Moseley noted for his acting ability, wild side

Ben Moseley is magnetic and outgoing.

The front man for a band and a Johnny Cash fan, he could compose ditties off the top of his head. The leading man in several Birmingham-Southern College productions, he drew rave reviews, especially from the cute college women who were frequent posters to Moseley's page on the Facebook Web site.

A typical post: "Just wanted you to know you were fabulously amazing in the play."

The nearly universal response was shock Wednesday when friends learned Moseley, a 19-year-old BSC student studying theater, had been charged in the Alabama church burnings.

"I knew you liked to go play in the woods," read a post to his Web page Wednesday, "But churches man? c'mon didn't your mom teach you anything."

Friends at BSC said Moseley was not studious. He got by. And he had a wild side.

On his page at Facebook, which allows students to post their profiles and communicate with each other, Moseley described his interests as strumming the guitar, "singing, acting, clubbing, dancing, partying, whiskeying." He notes his fondness for 40-ounce beers, and includes the wisdom: "You can always retake a class but you can Never Relive a Party!"

Messages left by friends celebrate the usual college debauchery, but especially intense are those posted by Matthew Cloyd, which suggest the two went out in the woods throughout the fall to drink, hunt deer, drive fast and elude law officers.

At Clay-Chalkville High School, where Moseley graduated in 2004, he was homecoming king, student council president, and voted funniest and the student who contributed the most to the class.

Don Everett Garrett, a theater and language arts instructor at Paine Intermediate, was a neighbor of the Moseleys, Stephen A. and Patricia Moseley, for 14 years in Grayson Valley. "I am in total shock. I knew him as a 5-year-old and watched him grow up. He was just a normal kid. As a matter of fact, he's the kind of kid you'd say, `I want my kid to grow up and be like him.'"

Moseley's father is an elected Jefferson County constable and an appointed member of the board that oversees the Center Point Fire District.

"The parents were very present parents," said Garrett, who said he's talked with Moseley only in passing for the past two years. "Dad was always active with him. They built a tree house together in the back yard."

Hal MacIntosh, drama teacher at Clay-Chalkville, said Moseley was one of his best students. "He was a good guy. He played lead roles in just about everything."

Andy Bradley, a high school classmate of Moseley's, said he was shocked to learn of his friend's arrest in the church fires. "I would never expect this from him. It's a huge surprise to me and I hope there is some mistake in all this."

"He was just the class clown," said Stephanie Farris, who has known Moseley since middle school and now is a student at University of Montevallo. "He wanted to be the next Jim Carrey."

At college, Moseley's talents and charms made him a quick success. He played a rapist who has the tables turned on him in a play called "Extremities," and he acted with DeBusk in "Young Zombies in Love."

"Girls love Ben," said Ian Cunningham. "He's the lady-charmer of the school."

In the campus newspaper this week, Moseley is described as being involved in an independent film project and planning to move to Los Angeles after graduation. He and DeBusk had been shooting footage for a feature-length film they hoped to submit to the Sidewalk Film Festival.

Jeremy Burgess, DeBusk's roommate, said what surprised him most was Moseley doing something and keeping it secret.

"He's not the secret-hiding type," he said.

News staff writers Alec Harvey, Christie Dedman and Gigi Douban contributed to this report. adebro@bhamnews.com