People Magazine Investigates: Who was James Byrd Jr. and how did he die?

James Byrd Jr., a 49-year-old black man from Texas, was picked up by three white men from a dark, rural road in the early morning hours of June 7, 1998. He was reportedly returning home from a party and the three men (one of whom he recognized from town) offered to give him a ride in their gray colored pick-up truck.

Byrd, a divorcee and father of three children, never made it home. His body was discovered by a black boy outside the city limits in front of a church. The African-American Texan resident lived alone in a subsidized apartment in Jasper, a city which was almost evenly divided between the black and white communities.

The horrific murder of James Byrd Jr. at the hands of three white supremacists shook the city of 8,000 and led to a series of revolutionary events, including bringing ministers and people of all faiths together and bringing down fences that created divides between communities.

ID's People Magazine Investigates will revisit the gut-wrenching hate crime in its upcoming episode this coming Monday, July 18, 2022. Learn more about the gruesome murder of James Byrd Jr. ahead of the episode's premiere.

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How was James Byrd Jr., a black Texan man, murdered in a hate crime in 1998?

The 1998 hate crime murder of James Byrd Jr., a black Texan, is still considered one of the most heinous crimes in American history that sparked widespread outrage across the world.

Byrd was picked up by John William King, Shawn Berry, and Lawrence Russell Brewer while on his way back home. Unfortunately, instead of driving him home, the three white men drove him out of the city to a clearing in the woods where they allegedly got into a fight with Byrd. King, Berry and Brewer then brutally assaulted him and shackled him by the ankles to the back of the truck. What followed was an unimaginable and awful tragedy.

The three men dragged him down the deserted rural road for nearly three miles until his body was completely dismembered, with pieces of him scattered all across the road. Later, they dumped the remains in front of the black church to be discovered the next morning. An autopsy revealed that Byrd was conscious when he was dragged across the dirt road and only eventually died when his head, shoulder, and right arm got dismembered.

Since both King and Brewer were notable members of the white supremacist group, the murder was investigated as an instance of hate crime by Jasper law enforcement officers. Three trials later, the three individuals were determined to have committed capital murder. Berry was sentenced to life in jail for his confession and cooperating with the police, while Brewer and King received death sentences and were executed in 2011 and 2019, respectively.

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The official synopsis of the upcoming People Magazine Investigates episode states:

"The murder of James Byrd Jr. throws his family into turmoil as law enforcement investigates one of the most gruesome hate crimes in U.S. history."

The July 18 episode of People Magazine Investigates, titled Evil Comes to Jasper, will air at 9 pm ET on Investigation Discovery and Discovery+.