Emmett Till investigation closed by Justice Department

By MICHAEL BALSAMO and EMILY WAGSTER PETTUS
Associated Press

WASHINGTON (AP) — The U.S. Justice Department has told relatives of Emmett Till that it is ending its investigation into the 1955 lynching of the Black teenager. A person familiar with the matter told The Associated Press on Monday about the closure of the investigation. Till was abducted, tortured and killed after witnesses said he whistled at a white woman in Mississippi. The killing galvanized the civil rights movement after Till’s mother insisted on an open casket. Two men who were acquitted by an all-white jury died years ago. Officials reopened an investigation after a 2017 book quoted Carolyn Bryant Donham as saying she lied when she claimed that Till grabbed her. Relatives have denied that Donham recanted her allegations about Till.