f miles, shows how the fear of the murders manifested itself throughout the African-American culture. This preoccupation with the murders, and the desperate attempts to discover their cause can be explained by the deep-seated fear with which many blacks viewed the whites involved in the case.
             This fear of racist forces at work during the case displayed itself through numerous rumors which appeared in the black community. Turner attributes the emergence and dissemination of the rumors to a desperate need for information within the community. While the primarily white news sources showed the progress or lack thereof in the case, at the community level rumors spread which gave non-official explanations of the murders. Turner believes the black communities mistrust of a predominantly white media helped give rise to the popularity of the rumors. These verbal rumors were not only explanations of the crisis, but served to express the fears of the black community.
             Turner claims that it was the 'unofficial' news which had the greatest impact among the African-Americans. In her view, once the community had confirmed the crimes against their population, speculation ran rampant and possible assailants and motives were created. The focus on anti-black groups expressed the preoccupying fear of the blacks towards these groups. Turner points out that the KKK was the primary suspect in the murders, and adds that the Klan has often been cited by the black community as a "plausible source of conspiracy" (79) This is an expression of cultural fear, where the rumor elucidates what many blacks feel to be a primary source of concern.
             Was the black community in this situation given reason to fear that the white community, or white supremacist groups had anything to do with the murders? The answer is yes, and because they had a compelling reason they expressed their cultural fear of this. Turner points out that one of the prosecution witnesses involved...