Murders Around Mississippi

James Seale, charged in 1964


Reputed south Mississippi Klansman James Seale was denied bond Monday by a federal magistrate in Jackson.

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The murder of Birdia Keglar, a longtime voting rights activist from Charleston, Miss., was remembered by relatives who spoke to a Memphis, Tenn. television reporter this past week.

See the report here

Robert Keglar, Birdia Keglar's son, was interviewed as well as Gwen Dailey, Birdia's niece. Both stated they would like to see an investigation opened on the January 1966 murder of Mrs. Keglar and Adlena Hamlett who were returning home from a Jackson civil rights meeting.

Three months later, Mrs. Keglar's son, James, was also murdered as he tried to learn more from the U. S. Justice Dept. about what happened to his mother.

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Also murdered on January 11, 1966 was Adlena Hamlett, a Charleston civil rights advocate and school teacher. "We're encouraged about this week's developments in civil rights cold cases and hope that the murders of Mrs. Keglar and of my grandmother, Adlena, will also be investigated," said Nina Black of Minneapolis.

Black was referring to the arrest Jan. 25 of James Ford Seale, 71, charged with kidnapping two young Mississippians, Charles Eddie Moore and Henry Hezekiah Dee, both 19, involved in the civil rights movement who were ultimately murdered.

A reputed Mississippi Klansman and former sheriff’s deputy who was once thought to be dead faces federal charges after 43 years in the 1964 killings of two black men who were beaten and dumped alive into the Mississippi River.