U.S. Department
of Justice
John Sydney Jordan - Notice to Close File
CIVIL RIGHTS DIVISION
Notice to Close File
File No. 144-40-2224 Date: May 6, 2019
To: Chief, Criminal Section
Re: John Sydney Jordan (Deceased) – Subject;
Unknown – Victim;
CIVIL RIGHTS
This matter should be closed for the reasons described below:
1. Date of the Incidents: 1960s-1970s
2. Synopsis of the Facts and Reasons for Closing:
In 2017, XXXX XXXX referred this matter to the Department of Justice’s Cold Case Unit for investigation under the Emmett Till Unsolved Civil Rights Crime Act and the Emmett Till Unsolved Civil Rights Crimes Reauthorization Act. According to XXXX, he was contacted via Facebook by XXXX, who claimed that XXXX, John Sydney Jordan, was a suspected member of the Ku Klux Klan and that she had witnessed him and others murder several people on his property in West Point, Mississippi. XXXX also reported to XXXX that XXX had witnessed Jordan commit murders in the 1960s-1970s.
______________________________
Angela Miller
Attorney
___________________________________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________________________________
To: Records Section
Office of Legal Administration
The above numbered file has been closed as of this date.
May 6, 2019 ______________________________
Date Barbara Bosserman
Deputy Chief, Cold Case Unit Chief, Criminal Section
FORMERLY CVR - 3 FORM CL - 3
Based on this referral, the FBI met with XXXX and XXXXX. Both XXXX and XXXXX reported memories of Jordan murdering men and women in and around his home in Mississippi. Specifically, XXXX said that sometime in the mid-1960s, when she was XXXX, she and XXXXXXX, saw Jordan kill a black woman, and that she (XXXXX) saw Jordan hang a black man. She provided no further details and could not identify the victims. She did not name any associates of XXXX who may have been involved in the rituals she described, nor was she able to identify any additional witnesses.
XXXX said that, between the ages of two and four (circa 1984-1986), she at times stayed with XXXXX in their home in West Point, Mississippi. XXXX told the FBI that Jordan would involve her in Satanic rituals. She explained that she remembers five black men being hanged; some of these men, XXXX said, were then skinned and thrown into a catfish pond on Jordan’s property. One man, however, was buried under a tree on the property. (The tree is no longer on the property and the property is no longer owned by Jordan’s family.) XXXX also said that Jordan directed her to cut open the stomach of a dead white woman. XXXX told the FBI that she reported her memories of XXXXX involvement in several murders to the West Point Police Department in 2009. She also granted the FBI permission to speak with her therapist.
Both XXXX and XXXXX claimed that Jordan had sexually assaulted them when they were young. According to a news article, Jordan entered a guilty plea in 1976 to a child molestation charge and was sentenced to 10 years in prison; two child sexual abuse charges pending against him at the time were eventually dismissed. Jordan was convicted of rape in 1987 but was granted habeas relief in 1994 based upon a claim of ineffective assistance of counsel. See Jordan v. Hargett, 34 F.3d 310 (5th Cir. 1994). No further information about his 1987 conviction is available.
XXXX voluntarily provided the FBI with a psychological report that was written for her in 1987. It was prepared as part of a suitability assessment for XXXX to XXXX XXXXX following XXXX molestation allegations against Jordan. According to the report, XXXX revealed to the psychologist that Jordan began molesting her (XXXX) when she was in first grade and continued doing so until she was in the ninth grade. There is nothing in the report, however, to suggest that XXXX made any outcry about XXXXX suspected involvement in the KKK or his participation in murders on their property.
Although the reports are troubling, the FBI was unable to confirm the allegations. The FBI contacted the West Point Police Department, which agreed to contact both the Clay County Sheriff’s Office and reach out to people who live(d) around the property Jordan once owned to follow up on the information XXXX and XXXXX provided. Ultimately, the FBI reported that the West Point Police Department could not corroborate XXXX and XXXXX claims and, after the FBI pursued all investigative leads without confirming any of the information the witnesses provided and after XXXX ceased all contact with the FBI, the FBI recommended closing its investigation.
In addition, the Department took steps to determine whether there were any missing men or women in or near the area who could have been the subject of the allegations. Open source searches of websites listing missing persons from Mississippi and contemporaneous news articles were unsuccessful. The Department has thus uncovered no information about any particular missing person in the area around the time of the reported events, much less numerous people as relayed by the witnesses.
The Department is closing this matter with no further action. The only subject identified by XXXX and XXXXX is now deceased and neither woman could provide leads on any additional subjects. In any event, the statute of limitations for any federal crimes has long since passed, given that in the 1960s and 1970s federal civil rights crimes were subject to a five-year statute of limitations. There is no information suggesting an alternative basis for federal jurisdiction exists (e.g., murder on federal land; federal kidnapping). Referral to state law enforcement for further investigation is also inappropriate. The FBI has already contacted the West Point Police Department, which did not find sufficient evidence to open its own case.
Because the statute of limitations has passed, the only identified subject is dead, available evidence did not lead to the identification of a potential living subject, and the FBI was unable to substantiate the claims which led to this referral, the Department is closing the matter.