CHICAGO, June 7 (UPI) -- Simeon Wright, the cousin of Emmett Till, the Chicago teen killed by Mississippi racists 50 years ago, says he hopes Till's exhumation leads to prosecution.
Till was 14 years old when he was kidnapped, beaten and shot near Money, Miss., after he had allegedly whistled at the wife of a rural storekeeper.
The men charged with the crime, Roy Bryant and J.W. Milam, were acquitted by an all-white jury because the disfigured corpse was not positively identified. Both are dead.
Till's body was exhumed at Burr Oak Cemetery for autopsy June 1 and reburied by family members Saturday. The FBI reopened the case last year after a documentary indicated people involved in the crime may still be alive.
"There are people that are still alive that participated in this, especially the lady in the truck," Wright, who was sleeping in the same bed with Till when was taken in 1955, told the Chicago Defender.
Wright, 62, said he was told Till's body was largely intact because no water had gotten into his casket.
