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Ex-Klansman Guilty in '64 Teen Murders

Convicted of kidnapping, 71-year-old faces life in prison

By Sam Gale Rosen,  Newser Staff

Posted Jun 15, 2007 7:46 AM CDT
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(Newser) – A former Klansman was convicted yesterday of conspiracy and kidnapping in the 1964 murder of two black teenagers. The prosecution's star witness was a Klan member who said he and James Ford Seale stuffed the 19-year-olds into their trunk and drowned them in the Mississippi River. The jury deliberated for about 2 hours, the Jackson Clarion-Ledger reported.

Seale, 71, faces life in prison. The families of Charles Eddie Moore and Henry Hezekiah Dee, who were hitchhiking when they were picked up, beaten, and killed, had pushed for federal officials to make the case one of several civil rights-era investigations that have recently been reopened. "I thank the Lord that we got justice," said Dee's sister.

Thomas Moore, second from left, the older brother of victim Charles Eddie Moore, blinks away tears as Thelma Collins, right, a sister of victim Henry Hezekiah Dee, expresses her feelings at the conviction of reputed Klansman James Ford Seale for kidnapping and conspiracy in the 1964 deaths of the two...
Thomas Moore, second from left, the older brother of victim Charles Eddie Moore, blinks away tears as Thelma Collins, right, a sister of victim Henry Hezekiah Dee, expresses her feelings at the conviction...   (Associated Press)
Reputed Ku Klux Klansman James Ford Seale is escorted to the federal courthouse in Jackson, Miss., Monday, June 11, 2007, by a Madison County Sheriff's deputy. Seale arrived for the sixth day of testimony on his federal trial for kidnapping and conspiracy charges connected to the 1964 slayings of two...
Reputed Ku Klux Klansman James Ford Seale is escorted to the federal courthouse in Jackson, Miss., Monday, June 11, 2007, by a Madison County Sheriff's deputy. Seale arrived for the sixth day of testimony...   (Associated Press)
Reputed Klansman James Ford Seale leaves the federal courthouse in Jackson, Miss., Thursday, June 14, 2007, to a waiting vehicle after he was convicted of federal kidnapping and conspiracy charges connected to the 1964 slayings of two black teenagers in southwest Mississippi. (AP Photo/Rogelio V. Solis)
Reputed Klansman James Ford Seale leaves the federal courthouse in Jackson, Miss., Thursday, June 14, 2007, to a waiting vehicle after he was convicted of federal kidnapping and conspiracy charges connected...   (Associated Press)
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kidnapping • James Ford Seale • Ku Klux Klan • Charles Eddie Moore • Henry Hezekiah Dee • conspiracy • KKK • civil rights

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