U.S.

Riot Victim May Be Exhumed

By CBSNews.com staff CBSNews.com staff

May 9, 2001 / 1:55 PM EDT / CBS

South Carolina authorities may get an official request to exhume the body of the woman killed during 1969 race riots in York, Pennsylvania.

York Mayor Charles Robertson and several other men have been indicted in the case.

South Carolina health officials got a fax this week asking about a disinternment permit for Lillie Belle Allen, buried in Aiken, South Carolina.

A month and a-half ago, York prosecutors exhumed the remains of a York police officer who also was killed in the riots in the small industrial city.

It's not clear who sent the fax to South Carolina authorities, but Aiken County Coroner Sue Townsend says York County prosecutors had contacted her about the matter some time ago.

Allen, 27, was a mother of two who died in a hail of bullets after her family car accidentally strayed into a white neighborhood on the night of July 21, 1969.

Robertson, 67, a popular two-term Democrat, was a city police officer at the time of the shooting. A judge decided earlier this month that Robertson should stand trial for the shooting after a defendant testified that Robertson gave him ammunition and told him to kill as many blacks as possible.

Formal arraignment was set for July 23.

Robertson is charged with giving bullets and encouragement to a mob that later killed Allen.

Another defendant, Robert Nelson Messersmith, 52, is accused of being the actual triggerman.

Prosecutors have charged Robertson with being an accessory to murder, though the bullet that killed Allen was of a different type than the ammunition he allegedly handed out.

The mayor denies the charges and has refused to step down despite calls for his resignation. However, after narrowly winning the city's Democratic primary, Robertson said last month that he will not seek a third term.

Robertson said he had racist feelings after his father was mugged by three black men in the 1950s.

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Four of the accused have testified against the mayor in exchange for being allowed to plead guilty to lesser charges.

Defendant Rick Knouse, former gang member, said Robertson gave him a box of shells of the night of Belle and told him to "'Kill as many … as you can.'"

When prosecutor Ed Paskey asked him what word he omitted, Knouse replied "niggers."

Robertson, has acknowledged yelling "white power!" at a rally the night before Allen was killed, but says he had no involvement in the killing and did not urge whites to kill blacks.

The riots began after a white gang member shot and wounded a young black man in the city 85 miles west of Philadelphia. More than 60 people were injured, 100 were arrested and entire city blocks were burned.

Belle and the white police officer, Henry Schaad, were killed in the 10 days of rioting. No charges had been filed in eithecase until last month.

The inquiry in York follows cases reopened by Southern prosecutors and civil rights advocates. Earlier this month, ex-Ku Klux Klansman Thomas Blanton Jr. was sentenced to life in prison for the 1963 bombing of a Birmingham, Ala., church in which four black girls were killed.