FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE CRT

THURSDAY, JANUARY 25, 2007 (202) 514-2007

WWW.USDOJ.GOV TDD (202) 514-1888

Former Klansman Indicted for 1964

Kidnapping and Murder
of Two African American Men
WASHINGTON – A federal court in Mississippi today unsealed a three-count
indictment charging James Seale, a former member of the Ku Klux Klan, with two
counts of kidnapping and one count of conspiracy related to his role in the
abductions and slayings of two African American men in 1964.

The indictment alleges that Seale and other Klansmen conspired to abduct,
interrogate, beat and eventually murder Henry Hezekiah Dee and Charlie Eddie
Moore, both 19 years old at the time. Seale and his co-conspirators allegedly
believed that Dee might have knowledge about African Americans importing
firearms to Franklin County.

“The brutal murders of these two young men have gone unanswered for more than
40 years,” said Attorney General Alberto R. Gonzales. “This prosecution
demonstrates the Department of Justice’s ongoing commitment to enforce
fundamental civil rights protections. The sun will not set on such wrongs, and the
Department will work to bring about justice in this case.”

“Today’s indictment is one example of the FBI’s strong and ongoing commitment
to reexamining and investigating unsolved Civil Rights-era murders and other
crimes, supported by available evidence, today’s forensic tools, persons who can
provide information, and the ability to establish federal jurisdiction—no matter how
long it takes,” said FBI Director Robert S. Mueller, III. “Under our Cold Case
Initiative, we will continue to identify and pursue these cases of racially motivated
violence to ensure justice is served wherever possible.”

According to the indictment, on May 2, 1964, the defendant and his accomplices
abducted Dee and Moore and drove the two young men into the Homochitto
National Forest in Franklin County, Mississippi, where the Klansmen beat the
victims and interrogated them at gunpoint. Seale and the other Klansmen then
allegedly bound the two men with duct tape.

The Klansmen allegedly then drove the victims to Parker’s Landing in Warren
County, Miss., on a route that took them through the state of Louisiana. Once at
Parker’s Landing, the Klansmen secured Dee to an engine block and threw him into
the Old Mississippi River, drowning him. The Klansmen next secured iron weights
to Moore, and also threw him into the water.

Several months after the kidnappings and murders, divers recovered from the river
the badly decomposed remains of the two young men.

No one has ever been prosecuted for the murders of Dee and Moore.

The indictment resulted from an investigation by the Federal Bureau of

Investigation, the U.S. Attorney’s Office and the Civil Rights Division of the United
States Department of Justice. The Franklin County Sheriff’s Office, the Adam’s
County Sheriff’s Office, and the Mississippi Department of Public Safety also
assisted in the investigation.

An indictment is merely an accusation and the defendants are presumed innocent

unless and until proven guilty.

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