Witness Says Beckwith Was Introduced as Evers’ Killer : Court: Suspect on trial for the third time in the 1963 slaying purportedly referred to the black civil rights leader as a ‘chicken-stealing dog.’

JACKSON, Miss. —  Mary Ann Adams told jurors Monday how Byron De La Beckwith was introduced to her as “the man who killed Medgar Evers,” the civil rights leader shot to death three decades ago.

After the bookkeeper refused to shake his hand, Beckwith told her “he had not killed a man,” Adams testified Monday, “but a damn chicken-stealing dog--and you know what you have to do when a dog has tasted blood.”

For the first time in the historic retrial of Beckwith, 73, the jury of eight blacks and four whites heard witnesses describe how Beckwith boasted enigmatically of killing Evers, the former field secretary of the NAACP.

The jurors also listened to Beckwith’s nephew, Reed Massengill, describe his uncle’s virulent brand of racism, his joy at President John F. Kennedy’s killing and his suspicion that adding fluoride to drinking water was a plot by Jews to make the populace more “docile.”

Two juries of white men failed to reach a verdict when Beckwith stood trial for the Evers killing in 1964, but prosecutors here succeeded in reopening the case after new witnesses came forward telling tales of Beckwith’s veiled admissions of the crime and his presence in Jackson the night Evers was shot outside his home.

Beckwith, however, has steadfastly stated that he was 90 miles away in Greenwood the night Evers was killed, and two retired Greenwood police officers are expected to take the stand again and swear that Beckwith was there when Evers was murdered.

Previous testimony has shown that Beckwith’s 1917 Enfield rifle with one of his fingerprints was found outside Evers’ home, and a parade of FBI agents--active and retired--have testified that the bullet shot at Evers, now lost, was probably from the rifle.

Beckwith has stated that his rifle was stolen before the slaying.