Man (71) guilty of 1964 KKK kidnaps

A reputed member of the Ku Klux Klan has been found guilty in the United States of kidnapping and conspiracy in the 1964 deaths of two black teenagers.

James Ford Seale (71) had pleaded not guilty to charges related to the deaths of Charles Eddie Moore and Henry Hezekiah Dee in south-west Mississippi. The 19-year-olds disappeared from Franklin County on May 2nd, 1964, and their bodies were found later in the Mississippi River.

James Ford Seale (71)

The jury in Jackson, Mississippi, was told the victims were hitchhiking when they were stopped by Klansmen and taken to a forest where they were beaten.

Federal prosecutors charged Seale in January almost 43 years after the murders. When he is sentenced on August 24th, he faces life in prison on the two counts of kidnapping and one count of conspiracy.

Jurors deliberated just a few hours before convicting Seale last night.

The prosecution's star witness was Charles Marcus Edwards, a confessed Klansman. During closing arguments earlier yesterday, prosecutors acknowledged they made "a deal with the devil" but said that offering immunity to Mr Edwards to get his testimony against Seale was the only way to get justice.

Mr Edwards testified that he and Seale belonged to the same Klan chapter, or "klavern," that was led by Seale's father. Seale has denied he belonged to the Klan.

Mr Edwards testified that Dee and Moore were stuffed, alive, into the boot of Seale's Volkswagen and driven to a farm. They were later tied up and driven across the Mississippi River into Louisiana, Mr Edwards said, and Seale told him that Dee and Moore were attached to heavy weights and dumped alive into the river.