Louis Till
Louis Till (February 7, 1922 – July 2, 1945) was an African American GI during World War II. After enlisting in the United States Army following trial for domestic violence against his estranged wife Mamie Till, and having chosen military service over jail time, Louis Till was Court-Martialed on two counts of rape and one count of murder during the Italian Campaign. He was found guilty and was executed by hanging at Aversa. Louis Till was the estranged father of Emmett Till, whose murder in August 1955 at the age of 14 galvanized the civil rights movement. The circumstances of Louis Till's death remained largely unknown until they were revealed after the highly controversial acquittal of his son's murderers ten years later. Till's guilt would be called into question many years later via an analysis by John Edgar Wideman. In a book documenting every court martial and execution of GIs in North Africa and Europe during World War II, United States Army Colonel French MacLean called Wideman's research and conclusions into question. According to Colonel MacLean, even though justice was not done to Emmett Till's murderers, the documents kept on the case by Judge Advocate General's Corps suggest that justice was in fact done to Private Louis Till. Early life Louis Till grew up an orphan in New Madrid, Missouri. As a young man he worked at the Argo Corn Company and was an amateur boxer. At age 17, Till began courting Mamie Carthan, a girl of the same age. Her parents disapproved, thinking the charismatic Till was "too sophisticated" for their daughter. At her mother's insistence, Mamie broke off their courtship, but the persistent Till won out, and they married on October 14, 1940 when both were 18. Their only child, Emmett Louis Till, was born on July 25, 1941. Mamie left her husband soon after learning that he had been unfaithful. Louis, enraged, choked her to unconsciousness, to which she responded by throwing scalding water at him. Eventually Mamie obtained a restraining order against him. After he repeatedly violated this order, a judge forced Till to choose between enlistment in the United States Army and imprisonment. Choosing the former, he enlisted in 1943. Criminal charges and death While serving in the Italian Campaign, Till learned to speak the Neapolitan dialect of the Italian language fluently. On 19 July 1944, Till was arrested by Military Police, who suspected him and two fellow soldiers of the murder of Anna Zanchi, an Italian woman, and the rape of two others in Civitavecchia. Pvt. James Thomas, Jr., was granted immunity in exchange for testimony against Pvts. McMurray and Till. Thomas testified that Till and McMurray took 20 minutes to plan the home invasion and had sex with the two women. Military Police investigators had found an envelope at the crime scene addressed to Pvt. McMurray. Under interrogation, Pvt. McMurray confessed and stated that Till said, "Everybody follow me: If anybody turns back I'll blast him." McMurray also testified that he begged Till