DailyKenn.com — Emmett Till was an incorrigible urban savage who, at age 14, was sent from his home in Chicago to live with 64-year-old Moses Wright in Money, Mississippi after the boy brandished a butcher knife and threatened to kill his stepfather. Wright was Till's maternal great uncle.
The boy's mother, Mamie Till Bradley, reportedly took out a $400 life insurance policy on Emmett prior to his departure. Adjusted for inflation, $400 in 1955 would be about $4,420.46 in 2022.
Till's birth father, Louis Till, was given the option by a judge to enlist in the U.S. Army or be sent to jail. He chose enlistment. While serving in Italy during WWII, the older Till was court-martialed and executed by hanging after murdering an Italian woman and raping two others.
Emmett Till moved in with his great uncle, a part-time minister, August 21, 1955. Three days later the boy skipped church and, with a group of other boys, paid a Sunday visit to Bryant's Grocery and Meat Market, even though 'closed on Sunday' laws were commonly observed throughout the South.
Apparently showing off in front of his new friends, Till grabbed the 21-year-old female store owner by the waste and said, "What's the matter baby, can't you take it?" The victim, Carolyn Bryant, testified in court that Till also uttered obscenities.
As soon as Till left the store, Bryant thought it necessary to retrieve a pistol from her car for protection.
Witnesses claim they later saw two Black men pistol-whipping Till in the back of a passing pick-up truck. A swollen and disfigured body presumed to be Till was eventually found in the Tallahatchie River, apparently weighted down by a large fan blade that was fastened around the neck with barbed wire.
However, Roy Bryant, Carolyn's husband and co-owner of Bryant's Grocery and Meat Market, was indicted for Till's murder along with his half brother, J.W. Milam. Both were acquitted after the defense argued that the mutilated body taken from the river could not be positively identified and may have even been White.
Till's mother reportedly claimed the body and a $400 life insurance payout. The whereabouts of Emmett Till has never been settled, though a disinterment and DNA analysis would likely put the matter to rest.
Here's a more plausible explanation ...
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