US Army Veteran Worked Undercover to Expose Florida KKK Members Who Have Ties to Law Enforcement

Remember Blackkklansman? The movie? Well, that happened in real life, except the main character is white and was undercover in the Ku Klux Klan for way longer.

Joseph Moore, a U.S. Army veteran, spent 10 years living a double life as an FBI informant and a Klansman in North Florida. He was involved in meetings, cross burnings and planning the murders of Black men. But, in the process, he also recorded conversations with Klansmen, helped prevent the deaths of two Black men and helped uncover Klansmen who were working in Florida law enforcement on the city, county and state level, according to the Associated Press.

Not an usual discovery …considering Florida’s prison system is filled with White supremacist guards.

From the Associated Press:

“I had to realize that this man would shoot me in the face in a heartbeat,” Moore said in a deep, slow drawl. He sat in his living room recently amid twinkling lights on a Christmas tree, remembering a particularly scary meeting in 2015. But it was true of many of his days.

Before such meetings, he would sit alone in his truck, his diaphragm heaving with the deep breathing techniques he learned as an Army-trained sniper.

Don’t blame him.

As a result of his work, Moore and his family have changed their names and address and now live in a Florida subdivision, according to the Associated Press.

But after not discussing his work as an informant with the FBI publicly with anyone, Moore decided to share his story after the revelation from the Associated Press that white supremacists were littered all over the Florida prison system.

Looks like Moore had enough.

From the Associated Press:

“The FBI wanted me to gather as much information about these individuals and confirm their identities,” Moore said of law enforcement officers who were active members of or working with the klan.

“From where I sat, with the intelligence laid out, I can tell you that none of these agencies have any control over any of it. It is more prevalent and consequential than any of them are willing to admit.”

The FBI first asked Moore to infiltrate a klan group called the United Northern and Southern Knights of the KKK in rural north Florida in 2007. At klan gatherings, Moore noted license plate numbers and other identifying information of suspected law enforcement officers who were members.

Moore said he noted connections between the hate group and law enforcement in Florida and Georgia. He said he came across dozens of police officers, prison guards, sheriff deputies and other law enforcement officers who were involved with the klan and outlaw motorcycle clubs.

Looks like all the white people who work in the justice system were invited to the supremacist party.

During his time as an informant, Moore also told the FBI about a plan to murder a Hispanic truck driver. In the process, he also learned that the deputy of the Alachua County Sheriff’s Office was a member of the group, according to the Associated Press.

He later provided critical information that helped identify a member of the white sheets who worked for the police department in Fruitland Park, Florida.

Moore was putting up numbers in the informant game.

More from the Associated Press:

His years as an informant occurred during a critical time for the nation’s domestic terrorism efforts. In 2006, the FBI had circulated an intelligence assessment about the klan and other groups trying to infiltrate law enforcement ranks.

“White supremacist groups have historically engaged in strategic efforts to infiltrate and recruit from law enforcement,” the FBI wrote. The assessment said some in law enforcement were volunteering “professional resources to white supremacist causes with which they sympathize.”

To be clear, Moore was not a member of the Klan before working for the FBI as an informant and says he never picked up their racist way of thinking. In another stint with the FBI, he went undercover for the Florida chapter of a national group called the Traditionalist American Knights of the Ku Klux Klan, according to the Associated Press

During a cross-burning, one of the leaders of the chapter, Charles Newcomb, shared with Moore a plan to kill a Black man. The man was Warren Williams, who was an inmate who got in a fight with another klansman, who happened to be a correction officer named Thomas Driver. Williams, Driver and another police officer, Sergeant David Moran wanted Williams dead, per the Associated Press.

Moore went to work and recorded them discussing the whole ordeal which eventually lead to them being convicted. He also said the three men convicted in the murder plot worked in a group of other officers who were klansmen at the Reception and Medical Center prison in Lake Butler, Florida, who did their recruiting at the prison.

Of course, Florida’s Department of Corrections did what law enforcement does best. Deny.

From the Associated Press:

“Every day more than 18,000 correctional officers throughout the state work as public servants, committed to the safety of Florida’s communities. They should not be defamed by the isolated actions of three individuals who committed abhorrent and illegal acts several years prior,” the department said in an emailed statement. Moore asserts he saw evidence of a more pervasive problem than the state is publicly acknowledging.

After testifying against the Klan in 2018, Moore dropped the informant life. Here at the Root, we thank him for his work.