Jim Ingram RIP

[William Kelly]

http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/chi-ap-...0,2227124.story

JACKSON, Miss. - Retired FBI agent Jim Ingram, who investigated Ku Klux Klan killings and violent acts across Mississippi in the 1960s, died Sunday at a hospice after a lengthy battle with pancreatic cancer. He was 77.

Ingram's son, Jim, confirmed his father's death. He said funeral arrangements were incomplete Monday.

Ingram worked on many high-profile cases, including the June 21, 1964, "Mississippi Burning" slayings of civil rights workers James Chaney, Michael Schwerner and Andrew Goodman.

He also assisted in the investigation of the 1963 assassination of President John F. Kennedy, the 1968 assassination of the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. and the 1978 mass suicide in Guyana

of more than 900 followers of cult leader Jim Jones.

In his more than 30 years with the FBI, Ingram headed the Chicago and New York FBI offices before serving as deputy assistant director in Washington.

Retired FBI agent Robert Butler of Lewisville, Texas, said Ingram was "very well-loved by the agents. Everybody who knew him loved him. He was a wonderful friend and respected so much."

In 1982, he retired from the FBI. From 1992 to 2000, he served as Mississippi's public safety commissioner under then-Mississippi Gov. Kirk Fordice and on the state Ethics Board.

Bobby Reed, past president of the Mississippi State Troopers Association, said Ingram was a good man.

"It made no difference if you were the governor or the low man on the totem pole, he treated you with the same respect," Reed said.

Reed said the first time he met Ingram, he thought he was going to lose his job.

"He probably could have fired me, and I wouldn't have had any recourse," Reed said. "But he was willing to listen to what I had to say. After hearing everything, he said, 'You may have done wrong, but you done wrong for the right reasons."'

The next time they saw each other, Ingram shook his hand, and the matter was forgotten, he said. "How can you not love a man like that?"

In the past few years, Ingram helped agents in the revived investigation of the attacks on Henry Hezekiah Dee and Charles Eddie Moore on May 2, 1964. Thanks in part to his work, reputed Klansman James Seale was convicted in 2007 on federal kidnapping and conspiracy charges.

He also worked with Mississippi Attorney General Jim Hood to help prosecute reputed Klan leader Edgar Ray Killen in the killings of Chaney, Schwerner and Goodman.

Killen was convicted in 2005 on three counts of manslaughter for his role in orchestrating the slayings in east central Mississippi's Neshoba County. He was sentenced to three consecutive 20-year terms.

ALSO SEE:

http://www.cnn.com/2007/US/07/31/pysk.ingram/index.html

(CNN) -- Retired FBI agent Jim Ingram is charged with chasing down stories and shadows more than four decades old.

"I knew these old informants, I knew these old witnesses," Ingram said. "Some of them cannot hear, some of them have really lost their eyesight almost, but you still, most of them had good memories.

"And those are the ones that we called upon to testify."

In the 1960s, as a young FBI agent, Ingram investigated civil rights cases in Mississippi. "The 1960s were turbulent years in Mississippi. Oh, my goodness," Ingram said. "Oh, we had a lot of action."

In 2005, after he'd been retired for years, the FBI asked him to help re-examine dozens of unsolved civil rights cases that had slipped through history's cracks.

"I never in my wildest dreams thought the FBI would call upon a 75-year-old man to assist them," Ingram said of his work in the bureau's cold-case initiative. His tasks include sifting through old evidence, tracking down witnesses and re-interviewing them. Sometimes, he testifies in court.

His work helped convict James Ford Seale, a former Mississippi sheriff's deputy, of kidnapping and conspiracy in the 1964 deaths of black teenagers Henry Dee and Charles Eddie Moore. According to the Jackson (Mississippi) Clarion-Ledger -- citing FBI documents -- Dee and Moore were picked up by two men while hitchhiking on May 2, 1964. The men were members of the Ku Klux Klan, but they told the two teenagers they were law enforcement officials.

Instead of giving them a ride, however, the men drove the pair deep into the woods and beat them. Later, they drove them across the Mississippi River, weighed them down with a Jeep motor block and dumped them into the Old River in Louisiana.

A fisherman found one of the bodies in July of that year and reported it to authorities, the Clarion-Ledger said. Seale and another man were suspected in the case, but authorities had trouble lining up witnesses. Pursuit of the case dissipated over time, but as other civil rights-era cases were solved, notably the 2005 conviction of Edgar Ray Killen for the deaths of three civil rights workers, interest was regenerated.

"You can just imagine the terror of these two young men after being beaten in the woods," Ingram said. He and another FBI agent retraced the steps of that spring day with federal prosecutors, Ingram said.

"They knew they were going to die because ... [the men] told them what they were going to do."

Seale will be sentenced later this year, Ingram said.

Ingram says he does feel a sense of accomplishment for bringing Seale and others to justice.

"There is a feeling of satisfaction because I've been at this thing for years," Ingram said. "I entered the FBI in 1953, and here it is, my goodness, 2007, and I'm still active in many ways, and I told the FBI as long as my memory holds up, I'll help them," he said

[Greg Parker]

http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/chi-ap-...0,2227124.story

JACKSON, Miss. - Retired FBI agent Jim Ingram, who investigated Ku Klux Klan killings and violent acts across Mississippi in the 1960s, died Sunday at a hospice after a lengthy battle with pancreatic cancer. He was 77.

Ingram's son, Jim, confirmed his father's death. He said funeral arrangements were incomplete Monday.

Ingram worked on many high-profile cases, including the June 21, 1964, "Mississippi Burning" slayings of civil rights workers James Chaney, Michael Schwerner and Andrew Goodman.

He also assisted in the investigation of the 1963 assassination of President John F. Kennedy, the 1968 assassination of the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. and the 1978 mass suicide in Guyana of more than 900 followers of cult leader Jim Jones.

In his more than 30 years with the FBI, Ingram headed the Chicago and New York FBI offices before serving as deputy assistant director in Washington.

Retired FBI agent Robert Butler of Lewisville, Texas, said Ingram was "very well-loved by the agents. Everybody who knew him loved him. He was a wonderful friend and respected so much."

I'm not surprised since he helped keep their butts covered at the height of the JFK investigation by vetoing a plan to help clerks charged with looking into complaints by issuing them with manuals. His grounds? He was concerned that this might "encourage them to delve too deeply in the merits of a complaint..."

http://www.maryferrell.org/mffweb/archive/...mp;relPageId=67

In 1982, he retired from the FBI. From 1992 to 2000, he served as Mississippi's public safety commissioner under then-Mississippi Gov. Kirk Fordice and on the state Ethics Board.

It's only natural that someone who is against any thorough investigation of complaints should go on to serve as a public safety commissioner and an Ethics Board member. He was probably only inches from landing a job on an intelligence oversight committee, as well.

Bobby Reed, past president of the Mississippi State Troopers Association, said Ingram was a good man.

"It made no difference if you were the governor or the low man on the totem pole, he treated you with the same respect," Reed said.

Reed said the first time he met Ingram, he thought he was going to lose his job.

"He probably could have fired me, and I wouldn't have had any recourse," Reed said. "But he was willing to listen to what I had to say. After hearing everything, he said, 'You may have done wrong, but you done wrong for the right reasons."'

The next time they saw each other, Ingram shook his hand, and the matter was forgotten, he said. "How can you not love a man like that?"

In the past few years, Ingram helped agents in the revived investigation of the attacks on Henry Hezekiah Dee and Charles Eddie Moore on May 2, 1964. Thanks in part to his work, reputed Klansman James Seale was convicted in 2007 on federal kidnapping and conspiracy charges.

He also worked with Mississippi Attorney General Jim Hood to help prosecute reputed Klan leader Edgar Ray Killen in the killings of Chaney, Schwerner and Goodman.

Killen was convicted in 2005 on three counts of manslaughter for his role in orchestrating the slayings in east central Mississippi's Neshoba County. He was sentenced to three consecutive 20-year terms.

ALSO SEE:

http://www.cnn.com/2007/US/07/31/pysk.ingram/index.html

(CNN) -- Retired FBI agent Jim Ingram is charged with chasing down stories and shadows more than four decades old.

"I knew these old informants, I knew these old witnesses," Ingram said. "Some of them cannot hear, some of them have really lost their eyesight almost, but you still, most of them had good memories.

"And those are the ones that we called upon to testify."

In the 1960s, as a young FBI agent, Ingram investigated civil rights cases in Mississippi. "The 1960s were turbulent years in Mississippi. Oh, my goodness," Ingram said. "Oh, we had a lot of action."

In 2005, after he'd been retired for years, the FBI asked him to help re-examine dozens of unsolved civil rights cases that had slipped through history's cracks.

"I never in my wildest dreams thought the FBI would call upon a 75-year-old man to assist them," Ingram said of his work in the bureau's cold-case initiative. His tasks include sifting through old evidence, tracking down witnesses and re-interviewing them. Sometimes, he testifies in court.

His work helped convict James Ford Seale, a former Mississippi sheriff's deputy, of kidnapping and conspiracy in the 1964 deaths of black teenagers Henry Dee and Charles Eddie Moore. According to the Jackson (Mississippi) Clarion-Ledger -- citing FBI documents -- Dee and Moore were picked up by two men while hitchhiking on May 2, 1964. The men were members of the Ku Klux Klan, but they told the two teenagers they were law enforcement officials.

Instead of giving them a ride, however, the men drove the pair deep into the woods and beat them. Later, they drove them across the Mississippi River, weighed them down with a Jeep motor block and dumped them into the Old River in Louisiana.

A fisherman found one of the bodies in July of that year and reported it to authorities, the Clarion-Ledger said. Seale and another man were suspected in the case, but authorities had trouble lining up witnesses. Pursuit of the case dissipated over time, but as other civil rights-era cases were solved, notably the 2005 conviction of Edgar Ray Killen for the deaths of three civil rights workers, interest was regenerated.

"You can just imagine the terror of these two young men after being beaten in the woods," Ingram said. He and another FBI agent retraced the steps of that spring day with federal prosecutors, Ingram said.

"They knew they were going to die because ... [the men] told them what they were going to do."

Seale will be sentenced later this year, Ingram said.

Ingram says he does feel a sense of accomplishment for bringing Seale and others to justice.

"There is a feeling of satisfaction because I've been at this thing for years," Ingram said. "I entered the FBI in 1953, and here it is, my goodness, 2007, and I'm still active in many ways, and I told the FBI as long as my memory holds up, I'll help them," he said

[Stuart Wexler]

I am saddened by the loss as he was a helpful source for our MLK work. Nice guy.

[Greg Parker]

I am saddened by the loss as he was a helpful source for our MLK work. Nice guy.

Stu,

without wanting to detract from the help he gave you, or indeed, deny he was a nice guy, I don't believe death should suddenly erase the bits which, for all I know, he may well have come to regret in later years.

The fact is, if he and his comrades had done their job to the fullest during those crucial investigations in the '60s, the neocons would be but a stub in Wiki for one...

Then there is the little matter of not wanting clerks to look too deeply into complaints about his employer. This demonstrates an attitude that at it's core, is antithetical to democratic principles and to justice.

[Stuart Wexler]

I am saddened by the loss as he was a helpful source for our MLK work. Nice guy.

Stu,

without wanting to detract from the help he gave you, or indeed, deny he was a nice guy, I don't believe death should suddenly erase the bits which, for all I know, he may well have come to regret in later years.

The fact is, if he and his comrades had done their job to the fullest during those crucial investigations in the '60s, the neocons would be but a stub in Wiki for one...

Then there is the little matter of not wanting clerks to look too deeply into complaints about his employer. This demonstrates an attitude that at it's core, is antithetical to democratic principles and to justice.

[Stuart Wexler]

Greg, on a different front, could you email me: swexler2@hotmail.com ... The email I have for you does not work and I am trying to arrange a connection for you.

I am saddened by the loss as he was a helpful source for our MLK work. Nice guy.

Stu,

without wanting to detract from the help he gave you, or indeed, deny he was a nice guy, I don't believe death should suddenly erase the bits which, for all I know, he may well have come to regret in later years.

The fact is, if he and his comrades had done their job to the fullest during those crucial investigations in the '60s, the neocons would be but a stub in Wiki for one...

Then there is the little matter of not wanting clerks to look too deeply into complaints about his employer. This demonstrates an attitude that at it's core, is antithetical to democratic principles and to justice.