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Memorandum to Mr, Belmont Re: UNKNOWN SUBJECTS; MICHAEL HENRY SCHWERNER, ET AL. As has been indicated before, ay who furnished information concerning the finding of the es and the finding of the three individuals as such does not have a direct bearing on the civil rights cases which are being presented to the Federal grand jury at this time, It is pointed out that during the course of the investigation looking to the finding of the bodies we came across numerous instances of individuals who had been in contact with local law enforcement officers and who as victims complained of mistreat- ment. There was also information indicating that the local people up there knew of the activities of Michael Schwerner, the white victim, and James Earl] Chaney, the colored victim, during a time prior to the burning of the church which occurred on June 16, 1964, and subsequent to that time, and that the local people up there did not want them around. 57D Victim Andrew Goodman arrived in Meridian the night before the murder occurred, which was on June 20, 1964, Goodman was up in Oxford, Ohio, getting trained for the Mississippi Summer Project, It was also known that the car which Schwerner and Chaney were using which was the Ford station wagon, was well known as being a Council of Federated Organizations (COFO) car and the arrest of these individuals on Sunday, June 21, 1964, when the three victims went up allegedly to check on the burning of the church, was probably as a result of the car having been seen by some of the local people who had heretofore voiced strong objection to the car and the occupants thereof. From the time that we got into the case following the finding of the burned car and the fact that the victims were missing until time that the bodies were found on August 4, 1964, we, of course, conducted extensive interviews and during that time picked up additional situations involving alleged violations of the Civil Rights Statute concerning victims other than the three murder victims. After the finding of the bodies, our investigation continued for the purpose of identifying the p perpetr rators of the murders and during th the course of this investigation we again picked up additional civil rights violations involving victims other than the three murder. victims, . The significance of this investigation discloses that there appeared to be a conspiracy on the part of the prime suspects; namely, the Sheriff, his Deputy, and others who are closely associated with the + -2- ; “4 — .? Fe eg pe te ade mf Am ASSURE ba pha is eb eek ne en ied ih imaae oa ane an ha Ren i aa