Alton Wayne Roberts (April 6, 1938 – September 11, 1999) was an American murderer and white supremacist.
1964
Roberts, a member of the White Knights of the Ku Klux Klan, was convicted for his role in the 1964 Freedom Summer murders.
He was the one who fatally shot two of the victims, Congress of Racial Equality civil rights activists Michael Schwerner and Andrew Goodman.
Roberts also shot the third activist, James Chaney, but it is debated by some that it was another accomplice, James Jordan, who had killed him.
Jordan had identified Roberts as Chaney's killer.
In the afternoon of June 21, 1964, Chaney, Goodman, and Schwerner arrived at Longdale to inspect a burned out black church in Neshoba County, which had been attacked and vandalised by the local chapter of the KKK.
They left Longdale around 3 p.m. They were to be in Meridian by 4 p.m. that day.
The fastest route to Meridian was through Philadelphia.
At the fork of Beacon & Main Street their station wagon sustained a flat tire.
It is possible that a shot was fired at the station wagon's tire.
Sheriff Lawrence A. Rainey's home was near the Beacon and Main Street fork.
Deputy Cecil Price soon arrived and escorted them to the county jail.
Price released the trio as soon as the longest day of the year became night which was about 10 p.m. The three were last seen heading south in their Ford station wagon along Highway 19 toward Meridian.
Two Mississippi Highway Patrol men waited at Pilgrim's Gas Station not far from Philadelphia's city limits.
The trio was likely deterred from using a phone at the station.
They drove past the station and continued toward Meridian.
The lynch mob, in Horace D. Barnette's and Billy W. Posey's cars, was drinking while arguing who would kill the three men.
Eventually Philadelphia Police Officer Other N. Burkes drove up to Barnette's car and told the mob that "they're going on 19 toward Meridian. Follow them!"
After a quick rendezvous with Philadelphia Police Officer Richard Willis, Price was in pursuit of the three civil rights workers.
Posey's Chevrolet carried Jerry M. Sharpe, Jimmy L. Townsend, and Alton W. Roberts.
Horace Barnette had a two-toned blue Ford Fairlane sedan.
In Horace's car were James Jordan, Jimmy K. Arledge, Jimmy Snowden, Roberts, and Posey.
Posey's car apparently had carburetor problems and broke down on the side of the road.
Sharpe and Townsend were ordered to stay with the car and get it running again.
Price eventually caught the CORE station wagon heading west toward Union, Mississippi, on state highway 492.
Soon the three civil rights workers would be escorted north on Highway 19 to secluded Rock Cut Road where they would be executed at the hands of Roberts and Jordan.
When they arrived, Roberts reportedly pulled Schwerner out of the car, pointing a gun at his chest.
"Are you that nigger lover?"
Roberts asked, his left hand on Schwerner's shoulder.
"Sir, I know just how you feel," Schwerner replied.
Roberts then shot him in the heart and then grabbed Goodman, shooting him in the chest near his right shoulder.
Chaney ran, but Roberts along with other Klansmen were able to shoot him dead before he could run any farther.
Roberts fired into Chaney's lower back and his head.
1967
In 1967, he was charged and convicted of depriving the slain activists of their civil rights.
Alton Wayne Roberts, who went by Wayne for most of his life, was born and raised in Meridian, Mississippi.
He was the second youngest child of Clyde Cuthell Roberts and Eula Juanita Quinnelly, and grew up with three brothers, Lee, Lyod, and Raymond.
Roberts played football during high school.
Roberts, then 26 years old, owned a bar and was worked as a window salesman and a mobile home salesman, at the time of the murders.
He previously served in the U.S. Marine Corps, from which he was dishonorably discharged for drunkenness and absence without leave.
He was married to Linda Walker and had no children.
