HAMMOND, La. _ Southeastern Louisiana University historian Samuel Hyde Jr. discusses the history of the Ku Klux Klan in the Lower Mississippi Valley for an episode of the “Fatal Encounters'' program on the Discovery Channel.
The program is set to air Feb. 10.
Hyde, the university's Leon C. Ford Endowed Chair of Regional Studies, is interviewed in the program titled “White Hot Rage.''
The episode centers on the case of Cynthia Lynch, who came to Louisiana several years ago to join a klan group based in Washington and St. Tammany parishes. She was killed during her initiation after changing her mind about joining the group in the Pearl River swamp.
The trial of Raymond "Chuck" Foster had screeched to a halt Wednesday about 11 a.m. in Covington during the testimony of Frank Stafford, the first witness.
Around noon, Foster admitted to murdering Cynthia Lynch, 43, on Nov. 9, 2008, the day after she had been initiated into the Bogalusa Sons of Dixie Knights.
According to attorneys, Foster saw Lynch's mother, Virginia, crying during Stafford's testimony and felt remorse and wanted to admit what he had done.
Foster, 45, also believed showing his sorrow and admitting culpability might "save his soul," attorneys said, adding that the Ku Klux Klan does have its own skewed kind of religious order.
*Pictured above is Samuel Hyde Jr
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