1. Personal life

2. Politics of Ferriday, Louisiana

3. Arson

4. FBI investigations
     First investigation (1965)    Second investigation (1967)    Third Investigation (2007)  

5. Research by Stanley Nelson

6. References
    General references 

Frank Morris (1914–1964) died as a result of arson to his shoe shop in Ferriday, Louisiana, a city with a history of racial violence.

Personal life

Frank Morris's parents were Charlotte, who passed away shortly after his birth, and his father Sullivan, who operated a shoe shop in Natchez, Mississippi. He fathered one child, Clementine. He had two grandchildren named Rosa and Nathaniel, who now reside in Nevada. In the late 1930s, Frank opened his own business in his hometown of Ferriday, Louisiana. His shoe shop “Frank’s Shoes Service”, serviced both black and white customers. His daily tasks included repairing shoes and saddles, selling jewelry, hats, and clothing, and dyeing purses. Frank's Shoes Service was very successful and was known for using the tag line, "Open every day and half the night", in its ads in the Concordia Sentinel.^[1]{{page needed|date=February 2019}} The shop was also his residence. The building was burned down in the early morning of December 10th, 1964.

Politics of Ferriday, Louisiana

During the 1960s, the area surrounding Ferriday, Louisiana was a strictly segregated society. In this period, the population of Adams County, Mississippi was split roughly in half between blacks and whites.^[2] Much like the other Mississippi counties, law enforcement and the courts were run by whites. The state of Mississippi in the Jim Crow era was infamous for racially-fueled lynchings, especially in the Mississippi Delta. Concordia Parish, Louisiana, in the Mississippi delta, had 14 known racially-motivated murders between 1964 and 1967.^[3]

Multiple disappearances and murders in the Natchez area have connections to both the Klan and the SDG. Joseph Edwards, a former African-American resident of Natchez, disappeared on the morning of July 12, 1964, after departing his job as a porter at the Shamrock Motel, in Vidalia, Louisiana.^[4] The first investigation into Edwards' murder by the federal Department of Justice began on July 23, 1964, and was closed in May 1968.

On February 27, 1967, Wharlest Jackson was killed by a car bomb while driving home from his job at Armstrong Tire & Rubber Company, located in Natchez, Mississippi.^[5] Jackson's murder led FBI investigators to reopen the Frank Morris case in mid-1967, due to information obtained from a confidential source.^[6]

Arson

On December 10, 1964, two unidentified white men set fire to the shoe repair shop owned by Frank Morris. At approximately 1:00 A.M., Morris was sleeping in a back room of the shop when he was awakened by the sound of glass breaking. Morris opened the front door of the shop, where he was met by two men in their 30's, one of whom was armed with a shotgun. The men broke multiple shop windows and proceeded to "spread a flammable liquid around the outside of the shop, and evidence indicates that the subjects may have spread the flammable liquid inside of the shop."^[6] After one of the subjects lit a match, the shop caught fire; Morris was still present in the building. He was able to escape the shop, but sustained burns on 100% of his body. Morris was taken to the hospital by two Ferriday police officers and was able to speak to FBI investigators. In three interviews conducted by FBI investigators, Morris stated that, "he saw a man pouring gasoline around the place (...) [and] another man had a shotgun and told him 'to get back in there, nigger'".^[6] Morris entered a coma two days later, and died on December 14, 1964.

FBI investigations

First investigation (1965)

A preliminary FBI investigation began immediately after the arson; its goal was to "determine if any federal laws had been violated, specifically whether Morris had been involved in voter registration or other civil rights activities and whether any subjects had connections to any racist organizations."^[6] The FBI collected evidence at the crime scene and conducted interviews with local law enforcement, local Klan leaders, and witnesses. Morris was interviewed three times; however, he was heavily medicated. Morris told the FBI that the men were from Natchez, Mississippi, were between the ages of 30 and 35, and that "one [man] was young with gray hair and the other was very white" ^[6] The FBI investigators believed that Morris knew his attackers, but was unwilling to divulge their identity. The preliminary investigation concluded that Frank Morris had not been involved in any racially motivated activities.

The first full investigation of the Frank Morris murder began in January of 1965, at the request of then-Assistant Attorney General of the Civil Rights Division, Marshall Burke.^[6] The FBI had received information that local law enforcement officials had been involved. The FBI later concluded that the local Klan was likely to be involved, but conflicting accounts, no viable subjects, and lack of a motive led to the investigation being closed in May of 1965.

Second investigation (1967)

On February 27th, 1967, Wharlest Jackson, Sr., a local rubber plant worker in Natchez, Mississippi, was killed when a bomb exploded under the hood of his car. Jackson had recently been promoted to a position never held by an African-American. He was targeted by the Silver Dollar Group. The FBI opened a full investigation into his murder due to its civil rights implications, as Jackson was treasurer of the local chapter of the NAACP. Much like the Morris case, witness accounts were not corroborating, and in August 1968, the investigation was closed.^[5]

Following the bombing, the FBI launched operation "WHARBOM"^[5] and placed multiple informants within Klan groups surrounding Natchez. One such informant, known as Orvin C. "Coonie" Poissot, was a Klansman from Texas who had a relationship with a local sheriff's deputy named Frank Delaughter, whom Poissot implicated as a conspirator in the murder of Frank Morris. Poisott became involved in the local Klan chapter and began feeding information to the FBI. However, Poisott was eliminated as a potential witness due to his erratic amphetamine use and difficulties differentiating between personal knowledge and hearsay.^[6]

On August 3, 1967, a confidential informant, who was a high-ranking officer of the KKK, told the FBI that a few days prior to the Morris arson, E. D. Morace approached the informant regarding an African American, referred to as "Old Frank", whom Morace said "had been flirtatious with white women".^[6] Morace requested that Klan members from Mississippi "give him a beating", but the informant asked Morace to verify the legitimacy of the claim, not intending to follow through on the act. Later that week, Morace called the informant saying that, "The rabbit hunt is off — forget about it". The following day Morris's shop was attacked.^[6] A few days after the arson, the informant was approached by Morace who stated that if "he, Jones, Torgersen, and Scarborough were arrested, the source should get them out of jail".^[6] The informant, fearing for his life, did not share this information to the FBI until two years after the arson. With two more additional informants involved in operation "WHARBOM", reporting information regarding the murder of Frank Morris, the FBI reopened the Morris investigation in August 1967.^[6]  

By the fall of 1967, E. D. Morace, Tommie Lee Jones, Thor Lee Torgersen, and James Lee Scarborough were the primary suspects in the murder of Frank Morris.^[6] All four men were questioned and denied any involvement in the arson and murder. When Tommie Lee Jones was interviewed on September 22, 1967, Jones stated that "if he was arrested for this crime, officers also would have to arrest DeLaughter". This was of interest to the FBI, as multiple informants told the FBI that the Concordia Parish Sheriff's Department had prior knowledge of the coming attack on Morris, and were told to "be on the other side of the parish".^[6] James Lee Scarborough, while under investigation for both Wharlest Jackson's and Frank Morris's murders, denied any involvement, stating that "every time something happens to a Negro it is immediately blamed on white people."^[6]

On November 19-20, 1967, two confidential sources described the same November meeting in which Morace, Jones, Torgersen, and Scarborough implicated themselves in the murder of Morris. Morace also "described a machine about 30 inches in length, 12 inches in width, and 12 inches in depth, which had a 6 or 12 volt battery and automatic starter that could spray five gallons of gasoline in five minutes."^[6] According to these informants, Morace was the primary conspirator in the murder of Frank Morris; however, the FBI could not find any physical evidence corroborating their witnesses. In February 1968, the second investigation was closed when the FBI determined that there was insufficient evidence to charge any of the suspects.^[6]

Third Investigation (2007)

The FBI reopened the Frank Morris investigation in 2007, as part of the Civil Rights Era Cold Case Initiative.^[6] During this investigation, the FBI re-interviewed the remaining living witnesses who had first-hand information about the arson, as well as "family members, business owners and neighbors in the vicinity of the shoe shop, law enforcement officers, community members, and former KKK members".^[6] In 2008, the FBI, through local media, informed the public that they were offering a $10,000 reward for information leading to an arrest in the Morris case.^[6] Three new subjects were identified, but the investigators did not uncover any credible physical evidence supporting the allegations. The investigation revealed new allegations that local police officers were tampering with the investigation by threatening witnesses. Ferriday policemen, including “DeLaughter, Bill Ogden, and Ferriday Police Chief Bob Warren", had ordered an unidentified witness to "keep his mouth shut", and later told him to "get out of town".^[6] This witness also received death threats, and his home was fired upon on multiple occasions. The FBI concluded the investigation in 2016 when investigators determined there was insufficient evidence to charge any individual with any federal crimes; furthermore, important witnesses, suspects, and informants were dead.^[6]

Research by Stanley Nelson

Stanley Nelson, award-winning journalist and Pulitzer Prize Finalist, published Devils Walking: Klan Murders along the Mississippi in the 1960s, after a series of artivles in the Concordia Sentinel. Nelson interviewed witnesses to uncover unknown facts and haunting recollextions about the racially-motivated murders around Ferriday, Louisiana. Morris, in particular, is featured in this text. Nelson investigated rumors that police officers possibly committed the arson; according to Della Mae Smith, "Deputy Frank DeLaughter had organized the arson" and local police had set the home ablaze. Delaughter lied about his location during the arson, claiming that he was out of the jurisdiction on a non-emergency call. An identified suspect had also fired a shotgun into the home of Junious "Tee-Wee" Kelly after Kelly had witnessed the arson. Later that week, officers Frank DeLaughter and Bill Ogden intimidated Kelly and forced him out of town. Kelly later told Rosa Williams, Morris' granddaughter, "I know what happened to your grandfather.… You don't have to look no further than the police department.”^[7]{{page needed|date=February 2019}}

Ferriday locals thought highly of Morris, who was a community-centric man who gave many young black men their first paying job; Morris also hosted a radio gospel program. At the time of his death, Morris owned the land his shop was on, and he was seen as an honest man who paid his bills on time. ^[7] Although people generally thought highly of Morris, black residents thought Morris was too shocking to white residents. He had previously dedicated songs to white women on his radio show, and would lean into their cars and occasionally sit in their passenger seats. A local black teacher claimed that after the arson, a rumor was spreading that Morris was setting up interracial liaisons. There were rumors of Morris being romantically involved with the wife of a white man, and after the arson the white couple soon left town.^[7] Ferriday Police officer William Howell Harp Jr. alleged that Morris was a bootlegger and sold narcotics. Harp and colleagues also found a "slightly scorched" suitcase filled with fourteen and a half pints of bourbon. The newspapers the bourbon was wrapped in had no signs of burning, indicating tampering with the scene. Harp described Morris as an alcoholic and had two confrontations with him between 1963-1965, as well as describing a small argument outside of the courthouse. Harp's new information regarding Morris shed doubt on the story concerning DeLaughter, and the City of Ferriday hit a dead end with the case, and the sheriff's Department expressed no interest in taking it over.^[7]

References

General references

• Nelson, Stanley. “Cold Case: Morris' Granddaughter Says FBI $10,000 Reward Gives Her New Hope.” Concordia Sentinel, 10 Dec. 2008.
• Nelson, Stanley. Hanna Newspapers, Concordia Sentinel, 28 Nov. 2015, “Cold Case: Silver Dollar Group Linked to Attacks - Edwards, Morris, Jackson, Metcalfe.” (dated Dec 27, 2007)

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