There's bravery. There's Army sniper bravery. Then there's this guy:
Here's the story: In 2015, Florida arrested three men — correctional guards Thomas Driver, Charles Newcomb, and David Moran — who belonged to the Ku Klux Klan and had plotted to kill a former black inmate in the state.
That sort of thing is pure fodder for any journalist. Associated Press writer Jason Dearen decided to dig deeper into the case to figure out how law enforcement learned of the plot.
As it turned out, they had a man on the inside:
In 2013, the FBI asked Joe Moore, a former Army sniper, to go undercover inside a local klan organization. ...
Moore said his mission was to "go inside the KKK to identify people that are involved and to forewarn the FBI of any illegal activities."
Sounds simple. But of course it's anything but. It's extremely dangerous. The Klan is very secretive, unstable, violent. It would absolutely be within the realm of possibility that they would kill someone found to be infiltrating their ranks.
To that end, Moore had to "sign a blood oath," indicating that he would be killed if he was found to have violated the oath in some way. (I think faking your Klan credentials probably qualifies. This was a dangerous situation.)
Moore eventually became a Grand Knighthawk for the Klan. The KKK has a bunch of weird, dumb titles for their officers, but all you need to know was that this one was pretty high-ranking:
The role made him the top security officer of the region's klan, among other, more nefarious, responsibilities.
"The Grand Knighthawk has been sort of a hitman for the KKK," said Moore. "I embraced the fact that the KKK might call upon me for violence."
That they did, asking Moore if he would kill Warren Williams, a former Florida inmate who had gotten into an altercation with one of the men.
Moore, wisely, "immediately called his FBI handlers to warn them about the potential murder plot."
Needless to say, the scumbags were eventually captured, but only after several more months of stunning bravery from Moore, who had to take part in enough conversations to gather sufficient evidence to make an arrest.
Mad respect for a guy like this. Risking his own life to bring down three violent psychopaths.
