CHICAGO, Jan. 15 (UPI) -- U.S. Attorney General John Ashcroft has been urged by the Chicago City Council to open an investigation into the 1955 torture-killing of Emmett Till.
Two white men, Roy Bryant and J.W. Milam, both now deceased, were acquitted for the racially motivated slaying of the 14-year-old African-American youth in Mississippi but later confessed to the crime in a published interview. Till's mother, Mamie Till Mobley, had long contended others were involved, the Chicago Sun-Times said Thursday.
"She always felt this was an unresolved case," said Christopher Benson, who collaborated with her on the memoir, "Death of Innocence: The Story of the Hate Crime That Changed America," published shortly after her death in January 2003.
Reports indicated as many as 10 other people were seen with Bryant and Milam in the early morning hours of Aug. 28, 1955, when Till was tortured and killed. The boy's mutilated body was found in the Tallahatchie River near Money, Miss.
