Emmett Till, Carolyn Bryant Donham.Photo: AP; Gene Herrick/AP
While the manuscript — which is kept at the Southern Historical Collection at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill — remains under seal until 2036,the Mississippi Center For Investigative Reportingwas furnished with a copy of it.The Associated Presshas also seen the single-spaced memoir.
The organization had retired FBI agent Dale Killinger review the document, and he believes the book constitutes new evidence.
The book was never entered into evidence back in 2007, when a Mississippi grand jury decided not to indict Donham on manslaughter charges.
The discovery of Donham’s memoir — titledI am More Than A Wolf Whistle— comes weeks afteran unserved arrest warrantrelated to Emmett’s death was found in a courthouse basement, renewing calls from Emmett’s relatives that the woman face charges.
Emmett, who was from Chicago, was visiting relatives in Mississippi during the summer of 1955 when Donham, then 21, accused him of whistling at her and attempting to grab her hand and waist inside a store.
Days later, Emmett was kidnapped from a relative’s home, beaten severely, and mutilated before being shot. Afterwards, a large metal fan was tied to his neck with barbed wire and his body was thrown into the Tallahatchie River.
Donham’s husband at the time, Roy Bryant, and Bryant’s half-brother, J.W. Milam, were tried for Emmett’s murder, and an all-white jury acquitted them in September 1955 after an hour of deliberations. In a magazine interview after the trial, both men admitted killing the boy.
Emmett’s death would become one of the catalysts for the civil rights movement.
In 2007, Donham recanted part of her story, telling Timothy B. Wilson for his book,The Blood of Emmett Till, the teen never touched her or harassed her verbally.
While she said in a 2017 interview that Emmett never touched or made sexual advances toward her, in the memoir, she claims the murdered boy did. The AP reports that she also claims in the book she tried helping Emmett.
Donham’s memoir notes that she “always felt like a victim as well as Emmett” and “paid dearly with an altered life” for what happened to him. “I have always prayed that God would bless Emmett’s family. I am truly sorry for the pain his family was caused,” she says toward the end of the book.
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Deborah Watts, a cousin of Emmett’s who heads the Emmett Till Legacy Foundation, told the AP the manuscript provides new evidence that should lead to criminal charges against Donham.
Donham is now nearing 90, and currently resides in North Carolina.
She has made no comment on Emmett’s family’s recent calls for her arrest. PEOPLE has been unable to locate her for comment.
source: people.com
