BLACK SOCIAL HISTORY
Mississippi Cold Case
| Mississippi Cold Case | |
|---|---|
| Directed by | David Ridgen |
| Produced by | David Ridgen |
| Written by | David Ridgen |
| Music by | Johnny Cash The Reverend Peyton's Big Damn Band Elmo Williams and Hezekiah Early |
| Country | Canada |
| Language | English |
| Original channel | CBC |
| Release date |
|
| Running time | 42 minutes |
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 young black men in southwest Mississippi in May 1964 during the civil rights era andFreedom Summer. It also explores the 21st-century quest for justice by the brother of one of those murdered.
Moore and Dee murders
On May 2, 1964, Charles Eddie Moore, a college student, and Henry Hezekiah Dee, a mill worker, both 19 and from Franklin County, Mississippi, were picked up by KKK members while hitchhiking in Meadville. They were interrogated and tortured in a nearby forest, locked in a trunk of a car, driven across state lines, chained to a Jeep motor and train rails, and dropped alive into the Mississippi River to die.[1][2][3]
Moore and Dee’s mangled torsos were discovered on July 12 and 13, 1964 during the frantic FBI search for James Chaney, Andrew Goodman, and Michael Schwerner, thethree civil rights workers who disappeared June 21.[4] 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 in November 1964, the district attorney concluded there was insufficient evidence for prosecution. The case was dropped by local authorities, some of whom were complicit in the crime, according to FBI and HUAC documents.[3]
Documentary
In June and July 2004, while preparing to shoot another documentary in Mississippi, Ridgen stumbled across a sequence that troubled him in a 1964 16 mm film produced in Mississippi by the CBC.[5][6] The sequence showed a body being taken from a river, but he was struck by the narrative:
The documentary film Ridgen was viewing in the CBC archive was called Summer in Mississippi (1964),[7] about the murders of James Chaney, Andrew Goodman, and Mickey Schwerner, 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 other body was "forgotten" and how it was determined that this person was "the wrong body".[8]
Looking into the story more deeply, Ridgen discovered the identity of the body: 19-year-old African American Charles Eddie Moore, a youth who was - according to articles Ridgen read in The Clarion Ledger newspaper from 1999/2000, Don Whitehead's Attack on Terror (1970),[9] and the Southern Poverty Law Center's online memorial - killed by the Klan after being abducted with his friend Henry Hezekiah Dee on May 2, 1964, who was killed with him.[10]
Forty-one years after the murders, weeks before Klan leader Edgar Ray Killen was found guilty of manslaughter in the murders of Chaney, Goodman, and Schwerner, David Ridgen convinced Thomas Moore, older brother of Charles, to return to Mississippi to seek justice for his brother and Henry Dee. Moore had already been investigating the case.[11]
Filmmaker Ridgen and the CBC organized and funded the entire production.[12] 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.[citation needed] A one-hour version aired on MSNBC on June 9, 2007.[citation needed] A full-length feature version of the film has been completed.[citation needed]
Results of the documentary
Moore’s quest and the documentary about it caused state officials to re-open their investigation into the case. The case had been re-opened in 2000 by then-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 by a prominent Mississippi journalist that James Ford Seale was dead, as had been reported elsewhere in the media.[13][14]
Shortly after Ridgen and Moore arrived in Mississippi in July 2005, District Attorney Ronnie Harper told them that Seale was alive. They did not believe him.[5][6] Later that day, Moore's cousin Kenny Byrd told Ridgen and Moore that Seale was still alive. This was confirmed when Byrd pointed out Seale's motor home just a short distance away.[5][6]
Through the course of the production of Mississippi Cold Case, pressure was put on the murder conspirators and officials by Thomas Moore over more than 24 months. Additional evidence was discovered, including new documents and important witnesses willing to testify. The prosecuting US Attorney brought the case before a federal Grand Jury, which voted to indict the alleged kidnapper and killer, James Ford Seale. He was arrested in January 2007.[15] On January 24, 2007, Seale appeared in federal court inJackson, Mississippi and was 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 the defense and prosecution, Seale's trial was set for May 30, 2007, in Jackson, Mississippi.[6][16][17][18][19] Seale was convicted by a majority-white jury on June 14, 2007.[20]
On August 24, 2007, James Seale was sentenced to three life sentences 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, Mississippi 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 Klans men who abducted and killed Dee and Moore. The plaintiffs sought a federal jury trial for damages.[2][21][22] On June 21, 2010 Franklin County, Mississippi agreed to an undisclosed settlement in the civil suit with the families of Charles Moore and Henry Dee.[23]
Awards
Mississippi Cold Case has won several awards, including Best of Festival, at the prestigious Yorkton Film Festival in Canada.[24] The film also won 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;[25] the Canadian Association of Journalism Award for Best Investigative Report Open Television; Best Director at the Canadian Geminis;[26]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.[27]The film was nominated for a 2008 Emmy Award for Feature Investigative Documentary.[28]
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