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LAW ENFORCEMENT SENSITIVE e. August 28, 1955 - 6:00 am - Clint Shurden Plantation. Drew, Mississippi: ¢ Willie Reed: Reed, a witness in the 1955 prosecution, testified that on Sunday, August 28, 1955, Reed saw J.W. Milam when Milam was coming to a well at Leslie Milam's farm. Reed is familiar with Leslie Milam’s farm because Reed lives with his grandfather, Add Reed, on the Clint Shurden Plantation, in a home just across the bayou from Leslie Milam’s farm. Sometime between six and seven o'clock in the morning, Reed left his home to go to Glenn Patterson’s store. When going from his home to Patterson’s store, Reed had to pass by Leslie Milam’s place, where there was a green barn with doors. As Reed was walking, a white over green, 1955 Chevrolet truck passed him. Reed testified he saw four white men in the cab of the truck, three black men on the sides of the back of the truck and a black boy sitting down in the bed of the truck. Reed identified Till as the boy in the back of the track from a photograph he saw in the newspaper and which he was shown at trial. Reed testified he was unable to see the three black men in the bed of the truck with Till well enough to identify them. Reed then saw the truck parked in front of a bam. Reed heard someone hollering and it sounded like someone was whipping someone in the barn. After passing the barn, Reed went to Mandy Bradley's house and told her what he had heard. Reed then went to the well to get Bradley a bucket of water. While at the well, Reed could hear “some licks like somebody was whipping somebody” and he could hear someone hollering from inside the barn. J.W. Milam then came from the barn to the well and got a drink of water. Reéd recalled J.W. Milam having a pistol on his belt. After leaving the well, Reed went to the store. On his way home from the store, Reed did not hear or see anything and the truck was gone. Reed knows Leslie Milam 60 LAW ENFORCEMENT SENSITIVE This document contains neither recommendations nor conclusions of the FRE. It is the property of the FBI and is loaned lo your agency, it and its contents are not to be distributed outside your agency.