James Chaney, Andrew Goodman & Michael Schwerner
Three civil rights workers disappeared in Neshoba County, Mississippi while investigating the burning of a Black church. Their bodies were found 44 days later. Edgar Ray Killen was convicted of manslaughter in 2005, four decades after the murders. The case became a landmark of the Civil Rights era.
James Chaney, Andrew Goodman & Michael Schwerner is documented in the ColdCaseIndex database as a multiple-homicide case in Neshoba County, Mississippi. The events are dated to June 21, 1964. The case involves more than one victim. The last known information on record places the case at June 21, 1964, County Road 515, Neshoba County, MS.
Within the ColdCaseIndex taxonomy, James Chaney, Andrew Goodman & Michael Schwerner is filed under Multiple Homicide with a status of Conviction. A multiple-homicide entry documents an incident involving more than one victim. The record is cross-referenced under the themes homicide, civil rights, historical, Mississippi, conviction delayed, Freedom Summer, which connect it to related cases across the database.
The James Chaney, Andrew Goodman & Michael Schwerner case ended in a criminal conviction. It is retained in this index as a historically significant case — one whose investigation, prosecution, or aftermath shaped forensic practice, criminal law, or the public understanding of violent crime.
Primary jurisdiction for the James Chaney, Andrew Goodman & Michael Schwerner case rests with local law enforcement in Neshoba County, supported by Mississippi state investigative authorities. The case sits within a wider national picture: the U.S. homicide clearance rate has fallen from roughly 90% in the 1960s to about 54% today, and more than 346,000 homicides recorded since 1965 remain unsolved. ColdCaseIndex documents individual cases like this one to keep them publicly visible and searchable.
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