GREENWOOD, Miss. (UP) -- Two white men charged with kidnapping a 15-year-old Chicago Negro because they claimed he insulted the wife of one ot the men claimed today they released the missing boy unharmed.
Sheriff George Smith said Roy Bryant, a storekeeper in nearby Money community, and his half-brother, J.W. Milam, were held on kidnapping charges in the mysterious disappearance of Emmett Till of Chicago. They were arrested yesterday.
Smith said Till's whereabouts was the "$64 question."
Smith said he planned to question Bryant's wife, allegedly insulted by Till in Bryant's small store Saturday.
He said there was "nothing new" to indicate where the boy might be.
It was possible that relatives of Till were hiding him out of fear for the youth's safety, Smith said, or had sent him back to Chicago.
He said "he couldn't say" if the boy had been harmed.
The Bryants were said to have become offended when young Till waved to the woman and said "goodbye" when he left the store.
Witnesses said Mrs. Bryant identified the boy as "the one." The group then drive away with him.
Smith said Bryant and Milam claimed that later they found out he was not "the one" who allegedly insulted Mrs. Bryant and that Till then was released.
Several Negro youths, all under 16, were reported to have been with Till in the store and were said to have forced him to leave the store for being "rowdy."
