Emmett Till Accuser Carolyn Bryant Donham Dies At 88; Wolf Whistle Claim Led To Brutal Murder
deadline.comCarolyn Bryant Donham, the white woman whose claim that 14-year-old Emmett Till whistled at her during a grocery store visit led to the Black teenager’s brutal murder in August 1955, died of cancer Tuesday in Westlake, Louisiana.
She was 88. Donham’s death while under hospice care was confirmed today in a report filed by the Calcasieu Parish, Louisiana, coroner’s office.
Donham, known as Carolyn Bryant at the time of Till’s lynching, was the 21-year-old owner-cashier of a small general store in Money, Mississippi, when she first encounter Till, a Chicago boy who was visiting relatives in town.
After Donham told her then-husband Roy Bryant and his half-brother J.W. Milam that Till had whistled at her in the store – a claim that has been much disputed and remains unfounded – the two men abducted, tortured and murdered the boy.
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