Carolyn Bryant Donham denied wanting Emmett Till dead in unpublished memoir

The woman accused of setting off the 1955 lynching of Emmett Till denied she identified him to his killers or wanted him dead, according to her unpublished memoir🐻.

Carolyn Bryant Donham even claimed she was a victim just like the 14-year-old black teen because of the way her life changed after Till’s murder that w🦹as🤡 carried out by her husband and his half-brother.

The memoir titled “I am More Than A Wolf Whistle” was obtained by the Associated Press Thursday and offers the most extensive recounting of the incident ever recorded.

In the written account, Donham claimed 🐼she actually tried to help Till after her husband Roy Bryant and his halꦍf-brother JW Milam brought the boy to her in the middle of the night for identification.

“I did not wish Emmett any harm and could not stop harm from coming to him, since I didn’t know what was planned for him,” Donham, who is white, argued in the manuscript written by her daughter-in-law. “I tried to protect him by telling Roy that ‘He’s not the one. That’s not him. Please take him home.’”

She claimed in the manuscript that Till actua🌺lly identi💙fied himself after he was dragged from his family’s home at gunpoint.

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“I have always prayed that God would bless Emmett’s family. I am truly sorry for the pain his family was ca♉used,” she said.

She also said she “alway♛s felt like a victim as well as Emmett” and “paid dearly with an altered life.”

While𝔍 Donham’s husband and the brother-in-law admitted to the murder after they were found not guilty at trial, her alleged involvement in 𝔍the case also gained national attention.

Recently, a decades-old arrest warrant against Donham for kidnapping was found in the basement of a Missis♓sippi courthouse.

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Donham, when sh🍸e was 21, is accused of claiming Till, visiting Mississippi from Chicago, made improper advances toward her, including whistling, which violated the code of the Jim Crow-era South.

It is then alleged 𝓰she told her husband about the alleged encounter, which resulted in Till’s abduction, torture and murder two nights♋ later.

Donham is now 87 and her last known address was in Raleigh, North Carolina. Till supporters seeking her arrest searched for her last week, even ente🍨ring a senior living site where the🌌y thought she might be.

Deborah Watts, a cousin of Till who heads the Emmett Till Legacy Foundation, said the memoir is new evidence that shows Donham🎃 was involved in Till’s death.

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“🍌I truly believe these developments cannot be ignored by the authorities in Mississippi,” she said🦄.

The US Department of Justice closed an investigation into Donham in Decembꦓer and Mississip🐓pi authorities have not indicated if they will pursue the kidnapping charge.

Historian and author Timothy Tyson, of Durham, said he got a copy of the memoir from Donham, who he interviewed in 2008. Though he agreed to keep it out of public view for decades, he decided to release it now after the long-lost arrest warrant came to🃏 light.

“The potential for an investigation was mo𒁏re important than the archival agreements, though those are important things,” Tyson said. “But this is probably the lasꦡt chance for an indictment in this case.”

Heꦦ said the claims made by Donham needed to be taken with “a good-sized shovel full of salt,” citing her assertion that Till told his eventual killers who he was.

“Two big white men with guns came and dragged him out of his aunt and great-uncle’s house at 2 o’clock in the morning in the Mississippi Delta in 1955. I do not believe for one minute that he identified himself,” Tyson said.

With Post wires