Although it may sound like a fictional story straight out of Hollywood, a recently published book reveals the earlier life of a Columbia man who was recruited as an informant by the FBI in the 1960s to infiltrate and gather intelligence from the inner circles of a regional faction of the Ku Klux Klan.
Tom Landrum, who passed away a couple of years ago, has extensive family ties in the Laurel and Jones County area. However, he also amassed a huge volume of friends in Columbia after relocating his family here in 1972 to serve many years as the superintendent of the Columbia Training School.
Prior to Landrum moving to Columbia, during the turbulent period of time in the 1960s, the KKK had an aggressively active chapter in the Jones County area known as the White Knights, under the leadership of Sam Bowers. Several members, including Bowers, were ultimately charged with numerous hate crimes and racial intimidation tactics against black citizens, including the fire-bombing death of Vernon Dahmer.
Landrum, who happened to be recognized as a sympathizer of the black community and disgusted with their plight and unfair treatment, was approached one day by an agent with the FBI and recruited to operate in an undercover capacity to collect information on the members and activities of the regional KKK.
Despite the inherent danger, Landrum eventually agreed to be an FBI informant, and he managed to get close enough within the organization to provide evidence to authorities through a series of seven detailed journals and tape recordings that he accumulated between 1965 and 1969.
Fearful of the potential repercussions, including the dangerous threats of physical harm to himself and his family, Landrum managed to keep his highly-detailed journals secret for decades. Other than the FBI, the only people he trusted with the knowledge of his activities were his wife and mother.
Landrum eventually reached the point he was able to sit down with his family and tell them about this incredible and secretive segment of his life. After much careful deliberation, the family made the decision to transform his journals into a factual book.
They collaborated with renowned civil rights activity author Curtis Wilkie, who now lives in Oxford, Miss., and Norton Publishing Company to create the highly-acclaimed book entitled "When Evil Lived in Laurel," which was just released on June 15, 2021.
The book's inner jacket describes it as, "the inside story of how a courageous FBI informant helped to bring down the KKK organization responsible for a brutal civil rights-era killing."
Landrum's son, Mike, while speaking to members of the Columbia Rotary Club on Tuesday, recalled his dad's courage in helping the FBI, as well as being able to maintain the secrecy all those years in order to protect his family.
Mike said there was initially some interest shown in possibly creating a movie about the story and all the incidents reflected in the book. However, he said they didn't feel confident that all of the details could be adequately portrayed within the time length of a standard movie, so plans are underway to create a documentary to convey the entire story in segments.
Mike is scheduled to conduct another presentation on the book at the Marion County Museum and Archives on Second Street this Saturday, Sept. 3, at 5:30 p.m. The public is invited to attend, and copies of the book will be available.
