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FU-350 (Rev. 5.8.81 ) Few aware of. neighbor’s li to Evers slaying By Bill Nichols USA TODAY SIGNAL MOUNTAIN, Tenn. — Thel- ma Neff says this of her once-again-in- the-headlines husband, Byron De La Beckwith: “If men were a fourth as good -.. We Wouldn't have any problems in America.” But to most of his neighbors in this fog- shrouded Chattanooga suburb, the man accused of killing civil rights activist Medgar Evers Is little more than a quiet eccentric who hung a Confederate flag outside his front door — and who now is bringing a bad name to their town. Says Joseph Wagner, a Signal Moun- tain lawyer who's lived here 73 years: “He's just a poor old fellow who’s out of ' kilter, out of 4 date. You can't _help but feel sorry for some- body like that. It's kind of pa- thetic.” An admitted: white suprema- cist, the 70-year- old Beckwith — middie name is pro- nounced dee- UPI (1983 photo) EVERS: Slain activ- ists’ case wil be ree LAY. . and tried after 28 years friends call him “Delay” — is in isolation in the Hamilton County jail. ‘He is being held without bond, await- ing hearings next week on his extradi- tion to Jackson, Miss., where he’s charged with murdering Evers on June 12, 1963. Beckwith’s Chattanooga law- yer, Russell Bean, says his client is a “po- litical prisoner.” : Twice he’s' been tried for the crime, and In both trials, conducted in 1964, all. white: juries failed to reach verdicts: Beckwith, whose fingerprints were found on the 30.06-caliber ‘rifle that killed Evers, says the gun was stolen fromhim and that he's innocent. . (Mount Clipping in Space Below) A: town-stunning history Y ) a le here knew nothing o1 Beciwitl’s role in the Evers case. Nor did they know of his 1877 conviction in | Louisiana for possessing explosives. - —" Soa Mississippi grand.fury s December to re-indict Beckwit shocked many in this community of 7,200 — a mix of longtime residents and “new money’ Chattanooga professionals who can peer down some 1,000 feet at the downtown skyline below. Beckwith moved to the area eight years ago when he married Neff, a regis- tered nurse whose family has lived on in for genera’ ne Tmmean.E Beckwith — whois he?” says Lew Porter, a building inspector. I think he kept his mouth shut and his sheets clean while he was up here. GZ. “Bome” Patten, publisher of the monthly Signal Mountain Newsletter, remembers when Neff told friends she d met “this wonderful man sada Mississi i they were going married. p Patten, ‘hile stressing that Beckwith was “no trouble at all,” also remembers Beckwith tried to sell subscriptions to right-wing publications at the loca] bar- Oe ecbeith also pushed him to publish an article saying “the Jews are destroy- country.” i ey Beckwith was always well- dressed, polite — “not what we would cali a typical Southern redneck, Patten says. “I like him. J still do. He's a nice Nett, 80, says she’s worried sick that decision in .. . a a a - (Indicate page, name of newspaper, city and state.) USA TODAY bate Wednesday, 1/9/91 Edition: '|Page: 3A Title: Character: or Classification: Submitting Office: her husband, who suffers from a heart condition, won't survive. “None of it’s fair. He’s such a wonder- ful Christian,” she says. Mississippi offi- cials, she says, are “giving in to the blacks too much.” Beckwith, through his lawyer, de- clined to be interviewed unless he was paid $5,000. Neff, pointing to a brimming basket of majl in her wood-paneled living room, says Beckwith is getting support from across the nation. She says the people of Signal Moun- tain stand behind her husband as well. In fact, Signal Mountain — a place so safe and quiet that, as developer Tim Downey puts it, “the police will still get, your cat down out of the tree” — wag once called “paradise” by Beckwith, be- cause of its racial makeup. ; Mayor Bernard Wolfe*says there are only two or three black families here, and concedes some have been Subjected to racial slurs. Ku Klux Kian activity was reported on the mountain in the Some “good ol’ boys” remain, Wolfe says, in the mountain's rural outback. But residents deeply resent implica- tions that they share Beckwith's outlook. “He would be a real rarity,” says Dow- hey. “If he’s a white supremacist, he's the first I've ever met up here.” Feai-oos