Collie Leroy Wilkins

Viola Liuzzo, a 39-year-old white mother of five, was murdered in Detroit by three members of the Ku Klux Clan in 1965. Known for her vigilance as a member of the Civil Rights movement, the Klan members who murdered her did so to set an example for what would become of anyone else who would attempt to help African Americans. The FBI took four suspects into custody within 24 hours; among these suspects, one in particular was the man who did the deed. Collie Leroy Wilkins received his own trial for the murder of Liuzzo shortly after he was found out. His D.A., Matthew Hobson Murphew Jr., was Grand Klonsel of the U.S.A. and was successful in convincing the Alabama Jury of Liuzzo walking into a dangerous line of work, participating in the Civil Rights Movement during the 60's. Ending in a hung jury, three of the four suspects where sent to prison for ten years, whereas the fourth, a man named Gary Rowe was revealed to be an undercover FBI informant, and was therefore placed under the witness protection program. Moved by the murder of Liuzzo, however, President Johnson ordered an investigation of the Klan shortly after. After Wilkins and the other suspects testified in court that it was, in fact, Rowe who had murdered Liuzzo, two police officers present at the time admitted that Rowe had bragged about being the one to kill her.

What truly separates this case apart from the others, however, was the follow-up on this event. Not only did government attorneys successfully dismiss the charges against Rowe, but after the Liuzzo family filed a formal suit accusing the FBI of harboring information concerning the murder of Viola. Not only were the charges against Rowe slightly more evident than Wilkins', but FBI director J. Edgar Hoover was trying to hide the embarrassing fact that he had given permission to Rowe to "do work" during the march that Liuzzo was a part of (giving light to Rowe being an informer who may have been unfit as such). These facts, coupled with the fact that the formal suit presented by the Liuzzo family was not given the benefits of a jury, presents a disturbing case for the FBI.

For more info on this series of trials, visit the link below:

http://encyclopediaofalabama.org/face/Article.jsp?id=h-1377