True Crime Mississippi / Book 1

The Jackson Files

By J.R. Stranahan

Jackson is Mississippi's capital and a crossroads for the state's courts, archives, civil-rights history, and modern investigations. In The Jackson Files, J.R. Stranahan follows seven carefully documented cases across Jackson and central Mississippi. The record begins with the murder of Medgar Evers, the killings of James Chaney, Andrew Goodman, and Michael Schwerner, and the deaths of Phillip Lafayette Gibbs and James Earl Green at Jackson State. It continues through the murders of Avis Banks and her unborn son, the hate-crime conspiracy that killed James Craig Anderson, eight deaths across three Lincoln County homes, and the torture of Michael Corey Jenkins and Eddie Terrell Parker by Rankin County officers. Drawing on court opinions, government records, institutional archives, and responsible reporting, this account explains what investigators alleged, what witnesses testified, what courts decided, and what remained unresolved as of September 2, 2026.