Telegraph Herald Dubuque, Iowa September 20, 1998 Deavours Nix JACKSON, Miss. (AP) - Former Klansman Deavours Nix, who was to stand trial for the 1966 murder of a black store owner, died Saturday of lung cancer. He was 72. Nix was one of three people arrested in the firebombing death of Vernon Dahmer Sr. after investigators reopened the case this year. He maintained his innocence. Two carloads of Klansmen firebombed Dahmer's Hattiesburg home on Jan. 10, 1966, the night after it was announced that black residents could pay their poll taxes at his grocery store. Nix was arrested in 1966 and was one of 13 charged by the state, but his case never went to trial. He testified last month at the murder trial of former Klan Imperial Wizard Samuel H. Bowers, who was convicted Aug. 21 of ordering Dahmer's murder during clandestine meetings in rural southern Mississippi. Nix admitted before Bowers' trial that he was briefly a member of the Klan. Prosecutors said Nix was a KKK leader and the owner of John's Cafe, which served as "Klan headquarters." Nix told prosecutors the only reason he joined "those people" was he needed the Klan's political might in what proved to be an unsuccessful bid for sheriff of Jones County. Bowers is serving a life sentence. Former Klansman Charles Noble, 55, still faces trial in the case. A trial date has not been set. No date had been set for Nix's trial.