Carrie Brumfield lived in Franklinton, Louisiana, but worked at a shipyard in Mississippi. On September 12th, 1967, passersby discovered him dead in the front seat of his car, which was parked on a deserted rural road. He had been shot once in the chest with a .22 caliber pistol.
Police seemed to be at a loss right from the start, and identified no suspects in the crime. In 2007, the victim’s brother Virgil told detectives that Carrie had been robbed and murdered by a coworker at the shipyard who he had given a ride home to on at least one prior occasion. Virgil further stated that this individual had confessed to killing several other people, both black and white, in Louisiana and Mississippi. Virgil could not remember this coworker’s name, but did inform investigators that the suspected killer had died in prison. It was evidently Virgil’s belief that the murder of his brother had been undertaken for reasons of robbery rather than race.
Though it is not known for certain whether the murder of Carrie Brumfield was a hate crime, the case was reopened in 2007 by the FBI under the Till Act. It was closed again in 2013, with no resolution achieved.
Crime Immemorial 