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‘Zone 7’: Moore’s Ford Bridge Murders: Part One | Claire Farley and Holly Hughes

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The Moore’s Ford lynchings, or the 1946 Georgia lynching, refer to the brutal murders of four young African Americans by a mob of white men on July 25, 1946.

The incident took place near Moore’s Ford Bridge in Walton and Oconee counties, Georgia. The victims were two married couples: George W. and Mae Murray Dorsey, and Roger and Dorothy Malcolm. The case attracted national attention, prompting large protests in Washington, D.C., and New York City.

President Harry Truman created the President’s Committee on Civil Rights and introduced anti-lynching legislation in Congress, but it was blocked by the Southern Democratic bloc. The FBI investigated the case in 1946 but could not find sufficient evidence to charge anyone. The cold case was reopened in the 1990s, but the state of Georgia and the FBI closed their cases in December 2017 without any prosecution.

In this episode of “Zone 7,” Crime Scene Investigator Sheryl McCollum is joined by Judge Holly Hughes and Assistant District Attorney Claire Farley, two experienced legal professionals and advocates for justice.

Together, they discuss a historical cold case involving sharecropping, economic servitude, and a flawed investigation. The team shares their experiences uncovering crime scene artifacts that remained hidden for decades and the challenges they faced when working with the FBI.

The conversation also covers the importance of unsealing grand jury records to gain invaluable insights and the search for truth and justice in this long-forgotten case.

FILE- This Feb. 22, 2018 photo shows a bridge that spans the Apalachee River at Moore’s Ford Road where in 1946 two young black couples were stopped by a white mob who dragged them to the riverbank and shot them multiple times in Monroe, Ga. The brazen mass lynching horrified the nation that year but no one was ever indicted and investigations over the years failed to solve the case. More than 70 years after a grand jury failed to indict anyone in the lynching of two young black couples in rural Georgia, a historian is seeking the transcripts from the grand jury proceedings. A federal appeals court is set to hear arguments in the case Wednesday, Oct. 3, 2018. (AP Photo/David Goldman, File)

About the ‘Zone 7’ Host

Sheryl “Mac” McCollum is an Emmy Award-winning CSI, a writer for CrimeOnline, a forensic and crime scene expert for “Crime Stories with Nancy Grace,” and a CSI for a metro-area Atlanta Police Department. She is the co-author of the textbook, “Cold Case: Pathways to Justice.”

McCollum is also the founder and director of the Cold Case Investigative Research Institute, a collaboration between universities and colleges that brings researchers, practitioners, students, and the criminal justice community. They come together to advance techniques in solving cold cases and assist families and law enforcement with solvability factors for unsolved homicides, missing persons, and kidnapping cases.

You can connect and learn more about McCollum’s work by visiting the CCIRI website https://coldcasecrimes.org

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[Feature Photo: FILE- This Feb. 12, 2005,  file photo shows Rosa Ingram, Roger Malcom’s aunt, reading the Georgia Historical Society marker for the Moore’s Ford bridge lynching, outside Monroe, Ga. The brazen mass lynching horrified the nation that year but no one was ever indicted and investigations over the years failed to solve the case. More than 70 years after a grand jury failed to indict anyone in the lynching of two young black couples in rural Georgia, a historian is seeking the transcripts from the grand jury proceedings. A federal appeals court is set to hear arguments in the case Wednesday, Oct. 3, 2018. (AP Photo/Ric Feld, File)]