Kansas City Five
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Darlene Edwards, 43, Frank Sheppard, 46, Earl "Skip" Sheppard, 37, Bryan Sheppard, 26, and Richard Brown, 26, all Native Americans, were convicted of setting a fire that caused an explosion and killed six firefighters. The fire occurred in Jackson County, Missouri on November 29, 1988 at a site associated with the construction of a ten-mile road. Two trailers on the site contained 50,000 pounds of construction explosives. The explosion had 5 times the impact of the Oklahoma City bomb, evaporated a fire department pumper, and was heard 45 miles away. As late as 1995, ATF agents said on the TV show Unsolved Mysteries that the fire was set by organized labor to teach the general contractor a lesson for using non-union labor. But the demand for closure and $50,000 reward money led police and prison informants to finger five indigent Native Americans who had nothing to do with organized labor.
