Mississippi Cold Case
Encyclopedia
Mississippi Cold Case is a 2007 feature documentary produced by David Ridgen
of the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation
about the Ku Klux Klan
murders of two 19-year-old black youth in 1964 and a brother's quest for justice.
. They were interrogated and tortured in a nearby forest, locked in a trunk, driven across state lines, chained to a Jeep motor and train rails and dropped alive into the Mississippi River
.
Moore and Dee’s mangled torsos were discovered on July 12 and 13, 1964 amidst the frantic search for Michael Schwerner
, Andrew Goodman
, and James Chaney
, the three civil rights workers who disappeared June 21 in the “Mississippi Burning
” case. When it was discovered that the bodies were those of two black men and not those of the civil rights workers, two of whom were white, media interest evaporated and the press moved on. While the FBI investigated the case and arrested two suspects, they were soon released and the case dropped by local authorities, some of whom were complicit in the crime according to FBI and HUAC documents.
The film Ridgen was viewing in the CBC archive was called "Summer in Mississippi", and it was about the murders of Mickey Schwerner, Andrew Goodman, and James Chaney, the three civil rights workers killed by Klansmen in a case that would become known by its FBI codename, "Mississippi Burning". Ridgen immediately wondered why the body was "forgotten" and how it was determined that this person was "the wrong body". Looking into the story more, Ridgen discovered the identity of the body as that of nineteen year old African American Charles Eddie Moore, a youth according to articles Ridgen read in the Clarion Ledger newspaper from 1999/2000, Don Whitehead's "Attack on Terror", and the Southern Poverty Law Center's online memorial, killed by the Klan while hitchhiking with his friend and fellow victim Henry Hezekiah Dee on May 2, 1964.
Forty-one years after the murders, just weeks before Klan leader Edgar Ray Killen was found guilty of manslaughter in the murders of Schwerner, Goodman, and Chaney, David Ridgen convinced Thomas Moore to return to Mississippi to seek justice for his brother and Henry Dee. Filmmaker Ridgen and the CBC organized and funded the entire production. Ridgen has documented Moore on trips spanning over 26 months. A short version of the documentary (34 min.,) premiered on February 11, 2007 on CBC. A one hour version aired on MSNBC on June 9, 2007. A full feature length version of the film has been completed.
, charged with two counts of kidnapping and one count of conspiracy to kidnap two persons. Seale pleaded not guilty, and was denied bond on January 29, 2007 by U.S. Magistrate Judge Linda Anderson.
Amid many motion hearings from defense and prosecution, Seale's trial was set for May 30, 2007, in Jackson, Mississippi. Seale was convicted by a majority-white jury on June 14, 2007.
James Seale was sentenced to three life sentences on August 24, 2007 for one count of conspiracy to kidnap two persons and two counts of kidnapping where the victims were not released alive.
On August 5, 2008 Thomas Moore and Thelma Collins, Henry Dee's sister, filed a federal complaint in a Natchez, MS court claiming state complicity in the deaths of Henry Dee and Charles Moore. The suit claims that in Franklin County in 1964, Sheriff Wayne Hutto, and his chief deputy, Kirby Shell, conspired with the Klansmen who abducted and killed Henry Hezekiah Dee and Charles Eddie Moore. The plaintiffs are seeking a federal jury trial for damages.
David Ridgen
David Ridgen is an award-winning independent Canadian filmmaker. He has worked for the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, MSNBC, NPR, TVOntario and others.Ridgen co-directed Canadian Images of Vietnam with his brother Robert Ridgen in 1990...
of the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation
Canadian Broadcasting Corporation
The Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, commonly known as CBC and officially as CBC/Radio-Canada, is a Canadian crown corporation that serves as the national public radio and television broadcaster...
about the Ku Klux Klan
Ku Klux Klan
Ku Klux Klan, often abbreviated KKK and informally known as the Klan, is the name of three distinct past and present far-right organizations in the United States, which have advocated extremist reactionary currents such as white supremacy, white nationalism, and anti-immigration, historically...
murders of two 19-year-old black youth in 1964 and a brother's quest for justice.
Moore and Dee murders
On May 2, 1964, Charles Eddie Moore and Henry Hezekiah Dee were picked up by KKK members while hitchhiking in Meadville, MississippiMeadville, Mississippi
Meadville is a town in Franklin County, Mississippi, United States. The population was 519 at the 2000 census. It is the county seat of Franklin County...
. They were interrogated and tortured in a nearby forest, locked in a trunk, driven across state lines, chained to a Jeep motor and train rails and dropped alive into the Mississippi River
Mississippi River
The Mississippi River is the largest river system in North America. Flowing entirely in the United States, this river rises in western Minnesota and meanders slowly southwards for to the Mississippi River Delta at the Gulf of Mexico. With its many tributaries, the Mississippi's watershed drains...
.
Moore and Dee’s mangled torsos were discovered on July 12 and 13, 1964 amidst the frantic search for Michael Schwerner
Michael Schwerner
Michael Henry Schwerner , was one of three Congress of Racial Equality field workers killed in Philadelphia, Mississippi, by the Ku Klux Klan in response to their civil rights work, which included promoting voting registration among Mississippi African Americans...
, Andrew Goodman
Andrew Goodman
Andrew Goodman was one of three American civil rights activists murdered near Philadelphia, Mississippi, during Freedom Summer in 1964 by members of the Ku Klux Klan.-Early life and education:...
, and James Chaney
James Chaney
James Earl "J.E." Chaney , from Meridian, Mississippi, was one of three American civil rights workers who were murdered during Freedom Summer by members of the Ku Klux Klan near Philadelphia...
, the three civil rights workers who disappeared June 21 in the “Mississippi Burning
Mississippi Burning
Mississippi Burning is a 1988 American crime drama film loosely based on the FBI investigation into the real-life murders of three civil rights workers in the U.S. state of Mississippi in 1964. The film focuses on two fictional FBI agents who investigate the murders...
” case. When it was discovered that the bodies were those of two black men and not those of the civil rights workers, two of whom were white, media interest evaporated and the press moved on. While the FBI investigated the case and arrested two suspects, they were soon released and the case dropped by local authorities, some of whom were complicit in the crime according to FBI and HUAC documents.
Documentary
In June and July 2004, while preparing to shoot another documentary in Mississippi, Ridgen stumbled across a sequence that troubled him in an old 16 mm film produced in Mississippi by the CBC in 1964. The sequence showed a body being taken from a river, but it was the narration over these images that stood out:The film Ridgen was viewing in the CBC archive was called "Summer in Mississippi", and it was about the murders of Mickey Schwerner, Andrew Goodman, and James Chaney, the three civil rights workers killed by Klansmen in a case that would become known by its FBI codename, "Mississippi Burning". Ridgen immediately wondered why the body was "forgotten" and how it was determined that this person was "the wrong body". Looking into the story more, Ridgen discovered the identity of the body as that of nineteen year old African American Charles Eddie Moore, a youth according to articles Ridgen read in the Clarion Ledger newspaper from 1999/2000, Don Whitehead's "Attack on Terror", and the Southern Poverty Law Center's online memorial, killed by the Klan while hitchhiking with his friend and fellow victim Henry Hezekiah Dee on May 2, 1964.
Forty-one years after the murders, just weeks before Klan leader Edgar Ray Killen was found guilty of manslaughter in the murders of Schwerner, Goodman, and Chaney, David Ridgen convinced Thomas Moore to return to Mississippi to seek justice for his brother and Henry Dee. Filmmaker Ridgen and the CBC organized and funded the entire production. Ridgen has documented Moore on trips spanning over 26 months. A short version of the documentary (34 min.,) premiered on February 11, 2007 on CBC. A one hour version aired on MSNBC on June 9, 2007. A full feature length version of the film has been completed.
Results of the documentary
Moore’s quest and the documentary about it first caused state officials to re-open their investigation into the case. The case had been re-opened in 2000 by former US Attorney Brad Pigott, but closed again in June 2003 after Pigott and the USDOJ Civil Rights Division decided not to proceed based on the evidence. It was re-opened in early July 2005 after Moore and Ridgen visited US Attorney Dunn Lampton at his office. Previously, Moore and Ridgen had been told that James Seale was dead by a prominent Mississippi journalist, and it had been reported elsewhere in the media. Shortly after arriving in Mississippi, Ridgen and Moore were told on the morning of July 8, 2005 by District Attorney Ronnie Harper that Seale was alive, but they did not believe him. Later that day Ridgen and Moore are told by Moore's cousin Kenny Byrd, that Seale is still alive. It is confirmed when Byrd points out Seale's motor home just a short distance away. Through the course of the production of Mississippi Cold Case, pressure put on the murder conspirators and officials by Thomas Moore over more than twenty four months along with other evidence discovered - including the finding of important witnesses willing to testify and new documents - the case was brought before a Grand Jury, and alleged kidnapper and killer, James Ford Seale, was indicted and arrested. On January 24, 2007, Seale appeared in federal court in Jackson, MississippiJackson, Mississippi
Jackson is the capital and the most populous city of the US state of Mississippi. It is one of two county seats of Hinds County ,. The population of the city declined from 184,256 at the 2000 census to 173,514 at the 2010 census...
, charged with two counts of kidnapping and one count of conspiracy to kidnap two persons. Seale pleaded not guilty, and was denied bond on January 29, 2007 by U.S. Magistrate Judge Linda Anderson.
Amid many motion hearings from defense and prosecution, Seale's trial was set for May 30, 2007, in Jackson, Mississippi. Seale was convicted by a majority-white jury on June 14, 2007.
James Seale was sentenced to three life sentences on August 24, 2007 for one count of conspiracy to kidnap two persons and two counts of kidnapping where the victims were not released alive.
On August 5, 2008 Thomas Moore and Thelma Collins, Henry Dee's sister, filed a federal complaint in a Natchez, MS court claiming state complicity in the deaths of Henry Dee and Charles Moore. The suit claims that in Franklin County in 1964, Sheriff Wayne Hutto, and his chief deputy, Kirby Shell, conspired with the Klansmen who abducted and killed Henry Hezekiah Dee and Charles Eddie Moore. The plaintiffs are seeking a federal jury trial for damages.
Awards
Mississippi Cold Case has won several awards, including Best of Festival, at the prestigious Yorkton Film Festival in Canada. The film also picked up Best Social Political Documentary, Best Director (David Ridgen), Best Research (David Ridgen), and Best Editor (Michael Hannan) at Yorkton; the Investigative Reporters and Editor's (IRE) Top Medal for Investigative Journalism; the Canadian Association of Journalism Award for Best Investigative Report Open Television; Best Director at the Canadian Geminis; The English Television "Wilderness" Award for Best Documentary produced in 2007 by the CBC; a Bronze Plaque at the Columbus Festival; and a CINE Golden Eagle Award. The film was nominated for a 2008 Emmy Award for Feature Investigative Documentary.External links
- http://www.cbc.ca/world/story/2007/05/02/mississippi-cold-case.html CBC Story
- http://www.cbc.ca/world/story/2007/03/08/cold-case.html CBC March 2007
- http://www.nytimes.com/2005/09/25/national/25civil.html New York Times
- http://www.nytimes.com/2007/02/03/us/03civil.html?ei=5088&en=8617809676350bcc&ex=1328158800&partner=&pagewanted=all New York Times
- http://www.cbc.ca/thecurrent/2007/200701/20070125.html CBC Radio One - The Current
- http://cnews.canoe.ca/CNEWS/MediaNews/2007/02/10/3578634-sun.html Toronto Sun film review
- http://cnews.canoe.ca/CNEWS/Canada/2007/01/25/3446753-cp.html Canadian Press
- http://www.thestar.com/article/175121 The Toronto Star
- http://www.denverpost.com/news/ci_6017304 Denver Post/Associated Press
- http://www.eenvandaag.nl/index.php?module=PX_Story&func=view&cid=2&sid=32151 Dutch Television
- http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/us_and_americas/article1884442.ece The TimesThe TimesThe Times is a British daily national newspaper, first published in London in 1785 under the title The Daily Universal Register . The Times and its sister paper The Sunday Times are published by Times Newspapers Limited, a subsidiary since 1981 of News International...
- http://www.guardian.co.uk/international/story/0,,2090730,00.html Guardian UK
- http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=10425378 NPR June 2007
- http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=10741271 NPR June 2007