John Hamiter Proctor Jr. (April 19, 1926 in

Reform, Alabama Reform is a city in Pickens County, Alabama, United States. At the 2010 census the population was 1,702, down from 1,978 in 2000. It is located approximately halfway between Columbus, Mississippi and Tuscaloosa on U.S. Route 82. History Sparsely ...

– May 30, 1999 in

Meridian, Mississippi Meridian is the seventh largest city in the U.S. state of Mississippi, with a population of 41,148 at the 2010 census and an estimated population in 2018 of 36,347. It is the county seat of Lauderdale County and the principal city of the Meri ...

) was an American

FBI The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) is the domestic intelligence and security service of the United States and its principal federal law enforcement agency. Operating under the jurisdiction of the United States Department of Justice, t ...

agent (1951–1978) and

U.S. Navy The United States Navy (USN) is the maritime service branch of the United States Armed Forces and one of the eight uniformed services of the United States. It is the largest and most powerful navy in the world, with the estimated tonnage o ...

signalman second class from 1944 to 1946 and served during

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the World War II by country, vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great power ...

. He was most famous for his role in investigating the

murders of Chaney, Goodman, and Schwerner The murders of Chaney, Goodman, and Schwerner, also known as the Freedom Summer murders, the Mississippi civil rights workers' murders, or the Mississippi Burning murders, refers to events in which three activists were abducted and murdered in ...

in 1964. Proctor had been stationed by the FBI in

where he cultivated contacts with local law enforcement, the

Ku Klux Klan The Ku Klux Klan (), commonly shortened to the KKK or the Klan, is an American white supremacist, right-wing terrorist, and hate group whose primary targets are African Americans, Jews, Latinos, Asian Americans, Native Americans, and Ca ...

, and other residents. Proctor's interrogation of Klan informant James Jordan was a key break in the case. The character of FBI agent Rupert Anderson from the film ''

Mississippi Burning ''Mississippi Burning'' is a 1988 American crime thriller film directed by Alan Parker that is loosely based on the 1964 murder investigation of Chaney, Goodman, and Schwerner in Mississippi. It stars Gene Hackman and Willem Dafoe as two FB ...

'', played by

Gene Hackman Eugene Allen Hackman (born January 30, 1930) is an American retired actor and former novelist. In a career that has spanned more than six decades, Hackman has won two Academy Awards, four Golden Globes, one Screen Actors Guild Award, two BAFTAs ...

, is loosely based on Proctor.

Death

John Proctor died at the Queen City Nursing Home in

on May 30, 1999, of

heart failure Heart failure (HF), also known as congestive heart failure (CHF), is a syndrome, a group of signs and symptoms caused by an impairment of the heart's blood pumping function. Symptoms typically include shortness of breath, excessive fatigue, ...

at the age of 73, leaving behind his wife, Mary Randall “Randy” Davis (1930–2013), their three children (John III, Pamela, and Patricia), and six grandchildren.

References

1926 births 1999 deaths Federal Bureau of Investigation agents People from Reform, Alabama {{US-gov-bio-stub