Cecil Price

Cecil Ray Price (born about 1937 - died May 6, 2001) was linked to the murders of three civil rights workers in 1964. At the time of the murders, he was 27 years old and the deputy sheriff of Neshoba County, Mississippi. On the afternoon of Sunday, June 21, 1964, Price stopped a blue Ford station wagon in which three civil rights workers, James Chaney, Andrew Goodman and Michael Schwerner, were occupants. He placed the three in the Neshoba County Jail. Around 10:30 that night, he released the three civil rights workers and sent them on their way to meet their murderers.

In 1964, Cecil Price was described as "a younger and less formidable copy" of Sheriff Rainey, though the former dairy supplies salesman and then fire chief was said to lack Rainey's friendliness. He was tight-lipped and suspicious of everybody. Price, a known member of the Ku Klux Klan, seemed to derive great pleasure from terrorizing Neshoba County blacks. One night he showed up at a roadhouse popular with young blacks, drew his six-shooter and shouted "All you nigger men get your hands on the wall, and all you nigger women do the Dog!"

On the afternoon of the murders, Price spotted the CORE station wagon on Highway 19 and pulled it over, allegedly for speeding, just inside the Philadelphia, Mississippi city limits. Price locked the three civil rights workers in the county jail, denying their requests for a phone call. At some time during that afternoon, Price met with his fellow Klansmen to work out the details of the planned evening release and executions. After releasing the three at 10:25, Price sped to catch up with the station wagon before it crossed the border into the relative safety of Lauderdale County. Price ordered the three out of their car and into his, drove them to deserted Rock Cut Road, then turned them over to his Klan buddies for the actual task of murdering them. Price returned to Philadelphia and resumed his duties as deputy.

Price declared himself a candidate for sheriff in 1967 at the same time he was facing trial with his fellow Klan conspirators. He lost the election to Hop Barnette, one of his co-defendants.

On October 21, 1967, Price was found guilty at trial and sentenced by Judge Cox to a six-year prison term. He served his time at Sandstone Federal Penitentiary in Minnesota. After his release in 1974, Price returned to Philadelphia where he worked as a surveyor, oil company driver, and as a watchmaker in a jewelry shop. He was never charged with murder.

Price refused to speak publicly about the events of 1964 to 1967. In 1977, however, he told a reporter for the "New York Times Magazine" to "suck it". On the subject of integration, Price said, "We've got to accept this is the way things are going to be and that's it." [ [http://www.law.umkc.edu/faculty/projects/ftrials/price&bowers/articles.html Quotes Concerning the Mississippi Burning Murders and Trial ] ]

Price died on May 6, 2001, three days after falling from a lift in an equipment rental store in Philadelphia, Mississippi. He died in the same hospital in Jackson where, thirty-seven years earlier, he had helped transport the bodies of the three slain civil rights workers for autopsies.

At the time of Price's death, Mississippi attorney general Mike Moore and Neoshoba County prosecutor Ken Turner were considering bringing state murder charges against some of the surviving defendants in the 1967 federal trial. Attorney General Moore saw Price's death as harmful to the ongoing investigation: "If he had been a defendant, he would have been a principal defendant. If he had been a witness, he would have been our best witness. Either way, his death is a tragic blow to our case."

Mississippi Burning

In the movie Mississippi Burning, the character of Deputy Clinton Pell was a fictionalized version of Cecil Price. The Pell character was portrayed by Brad Dourif with the part of Pell's wife played by Frances McDormand.

See also

*United States v. Price
*Lawrence A. Rainey

References

* [http://www.law.umkc.edu/faculty/projects/ftrials/price&bowers/Price.htm University of Missouri Kansas City (faculty)]
* [http://www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/USAburning.htm Spartacus Educational]
* [http://www.law.umkc.edu/faculty/projects/ftrials/price&bowers/Price.htm Biography of Cecil Ray Price]