The United States government, in the form of the FBI from Houston, yesterday moved in to take over the investigation into the brutal murder of a black man that recalled the days of the Old South.
Mr James Byrd (49) was dragged for more than a mile along a tarred road in east Texas, chained by the ankles to the bumper of a pick-up truck driven by three white men now in custody. His head and right arm were severed along the way.
The sheriff of Jasper county, Mr Billy Rowles, was elbowed out yesterday and put in charge of the job he least wanted: media relations.
A team of 10 FBI agents arrived in town, headed by Mr Don Clark, special agent in charge of the bureau's Houston office, a black man. The sheriff's department, police department and a regional intelligence task force will each contribute two agents.
Sheriff Rowles, looking frazzled and exhausted, put a brave face on it, saying the team was "working closely together". When the crime first came to light on Tuesday, he insisted there was no Ku Klux Klan activity in the county - to hoots of derision from reporters and black onlookers. He called the crime "just silly stuff". Mr Clark said no such thing. His job is to see if the murder warrants a case tried in federal courts - a "hate crime" or one that entails a breach of Mr Byrd's civil rights. Either can bring the death penalty.
Federal agents working with a gang-busting team from the Texas prison service are pursuing a theory that the three men charged with the killing were recruited into a racist sect, the Aryan Brotherhood, while in prison last year.