The Greenwood Commonwealth has a fascinating story on the missing transcript from the trial of Emmett Till's accused killers, J.W. Milam and Roy Bryant (shown above with their wives). While it would be great it the transcript of the trial was found, I don't think it would fundamentally change our understanding of the case.

The trial testimony was widely reported at the time in both black and white newspapers. The main benefit of an official transcript is that it might reconcile some contradictions, and perhaps fill in a few gaps, in the original newspaper reports. I doubt that it would lead to any major revisions, however.

My wife (and co-author) Linda Royster Beito and I were able to make good use of these newspaper accounts for our recent articles on a possible conspiracy in the murder of Emmett Till. See here for our original article and here for our critique of the recent, and very flawed,"60 Minutes" report. This research will appear in our upcoming book on the life of civil rights leader, T.R.M. Howard.

Many thanks to David Holmberg for calling this to my attention.