Rogers Hamilton

Notice to Close File^[1]

On October 22, 1957, at approximately 1:30 a.m., Rogers Hamilton, the 18-year-old African-American victim, was fatally shot.  According to the victim’s mother, Beatrice Hamilton, one or two white men drove XXXXXX in a pickup truck and called out to the victim by name several times.  The victim went outside and stood in the yard talking to one of the white men for several minutes.  The victim then got into the pickup truck, and the white man he had been talking to got in next to him.  The truck drove a short ways down the road, and Hamilton followed it.  Hamilton stated that she saw a white man who was standing outside the truck draw a pistol and shoot the victim in the forehead.  The man then got back into the truck, and the truck drove away.  The victim’s death was investigated locally, but the subject(s) were never identified, nor were investigators able to determine the motive for the killing.