Cecil Ray Price (April 15, 1938 - May 6, 2001) was linked to the murders of three civil rights workers in 1964. At the time of the murders, he was 26 years old and the deputy sheriff of
Neshoba County, MississippiNeshoba County is a county located in the U.S. state of Mississippi. As of the 2000 census, the population was 28,684. Its county seat is Philadelphia.Neshoba, derived from the Choctaw word nashoba, means Wolf....
. On the afternoon of Sunday, June 21, 1964, Price stopped a blue Ford station wagon in which three civil rights workers,
James ChaneyJames Earl "J.E." Chaney was one of three American civil rights workers who was murdered during Freedom Summer by members of the Ku Klux Klan near Philadelphia, Mississippi...
,
Andrew GoodmanAndrew Goodman was one of three American civil rights activists who were murdered near Philadelphia, Mississippi, during Freedom Summer in 1964 by members of the Ku Klux Klan.-Biography:...
and
Michael SchwernerMichael Henry Schwerner , was one of three CORE field workers killed in Philadelphia, Mississippi, by the Ku Klux Klan in response to their civil-rights work, which included promoting registration to vote among Mississippi African Americans...
, 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 RaineyLawrence A. Rainey was the elected Sheriff of Neshoba County, Mississippi from 1963 to 1968. He gained notoriety for allegedly being involved in the June 1964 deaths of civil rights workers Michael Schwerner, James Chaney, and Andrew Goodman, as depicted in the movie Mississippi Burning...
, though the former dairy supplies salesman and then fire chief was said to lack Rainey's friendliness.
Cecil Ray Price (April 15, 1938 - May 6, 2001) was linked to the murders of three civil rights workers in 1964. At the time of the murders, he was 26 years old and the deputy sheriff of
Neshoba County, MississippiNeshoba County is a county located in the U.S. state of Mississippi. As of the 2000 census, the population was 28,684. Its county seat is Philadelphia.Neshoba, derived from the Choctaw word nashoba, means Wolf....
. On the afternoon of Sunday, June 21, 1964, Price stopped a blue Ford station wagon in which three civil rights workers,
James ChaneyJames Earl "J.E." Chaney was one of three American civil rights workers who was murdered during Freedom Summer by members of the Ku Klux Klan near Philadelphia, Mississippi...
,
Andrew GoodmanAndrew Goodman was one of three American civil rights activists who were murdered near Philadelphia, Mississippi, during Freedom Summer in 1964 by members of the Ku Klux Klan.-Biography:...
and
Michael SchwernerMichael Henry Schwerner , was one of three CORE field workers killed in Philadelphia, Mississippi, by the Ku Klux Klan in response to their civil-rights work, which included promoting registration to vote among Mississippi African Americans...
, 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 RaineyLawrence A. Rainey was the elected Sheriff of Neshoba County, Mississippi from 1963 to 1968. He gained notoriety for allegedly being involved in the June 1964 deaths of civil rights workers Michael Schwerner, James Chaney, and Andrew Goodman, as depicted in the movie Mississippi Burning...
, 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 KlanKu Klux Klan , informally known as The Klan, is the name of several past and present hate group organizations in the United States whose avowed purpose was to protect the rights of and further the interests of white Americans by violence and intimidation. The first such organizations originated in...
, 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
COREThe Congress of Racial Equality or CORE is a U.S. civil rights organization that played a pivotal role in the Civil Rights Movement from its foundation in 1942 to the mid-1960s...
station wagon on Highway 19 and pulled it over, allegedly for speeding, just inside the
Philadelphia, MississippiPhiladelphia is a city in and the county seat of Neshoba County, Mississippi, United States. The population was 7,303 at the 2000 census.- History :...
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
MinnesotaMinnesota is a state in the Midwestern region of the United States. The twelfth largest state by area in the U.S., it is the twenty-first most populous, with 5.2 million residents. Minnesota was carved out of the eastern half of the Minnesota Territory and admitted to the Union as the...
. After his release in 1974, Price returned to Philadelphia where he worked as a
surveyorSurveyor may refer to:Professions and their activities* Surveying, the process of determining accurate positions on, or near the Earth's surface** Cadastral surveying, the process of establishing boundary locations and land parcel corners...
, 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 that he enjoyed watching the television show "
RootsRoots is a 1977 American television miniseries based on Alex Haley's work Roots: The Saga of an American Family.Roots received 36 Emmy Award nominations. It went on to win nine Emmys, a Golden Globe, and a Peabody Award. It received unprecedented Nielsen ratings with the finale still standing as...
". 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."
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 TurnerKen Turner may refer to:*Ken Turner *Ken Turner *Ken Turner *Ken Turner , former Australian politician*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 BurningMississippi Burning is a 1988 crime drama film loosely based on the FBI investigation into the real-life murders of three civil rights workers in the U.S. state of Mississippi in 1964. The movie focuses on two fictional FBI agents who investigate the murders...
, the character of Deputy Clinton Pell was a fictionalized version of Cecil Price. The Pell character was portrayed by
Brad DourifBradford Claude "Brad" Dourif is a BAFTA-winning and Academy Award- and Emmy-nominated American film and television actor, best known for his roles as Younger Brother in Ragtime, Billy Bibbit in One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, Hazel Motes in Wise Blood, Gríma Wormtongue in The Lord of the Rings:...
with the part of Pell's wife played by
Frances McDormandFrances Louise McDormand is an American film, stage, and television actress, well known for her role as Marge Gunderson in Fargo, for which she won the Academy Award for Best Actress in 1996.-Early life:...
.