The murder of Charles Eddie Moore
Meadville, Franklin County, Mississippi · 1964
Overview
Charles Eddie Moore and Henry Hezekiah Dee, both 19, were hitchhiking at the edge of Meadville, Mississippi, on May 2, 1964, when Klansman James Ford Seale, posing as a federal revenue agent, drove them into the Homochitto National Forest. Klansmen beat them with bean poles while interrogating them about imaginary guns, then drove them, still alive, across the river into Louisiana, chained them to a Jeep engine block and railroad iron, and pushed them into the Mississippi from a boat. Their bodies surfaced in July 1964 during the search for the three civil rights workers of the Mississippi Burning case. Seale and a second Klansman were arrested that November and released; a justice of the peace dismissed the charges. Decades later the case was widely reported as closed because Seale was dead. In July 2005 Charles's older brother, working with a Canadian documentary filmmaker, found Seale alive near Meadville and took the evidence to U.S. Attorney Dunn Lampton. Indicted for federal kidnapping in January 2007, Seale was convicted on June 14, 2007, on the testimony of the second Klansman, who was granted immunity, and sentenced to three life terms. He died in prison in 2011.
How it was solved
The 1964 FBI investigation, prompted by the bodies being found during the Mississippi Burning search, produced an informant's account and a partial statement from a second Klansman; Seale and that man were arrested on November 6, 1964, released on $5,000 bond, and the state charges were dismissed by a justice of the peace, with federal authorities treating murder as a state matter. Nothing happened for 36 years. In 2000 a Mississippi reporter established that the beating had taken place in the Homochitto National Forest, federal land, and the FBI reopened the file, but closed it again in 2003, in part because Seale's family had said he was dead. In 2004 a Canadian Broadcasting Corporation filmmaker found 1964 footage of the bodies being recovered, traced Charles's older brother, a retired Army veteran, and in July 2005 the two drove to Mississippi with a van, a camera and unredacted records. A man at a gas station in Roxie told them Seale was alive and pointed out his house. U.S. Attorney Dunn Lampton, who had also believed Seale dead, reopened the case in 2005 and the Justice Department joined in 2006. Over seven trips the brother and the filmmaker found archival film that helped establish where the crime occurred, the only known photographs of Henry Dee, Seale's 1964 letter to the local paper, and a retired FBI agent who had heard him make incriminating remarks; on camera in 2006 the brother confronted the second Klansman, who afterwards went to the FBI. Because murder was not a federal crime, Seale was indicted on January 24, 2007, for kidnapping and conspiracy, the victims having been taken onto federal land and across a state line. The second Klansman testified under immunity that he had identified Dee as a target because of his bandana, described the beating, and said Seale had told him the boys were weighted and dropped into the river alive. The jury convicted on June 14, 2007. A Fifth Circuit panel vacated the conviction in 2008 on limitations grounds, the en banc court divided evenly and reinstated it in 2009, the Supreme Court declined review, and a panel affirmed on the merits in 2010. The families' civil suit against Franklin County, alleging collusion between officials and the Klan, was settled in June 2010.
Sources
- The Department of Justice's Efforts to Investigate and Prosecute Unsolved Civil Rights Era Homicides (September 29, 2016)
“Moore and Dee, bound and gagged, were chained to a Jeep engine block and railroad ties, and were taken by Seale out onto the water in a boat, and were pushed overboard to their deaths.”
- United States v. Seale, 542 F.3d 1033 (5th Cir. September 9, 2008)
“On January 24, 2007, a federal grand jury in the Southern District of Mississippi returned a three-count indictment against Seale.”
- Henry Dee and Charles Moore Case
“Then came the shock: The bodies were two altogether different men, both black, who had been missing since early May in Meadville, Mississippi.”
- James Ford Seale (November 10, 2022)
“Seale pretended to be a revenue agent searching for bootleggers. Dee and Moore got in Seale's Volkswagen.”
- Dee, Henry and Charles Moore, Murders of (September 12, 2022)
“Initially, they speculated that Moore, with a belt buckle that said M around his waist, might be Michael Schwerner.”
- Brother, Filmmaker Discuss Miss. Murder Cold Case (January 26, 2007)
“So these kind of dead dogs shouldn't die, and they will not die as long as Thomas Moore is alive.”
- Families of Victims Welcome Seale Verdict (June 15, 2007)
“Prosecutors say Seale and other Klansmen targeted the two because Dee had been to Chicago and had chemically straightened hair.”
- CBC documentary prompts charges in 1964 U.S. race killings (January 24, 2007)
“When Moore mentioned Seale's name, the man informed him Seale was alive and offered to show Moore where he lived nearby.”
- Accused in 1964 Mississippi race slayings wrote hate letter (2007)
“The CBC has not been able to find any newspaper articles anywhere about the actual disappearance of the young men.”
- Ex-Klansman Is Sentenced to Life for Killings in 1964 (August 25, 2007)
“Calling the crime unspeakable because only monsters could inflict this, a federal judge on Friday sentenced a former member of the Ku Klux Klan to three life terms in prison.”
- Alleged Klansman Sentenced In 1964 Murders (August 24, 2007)
“Both of them stood about 10 feet from Seale, but he never made eye contact with them.”
- Reputed Ku Klux Klansman James Ford Seale dies at 76 (August 2011)
“Seale died Tuesday in Terre Haute, Ind., where he had been serving three life sentences after being convicted in 2007.”
- Statement on Settlement Reached in Dee and Moore vs. Franklin County Civil Lawsuit (June 22, 2010)
“While the Franklin County government did not admit guilt as part of this settlement, it nevertheless represents an acknowledgement.”
- Victim's brother tells of faith journey
“He said fella, for 42 years I've walked around with that burden on my shoulders.”
- Mississippi marker honors 2 Black men killed by Klan in 1964 (July 16, 2021)
“While Black Lives Matter is a theme now, they mattered back then, too.”
- Just the (Correct) Facts, Ma'am, on James Ford Seale Case (February 2007)
“It was Thomas Moore, the brother of Charles Moore, who told Dunn Lampton in July 2005 that he'd discovered that Seale was still alive.”
- James Ford Seale
“Read for leads only.”