Life magazine of Oct. 10, 1955 stated that Emmitt Till’s father, Louis Till, was a soldier hero who had died for his country. Later it was revealed that his father was a criminal soldier who had been hung in Europe by the U.S. Army for the crime of rape and double murder. Before the war, Till nearly strangled his wife, who took out a court order to keep him away from her. A judge gave Till a choice between jail and the Army. He chose the Army. The press later received this information but failed to reveal it in the news. Fifty years later, September 25, 2005, the Chicago Tribune printed a news story of Louis Till’s burial with seventy-nine other black soldiers, all convicted and executed by the U.S. Army for crimes of rape and murder in Europe during World War II.