Do you know who murdered Louis Allen in 1964? In the quiet, rural town of Liberty, Mississippi, a 44-year-old African American logger and World War II veteran named Louis Allen became a casualty of the turbulent civil rights era. His life was abruptly and violently ended on the night of January 31, 1964, the eve of his planned departure from the state that had become increasingly hostile towards him. Allen was ambushed in his driveway as he got out of his truck to open the gate to his property.
He was killed instantly by two shotgun blasts to the head. His teenage son, Hank, discovered his father's body lying under the truck.
The catalyst for Allen's murder can be traced back to September 25, 1961, when he witnessed the killing of Herbert Lee, a local NAACP member and voting rights activist. Lee was shot and killed by E.H. Hurst, a white state legislator. Allen and other witnesses were coerced by local law enforcement to testify that Hurst acted in self-defense. Troubled by his false testimony, Allen later confided in civil rights workers and spoke to the FBI, expressing his desire to tell the truth but fearing for his life without federal protection, which was ultimately not provided. News of his cooperation with federal investigators spread through the community, making him a target.
In the years that followed, Louis Allen endured relentless harassment and intimidation. His logging business was boycotted, and he was subjected to repeated arrests on fabricated charges by Amite County Deputy Sheriff Daniel Jones. On one occasion, Jones broke Allen's jaw with a flashlight during an arrest. Recognizing that his life was in imminent danger, Allen made the difficult decision to leave Mississippi with his family and move to Milwaukee, Wisconsin. However, he was murdered the night before he was set to leave.
Despite strong suspicions, no one was ever arrested or prosecuted for the murder of Louis Allen. The primary suspect was Sheriff Daniel Jones, who took charge of the initial investigation, which was cursory at best and yielded no evidence or suspects. Jones reportedly told Allen’s widow, 'If Louis had just shut his mouth, he wouldn't be layin' there on the ground.” Over the years, investigations by historians and the FBI in 2007 as part of a review of cold cases from the civil rights era pointed to Jones as the likely killer. An elderly preacher later claimed in a tape-recorded interview that Jones had recruited his son-in-law to assist in the murder, but that Jones himself pulled the trigger when the son-in-law refused. Lacking sufficient evidence to secure a conviction, the case remains officially unsolved. Daniel Jones died in 2013, taking any secrets of his involvement in Louis Allen's death to his grave.
