Episode 208 - Jerry Mitchell

Jerry Mitchell is an investigative reporter whose work has helped lead to convictions of Klansmen for the 1963 assassination of Medgar Evers, the 1963 bombing of a Birmingham church that killed four girls, and the 1964 slayings of three civil rights workers. His work also led to the 2016 conviction of Felix Vail — the oldest conviction in a serial killer case in U.S. history. 

He was depicted in the film Ghosts of Mississippi which covered the events of the Medgar Evers, and while he wasn’t depicted in it, the film Mississippi Burning covered the FBI investigation of the Birmingham church bombing.

Jerry is also founder of the Mississippi Center for Investigative Reporting - a nonprofit news organization that reports on the criminal justice system, public corruption, political cronyism, and racial disparities to name a few things.

He’s also a MacArthur genius grant winner, a Pulitzer Prize finalist, and author of Race Against Time - his account of covering unsolved murders in the civil rights era.