Search for Civil Rights Workers

After more than 6 weeks without any leads, the FBI agents investigating the disappearances of Chaney, Goodman and Schwener received a tip from a highway patrolman that the bodies were in an earthen dam in the woods of Neshoba County, MS. James Sullivan, the FBI agent in charge of the investigation, had to request special federal funding to rent large machinery to dig through the dam. Steve Schapiro was in Philadelphia, MS, photographing the investigation and search efforts. Digging began at 8 am on August 4, 1964, and at 5:07 pm the first body was found. Local residents thought their disappearance was a publicity stunt. One woman remarked, “if they’re dead, I feel like they asked for it.”