Justice at last

Good news [emphasis mine]:

A white former sheriff’s deputy who was once thought to be dead was arrested on federal charges Wednesday in one of the last major unsolved crimes of the civil rights era — the 1964 killings of two black men who were beaten and dumped alive into the Mississippi River.

The break in the 43-year-old case was largely the result of the dogged efforts of the older brother of one of the victims, who vowed to bring the killers to justice.

James Ford Seale, a 71-year-old reputed Ku Klux Klansman from the town of Roxie, was charged with kidnapping hitchhikers Charles Eddie Moore and Henry Hezekiah Dee, both 19. He is expected to be arraigned on Thursday in Jackson.

Maybe there will be more word soon on Oneal Moore's murder, too:

The crime occurred around 10 p.m. in Varnado, a village on the outskirts of Bogalusa. Rogers and his partner, the first two black sheriffs deputies in Washington Parish, noticed they were being trailed by a pickup truck with a Confederate flag emblem on its front bumper. When they crossed some railroad tracks on the way to Moore's home nearby, they were fired upon. Moore was killed instantly, and Rogers lost an eye in the shooting.

One hour later, Mississippi authorities stopped Ernest Ray McElveen in nearby Tylertown. He was driving a truck that matched Rogers' description, and authorities said he was armed with a .45 caliber pistol and a .22 caliber pistol. But two weeks later, the local district attorney released McElveen, and nobody was ever tried in connection with the shooting. Attempts to reach McElveen, who lives in Bogalusa, were unsuccessful by presstime. [...]
In a 1998 interview with Gambit Weekly ("The Last Klan Case," Dec. 15, 1998), Rogers said he hasn't forgotten the night of the attack. "The older I get, the more it gets to me," he said.

There were three original suspects. McElveen has died. If he was guilty, presumably he's down in that hot place. As for the other two, there are a couple of the worst murderers living among us. Could be my neighbors. Or yours.

Turn 'em in, people. Closing ranks around this kinda scum is inexcusable.

Open note to Creed Rogers: Keep after the FBI, sir. I wanna see the perps fry.