A former sheriff's deputy and a reputed member of the Ku Klux Klan has been arrested on federal charges in one of the unsolved crimes of the civil rights era in Mississippi, the 1964 deaths of Charles Eddie Moore and Henry Hazekiah Dee. The two black teenagers were beaten and dumped alive in the Mississippi River.

Federal authorities have had a case against James Ford Seale (pictured in 1964 mug shot) for several years, but family members reported that Seale was deceased. The case was reopened after documentary filmmaker David Ridgen found Seale in 2005 living a few miles from where the kidnappings occurred.

Seale, 71, and Charles Marcus Edwards, 72, were both arrested in 1964 in connection with the deaths. Edwards, a former church deacon and reputed KKK member, has not been arrested, possibly because he is cooperating with federal investigators, the Associated Press reported.

Teenage Hitchhikers Disappear

Charles Moore and Henry Dee were hitchhiking near an ice cream stand in Meadville, Mississippi on May 2, 1964 when, according to FBI records, Seale stopped and offered them a ride. Seale believed they were black Muslims involved in selling guns.

Edwards and Seale took the two teens into the woods and beat them, but Edwards told the FBI that they were both alive when he left. Seale's brother and another klansman took them to the river, tied them to an old engine block and some railroad ties and dumped them into the river, according to now deceased informants.

Two months later, while the FBI was searching for slain civil rights workers James Chaney, Andrew Goodman and Michael Schwerner, the bodies of Moore and Dee were discovered near Tallulah, Louisiana.

Going to Have to Prove It

Because the FBI was busy with the investigation of the civil rights workers killed in Philadelphia, in the infamous Mississippi Burning case, they turned Seale and Edwards over to local authorities for prosecution. A justice of the peace immediately dropped all the charges against the two.

According to FBI reports from the 1960s, investigators confronted Seale and told him they knew he and others killed the hitchhikers, to which Seale replied, "Yes, but I'm not going to admit it. You are going to have to prove it."

"I've been crying. First time I've cried in about 50 years," Moore's 63-year-old brother, Thomas Moore told reporters. "It's not going to bring his life back. But some way or another, I think he would be satisfied."

See Also:
Ex-Deputy Arrested in 1964 Race Case

Background:
The 'Mississippi Burning' Case
The Trial of Edgar Ray Killen