What Happened to Emmett Till’s Killers?

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Britannica Editors

On August 28, 1955, Roy Bryant and J.W. Milam, both of whom were white, kidnapped and killed Emmett Till, an African American teenager. Earlier that day Till had reportedly whistled at, touched, or flirted with Bryant’s wife, Carolyn Bryant, a cashier at the local grocery store. The two men were arrested on August 29, and their trial was the following month. The all-white, all-male jury deliberated for about an hour before acquitting Bryant and Milam of all charges. Protected from further prosecution by double jeopardy statutes, the pair later gave a paid interview to Look magazine, and they confessed to kidnapping and murdering Till.

In 2004 the U.S. Department of Justice and the FBI reopened the investigation to identify potential co-conspirators. Although Bryant and Milam were long dead, agents sought to obtain a a more complete account of Till’s final hours. The three-year investigation did not lead to the filing of criminal charges, but it did uncover a deathbed confession by Milam’s brother Leslie, who admitted his own involvement in the kidnapping and murder. The case was reopened after Carolyn Bryant Donham was quoted in a 2017 book as recanting her testimony that Till had made advances on her. She subsequently told the FBI that she had not recanted, and in 2021 the case was again closed without any new charges. Two years later Bryant Donham died.