Buckley, Travis
Biography:
Defense attorney (aged 35 in 1968) for Klan members. He was the chief defense lawyer for the Dahmer, Medger Evers, and Schwermer (Mississippi Burning) murder cases. He defended Bowers again in the 1998 retrial for the murder of Vernon Dahmer. Billy Roy Pitts, a FBI informant, claimed that Buckley was present during discussions of the Klan's planned attack of Dahmer. Moreover, in March of 1967, he attempted to intimidate Jack Watkins into claiming that Lawrence Byrd's March 1966 was coerced. In February 1968, Buckley received a ten-year sentence for kidnapping related to the Dahmer case, but his conviction was overturned by Mississippi's supreme court. Buckley also represented Vincent Travis Purser, Deavours Nix, and Sam Bowers during the Committee on Un-American Activities' hearings on Klan activities in 1966.
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Archival Collections and Reference Resources
- Freedom summer digital collection (Wisconsin Historical Society)
- Goodman--National clippings and loose clippings (Carolyn Goodman papers, 1964-2000; Historical Society Library Microforms Room, Micro 833, Reel 1b) (Clippings (information artifacts))
- Goodman--New York newspaper clippings (Carolyn Goodman papers, 1964-2000; Historical Society Library Microforms Room, Micro 833, Reel 1a) (Clippings (information artifacts))
- MFDP--Clippings, 1964-1970 (Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party records, 1962-1971; Historical Society Library Microforms Room, Micro 788, Reel 2, Segment 5) (Clippings (information artifacts))
- Moncrief photograph collection (Mississippi Department of Archives and History)