Joe Moore.Photo: Robert Bumsted/AP
The secret cross-burning ceremony took place in a rural Florida field on a December night in 2014.
But he was not who the group thought he was.
“I had a job that night as keeper of the fire, I lit the fiery cross” Joe Moore, who was actually undercover FBI informant, tells PEOPLE in this week’s issue.
Moore asked, “Do you want him six feet under?”
“Yes,” was their chilling response.
During years of living a dangerous double life, Moore, a 52-year-old father of four and former U.S. Army sniper, says he worried for the safety of his family but felt compelled to save Williams. “The safety of the target and general public was in my hands at that point,” he says. “What I thought about was serving my country.”
Charles Newcomb; Thomas Driver; David Moran.AP(3)
As a new member, Moore swore a blood oath to the other members and learned the Klan’s secret coded speech, used to ferret out imposters. As an informant, he gathered names for the FBI and attended at least 10 cross burnings, which occurred whenever a new member joined. He was constantly in fear that his cover would be blown. “I can give you the words of agents that approached my wife and said that if they found out, they would blow up the building we were in.”
“If we can grab him up, throw his a– in the car and take off with him somewhere,” Newcomb was recorded saying. “And we’ll just inject his happy a– with a bunch of insulin and let him start doing his floppin.'”
For more details about FBI informant Joseph Moore,subscribe now to PEOPLEor pick up this week’s issue, on newsstands Friday.
Fearful for Williams' safety, federal authorities placed him in protective custody, but not before they staged photos of his death. Moore then presented the Klansmen with the photo purporting to show Williams lying dead on the floor with signs of trauma.
“I want to make sure that y’all are happy with this and that this is what you wanted,” Moore can be heard saying in the taped call.
The response from one of the men is, “Good job.”
Want to keep up with the latest crime coverage? Sign up forPEOPLE’s free True Crime newsletterfor breaking crime news, ongoing trial coverage and details of intriguing unsolved cases.
Prosecutors were able to use Moore’s evidence to charge the three men with conspiracy to commit murder in 2015. Driver pleaded guilty and was sentenced to four years in prison. Moran and Newcomb were convicted and sentenced in 2017 to 12 years in prison.
“Joe Moore really is a hero in many ways,” Stephanopoulos tells PEOPLE. “[Williams] had three people who were out to get him. And they were determined to get him. And they were willing to do whatever they could to get him. Thank goodness, Joe was there to reveal to the world, first the FBI, and then the world, what they were trying to do. And that saved Warren’s life.”
Moore, who lives with his family in Florida under an assumed name, says he still lives with the fear of retaliation. “But we don’t let it run our lives,” he says.
Last year, Moore got to know Williams during an afternoon of fishing.
“He is a very sweet, gentle person,” he says. “It just reinforced for me how much evil there is. I just wanted to take him in my arms and give him a father’s hug.”
source: people.com
