-cuffs and leg irons, heappeared somewhat unsteady. He did not respond to reporters'questions. But when we first interviewed him before he was aware hecould face another trial, Avants made it quite clear that he knowstimes have changed since 1967.
ERNEST AVANTS
You just think if had a trial then and got acquitted, if I was triednow.
ABC NEWS
What would happen?
ERNEST AVANTS
Hell, I'd be convicted.
ABC NEWS
Why do you say that?
ERNEST AVANTS
The -- the majority of white people is so sympathetic.
ABC NEWS
Back then, white people probably would not convict a white person forkilling a black man.
ERNEST AVANTS
Like they will now.