Photograph from the Dahmer Trial

In January of 1966, a vicious attack occurred on the home, property, family, and store of Vernon Dahmer. Before the sun had even risen, the family was woken up to gunfire and an explosion in their home. A group of Ku Klux Klan (KKK) members firebombed the home and grocery store owned by Mr. Dahmer with a homemade bomb and attacked his family. Along with firebombing and opening gunfire on his home, the Klan members also shot the windows of his vehicles out and vandalized his grocery store before setting it on fire as well.

His three children and wife managed to escape the burning home while Vernon fought off the attackers by returning gunfire from within his home. He sacrificed his life to save his wife and children sleeping in the home, giving them time to escape before they were shot or inevitably poisoned by smoke inhalation. Thankfully, everyone except for Vernon Dahmer, made it out alive, and only one of the children had injuries. The youngest daughter, Bettie, had burns on her arms. While Mr. Dahmer did survive the fire and shootout, he eventually died of smoke inhalation and seared lungs due to the extended amount of time he spent inside of the house returning fire at the Ku Klux Klan.

As horrible as it may seem, Mr. and Mrs. Dahmer saw this attack coming and had been dreading and expecting it for years. Dahmer and his wife Ellie had been sleeping in shifts and had been keeping a shotgun next to the bed just in case this exact situation occurred. Dahmer made it his life mission to encourage and recruit other African Americans to voice their political values and vote, even offering to pay every African American’s poll tax if they would vote. The family was receiving death threats left and right. However, he felt passionate about this and refused to let the KKK control him. The Ku Klux Klan of Mississippi felt threatened by this rise of power within Dahmer’s voice. They felt a need to neutralize this voice, although death was the ultimate outcome for Vernon Dahmer, the Klan members claim that his death was not their intention. They only wanted to stop him from attempting to normalize voting by African Americans. Even in the hospital, on his death bed, Vernon Dahmer stood by his decisions of political equality. His last words to the press were, “I've been active in trying to get people to register to vote. People who don’t vote are deadbeats on the state. I figure a man needs to do his own thinking. What happened to us last night can happen to anyone, white or black. At one time I didn’t think so, but I have changed my mind.”

A total of fourteen Klan members were arrested and charged with arson, murder, and conspiracy. Five men of these Klansmen were convicted and one of the five pled guilty. Sam Bowers, the man who ordered the attack and the Imperial Wizard of the Mississippi White Knights of the KKK, was tried four times for the case and was eventually convicted. He remained in prison with a life sentence and died at the age of eighty-two of a heart attack. At the time of his arrest, Sam Bowers and his partner, who he shared a home with, had their home searched. During the search they found a blueprint for the homemade bomb along with written records from the KKK meetings discussing their hatred towards Mr. Dahmer.

The photograph comes from the Robert B. Helfrich Papers (M410). Helfrich was the Assistant District Attorney in the 1998 Vernon Dahmer murder trial. More information about the collection can be found here. If you have questions about the collection, contact Lorraine Stuart at Lorraine.Stuart@usm.edu.

Payshence Maddox, Forensic Criminal Justice Major