Skip to main content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Cold case review board releases records in four additional cases

By Steve Fennessy · December 19, 2024
undefined
Leonard McCowin, who died in 1947 after being struck by the butt of a rifle wielded by a marshal of the Center, Texas police department

A World War II veteran bludgeoned to death in a small town in Texas in 1947. A prison trusty found dead in a Mississippi cornfield in 1949. A 21-year-old man shot in the back seat of a New Orleans police car in 1949.

These are among a new tranche of cases made public this week by the Civil Rights Cold Case Records Review Board, the federal independent agency created by Congress to review and release records concerning civil rights violations that occurred from 1940 through 1979.

The records are maintained on a dedicated portal at the National Archives and Records Administration. Together, the four cases released this week span 234 pages of records from both the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the Department of Justice.

The records released include correspondence from FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover, a handwritten letter from a Georgia mother inquiring about the death of her son, and testimony from witnesses to the shooting by New Orleans police of a man they were arresting. None of the cases resulted in an arrest or prosecution. But the release of the records is intended to paint a fuller picture of the civil rights era in the United States, when untold numbers of Americans – primarily Black Americans – suffered civil rights violations that went unpunished.

Learn more about the Board and its members, or for more information visit our frequently asked questions.