Wright Thompson

My first thought was, fuck.

And my second thought was, that's really smart.

But –

But the idea that like there were a lot of people out there.

I mean, you know, the witness is a guy named Willie Reed.

You know, you read about it in the book.

And the thing that kills me is that Willie Reed, he has to leave Mississippi.

He has to walk six miles to get to a highway where he's picked up in the middle of the night in a car driven by the NAACP.

The guy driving the car, by the way, was Medgar Evers.

Hmm.

Drives him to the airport.

He flies to Chicago.

He changes his name.

He works at the Jackson Park Hospital.

He marries this woman.

They are together, I think, for 12 years before she finds out that he had this other life.

And then in the early 2000s, the FBI calls him and said, we're going to reopen this case and you're going to have to go through your testimony again.

Can you come to Mississippi?

And he didn't want to do it, but he did it.

And the FBI agent, Dale Killinger, drives him from Tunica, where he was staying, over to the barn.