Who places a hood over his head before committing suicide?

[CatWoman]

Or is my spidey sense tingling for naught?

When a black man hangs from a tree in Jefferson Davis' boyhood home, people tend to assume the worst.

That's exactly what some members of the old and respected Veal family in Wilkinson County feared Friday morning when a turkey hunter spotted the body of one of their own, Roy Veal, swinging from a pecan tree with a hood over his head. And that's exactly why Sheriff Reginald Jackson wanted to be meticulous about investigating the call.

So, is Woodville, a hamlet near the Mississippi-Louisiana state line with a downtown square right out of central casting, destined for some kind of Faulknerian infamy? Or did a troubled 55-year-old man apparently living out of his pickup truck take his own life?

The townfolk rely on rumor, and the sheriff awaits the return later this week of crime lab and autopsy results. But he and other officials are virtually certain of one thing: No one was lynched in Woodville.

"I don't think this is some Jim Crow deal," Jackson said. "You've got to consider it with Mississippi's history, but I deal with the crime as what it is, and this is not a hate crime."

http://www.nola.com/news/t-p/index.ssf?/base/news-1/1083146595317290.xml

[GainesT1958]

1. Well, the Heaven's Gate cult DID come to mind...

Until the part about a lynching. A lynching is a hate crime, period--no matter where, no matter who.

B-)

[CatWoman]

2. So, what do you make of it?

lynching, or suicide?

[Ripley]

4. Why would the all black Sherrif's dept. lie?

I'd take their word on it. Maybe the guy had some religious thing about covering his face because he had guilt about suicide. Who knows?

I'd like to hear what his family says about his state of mind recently.

[tom_paine]

7. Well, words are reliable but a Blood Toxicology Screen would

be irrefutable. Did this man have drugs in his system? How many? Perhaps somebody slipped him a Mickey Finn to make him more pliant.

With a Toxicology Report, anything is possible.

[DrWeird]

3. It should be a suspected homicide

unless there's some evidence to suspect otherwise, like a clear suicide note and a history of suicide attempts.

I suspect Jackson.

[CatWoman]

6. Methinks you're on to something

All too often, law enforcement has been either the culprit or the instigator in these type situations.

The civil rights workers murdered in Mississippi in the 60's comes to mind.

[Ripley]

8. But the Sherriff and deputies are all BLACK.

So why would they be motivated to lynch a black man?

[CatWoman]

11. stranger things have happened

IMO.

Power corrupts.

Absolute power corrupts absolutely.

[Ripley]

14. Really?

I've never heard of blacks lynching blacks. I've been in that area many times and know someone who lived there for decades. There really is a lot more racial harmony in some parts of the south than I witnessed growing up in Ohio.

I just hate it when things are automatically assumed to be the worst in the south. Why would a black Sherriff "cover up" an outrage such as a lynching? I don't think so.

[CatWoman]

16. Not really

some blacks owned slaves.

they learned a lot from their mentors.

[tom_paine]

17. I agree with you, Ripley

It doesn't totally rule out Foul Play, but it pretty well rules out a "Mississippi Burning" style coverup, IMHO.

[nothingshocksmeanymore]

18. Sheriff is a political position, so it wouldn't surprise me even though

I can appreciate your questioning.

[DrWeird]

9. What was that kids name, Emmit Till?

They said he tried to commit suicide by swimming through a swamp with an electric appliance wrapped around his neck.

[tom_paine]

10. But then why would Jackson, an African-American, be doing that?

I'm not sure even a Vile Totalitarian Bushevik Scum like Clarence Thomas would do that (though I may be wrong, he IS a Bushevik Monster, after all).

[DrWeird]

13. Jackson's black?

Then the mystery deepens.

[tom_paine]

15. Dude, read the article

This ain't "Mississippi Burning", whatever happened.

As I said, it certainly is a possibility the CCofC--Night Rider Wing drugged him up to make him pliant.

Where is the Tox Screen Results?

[tom_paine]

5. My guess would be the Klan is figuring new ways to murder

(not that anything is certain in this odd case)

Notice there was no mention of a toxicology screen performed.

One wonders if one has been performed or if this is just another example of Bushevik Progress in coverups and lies and Jeb Crow "by other means".

But we can never know. It might have been a suicide. Yesd it smells fishy. And what about that Blood Toxicology Screen?

[Fleshdancer]

12. I've never heard of a suicide hanging with a hood

but then again there's no sign of a struggle. Maybe he was forced at gun point?? But his hands were free so why not take the hood off? Assuming the hood was on during the act instead of after. I don't know. This is weird.

For the sake of the rest of the other residents in the area, I hope it was suicide and not a lynching.