Mr. Avants, 73, was born to Eston Avants and Bertha Williamson.
He was a Korean War Army veteran. He was of the Baptist Faith.
Preceding him in death were his parents; his sister Betsy Ann Crawford; and his great-granddaughter, Kelsey Avants.
Survivors are his wife, Martha Avants; his daughter, Elizabeth Wallace of Bogue Chitto; his sons, David Avants and Glenn Avants, both of Bogue Chitto; one sister, Mary Nell Merritt of Baker, La.; nine grandchildren; and three great-grandchildren.
*****
Enterprise Journal; 04 Apr 1967, Tue; Page 1; McComb, Mississippi
New Jury Venire Likely in Natchez Murder Case
NATCHEZ, Miss. (AP) - A new list of prospective jurors was almost certain to be called today as jury selection for the James L. Jones murder trial goes into its second day here.
Four jurors, all of them white men, were picked Monday from a special 100 - man venire and part of the regular venire called for circuit court duty. Both the defense and prosecution used eight of their 12 chances to excuse jury prospects without some specific cause.
Jones, 57, of Natchez, is one of three white men accused of murdering 65-ygar-old Ben Chester White, a Negro who was shot 17 times with a rifle and once with a shotgun. His body was found June 12, 1966, two days after he disappeared, in Pretty Creek near Kingston, 10 miles southeast of here.
Dist. Atty. Lenox Foreman of Meadville said white was not connected with civil rights activities.
The other two men named in the case are Claude Fuller, 47, of Natchez and Ernest Avants, 36, of nearby Washington both labeled as Ku Klux Klansmen by the House Committee, on Un-American Activities.
Judge James A. Torrey passed their trials for this term of the court.
Jones testified at a preliminary hearing that the fatal shots were fired by Fuller and Avants. He said Fuller shot White with a rifle and told Avants to shoot him with a shotgun.
Jones said the body was dumped into the creek. Jones said Fuller later told him to burn his new car because it was bloodstained.
He said he had driven Fuller to White's house to check on a stray dog.
*****
The Delta Democrat Times; 04 Apr 1967, Tue; Page 1; Greenville, Mississippi
40 More Jurors Called In Natchez Murder Trial
NATCHEZ (UPI) - Forty more veniremen were called here today as selection of a jury continued in the trial of James L. Jones, one of the three white men charged with the brutal murder of an elderly Negro last summer.
A 100-man veneir had been exhausted Monday as jury selection began, Only four men - all white - were approved as jurors by opposing attorneys,
Selection of the jury was scheduled to be completed later today and testimony was to begin.
Jones, 57, along with Ernest Avants and Claude Fuller, was charged with the murder of Ben Chester White, 61. The headless, bullet-torn body of the elderly Negro was found floating in an Adams County creek June 13, 1966.
Jones, who said he could no longer live with his conscience, testified at a preliminary hearing that Fuller first shot White a number of times with an automatic rifle as the Negro cried: "Oh, Lord, what have I done to deserve this?" He said Avants then shot White and the blast from the shotgun "tore off the top of the Negro's head."
Fuller and Avants, once identified as Ku Klux Klansmen, were granted separate trials but no date has yet been set.
Circuit Judge James Torrey advised attorneys to be ready to proceed with testimony following completion of jury selection. He denied a motion by defense attorneys William Riley and state Rep. Charles Blackwell of Laurel to have the charge against Jones quashed.
Jones said he went to Adams County Sheriff Odell Anders and gave the sheriff a full statement because he "couldn't live with my conscience." He said the three white men picked White up at a ranch where the Negro was a cattle tender last June and got him to join them on the pretense of looking for a lost dog.
Jones maintained he also thought the men were searching for the lost animal until they got to Pretty Creek bridge. There, he said, Fuller made White get out of the car and started firing the rifle.
Avants then fired the shotgun, Jones said. He said he was told by Fuller to get rid of his car and tell the sheriff it had been stolen.
Authorities had not disclosed any apparent motive for the slaying. They insisted White had not been engaged in civil rights activity and in fact, was not even a registered voter.
*****
The Greenwood Commonwealth; 11 Apr 1967, Tue; Page 11; Greenwood, Mississippi
Jones, 57, was charged with murder in the death of Ben Chester White, 65, last June. Testimony centered around an outline by Sheriff Odell Anders of a statement he said Jones made voluntarily.
In the statement Jones was placed with Ernest Avants, 36, and Claude Fuller, 47, as they picked up White on the pretext of helping load hay and find a lost hunting dog. The statement said Avants and Fuller fired the shots that killed White.
Anders testified the three white men hoped the murder might lure Dr. Martin Luther King from a demonstration march in North Mississippi to Natchez where he could be killed.
The case went to the jury Saturday, but there was no verdict that day and the jurors were locked up for the weekend at a hotel.
*****
Clarion Ledger; 12 Apr 1967, Wed; Page 1; Jackson, Mississippi
Jones Case 'Mistrial'
NATCHEZ (AP) - Circuit Judge James A. Torrey ordered a mistrial Tuesday when a racially mixed jury reported it could not agree on a verdict in the James L. Jones murder case.
*****
Clarion Ledger; 09 Dec 1967, Sat; Page 1; Jackson, Mississippi
2 FBI Agents Say Avants Confessed
NATCHEZ, Miss. (AP) - Two FBI agents testified Friday that Ernest Avants told them he took part in the brutal 1966 slaying of an elderly Negro near here.
Agents Robert F. Boyle of Memphis and Allen N. Kornbleum of New York testified that they interviewed Avants March 13 on another case and that he voluntarily told them he took part in the murder of 65-year-old Ben Chester White June 10 last year. Boyle testified that Avants told him he shot White in the head with a shotgun when he was told to do so by a man he identified only as "Fuller."
*****
Hattiesburg American; 11 Dec 1967, Mon; Page 6
Last man will be tried in Negro slaying
NATCHEZ, Miss. (AP) - With Ernest Avants acquitted of murder and free, the spotlight next turns to Claude Fuller, the only one of three white men accused of killing Ben Chester White who has yet to be tried.
*****
Hattiesburg American; 14 Nov 1968, Thu; Page 7; Hattiesburg, Mississippi
Federal court jury returns judgement against the Klan
VICKSBURG, Miss. (AP) - A federal court jury has returned a judgement of $1,022,500 against the White Knights of the Ku Klux Klan and three white men in the 1966 slaying of Ben Chester White, a 65-year-old Negro.
Investigators said the slaying was part of a plot to create enough racial tension in Natchez to lure the late Dr. Martin Luther King, a Negro civil rights leader, into rifle range.
Judge Harold Cox, declaring the defendants liable for "the dastardly act." ordered the verdict Wednesday. The question he put to the jury was the amount of damages to be awarded in the unusual civil suit, filed under a Reconstruction era law.
The jury of eight Negroes and four whites deliberated for an hour and 30 minutes and then brought back the verdict $22,500 in actual damages and $1 million punitive damages against Ernest Avants, 37, Claude Fuller, 48, and James L. Jones, 58, all employes of a Natchez paper mill, and the White Knights of the Ku Klux Klan.
All three had been charged with murder in the slaying. In Circuit Court trials on the state charge Avants was acquitted and Jones won a mistrial. Fuller's case hasn't come up.
White had not been connected with civil rights activities.
The civil suit was brought by his son, Jesse, of Baton Rouge, La.
*****
Clarion Ledger; 31 Dec 2003, Wed; Page 11; Jackson, Mississippi
Ernest Avants, a reputed Klansman, was sentenced to life in prison without parole in June for his part in the 1966 civil rights-era murder of black Mississippi sharecropper Ben Chester White. Prosecutors say Avants killed White to lure the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. to Mississippi for an assassination attempt.
*****
Suggested edit on 21 Apr 2022: Margaret Darlene Hall Williams was never married to Earnest Avants She was married to Roger Williams and he is still alive. Her sister Martha Hall was married to Earnest Avants and she is still alive.
Contributor: Don (49125961)∼Ernest Avants, 72, a reputed Ku Klux Klansman convicted last year in a 1966 murder that prosecutors say was part of a failed plot to assassinate the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr., died Monday in a Fort Worth prison where he was serving a life sentence. The cause of death was complications from heart disease, according to his attorney, Tom Royals.
Avants was convicted for his role in the murder of Ben Chester White, a black sharecropper. Prosecutors said the killing was intended to lure King to Natchez, Miss., where he was to be assassinated. King did not visit Natchez after White's slaying, but was assassinated by James Earl Ray two years later in Memphis, Tenn.
Avants was acquitted of murder in a 1967 state trial. Years later, authorities filed a federal charge of aiding and abetting murder after realizing that White was killed on federal property.
A federal court jury in Jackson, Miss., convicted Avants, the lone survivor of three white men who the government said took part in the killing, and sentenced him to life in prison.
He was a Korean War Army veteran. He was of the Baptist Faith.
Preceding him in death were his parents; his sister Betsy Ann Crawford; and his great-granddaughter, Kelsey Avants.
Survivors are his wife, Martha Avants; his daughter, Elizabeth Wallace of Bogue Chitto; his sons, David Avants and Glenn Avants, both of Bogue Chitto; one sister, Mary Nell Merritt of Baker, La.; nine grandchildren; and three great-grandchildren.
*****
Enterprise Journal; 04 Apr 1967, Tue; Page 1; McComb, Mississippi
New Jury Venire Likely in Natchez Murder Case
NATCHEZ, Miss. (AP) - A new list of prospective jurors was almost certain to be called today as jury selection for the James L. Jones murder trial goes into its second day here.
Four jurors, all of them white men, were picked Monday from a special 100 - man venire and part of the regular venire called for circuit court duty. Both the defense and prosecution used eight of their 12 chances to excuse jury prospects without some specific cause.
Jones, 57, of Natchez, is one of three white men accused of murdering 65-ygar-old Ben Chester White, a Negro who was shot 17 times with a rifle and once with a shotgun. His body was found June 12, 1966, two days after he disappeared, in Pretty Creek near Kingston, 10 miles southeast of here.
Dist. Atty. Lenox Foreman of Meadville said white was not connected with civil rights activities.
The other two men named in the case are Claude Fuller, 47, of Natchez and Ernest Avants, 36, of nearby Washington both labeled as Ku Klux Klansmen by the House Committee, on Un-American Activities.
Judge James A. Torrey passed their trials for this term of the court.
Jones testified at a preliminary hearing that the fatal shots were fired by Fuller and Avants. He said Fuller shot White with a rifle and told Avants to shoot him with a shotgun.
Jones said the body was dumped into the creek. Jones said Fuller later told him to burn his new car because it was bloodstained.
He said he had driven Fuller to White's house to check on a stray dog.
*****
The Delta Democrat Times; 04 Apr 1967, Tue; Page 1; Greenville, Mississippi
40 More Jurors Called In Natchez Murder Trial
NATCHEZ (UPI) - Forty more veniremen were called here today as selection of a jury continued in the trial of James L. Jones, one of the three white men charged with the brutal murder of an elderly Negro last summer.
A 100-man veneir had been exhausted Monday as jury selection began, Only four men - all white - were approved as jurors by opposing attorneys,
Selection of the jury was scheduled to be completed later today and testimony was to begin.
Jones, 57, along with Ernest Avants and Claude Fuller, was charged with the murder of Ben Chester White, 61. The headless, bullet-torn body of the elderly Negro was found floating in an Adams County creek June 13, 1966.
Jones, who said he could no longer live with his conscience, testified at a preliminary hearing that Fuller first shot White a number of times with an automatic rifle as the Negro cried: "Oh, Lord, what have I done to deserve this?" He said Avants then shot White and the blast from the shotgun "tore off the top of the Negro's head."
Fuller and Avants, once identified as Ku Klux Klansmen, were granted separate trials but no date has yet been set.
Circuit Judge James Torrey advised attorneys to be ready to proceed with testimony following completion of jury selection. He denied a motion by defense attorneys William Riley and state Rep. Charles Blackwell of Laurel to have the charge against Jones quashed.
Jones said he went to Adams County Sheriff Odell Anders and gave the sheriff a full statement because he "couldn't live with my conscience." He said the three white men picked White up at a ranch where the Negro was a cattle tender last June and got him to join them on the pretense of looking for a lost dog.
Jones maintained he also thought the men were searching for the lost animal until they got to Pretty Creek bridge. There, he said, Fuller made White get out of the car and started firing the rifle.
Avants then fired the shotgun, Jones said. He said he was told by Fuller to get rid of his car and tell the sheriff it had been stolen.
Authorities had not disclosed any apparent motive for the slaying. They insisted White had not been engaged in civil rights activity and in fact, was not even a registered voter.
*****
The Greenwood Commonwealth; 11 Apr 1967, Tue; Page 11; Greenwood, Mississippi
Jones, 57, was charged with murder in the death of Ben Chester White, 65, last June. Testimony centered around an outline by Sheriff Odell Anders of a statement he said Jones made voluntarily.
In the statement Jones was placed with Ernest Avants, 36, and Claude Fuller, 47, as they picked up White on the pretext of helping load hay and find a lost hunting dog. The statement said Avants and Fuller fired the shots that killed White.
Anders testified the three white men hoped the murder might lure Dr. Martin Luther King from a demonstration march in North Mississippi to Natchez where he could be killed.
The case went to the jury Saturday, but there was no verdict that day and the jurors were locked up for the weekend at a hotel.
*****
Clarion Ledger; 12 Apr 1967, Wed; Page 1; Jackson, Mississippi
Jones Case 'Mistrial'
NATCHEZ (AP) - Circuit Judge James A. Torrey ordered a mistrial Tuesday when a racially mixed jury reported it could not agree on a verdict in the James L. Jones murder case.
*****
Clarion Ledger; 09 Dec 1967, Sat; Page 1; Jackson, Mississippi
2 FBI Agents Say Avants Confessed
NATCHEZ, Miss. (AP) - Two FBI agents testified Friday that Ernest Avants told them he took part in the brutal 1966 slaying of an elderly Negro near here.
Agents Robert F. Boyle of Memphis and Allen N. Kornbleum of New York testified that they interviewed Avants March 13 on another case and that he voluntarily told them he took part in the murder of 65-year-old Ben Chester White June 10 last year. Boyle testified that Avants told him he shot White in the head with a shotgun when he was told to do so by a man he identified only as "Fuller."
*****
Hattiesburg American; 11 Dec 1967, Mon; Page 6
Last man will be tried in Negro slaying
NATCHEZ, Miss. (AP) - With Ernest Avants acquitted of murder and free, the spotlight next turns to Claude Fuller, the only one of three white men accused of killing Ben Chester White who has yet to be tried.
*****
Hattiesburg American; 14 Nov 1968, Thu; Page 7; Hattiesburg, Mississippi
Federal court jury returns judgement against the Klan
VICKSBURG, Miss. (AP) - A federal court jury has returned a judgement of $1,022,500 against the White Knights of the Ku Klux Klan and three white men in the 1966 slaying of Ben Chester White, a 65-year-old Negro.
Investigators said the slaying was part of a plot to create enough racial tension in Natchez to lure the late Dr. Martin Luther King, a Negro civil rights leader, into rifle range.
Judge Harold Cox, declaring the defendants liable for "the dastardly act." ordered the verdict Wednesday. The question he put to the jury was the amount of damages to be awarded in the unusual civil suit, filed under a Reconstruction era law.
The jury of eight Negroes and four whites deliberated for an hour and 30 minutes and then brought back the verdict $22,500 in actual damages and $1 million punitive damages against Ernest Avants, 37, Claude Fuller, 48, and James L. Jones, 58, all employes of a Natchez paper mill, and the White Knights of the Ku Klux Klan.
All three had been charged with murder in the slaying. In Circuit Court trials on the state charge Avants was acquitted and Jones won a mistrial. Fuller's case hasn't come up.
White had not been connected with civil rights activities.
The civil suit was brought by his son, Jesse, of Baton Rouge, La.
*****
Clarion Ledger; 31 Dec 2003, Wed; Page 11; Jackson, Mississippi
Ernest Avants, a reputed Klansman, was sentenced to life in prison without parole in June for his part in the 1966 civil rights-era murder of black Mississippi sharecropper Ben Chester White. Prosecutors say Avants killed White to lure the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. to Mississippi for an assassination attempt.
*****
Suggested edit on 21 Apr 2022: Margaret Darlene Hall Williams was never married to Earnest Avants She was married to Roger Williams and he is still alive. Her sister Martha Hall was married to Earnest Avants and she is still alive.
Contributor: Don (49125961)∼Ernest Avants, 72, a reputed Ku Klux Klansman convicted last year in a 1966 murder that prosecutors say was part of a failed plot to assassinate the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr., died Monday in a Fort Worth prison where he was serving a life sentence. The cause of death was complications from heart disease, according to his attorney, Tom Royals.
Avants was convicted for his role in the murder of Ben Chester White, a black sharecropper. Prosecutors said the killing was intended to lure King to Natchez, Miss., where he was to be assassinated. King did not visit Natchez after White's slaying, but was assassinated by James Earl Ray two years later in Memphis, Tenn.
Avants was acquitted of murder in a 1967 state trial. Years later, authorities filed a federal charge of aiding and abetting murder after realizing that White was killed on federal property.
A federal court jury in Jackson, Miss., convicted Avants, the lone survivor of three white men who the government said took part in the killing, and sentenced him to life in prison.
Mr. Avants, 73, was born to Eston Avants and Bertha Williamson.
He was a Korean War Army veteran. He was of the Baptist Faith.
Preceding him in death were his parents; his sister Betsy Ann Crawford; and his great-granddaughter, Kelsey Avants.
Survivors are his wife, Martha Avants; his daughter, Elizabeth Wallace of Bogue Chitto; his sons, David Avants and Glenn Avants, both of Bogue Chitto; one sister, Mary Nell Merritt of Baker, La.; nine grandchildren; and three great-grandchildren.
*****
Enterprise Journal; 04 Apr 1967, Tue; Page 1; McComb, Mississippi
New Jury Venire Likely in Natchez Murder Case
NATCHEZ, Miss. (AP) - A new list of prospective jurors was almost certain to be called today as jury selection for the James L. Jones murder trial goes into its second day here.
Four jurors, all of them white men, were picked Monday from a special 100 - man venire and part of the regular venire called for circuit court duty. Both the defense and prosecution used eight of their 12 chances to excuse jury prospects without some specific cause.
Jones, 57, of Natchez, is one of three white men accused of murdering 65-ygar-old Ben Chester White, a Negro who was shot 17 times with a rifle and once with a shotgun. His body was found June 12, 1966, two days after he disappeared, in Pretty Creek near Kingston, 10 miles southeast of here.
Dist. Atty. Lenox Foreman of Meadville said white was not connected with civil rights activities.
The other two men named in the case are Claude Fuller, 47, of Natchez and Ernest Avants, 36, of nearby Washington both labeled as Ku Klux Klansmen by the House Committee, on Un-American Activities.
Judge James A. Torrey passed their trials for this term of the court.
Jones testified at a preliminary hearing that the fatal shots were fired by Fuller and Avants. He said Fuller shot White with a rifle and told Avants to shoot him with a shotgun.
Jones said the body was dumped into the creek. Jones said Fuller later told him to burn his new car because it was bloodstained.
He said he had driven Fuller to White's house to check on a stray dog.
*****
The Delta Democrat Times; 04 Apr 1967, Tue; Page 1; Greenville, Mississippi
40 More Jurors Called In Natchez Murder Trial
NATCHEZ (UPI) - Forty more veniremen were called here today as selection of a jury continued in the trial of James L. Jones, one of the three white men charged with the brutal murder of an elderly Negro last summer.
A 100-man veneir had been exhausted Monday as jury selection began, Only four men - all white - were approved as jurors by opposing attorneys,
Selection of the jury was scheduled to be completed later today and testimony was to begin.
Jones, 57, along with Ernest Avants and Claude Fuller, was charged with the murder of Ben Chester White, 61. The headless, bullet-torn body of the elderly Negro was found floating in an Adams County creek June 13, 1966.
Jones, who said he could no longer live with his conscience, testified at a preliminary hearing that Fuller first shot White a number of times with an automatic rifle as the Negro cried: "Oh, Lord, what have I done to deserve this?" He said Avants then shot White and the blast from the shotgun "tore off the top of the Negro's head."
Fuller and Avants, once identified as Ku Klux Klansmen, were granted separate trials but no date has yet been set.
Circuit Judge James Torrey advised attorneys to be ready to proceed with testimony following completion of jury selection. He denied a motion by defense attorneys William Riley and state Rep. Charles Blackwell of Laurel to have the charge against Jones quashed.
Jones said he went to Adams County Sheriff Odell Anders and gave the sheriff a full statement because he "couldn't live with my conscience." He said the three white men picked White up at a ranch where the Negro was a cattle tender last June and got him to join them on the pretense of looking for a lost dog.
Jones maintained he also thought the men were searching for the lost animal until they got to Pretty Creek bridge. There, he said, Fuller made White get out of the car and started firing the rifle.
Avants then fired the shotgun, Jones said. He said he was told by Fuller to get rid of his car and tell the sheriff it had been stolen.
Authorities had not disclosed any apparent motive for the slaying. They insisted White had not been engaged in civil rights activity and in fact, was not even a registered voter.
*****
The Greenwood Commonwealth; 11 Apr 1967, Tue; Page 11; Greenwood, Mississippi
Jones, 57, was charged with murder in the death of Ben Chester White, 65, last June. Testimony centered around an outline by Sheriff Odell Anders of a statement he said Jones made voluntarily.
In the statement Jones was placed with Ernest Avants, 36, and Claude Fuller, 47, as they picked up White on the pretext of helping load hay and find a lost hunting dog. The statement said Avants and Fuller fired the shots that killed White.
Anders testified the three white men hoped the murder might lure Dr. Martin Luther King from a demonstration march in North Mississippi to Natchez where he could be killed.
The case went to the jury Saturday, but there was no verdict that day and the jurors were locked up for the weekend at a hotel.
*****
Clarion Ledger; 12 Apr 1967, Wed; Page 1; Jackson, Mississippi
Jones Case 'Mistrial'
NATCHEZ (AP) - Circuit Judge James A. Torrey ordered a mistrial Tuesday when a racially mixed jury reported it could not agree on a verdict in the James L. Jones murder case.
*****
Clarion Ledger; 09 Dec 1967, Sat; Page 1; Jackson, Mississippi
2 FBI Agents Say Avants Confessed
NATCHEZ, Miss. (AP) - Two FBI agents testified Friday that Ernest Avants told them he took part in the brutal 1966 slaying of an elderly Negro near here.
Agents Robert F. Boyle of Memphis and Allen N. Kornbleum of New York testified that they interviewed Avants March 13 on another case and that he voluntarily told them he took part in the murder of 65-year-old Ben Chester White June 10 last year. Boyle testified that Avants told him he shot White in the head with a shotgun when he was told to do so by a man he identified only as "Fuller."
*****
Hattiesburg American; 11 Dec 1967, Mon; Page 6
Last man will be tried in Negro slaying
NATCHEZ, Miss. (AP) - With Ernest Avants acquitted of murder and free, the spotlight next turns to Claude Fuller, the only one of three white men accused of killing Ben Chester White who has yet to be tried.
*****
Hattiesburg American; 14 Nov 1968, Thu; Page 7; Hattiesburg, Mississippi
Federal court jury returns judgement against the Klan
VICKSBURG, Miss. (AP) - A federal court jury has returned a judgement of $1,022,500 against the White Knights of the Ku Klux Klan and three white men in the 1966 slaying of Ben Chester White, a 65-year-old Negro.
Investigators said the slaying was part of a plot to create enough racial tension in Natchez to lure the late Dr. Martin Luther King, a Negro civil rights leader, into rifle range.
Judge Harold Cox, declaring the defendants liable for "the dastardly act." ordered the verdict Wednesday. The question he put to the jury was the amount of damages to be awarded in the unusual civil suit, filed under a Reconstruction era law.
The jury of eight Negroes and four whites deliberated for an hour and 30 minutes and then brought back the verdict $22,500 in actual damages and $1 million punitive damages against Ernest Avants, 37, Claude Fuller, 48, and James L. Jones, 58, all employes of a Natchez paper mill, and the White Knights of the Ku Klux Klan.
All three had been charged with murder in the slaying. In Circuit Court trials on the state charge Avants was acquitted and Jones won a mistrial. Fuller's case hasn't come up.
White had not been connected with civil rights activities.
The civil suit was brought by his son, Jesse, of Baton Rouge, La.
*****
Clarion Ledger; 31 Dec 2003, Wed; Page 11; Jackson, Mississippi
Ernest Avants, a reputed Klansman, was sentenced to life in prison without parole in June for his part in the 1966 civil rights-era murder of black Mississippi sharecropper Ben Chester White. Prosecutors say Avants killed White to lure the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. to Mississippi for an assassination attempt.
*****
Suggested edit on 21 Apr 2022: Margaret Darlene Hall Williams was never married to Earnest Avants She was married to Roger Williams and he is still alive. Her sister Martha Hall was married to Earnest Avants and she is still alive.
Contributor: Don (49125961)∼Ernest Avants, 72, a reputed Ku Klux Klansman convicted last year in a 1966 murder that prosecutors say was part of a failed plot to assassinate the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr., died Monday in a Fort Worth prison where he was serving a life sentence. The cause of death was complications from heart disease, according to his attorney, Tom Royals.
Avants was convicted for his role in the murder of Ben Chester White, a black sharecropper. Prosecutors said the killing was intended to lure King to Natchez, Miss., where he was to be assassinated. King did not visit Natchez after White's slaying, but was assassinated by James Earl Ray two years later in Memphis, Tenn.
Avants was acquitted of murder in a 1967 state trial. Years later, authorities filed a federal charge of aiding and abetting murder after realizing that White was killed on federal property.
A federal court jury in Jackson, Miss., convicted Avants, the lone survivor of three white men who the government said took part in the killing, and sentenced him to life in prison.
He was a Korean War Army veteran. He was of the Baptist Faith.
Preceding him in death were his parents; his sister Betsy Ann Crawford; and his great-granddaughter, Kelsey Avants.
Survivors are his wife, Martha Avants; his daughter, Elizabeth Wallace of Bogue Chitto; his sons, David Avants and Glenn Avants, both of Bogue Chitto; one sister, Mary Nell Merritt of Baker, La.; nine grandchildren; and three great-grandchildren.
*****
Enterprise Journal; 04 Apr 1967, Tue; Page 1; McComb, Mississippi
New Jury Venire Likely in Natchez Murder Case
NATCHEZ, Miss. (AP) - A new list of prospective jurors was almost certain to be called today as jury selection for the James L. Jones murder trial goes into its second day here.
Four jurors, all of them white men, were picked Monday from a special 100 - man venire and part of the regular venire called for circuit court duty. Both the defense and prosecution used eight of their 12 chances to excuse jury prospects without some specific cause.
Jones, 57, of Natchez, is one of three white men accused of murdering 65-ygar-old Ben Chester White, a Negro who was shot 17 times with a rifle and once with a shotgun. His body was found June 12, 1966, two days after he disappeared, in Pretty Creek near Kingston, 10 miles southeast of here.
Dist. Atty. Lenox Foreman of Meadville said white was not connected with civil rights activities.
The other two men named in the case are Claude Fuller, 47, of Natchez and Ernest Avants, 36, of nearby Washington both labeled as Ku Klux Klansmen by the House Committee, on Un-American Activities.
Judge James A. Torrey passed their trials for this term of the court.
Jones testified at a preliminary hearing that the fatal shots were fired by Fuller and Avants. He said Fuller shot White with a rifle and told Avants to shoot him with a shotgun.
Jones said the body was dumped into the creek. Jones said Fuller later told him to burn his new car because it was bloodstained.
He said he had driven Fuller to White's house to check on a stray dog.
*****
The Delta Democrat Times; 04 Apr 1967, Tue; Page 1; Greenville, Mississippi
40 More Jurors Called In Natchez Murder Trial
NATCHEZ (UPI) - Forty more veniremen were called here today as selection of a jury continued in the trial of James L. Jones, one of the three white men charged with the brutal murder of an elderly Negro last summer.
A 100-man veneir had been exhausted Monday as jury selection began, Only four men - all white - were approved as jurors by opposing attorneys,
Selection of the jury was scheduled to be completed later today and testimony was to begin.
Jones, 57, along with Ernest Avants and Claude Fuller, was charged with the murder of Ben Chester White, 61. The headless, bullet-torn body of the elderly Negro was found floating in an Adams County creek June 13, 1966.
Jones, who said he could no longer live with his conscience, testified at a preliminary hearing that Fuller first shot White a number of times with an automatic rifle as the Negro cried: "Oh, Lord, what have I done to deserve this?" He said Avants then shot White and the blast from the shotgun "tore off the top of the Negro's head."
Fuller and Avants, once identified as Ku Klux Klansmen, were granted separate trials but no date has yet been set.
Circuit Judge James Torrey advised attorneys to be ready to proceed with testimony following completion of jury selection. He denied a motion by defense attorneys William Riley and state Rep. Charles Blackwell of Laurel to have the charge against Jones quashed.
Jones said he went to Adams County Sheriff Odell Anders and gave the sheriff a full statement because he "couldn't live with my conscience." He said the three white men picked White up at a ranch where the Negro was a cattle tender last June and got him to join them on the pretense of looking for a lost dog.
Jones maintained he also thought the men were searching for the lost animal until they got to Pretty Creek bridge. There, he said, Fuller made White get out of the car and started firing the rifle.
Avants then fired the shotgun, Jones said. He said he was told by Fuller to get rid of his car and tell the sheriff it had been stolen.
Authorities had not disclosed any apparent motive for the slaying. They insisted White had not been engaged in civil rights activity and in fact, was not even a registered voter.
*****
The Greenwood Commonwealth; 11 Apr 1967, Tue; Page 11; Greenwood, Mississippi
Jones, 57, was charged with murder in the death of Ben Chester White, 65, last June. Testimony centered around an outline by Sheriff Odell Anders of a statement he said Jones made voluntarily.
In the statement Jones was placed with Ernest Avants, 36, and Claude Fuller, 47, as they picked up White on the pretext of helping load hay and find a lost hunting dog. The statement said Avants and Fuller fired the shots that killed White.
Anders testified the three white men hoped the murder might lure Dr. Martin Luther King from a demonstration march in North Mississippi to Natchez where he could be killed.
The case went to the jury Saturday, but there was no verdict that day and the jurors were locked up for the weekend at a hotel.
*****
Clarion Ledger; 12 Apr 1967, Wed; Page 1; Jackson, Mississippi
Jones Case 'Mistrial'
NATCHEZ (AP) - Circuit Judge James A. Torrey ordered a mistrial Tuesday when a racially mixed jury reported it could not agree on a verdict in the James L. Jones murder case.
*****
Clarion Ledger; 09 Dec 1967, Sat; Page 1; Jackson, Mississippi
2 FBI Agents Say Avants Confessed
NATCHEZ, Miss. (AP) - Two FBI agents testified Friday that Ernest Avants told them he took part in the brutal 1966 slaying of an elderly Negro near here.
Agents Robert F. Boyle of Memphis and Allen N. Kornbleum of New York testified that they interviewed Avants March 13 on another case and that he voluntarily told them he took part in the murder of 65-year-old Ben Chester White June 10 last year. Boyle testified that Avants told him he shot White in the head with a shotgun when he was told to do so by a man he identified only as "Fuller."
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Hattiesburg American; 11 Dec 1967, Mon; Page 6
Last man will be tried in Negro slaying
NATCHEZ, Miss. (AP) - With Ernest Avants acquitted of murder and free, the spotlight next turns to Claude Fuller, the only one of three white men accused of killing Ben Chester White who has yet to be tried.
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Hattiesburg American; 14 Nov 1968, Thu; Page 7; Hattiesburg, Mississippi
Federal court jury returns judgement against the Klan
VICKSBURG, Miss. (AP) - A federal court jury has returned a judgement of $1,022,500 against the White Knights of the Ku Klux Klan and three white men in the 1966 slaying of Ben Chester White, a 65-year-old Negro.
Investigators said the slaying was part of a plot to create enough racial tension in Natchez to lure the late Dr. Martin Luther King, a Negro civil rights leader, into rifle range.
Judge Harold Cox, declaring the defendants liable for "the dastardly act." ordered the verdict Wednesday. The question he put to the jury was the amount of damages to be awarded in the unusual civil suit, filed under a Reconstruction era law.
The jury of eight Negroes and four whites deliberated for an hour and 30 minutes and then brought back the verdict $22,500 in actual damages and $1 million punitive damages against Ernest Avants, 37, Claude Fuller, 48, and James L. Jones, 58, all employes of a Natchez paper mill, and the White Knights of the Ku Klux Klan.
All three had been charged with murder in the slaying. In Circuit Court trials on the state charge Avants was acquitted and Jones won a mistrial. Fuller's case hasn't come up.
White had not been connected with civil rights activities.
The civil suit was brought by his son, Jesse, of Baton Rouge, La.
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Clarion Ledger; 31 Dec 2003, Wed; Page 11; Jackson, Mississippi
Ernest Avants, a reputed Klansman, was sentenced to life in prison without parole in June for his part in the 1966 civil rights-era murder of black Mississippi sharecropper Ben Chester White. Prosecutors say Avants killed White to lure the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. to Mississippi for an assassination attempt.
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Suggested edit on 21 Apr 2022: Margaret Darlene Hall Williams was never married to Earnest Avants She was married to Roger Williams and he is still alive. Her sister Martha Hall was married to Earnest Avants and she is still alive.
Contributor: Don (49125961)∼Ernest Avants, 72, a reputed Ku Klux Klansman convicted last year in a 1966 murder that prosecutors say was part of a failed plot to assassinate the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr., died Monday in a Fort Worth prison where he was serving a life sentence. The cause of death was complications from heart disease, according to his attorney, Tom Royals.
Avants was convicted for his role in the murder of Ben Chester White, a black sharecropper. Prosecutors said the killing was intended to lure King to Natchez, Miss., where he was to be assassinated. King did not visit Natchez after White's slaying, but was assassinated by James Earl Ray two years later in Memphis, Tenn.
Avants was acquitted of murder in a 1967 state trial. Years later, authorities filed a federal charge of aiding and abetting murder after realizing that White was killed on federal property.
A federal court jury in Jackson, Miss., convicted Avants, the lone survivor of three white men who the government said took part in the killing, and sentenced him to life in prison.
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