FBI to review unsolved 1946 Georgia lynching case News
FBI to review unsolved 1946 Georgia lynching case

[JURIST] The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) [official website] is re-examining the last unsolved public lynching [Wikipedia backgrounder] in the US, according to an FBI agent. FBI agent Stephen Emmett did not say whether the FBI will officially reopen the case, but said that recent technology and techniques may help unlock an earlier investigation surrounding the 60-year-old crime [backgrounder]. Civil rights activists are urging witnesses to come forward with details about the case in which a white mob in Walton County, Georgia forced Roger and Dorothy Malcolm and George and Mae Murray Dorsey from their car, dragged them down a trail and shot them in the summer of 1946.

President Harry S. Truman [official profile], who was in office at the time ordered an FBI investigation into the matter in 1946. The FBI released a 500-page summary on the case and named 55 suspects, but no one was charged due to a lack of witnesses. It is unclear how many of those 55 suspects are still alive. Officials at the Georgia Bureau of Investigation [official website] said they have never closed the case and have pursued all leads. AP has more.