Louis Till

Louis Till (died July 2, 1945) was the father of Emmett Louis Till, who was murdered when he was 14 in Mississippi. Louis Till was drafted into the U.S. Army in 1943. While in Italy, he was convicted of raping two women and murdering a third, [ [http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/amex/till/peopleevents/p_parents.html PBS People and Events: Mamie Till Mobley] ] [ [http://foia.fbi.gov/till/till.pdf FBI Report -- Emmett Louis Till -- Louis Till execution, page 19] ] and executed by the Army by hanging near Pisa on July 2 1945. A fellow captive of Ezra Pound (imprisoned for his fascist radio broadcasts in support of the Axis powers), Till is mentioned in lines 171-173 of Canto 74 of the Pisan Cantos: [cite book|last=Pound|first=Ezra|year=1948|title=The Pisan Cantos|location=New York|publisher=New Directions |id=ISBN 0-8112-1558-X] :"Till was hung yesterday":"for murder and rape with trimmings"

The full circumstance's of Till's death were unknown at the time to his widow Mamie Carthan Till, who was informed only that her husband had been killed due to "willful misconduct". Mamie Till, along with the general public, found out the true circumstances when Mississippi senator James Eastland, an avowed segregationist, found and released the information weeks before Emmett Till's killers were to go before a grand jury on kidnapping charges. [ [http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/amex/till/sfeature/sf_forum_0124.html PBS American Experience Online Forum - The Murder of Emmett Till] ]

References