Race definitely played a factor. If it was intended to just be a robbery, then why the rape? They raped the black woman in front of her white husband as a way to say that the black woman should be with black men. The wife and husband were singled out, raped, and murdered because of their mixed marriage.
The legal system and media always downplays the racism when it’s black on white. If the races were reversed and three white guys raped and murdered an interracial couple it would be national news and dubbed a hate crime. Whites wouldn’t rape and murder an interracial couple, though, because whites are far less racist and far less inherently violent than black people.
yup ... wha’chu said.