Historical records matching Louis Till
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Immediate Family
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About Louis Till
Louis Till
Born: February 7, 1922 New Madrid, Missouri, U.S.
Died: July 2, 1945 (aged 23) Pisa, Italy
Cause of death: Judicial hanging
Resting place: Oise-Aisne American Cemetery, France
Nationality: American
Education: Argo Community High School
Known for: Father of Chicago teenager Emmett Till who was murdered in Mississippi in 1955
Spouse(s): Mamie Till (m. 1940–1945)
(1 child; Emmett Till)
Louis Till (February 7, 1922 – July 2, 1945) was an American soldier. He was the father of Emmett Till, whose murder in 1955 at the age of 14 galvanized the Civil Rights Movement.
A soldier during World War II, Louis Till was executed by the U.S. Army in 1945 after being found guilty of murder and rape. The circumstances of his death were little known even to his family until they were revealed after the trial of his son's murderers ten years later, which affected subsequent discourse on the death of Emmett Till.
Life
Louis Till grew up an orphan in New Madrid, Missouri. As a young man he worked at the Argo Corn Co., was an amateur boxer and very popular with women. At the age of 17 he began courting Mamie Carthan, a woman of the same age. Her parents disapproved, thinking the charismatic Till was "too sophisticated" for their daughter. At her mother's insistence Mamie broke off their courtship but the persistent Till won out, and they married on October 14, 1940. Both were 18 years old. Their only child, Emmett Louis Till, was born on July 25, 1941. Mamie left her husband soon after learning that he had been unfaithful. Louis, enraged, choked her to unconsciousness, to which she responded by throwing scalding water at him. Eventually she obtained a restraining order against him. After he repeatedly violated this order, a judge forced Till to choose between enlistment in the United States Army and imprisonment. Choosing the former, he enlisted in 1943.
While serving in the Italian Campaign, Till was arrested by military police, who suspected him and another soldier, Fred A. McMurray, of the murder of an Italian woman and the rape of two others, in Civitavecchia. After a lengthy investigation he and McMurray were court-martialed, found guilty and sentenced to death by hanging. The sentence was carried out at the United States Army Disciplinary Training Center north of Pisa on July 2, 1945. He had been imprisoned alongside American poet Ezra Pound, who had been imprisoned for collaborating with the Nazis and Italian Fascists; he is mentioned in lines 171-173 of Canto 74 of Pound's Pisan Cantos:
Till was hung yesterday for murder and rape with trimmings Till was buried in Grave 73, Row 4 of Plot E in Oise-Aisne American Cemetery.
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Louis Till's Timeline
| 1922 |
February 7, 1922
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New Madrid, Missouri, United States
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| 1941 |
July 25, 1941
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Chicago, Cook, Illinois, United States
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| 1945 |
July 2, 1945
Age 23
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U.S. Army Disciplinary Training Center,, Pisa, Italy
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| ???? |
Oise-Aisne American Cemetery, France
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