10 Disturbing Crimes Solved By Amateurs

During the civil rights era, one of the most macabre murders happened on 2 May 1964, when 19-year-olds Charles Eddie Moore and Henry Hezekiah were abducted by sheeted members of the Ku Klux Klan. For planning on participating in the ‘freedom summer’ activities to gain the right for Southern blacks to vote, the young adults were assaulted with sticks in the woods, tossed into the boot of a car, and then dumped into the Mississippi River with the Jeep’s engine blocks tied around their feet.

Moore and Hezekiah’s deaths were overshadowed by the Mississippi burning murders of three civil right workers a month later, and it wasn’t until 2000 that James Ford Seale was found guilty for the drownings by the Clarion-Ledger newspaper. However, the same news outlet, along with several other sources in 2002, announced that Seale had passed away, a contention corroborated by neighbours in the small town of Roxie.

In July 2004, Moore’s brother, Thomas, teamed up with Canadian filmmaker David Ridgen to produce a documentary about the ill-famed killings. Only things took an unexpected turn when an interviewed local told the duo that Seale was still walking God’s green earth, and led them to his house.

When confronted, the Ku Klux Klansman disappeared back into his home, but Ridgen caught his image on camera and used the footage to persuade local police to reopen the case. 43 years after committing the murders, Seale was given life sentences for kidnapping and conspiracy, and died – for real – in August 2011.