nknown, Chaney braked his car and the three surrendered.
At that juncture, as Peter Daniels (1) has noted, ôChaney was beaten to death and Schwerner and Goodman were shot in the chest.ö The conspirators then buried the bodies of the three young men under a dam on a nearby farm. The bodies were not discovered for six weeks. On July 31, 1964, after conducting over 1,000 interviews, the FBI learned the probable location of the bodies. On August 3, 1964, the FBI obtained a search warrant to look for bodies at the Old Jolly Farm. On August 4, 1964, the three bodies were discovered (ôMississippi Burning Trial: A Chronology,ö 1).
The bodies of the three civil rights workers were taken to Jackson, Mississippi for examination as to the cause of their deaths. FBI officials were aided in their investigation on October 13, 1964 when Klan member James Jordan confessed his involvement in the conspiracy and were further assisted when Klan member Horace Barnett also confessed and described the events of June 21, 1964. Subsequently, 19 members of the conspiracy were arrested and charged with violating the civil rights of Schwerner, Chaney, and Goodman (Linder, 3).
Linder (3) makes note of the fact that it was informants from within the Ku Klux Klan that broke the case open and not the activities of the FBI investigative team led by John Proctor and Harry Maynor. James Jordan is said to have seen ôturning stateÆs evidence as his best bet to avoid a long prison term. He was also promised $3,500 and help in relocating himself and his family in return for the full story of the murders (Linder, 3).
Despite this cooperation, Linder (4) points out that bringing the conspirators to trial was difficult:
ôBy December, 1964, the Justice Department had enough information to authorize arrests.á On the drizzly morningáof December 4, a team of federal agents swept through Neshoba and Lauderdale Counties arresting nineteen men ...