Viola Liuzzo, a civil rights worker, traveled to Alabama to help with voter registration. In 1965 Ms. Luizzo was murdered en route to a civil rights meeting. Her murder was allegedly committed by KKK members Eugene Thomas, Collie Leroy Wilkins, Jr. and William Orville Eaton. Thomas and Wilkins were found not guilty of first degree murder in state Court. All three suspects were found guilty of civil rights violations in U.S. District Court, Montgomery, AL. The three were sentenced to 10 years in a federal prison. Eaton died on March 9, 1966, from natural causes, before serving his sentence.