The circumstances of Till's death remained largely unknown, until they were revealed after the highly controversial acquittal of his son's murderers 10 years later.

[5] On July 19, 1944,[6] Till was arrested by Military Police, who suspected him and two fellow soldiers of the murder of Allied civilian Anna Zanchi, an Italian woman, and the rape of two others in Civitavecchia.

Thomas, the shot that later killed Anna Zanchi had been fired from the M1911 pistol that Louis Till had stolen that morning from the U.S. Navy Serviceman.

He testified that Louis Till had fired the shot that killed Anna Zanchi and had told him personally, "Get in the house, or I'll blow your head off!"

The objection was overruled by Law Member Colonel Roger W. Whitman, who instructed the jury, however, that the confession could only be used as evidence against Private McMurray.

After this objection was also overruled by Col. Whitman, the United States military jury voted unanimously to convict both defendants and sentenced them to death by hanging.

Regarding the two surviving victims inability to recognize their attackers, Col. Wolfe wrote, "The place, time, and circumstances were such as to exclude reasonable doubt as to their identity.

[22] U.S. Army Chaplain William O. Strother, an African-American Methodist minister, presided over the funerals of both soldiers at the U.S. Military Cemetery in Naples.

Despite her later statements that the U.S. Army told her nothing, the War Department telegram sent to Mamie Till read, according to Col. French Maclean, that her husband's cause of death was, "Judicial Asphixiation (sic) due to his own willful misconduct in Italy.

In 1955, she let her son Emmett take the ring to visit relatives in Mississippi, where he was soon murdered, resulting in a civil rights case that gained lasting national attention.

On August 28, 1955, 14-year-old Emmett Till was murdered in Mississippi, after allegedly making advances towards Carolyn Bryant, a local white woman.

(Years later, a historian claimed that Bryant disclosed to him that she had fabricated testimony that Till made verbal or physical advances towards her in the store.

Senators from Mississippi James Eastland and John C. Stennis uncovered details about Louis Till's court-martial and execution and leaked them to media sources sympathetic to continued segregation.

In November 1955, a Leflore County grand jury declined to return an indictment against Emmett Till's two killers for kidnapping, despite a recent magazine interview in which they both had freely admitted to being guilty of that very offense.

[18]: 136  Many of these editorials specifically cited an article in Life Magazine, which presented Louis Till as having been killed in action while fighting for his country in France.

They even alleged that Till had attempted to commit sexual assault, after the fashion of his father, and thereby justified his murder as an act of vigilantism.

[18]: 138 United States Army Colonel French Maclean, who tracked down and examined the case file and sentencing documents, ultimately believes Louis to be guilty.

Unfortunately for Private Till, one of his co-conspirators was not afraid of him and agreed to testify against the tough guy from the Windy City in return for a recommendation of clemency in his own case.

In 2016, notable African-American novelist and essayist John Edgar Wideman tracked down the same case files as Maclean and reached a different conclusion, believing his innocence.