In Episode 6, we find the fourth man involved in the attack of the Rev. James Reeb, unearthing new facts in this civil rights-era cold case.
Three men, Elmer Cook, Stanley Hoggle and Namon “Duck” O’Neal Hoggle, were tried for and acquitted of Reeb’s murder, but NPR’s reporting has now revealed a fourth man, identified first by a key eyewitness to the assault, who was never brought to justice.
At the time of our reporting, that man, William Portwood, was alive and living in Selma, Ala., where the Reeb attack happened. In this episode, we hear from Portwood himself.
The FBI investigated Portwood at the time, records show, but he was never charged. Portwood confirmed to NPR, however, that he did participate in the attack, along with Cook and the Hoggles, who have all since died.
WHAT IS “WHITE LIES”?
In White Lies, co-hosts Andrew Beck Grace and Chip Brantley expose the lies that kept the murder from being solved and uncover a story about guilt, memory and justice that says as much about America today as it does about the past. In a place where lies and silence conspire against them, Brantley and Grace search Selma for living witnesses, guided by an unredacted copy of an old FBI file. They meet people who know the truth about the murder but have lied for decades — until now.
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Photo Credits:
FBI
Chip Brantley
Barry Lewis/InPictures via Getty Images
Bettmann / Getty Images
TopFoto / The Image Works
AP Photo/Horace Cort
William Widmer for NPR
Selma Times Journal
AP Photo/Rob Carr
Congress
Justice department
Chicago Tribune file photo/Tribune News Service via Getty Images
Scott Olson/Getty Images
Frederick M. Brown/Getty Images
Rachel Woolf for NPR
© 1965 Spider Martin
Fernando Decillis for NPR
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