Latest / Conversations: Special Guests with Preston Scott / Author Jerry Mitchell, "Race Against Time"

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Author Jerry Mitchell, "Race Against Time" · Conversations: Special Guests with Preston Scott

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: Over the years, I generally only interview authors of nonfiction.
• 0:07
  Speaker 1: I don't generally have time to read books of fiction.
• 0:12
  Speaker 1: They just don't interest me that much. And out of
• 0:16
  Speaker 1: the perhaps hundreds and hundreds of authors I've had over
• 0:20
  Speaker 1: the years, I can honestly say I don't think I've
• 0:24
  Speaker 1: interviewed anyone as important with regard to the work that
• 0:29
  Speaker 1: they've done as this gentleman that I'm going to introduce
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  Speaker 1: you to. Jerry Mitchell worked for more than three decades
• 0:36
  Speaker 1: as a reporter at the Clarion Ledger in Jackson, Mississippi,
• 0:40
  Speaker 1: and as an investigative reporter, he did what I would
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  Speaker 1: guess is the pinnacle of anyone that enters into that
• 0:48
  Speaker 1: line of work. He did work that changed the trajectory
• 0:52
  Speaker 1: of history, in this case, bringing justice where there had
• 0:56
  Speaker 1: been nothing but injustice. Murders in the Civil rights era
• 1:01
  Speaker 1: that went I won't say unsolved, but where justice did
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  Speaker 1: not prevail for a myriad of reasons, although there's a
• 1:09
  Speaker 1: commonality in that. And Jerry, welcome to the program. It
• 1:12
  Speaker 1: really is an honor to have you on the show.
• 1:14
  Speaker 2: Well, it's goad to be with you. Thanks so much.
• 1:17
  Speaker 1: Where does this start for you? Take me back to
• 1:21
  Speaker 1: before you were a reporter growing up, when you were
• 1:24
  Speaker 1: a kid, when did you far first start hearing about
• 1:28
  Speaker 1: these stories of these murders of blacks and the civil
• 1:32
  Speaker 1: rights era and what was what's your recollection of them
• 1:36
  Speaker 1: and the impression they left on you as a kid.
• 1:38
  Speaker 2: Well, I was pretty young when a lot of this happened.
• 1:43
  Speaker 2: The one that I recall most clearly was when doctor
• 1:48
  Speaker 2: King obviously was assassinated, and just the incredible sadness with that.
• 1:56
  Speaker 2: But it really, to be honest, it really wasn't until
• 1:59
  Speaker 2: I came to Mississippi in nineteen eighty six that I
• 2:04
  Speaker 2: began to learn about these cases. It was not something
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  Speaker 2: known to me at all. I mean I had grown
• 2:13
  Speaker 2: up kind of a sheltered, white Southern life, and so
• 2:19
  Speaker 2: I'm be honest, I was totally ignorant of a lot
• 2:23
  Speaker 2: of this.
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  Speaker 3: You know, what opened the door? Then? What started you
• 2:28
  Speaker 3: down this road?
• 2:30
  Speaker 2: Well, what happened was it sounds odd, but I went
• 2:34
  Speaker 2: to see a movie. I went to see. It was
• 2:39
  Speaker 2: the press premiere of a film called Mississippi Burning, which
• 2:43
  Speaker 2: is kind of a fictional takeoff on real life event
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  Speaker 2: here in Mississippi. The three civil rights workers who were
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  Speaker 2: killed by the few klucks Klan in nineteen sixty four.
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  Speaker 2: The FBI investigated really a miracle. It was the ever solved,
• 3:03
  Speaker 2: you know, because the bodies were like buried in a
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  Speaker 2: damn fifteen feet down. I mean, you know, it's an
• 3:08
  Speaker 2: incredible dave and solved the case. And so that was
• 3:14
  Speaker 2: it was a press premiere and two of the FBI
• 3:17
  Speaker 2: agents who investigated the case came to the press premiere
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  Speaker 2: and one of them was sat by me. And so
• 3:26
  Speaker 2: that was the beginning as I kind of turned at
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  Speaker 2: my education about some of these things that happened. I
• 3:32
  Speaker 2: had no idea. It was shocking to me. I was
• 3:36
  Speaker 2: just couldn't believe it. That not it was not just
• 3:41
  Speaker 2: that these guys committed these murders, it was the fact
• 3:45
  Speaker 2: that they were never prosecuted for murder. I was like
• 3:49
  Speaker 2: watching this on screen and it's like a triple murderer.
• 3:52
  Speaker 2: I mean, you know, of a triple murder, and nobody
• 3:55
  Speaker 2: ever gets prosecuted, you know, for murder. And that was
• 3:59
  Speaker 2: what shocked me. And kind of that was kind of
• 4:02
  Speaker 2: the beginning, as I'd say, of my education.
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  Speaker 1: That was in January of nineteen eighty hoo James Cheney
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  Speaker 1: Andrew Goodman, Michael Schwerner, you are in the heart of
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  Speaker 1: this world, living in Jackson, Mississippi. So how did you
• 4:18
  Speaker 1: calculate how did you determine where you were going to
• 4:21
  Speaker 1: start looking?
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  Speaker 2: Well, I had fortunately had the help of two FBI
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  Speaker 2: agents who investigated the case, and one of those agents
• 4:33
  Speaker 2: actually handed me a copy of the book, and I,
• 4:36
  Speaker 2: you know, I'd not read it, didn't even know about it.
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  Speaker 2: It was called Attack on Terror, and it was all
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  Speaker 2: about that case as well as other cases. So that
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  Speaker 2: was really started my journey. And then from there began
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  Speaker 2: to talk to you know, talk with families, talk with
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  Speaker 2: people who knew about the case, and began writing a
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  Speaker 2: that case.
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  Speaker 1: So, I mean, I can't believe that. One of the
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  Speaker 1: things that stands out through this book to me is
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  Speaker 1: how the people that were largely responsible for these murders
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  Speaker 1: are so arrogant that they'll sit out and talk with you.
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  Speaker 2: Almost all the killers talk to me. It was really fascinating. Yeah,
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  Speaker 2: it was, yeah, you know, and I think they had
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  Speaker 2: gotten away with it for so long they felt they
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  Speaker 2: had nothing to fear. I interviewed edgar Ray Killen, who
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  Speaker 2: was kind of the guy that kind of orchestrated those
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  Speaker 2: killings and interviewed, like I said, other killers as well.
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  Speaker 1: What is it that turns this into an active investigation?
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  Speaker 1: Then let's let's stay focused on the Mississippi burning case.
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  Speaker 1: What was it that caused this to finally see the
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  Speaker 1: day of a courtroom and an honest trial.
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  Speaker 2: Oh well, it ended up being there ended up being
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  Speaker 2: other cases in between, but it ended up being in
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  Speaker 2: two thousand and five. You know, kind of went through
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  Speaker 2: a lot of machinations. I mean, I wrote about there
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  Speaker 2: was an interview that the guy that was the head
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  Speaker 2: of the klan did with the Mississippi Department of Archives
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  Speaker 2: in history, but it was sealed, and so I was
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  Speaker 2: able to get sources to leak it to me, and
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  Speaker 2: in that interview Bowers. There was a federal prosecution nineteen
• 6:41
  Speaker 2: sixty seven. Bowers was among the seven clansmen convicted. The
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  Speaker 2: rest of the eighteen walked, and in this interview he said,
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  Speaker 2: it was quite delighted to be convicted and have the maintenance,
• 6:53
  Speaker 2: theator of the entire fair walk out of the court
• 6:54
  Speaker 2: room a freeman. It was referring to a guy named
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  Speaker 2: Edgar Ray Killon, And so I reached out to Edgar
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  Speaker 2: Ray killing and talked to him quite a bit, and
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  Speaker 2: we even, you know, met for dinner and talked and
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  Speaker 2: he talked to me at link many many times. But
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  Speaker 2: he when I asked him, you know, if anything to
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  Speaker 2: do with the killings, he said no, And then he
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  Speaker 2: basically told me this story about himself. When doctor King
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  Speaker 2: was assassinated in Memphis, the FBI had no idea who
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  Speaker 2: did it, so they kind of went around interviewed, you know,
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  Speaker 2: klansmen and other people they thought might have had a
• 7:40
  Speaker 2: role or kind of the usual suspect, she'd say. And
• 7:44
  Speaker 2: so they went went and interviewed him and basically asking
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  Speaker 2: his squareabouts. On April fourth, nineteen sixty eight, he refused
• 7:53
  Speaker 2: to talk to him, but the agent left his card.
• 7:56
  Speaker 2: Time goes on. Edgar Ray. Hillen picks up that car,
• 8:00
  Speaker 2: call to the agent Wiston who killed King? And Agent's like,
• 8:04
  Speaker 2: why do you want to know? And Kenton says, man,
• 8:08
  Speaker 2: I want to shake his hand, you know. And you know,
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  Speaker 2: sometimes people will see these older men and they'll be like,
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  Speaker 2: they'll say to me, you know, they're going on trial,
• 8:20
  Speaker 2: or they've been arrested, or they're going up to prison,
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  Speaker 2: and they'll say to me, Jerry, why don't you leave
• 8:24
  Speaker 2: these old memlums? And I tell them these were young killers.
• 8:29
  Speaker 2: They just happened to get old.
• 8:31
  Speaker 1: One of the other cases that is written about Jerry
• 8:34
  Speaker 1: in your book is based on It's really the inspiration
• 8:38
  Speaker 1: of the movie Goes to Mississippi, which you kind of
• 8:41
  Speaker 1: had a role in that movie as a consultant. Tell
• 8:44
  Speaker 1: our listeners about Medgar Evers, because he is one of
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  Speaker 1: the many of the civil rights movement that I don't
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  Speaker 1: think gets much attention.
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  Speaker 2: Well, I'm so glad you mentioned about him. He was
• 8:57
  Speaker 2: or too hero. He fought in Normandy. You know the
• 9:03
  Speaker 2: African American soldiers. Of course, uh went to war, but
• 9:07
  Speaker 2: of course segregation still existed in the war at that time,
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  Speaker 2: so you know, the white soldiers would be served first,
• 9:15
  Speaker 2: and you know, and all these kinds of things that
• 9:18
  Speaker 2: were happening, which is really unfortunate. But he was a
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  Speaker 2: part of, like I said, fighting in Normandy. He was
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  Speaker 2: a part of the Red Ball Express, which really they
• 9:28
  Speaker 2: supplied like when General Patton kind of and his troops
• 9:32
  Speaker 2: kind of screamed across France and pushing the Nazi troops
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  Speaker 2: back into Germany. The Red Ball Express is the one
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  Speaker 2: that kept you know, the gasoline and you know all
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  Speaker 2: these other things supplied to those troops, which was critical.
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  Speaker 2: And then we turned home, you know, after fighting the
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  Speaker 2: Nazis to have to fight racism all over again in
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  Speaker 2: the form of Jim Crow that barred African Americans from
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  Speaker 2: restaurants and s rooms and of course voting boosts. And
• 10:04
  Speaker 2: so he wound up becoming the first field secretary for
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  Speaker 2: the Mississippi NAACP. He would put about forty thousand miles
• 10:13
  Speaker 2: a year on his o'sma wheel driving around. He would
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  Speaker 2: he investigated the Emmett Till case. Even before the Emmett
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  Speaker 2: Till case, he was investigating killings of just friends of
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  Speaker 2: Pits that were involved in the civil rights moved just
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  Speaker 2: because they were black and they had dared to try
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  Speaker 2: to vote and encourage other black Mississippians to vote. They
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  Speaker 2: were you know, gunned down, like one of them was
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  Speaker 2: gunned down, Lamar Smith was gunned down the courthouse lawn
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  Speaker 2: in the middle of the day with everybody standing around.
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  Speaker 2: And and of course none of these killers were ever prosecuted.
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  Speaker 2: They were prosecuted in the Emmett Till case, but obviously
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  Speaker 2: the killers walked away the jury acquitted the killers, who
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  Speaker 2: then confessed their crime months later to a little magazine.
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  Speaker 2: So Mega was very involved in the movement, and on
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  Speaker 2: the same night at President Kennedy told the nation the
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  Speaker 2: grandsons of slaves were still not free. He was shot
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  Speaker 2: in the back his own driveway after arriving home, and
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  Speaker 2: of course his wife and children heard the shot, rushed outside,
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  Speaker 2: you know, saw the blood and screamed and yeah, incredibly,
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  Speaker 2: and it was buried in Arlington National Cemetery.
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  Speaker 1: You ended up being face to face with the man
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  Speaker 1: who was eventually convicted of shooting and assassinating Medgar Evers.
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  Speaker 1: How did you We've just got a minute left on
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  Speaker 1: this side of the break. How did you set that
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  Speaker 1: meeting up? Why in the world would this guy agree
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  Speaker 1: to sit down and talk with a reporter.
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  Speaker 2: I'm a white Southerner, wasp, you know. I mean, I
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  Speaker 2: had all the I checked all the boxes. He he
• 12:00
  Speaker 2: asked me a series of questions. You know, where'd you
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  Speaker 2: grow up, what are your parents' names? Where'd you go
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  Speaker 2: to college? I mean all that was kind of questions,
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  Speaker 2: Where do you go to church? Where do you live?
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  Speaker 2: And I could have refused to answer this question, but
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  Speaker 2: I knew he would love my answer, so I just
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  Speaker 2: answered and he said, come on. So that's how that happened.
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  Speaker 1: Tell me give me kind of the cliff notes version
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  Speaker 1: of how that conversation went.
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  Speaker 2: Uh, he's absolutely the most racist person I've ever spent
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  Speaker 2: serious time with. It was like in word this, in
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  Speaker 2: word that, and then starting other non white racist. You
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  Speaker 2: know how sometimes you feel like when you after you
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  Speaker 2: talk with someone you need to go get a bath.
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  Speaker 2: That's kind of what it felt like. So we talked
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  Speaker 2: for about six hours. He told me the story of
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  Speaker 2: his life, you know, all how he got involved with
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  Speaker 2: the White Citizens' Council, and he basically acknowledged knowing all
• 12:57
  Speaker 2: these clansmen wouldn't admit to belong to plan, but made
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  Speaker 2: a very obvious that racist he was. By now, it
• 13:02
  Speaker 2: was dark and he insisted on like walking me out
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  Speaker 2: to the car, and I'm like, really, that's okay. So
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  Speaker 2: he walked me after the car anyway and gets me
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  Speaker 2: out there and says, if you write positive things about
• 13:15
  Speaker 2: white Caucasian Christians, God will bless you. If you write
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  Speaker 2: negative things about white Caucasian Christians, God will punish you.
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  Speaker 2: If ID does not punish you, directly, several individuals will
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  Speaker 2: do it for him. Wow, it his wife. His wife
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  Speaker 2: and made me a sandwich. I think you can guess
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  Speaker 2: what I deal with the sandwich after.
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  Speaker 1: That, Yeah, I would guess. So what was the break
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  Speaker 1: in that case, Jerry?
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  Speaker 2: Well, the break in that case was kind of what
• 13:54
  Speaker 2: happened was there was Literally when I first wrote about
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  Speaker 2: this case, I would say the odds were more than
• 14:01
  Speaker 2: a million oh one against the case. They're being reopened.
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  Speaker 2: There was no murder weapon, no evidence, nothing in the
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  Speaker 2: court file of any value, no transcript. But Merily Ever's
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  Speaker 2: the widow of Mega Evers, believed and she prayed and
• 14:17
  Speaker 2: some amazing things happened. A couple of months later, Jackson
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  Speaker 2: police are cleaning out a closet and have to find
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  Speaker 2: a box and the crime scene photographs of the killing
• 14:25
  Speaker 2: of Mega Repors, including the fingerprint of Byron deal Beck,
• 14:29
  Speaker 2: was lifted from the murder weapon. A few months after that,
• 14:32
  Speaker 2: merly Ever shared with me her copy of the court
• 14:35
  Speaker 2: transcript she had saved in safety deposit box, and a
• 14:38
  Speaker 2: few months after that, the prosecutor in the case found
• 14:41
  Speaker 2: the murder weapon. It's father in law's closet, which sounds
• 14:45
  Speaker 2: like I'm making it up, but it really did happen.
• 14:49
  Speaker 1: It took someone though willing to represent the state and
• 14:54
  Speaker 1: prosecute Byron Della Beckwith.
• 14:57
  Speaker 2: That's correct, and they deserve a lot of credit for that.
• 15:01
  Speaker 2: Bobby de Lauder was the Lee prosecutor on that really
• 15:04
  Speaker 2: was the one that pushed.
• 15:05
  Speaker 3: For tell me what happened, go ahead.
• 15:10
  Speaker 2: He's portrayed. I would say he's portrayed if people happen
• 15:13
  Speaker 2: to see the movie goes to Mississippi. He's portrayed by
• 15:15
  Speaker 2: Alec Baldwin in that film.
• 15:18
  Speaker 1: I remember there are a lot of scenes in that
• 15:21
  Speaker 1: movie that I remember, Well, what was it like consulting
• 15:24
  Speaker 1: because that movie was remarkably important, I have to believe,
• 15:28
  Speaker 1: to telling the story of what happened to Medgar and
• 15:32
  Speaker 1: the aftermath.
• 15:35
  Speaker 2: Yeah, well, I I talked to them, but I wasn't
• 15:38
  Speaker 2: technically consultant, you know. I talked to the guy who
• 15:42
  Speaker 2: portrayed me, and you know, different things like that. But
• 15:46
  Speaker 2: I was fortunate enough for them to let me onto
• 15:48
  Speaker 2: the set and watch, and so yeah, it was. It
• 15:52
  Speaker 2: was a fascinating experience to watch that and certainly I
• 15:57
  Speaker 2: think MegaR, you know, you don't find out that much
• 16:01
  Speaker 2: about MegaR in the film, and I think that's the
• 16:03
  Speaker 2: one thing I would love to see happen at some point.
• 16:06
  Speaker 2: It would be I think MegaR and certainly his widow
• 16:11
  Speaker 2: as well, deserve a film you know about him about
• 16:16
  Speaker 2: them In.
• 16:18
  Speaker 1: Your book you talk about Vernon dahmerr give us an
• 16:21
  Speaker 1: overview of that case.
• 16:24
  Speaker 2: So Vernon Damer was a farmer, businessman totally dedicated to
• 16:30
  Speaker 2: voting rights. The Klan did not like that, attacked him
• 16:33
  Speaker 2: and assembly in the middle of that January tenth, ninety
• 16:35
  Speaker 2: sixty six, set their house on fire, began firing their
• 16:38
  Speaker 2: guns into the house. Vernon Damer woke up, grabbed a
• 16:41
  Speaker 2: shotgun round the front of the house against firing back
• 16:43
  Speaker 2: a clansmen so his Stanley could escape safely out of
• 16:47
  Speaker 2: back windows. Unfortunately, the flames of the fire seared his
• 16:51
  Speaker 2: lungs and he died later that day. A few weeks later,
• 16:55
  Speaker 2: the mail came his voter registration card. He thought his
• 17:00
  Speaker 2: whole life for the right of all Americans to be
• 17:02
  Speaker 2: able to vote, but he'd never been able to cast
• 17:04
  Speaker 2: about himself. But I wrote about the family after Beckwith
• 17:10
  Speaker 2: was indicted and the family reached out to me, and
• 17:14
  Speaker 2: I knew nothing about the case until I met with
• 17:16
  Speaker 2: them and they told me what happened, and so I
• 17:19
  Speaker 2: started writing about that case, and it was, you know, reopened, reprosecutor.
• 17:25
  Speaker 2: There's a long story that way, but the essential in
• 17:27
  Speaker 2: this short true version is it was reopened, reprosecuted, and
• 17:32
  Speaker 2: Sam Bowers, who is ahead of the Klan and ordered
• 17:35
  Speaker 2: that killing, was convicted.
• 17:39
  Speaker 1: Jerry Mitchell with us and the book is Race Against Time.
• 17:44
  Speaker 1: A reporter reopens the unsolved murdered cases of the Civil
• 17:47
  Speaker 1: rights era. For some of you, you're hearing names that
• 17:51
  Speaker 1: you might not have heard before. Do you know, Addie
• 17:54
  Speaker 1: May Collins, Denise McNair, Carol Robertson or Cynthia Wesley tell
• 17:59
  Speaker 1: us about those girls.
• 18:01
  Speaker 2: Those four girls were the ones that were killed by
• 18:04
  Speaker 2: the Clan in Birmingham in nineteen sixty three. The Klan
• 18:10
  Speaker 2: planted a bomb in the church that went off, and
• 18:15
  Speaker 2: those girls were getting ready for actually kind of a
• 18:18
  Speaker 2: children's service, and the title of the lesson, kind of
• 18:22
  Speaker 2: cruelly ironic, was the Love that forgives, And so they
• 18:27
  Speaker 2: were killed. Four girls were killed. A fifth girl, Sarah Collins,
• 18:32
  Speaker 2: was blinded, and about fifty people injured and two young
• 18:39
  Speaker 2: African American men were killed as well that day in
• 18:43
  Speaker 2: what followed. So it was pretty brutal day in Birmingham.
• 18:48
  Speaker 2: And so no one was ever prosecuted in that case
• 18:53
  Speaker 2: until attorney Alabama Attorney General Bill Baxley prosecuted Bob Shamlis.
• 19:00
  Speaker 2: The nickname was Dina my Bomb by the way, he's
• 19:03
  Speaker 2: the one who built the bomb. And he was convicted
• 19:06
  Speaker 2: in nineteen seventy seven. But then the case lay dormant
• 19:10
  Speaker 2: until you know, the FBI decided to resurrect it in
• 19:15
  Speaker 2: nineteen ninety six. And that's I just after Sam Bowers
• 19:20
  Speaker 2: was convicted, we just decided to look at what cases
• 19:24
  Speaker 2: were being looked at, you know, by the FEDS and others.
• 19:28
  Speaker 1: How many people total, Jerry have have found their way
• 19:32
  Speaker 1: into prison. I know that many of the main perpetrators
• 19:34
  Speaker 1: died in prison, which is appropriate. How many total convictions
• 19:39
  Speaker 1: as a result of the investigating that you and others
• 19:41
  Speaker 1: have done.
• 19:43
  Speaker 2: Well, if you included everyone, I think there be twenty
• 19:47
  Speaker 2: four convictions in the civil rights cold cases since they
• 19:50
  Speaker 2: began to be reopened in nineteen ninety.
• 19:56
  Speaker 1: You right in the book, and forgive me if I
• 19:58
  Speaker 1: get this paraphrased in correctly, but generally speaking. You you
• 20:02
  Speaker 1: write about the fact that this is not just about
• 20:05
  Speaker 1: pursuing justice, about justice delayed this and this point I
• 20:10
  Speaker 1: thought was brilliant. It's about pursuit of memory.
• 20:15
  Speaker 2: Explain what you mean, Well, you know, basically, you these
• 20:23
  Speaker 2: things are remembered, and you know generations that follow. You know,
• 20:29
  Speaker 2: that's who gets to control that, who controls the narrative,
• 20:32
  Speaker 2: who controls quote unquote the truth. It's very important. I mean,
• 20:38
  Speaker 2: George Orwell wrote a whole book about that in nineteen
• 20:41
  Speaker 2: eighty four book. And so I think Mary Evers may
• 20:47
  Speaker 2: have done the best job of something this up when
• 20:50
  Speaker 2: she said, we keep repeating our history because we don't
• 20:55
  Speaker 2: know our history. And so I think that's why it's
• 20:59
  Speaker 2: more than justice, it's it's also about telling the truth.
• 21:04
  Speaker 3: I think it's important.
• 21:05
  Speaker 1: And you point this out as well, that these men
• 21:08
  Speaker 1: involved in these crimes are now remembered for their crimes,
• 21:12
  Speaker 1: not for being in the case of Sam Bauer's a
• 21:15
  Speaker 1: pinball salesman or something.
• 21:17
  Speaker 2: Yeah, exactly, exactly, amusement device got Yeah, it's yeah, that's
• 21:24
  Speaker 2: what needs to happen. You know, these people because they
• 21:27
  Speaker 2: live for decades, you know, getting away with these crimes
• 21:32
  Speaker 2: and you know, when unpunished. So it's it's appropriate that
• 21:36
  Speaker 2: we as society, you know, put that stamp on it.
• 21:40
  Speaker 2: And I think that's why what we do as investigative
• 21:43
  Speaker 2: reporters and journalists is so important, because you've got to
• 21:48
  Speaker 2: have truth before you have justice.
• 21:51
  Speaker 1: Perfect lead into the Mississippi Center for Investigative Reporting tell
• 21:55
  Speaker 1: our listeners about it.
• 21:57
  Speaker 2: Well after. So it was about like the third buyout
• 22:01
  Speaker 2: by the Clarion Ledger, you know, that was being offered,
• 22:05
  Speaker 2: and I thought, well, I guess I better take this one.
• 22:08
  Speaker 2: So I so I took the buyout and used that
• 22:15
  Speaker 2: money toward the nonprofit, you know, started a nonprofit called
• 22:20
  Speaker 2: Missippi Center for Investigator Reporting. We did that in twenty eighteen,
• 22:24
  Speaker 2: I mean twenty nineteen when I left there, and so
• 22:30
  Speaker 2: then we proceeded to basically the Mississippi needs and it's
• 22:34
  Speaker 2: true elsewhere as well, Mississippi needs more investigator reporting, not less,
• 22:39
  Speaker 2: and so we set out to do that. And there
• 22:43
  Speaker 2: really wasn't that much investigator reporting because newsrooms at shrunk
• 22:47
  Speaker 2: and the same again all over the country, so you know,
• 22:51
  Speaker 2: but yeah, so that's why we started. And then we
• 22:54
  Speaker 2: joined forces with Mississippi today in twenty twenty three, and
• 23:00
  Speaker 2: we now have kind of a stable of young investigator
• 23:03
  Speaker 2: reporting reporters that we're working with and training and very exciting.
• 23:09
  Speaker 2: We actually were feel surprised finalists last year so for
• 23:15
  Speaker 2: our work on Mississippi sheriffs.
• 23:18
  Speaker 1: So yeah, well done, Jerry. Thank you for carving out
• 23:22
  Speaker 1: so much time for us, and I'm honored again to
• 23:27
  Speaker 1: visit with you, and I thank you for your work
• 23:29
  Speaker 1: so very important, and I hope a bunch of people
• 23:32
  Speaker 1: that may not have known about the book know about
• 23:34
  Speaker 1: it now. And again, thank you very much for all
• 23:37
  Speaker 1: you're doing well.
• 23:38
  Speaker 2: Thank you Preston very much for having me, and just
• 23:42
  Speaker 2: as a person of faith, I certainly give credit to God.
• 23:45
  Speaker 3: Amen to that. Well done, sir, thank you.
• 23:48
  Speaker 1: And that's where justice ultimately is going to prevail for
• 23:50
  Speaker 1: these guys that think they got away with it. Justice
• 23:56
  Speaker 1: on this side of eternity may in fact be delayed,
• 23:59
  Speaker 1: but before God Almighty, it will not be denied. Jerry, again,
• 24:04
  Speaker 1: thank you very much. Forty eight minutes past the hour.
• 24:07
  Speaker 1: I hope you enjoyed that race against time. Jerry Mitchell,
• 24:11
  Speaker 1: the author here on The Morning Show with Preston Scott