Mississippi Cold Case

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Mississippi Cold Case
Original postcard
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
Distributed by	Canadian Broadcasting Corporation
Release date(s)	February, 2007
Running time	42 min TV version, unreleased 85 min feature doc
Language	English
Budget	N/A

Mississippi Cold Case is a 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.

On May 2, 1964, Charles Eddie Moore and Henry Hezekiah Dee were picked up by KKK members while hitchhiking in Meadville, Mississippi. 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.^{[citation needed]}

Moore and Dee’s mangled torsos were discovered on July 12th and 13th 1964 amidst the frantic search for Michael Schwerner, Andrew Goodman, and James Chaney, the three civil rights workers who disappeared June 21st in the “Mississippi Burning” case.[1][2] 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.^{[citation needed]}

In June and July of 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.[3] The sequence showed a body being taken from a river, but it was the narration over these images that stood out:

"It was the wrong body. The finding of a negro male was noted and forgotten. The search was not for him. The search was for two white youths and their negro friend". [4]

The film Ridgen was viewing on the old Steenbeck 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 Centre's online memorial, killed by the Klan while hitchhiking with his friend and fellow victim Henry Hezekiah Dee on May 2nd, 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.[5] Filmmaker Ridgen and the CBC organized and funded the entire production [6]. Ridgen has documented Moore on trips spanning over 20 months. A short version of the documentary (34 min.,) premiered on February 11, 2007 on CBC television. A longer 42 minute version aired on February 18th, 2007. A full feature length version of the film has been completed, to be updated after the trial of James Ford Seale.

[edit] 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 of 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. Now, through the course of the production of Mississippi Cold Case, pressure put on the murder conspirators and officials by Thomas Moore 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 one of the alleged killers, James Ford Seale, has been indicted and arrested. On January 24th, 2007, Seale appeared in federal court in Jackson, Mississippi, charged with two counts of kidnapping and one count of conspiracy to kidnap. 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.[7] Seale was convicted by a majority-white jury on June 14, 2007 [8]

James Seale was sentenced to three life sentences on August 24, 2007 for conspiracy and two counts of kidnapping where the victims were not released alive.

[edit] Awards

Mississippi Cold Case has won several awards, including Best of Festival, at the prestigious Yorkton Film Festival in Canada[9], the Investigative Reporters and Editor's (IRE) Top Medal for Investigative Journalism [10], the Canadian Association of Journalism Award for Best Investigative Report Open Television[11], Best Director at the Canadian Geminis[12], The English Television "Wilderness" Award for Best Documentary produced in 2007 by the CBC, a Bronze Plaque at the Columbus Festival[13], and a CINE Golden Eagle Award [14]. The film also picked up Best Social Political Documentary, Best Director (David Ridgen), Best Research (David Ridgen), and Best Editor (Michael Hannan) at Yorkton.[15]