“The FBI Has Found Three Bodies”

Federal Bureau of Investigation assistant director Cartha D. “Deke” DeLoach phoned President Johnson to let him know that agents had discovered three bodies presumed to be those of civil rights workers James Chaney, Michael Schwerner, and Andrew Goodman, who had been missing since mid-June. Although the Bureau had not identified the bodies, found in an earthen dam near Philadelphia, Mississippi, Johnson wanted to notify the families prior to any announcement of the discovery, as “that kind of eases it a little bit.”