Fred House
Fred House was a deputy in the Jefferson County Sheriff's Office who went undercover to investigate radical groups in the late 1960s.
House grew a beard and adopted the alias "Jay Prior", going by "Jaybird". To enhance his reputation, he recruited two young women, a newspaper reporter and secretary for the Birmingham Chamber of Commerce, to accompany him to protests, meetings and "pot parties" in the guise of "hip chicks". The groups House investigated included the Alabama Committee for Freedom and Peace, the Lurleen Wallace Memorial Chapter of the Students for a Democratic Society, and the Southern Student Organizing Committee. House singled out Jim Bains as a dangerous revolutionary.
Following a series of drug arrests and the commitment of a high school organizer to a mental institution, House declared that he though that, "the whole anarchist movement in Alabama will fizzle like a wet fuse."
By 1982 House had been promoted to sergeant.
References
- Lee, April (March 10, 1969) "Sneak". Old Mole. Vol. 1, No. 9, p. 5