About The Project

Cold Cases in Louisiana & Mississippi – LSU Cold Case Project

The Manship School of Mass Communication works to bring closure to the families and the nation for the unsolved Klan-related homicides in Louisiana and southern Mississippi during the Civil Rights era.

Featured Story: Southern Series Pt. 1

Featured Story: Southern Series Pt. 2

Featured Case

Shooting at Southern University

Victims: Denver Smith and Leonard “Douglas” Brown Background In the fall of 1972 at Southern University in Baton Rouge, students began protesting for better school conditions. The students formed a…

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Featured Case

Robert Fuller

Robert ‘Shotgun’ Fuller: The 1960 Murder of Albert Pitts Jr., David Lee Pitts, Earnest McFarland and Alfred ‘Monk’ Marshall and Wounding of Charlie Willis In Monroe, Louisiana, in 1960, Zennie…

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Featured Case

Deacons For Defense

Deacons for Defense & Justice The Deacons for Defense & Justice was an organization of Black men formed in Louisiana during the Civil Rights-era to protect Black people and neighborhoods,…

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Featured Case

Growing Up in Klan Family: Earcel Boyd

Earcel Boyd was a member of the Silver Dollar Group and a statewide officer in the Louisiana Realm of the United Klans of America. Two of his sons, Sonny and Leland Boyd, talked to us in 2022 about how traumatizing it was to grow up in his family and how they rebelled against most of…

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LSU Cold Case Project for Louisiana and Mississippi Unsolved Cases Hosts:

Over 175K Pages
of FBI Investigative Findings on Regional Cases
60+ Photos
160+ Cases
in DOJ Cold Case Initiative
36+ Stories






Deacons For Defense

Deacons for Defense & Justice The Deacons for Defense & Justice was an organization of Black men formed in Louisiana during the Civil Rights-era to protect Black people and neighborhoods,…

Read More

Robert Fuller

Robert ‘Shotgun’ Fuller: The 1960 Murder of Albert Pitts Jr., David Lee Pitts, Earnest McFarland and Alfred ‘Monk’ Marshall and Wounding of Charlie Willis In Monroe, Louisiana, in 1960, Zennie…

Read More

Shooting at Southern University

Victims: Denver Smith and Leonard “Douglas” Brown Background In the fall of 1972 at Southern University in Baton Rouge, students began protesting for better school conditions. The students formed a…

Read More

Murder of Frank Morris

Frank Morris was 51 years old when Klansmen torched his shoe shop in Ferriday, LA, on December 10, 1964. He had been sleeping in a back room when he was…

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Louisiana Cold Case Gallery

The pictures we gather throughout the investigations.


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