A Munford man is in federal custody after authorities say he tried to hire the Ku Klux Klan to kill his black neighbor.

FBI agents arrested Allen Wayne "Big Dad" Morgan, 29, about 3:30 p.m. Sunday at the Econo Lodge in Oxford, said FBI spokesman Paul Daymond. Morgan is charged with murder-for-hire, and also under investigation for possible hate crimes.

Authorities said Morgan, an Iraq veteran who suffers from post-traumatic stress disorder, thought he was hiring the KKK to kill neighbor Clifford Maurice Mosley. They said he spelled out in detail how he wanted the man killed.

"I want this man hung from a tree like he is an animal. I want his (expletive) cut off and I want him cut. You're a hunting man right?" Morgan told an undercover FBI agent posing as a KKK hit man. "I want him hung from a tree and gutted."

Morgan was taken to the Jefferson County Jail and held there until this morning when he was released into the custody of the U.S. Marshals.

Morgan is an Iraq veteran who suffers from post-traumatic stress disorder that triggered suicidal thoughts and substance abuse, he told AL.com in a 2012 interview. That interview focused on a band he was in, The Hellmand Project, made up of combat veterans trying to cope through music.

In that interview, Morgan said he was on disability and mainly took care of his five acres in Talladega County. The husband and father said he rarely left his home, and if someone unexpected arrived, "I usually pull out a gun and run them off."

A complaint filed today in federal court in Birmingham details the case against Morgan. On Aug. 22 at 10:15 a.m., an FBI agent who posed as a member of the Ku Klux Klan, called Morgan to verify his wish to hire someone to kill Mosley, a man he said he believed raped his wife days earlier. The federal complaint did not mention a rape taking place, and court records show no current charges against Mosley. He was convicted in 2009 of second-degree sexual assault, court records show, but the victim in that case was not Morgan's wife.

During the undercover telephone call, Morgan excitedly told the agent he had just confronted Mosley outside a house near his home in Munford.

Mosley, Morgan told the agent, was sitting in his car when Morgan confronted him with his wife's laser-equipped semi-automatic pistol. Morgan said he tried to force a confrontation by firing multiple rounds at Mosely.

Though he fired several shots, he told the undercover agent, it was not his intent to kill Mosley at that moment because several people were around. Mosley fled on foot and Morgan fired several shots into the ground beside him in an effort to intimidate him, according to the federal complaint.

Morgan told the agent that Mosley must be guilty of raping his wife because Mosley never tried to defend himself by standing his ground or offering to reason with Morgan. He also told that agent that he was a expert marksman who could have killed Mosley had he chosen to do so.

The agent told Morgan he was going to Tennessee to pick up a partner to help him take care of killing Mosley and reassured Morgan he had reached out to the right people and to settle down. Morgan said he was thinking about checking himself into the VA Hospital or set up some sort of appointment to give himself an alibi.

He agreed to meet with the undercover agent on Sunday. He also told the agent that his family supported the plan to kill Mosley, saying they wanted to "dynamite the entire block."

After telling the agent how he wanted his neighbor killed, he told the agent he would discuss payment when they met Sunday at the Econo Lodge on Elm Street. When they met, however, he told the agent he didn't have any money and that because he is a disabled veteran, his wife has control of his finances. He gave the agent directions to Mosley's home and offered him a watch and necklace as partial payment. He would give him a gun as additional payment, he said.

At the end of the meeting, Morgan was taken into custody. He later confessed to trying have Mosley killed.

AL.com reporter Kent Faulk contributed to this story. Updated at 5:20 p.m. to include details from federal complaint, and at 8:15 p.m. to add that the federal complaint says nothing about a rape taking place. Mosley is not charged with any crime.

