CHAPTER XII
ATROCITIES COMMITTED IN THE NAME OF KU KLUX KLAN
_Ku Klux Klan Knights of Beaumont, Texas, issue a justification for taking the law into Their own hands._
Confession that the Ku Klux Klan uses tar and feathers and the lash to punish persons whose actions it condemns is made by the Klansmen of Beaumont, Tex. The Beaumont Ku Klux Klan organization tarred and feathered Dr. J.S. Paul and R.F. Scott and later acknowledged, under its official seal, that its members did the job.
"Knights of the Ku Klux Klan, No. 7, Beaumont, Texas," admitted taking the law into their own hands in a statement dated July 21, 1921. This statement was made to the editors of two newspapers of Beaumont. It sought to justify the "tar and feather party" and gave warning that the "heavy hand of the Ku Klux Klan" was waiting to yank other persons from their beds in case they came into its displeasure.
SHOW SIMMONS MISREPRESENTS
Grand Wizard William J. Simmons has declared publicly that the Ku Klux did not indulge in midnight raids on defenseless victims whom it tarred and feathered. He has defended the Ku Klux Klan by ascribing these unlawful actions to imposters who use the regalia of the Ku Klux. The Beaumont incident proves that the Ku Klux not only was responsible for assaults on Dr. Paul and Scott, but that it boasted of its exploits with them.
LETTER ADMITS USE OF TAR
The Paul-Scott "party" occurred on May 8. Its details were telegraphed all over the country. The letter to the two Beaumont newspapers the following July read:
"Your publication since the organization of the Ku Klux Klan in the city of Beaumont has on various occasions published information concerning and pertaining to the affairs of this organization. We believe, as you do, that a newspaper should serve the best interests of its constituency and that all legitimate news should be given the public through its columns. During the past two months items have appeared in your paper relative to the case of the Ku Klux Klan and its connection with Dr. J.S. Paul.
"Now, that you and the public may be fully informed of the true facts in the case, the Klan has assembled and herewith hands you an intelligent, true and correct history of the entire matter. The Klan suggests that this summary of facts be published in the columns of your paper not later than Sunday, July 24, 1921, and that it be published verbatim, according to the enclosed copy, typographical errors excepted.
Knights of the Ku Klux Klan."
PHYSICIAN IS ACCUSED
The "intelligent, true and correct history of the entire matter" was a lengthy statement. It accused Dr. Paul of being a physician who for years had sold whisky and narcotic drugs and had performed illegal operations on women. Because he had political and financial backing grand jury proceedings against him had been squelched.
About the middle of December, 1920, R.F. Scott, who lived in Deweyville, Texas (Scott was a former member of the United States Marine corps), consulted Dr. Paul and arranged for an illegal operation. The statement declares the girl became seriously ill as a result of malpractice on Dr. Paul's part and was taken from her residence to a hospital, where a serious operation was performed.
After this occurrence the girl demanded that Dr. Paul assist her in defraying the extra expense due to his negligence, and he offered her $500 to leave Beaumont. This bargain he broke and is accused of having threatened to cause her arrest for attempted blackmail, or with death if she exposed him.
MORAL LAW ABOVE WRITTEN
Her predicament was reported to the Klan and the statement says her cry was heard by men who respect the "great moral law more than the technicalities of the legal code."
The statement goes on:
"The eyes of the unknown had seen and had observed the wrong to be redressed. Dr. Paul was wealthy. His victim was a poor girl. Between the two stood the majesty of the law, draped in technicalities of changes of venue, mistrials, appeals, postponements, eminent counsel skilled in the esoteric art of protecting crime and interpreting laws involved in a mass of legal verbiage, the winding and unwinding of red tape, instead of the sinewy arm of justice, wielding the unerring sword. The law of the Klan is JUSTICE.
"Dr. Paul was approached in his office by three men on the night of May 7 and instructed to go with them. He was placed in a waiting automobile and escorted a few miles out of town. The judgment of the Klan was read to him and charges were related to him, none of which he would deny.
"LASHED, TARRED AND FEATHERED"
"In a cowardly, whimpering plea, he pleaded that others were as guilty as he. The lash was laid on his back and the tar and feathers applied to his body. He was then informed of the will of the Klan that he should leave the city within forty-eight hours. Upon the return of the party to Beaumont, Dr. Paul was discharged from an automobile at the intersection of two of the main streets of the city, that he might be a warning to all of his ilk that decent men and women no longer wanted him in the community.
"Dr. Paul complied with the instructions of the Klan that he leave the city and returned for a few days to his former home at Lufkin. During this time he was constantly under the surveillance of the Klan. Within a few days he had surrounded himself with relatives and hired hench-men of his own tribe and character and returned to Beaumont.
SCOTT ALSO TARRED AND FEATHERED
"Scott, who had been constantly watched by the Klan, whose number is legion and whose eye is all-seeing and whose methods of gathering information are not known to the alien world, was apprehended and punished in the same manner Dr. Paul had been dealt with. He was taken to the woods and guarded until nightfall. His captors during this time treated him with kindness and consideration. They provided him with food and fruit to eat and ice water to drink. During the day he was questioned and admitted all the charges the Klan had accused him of. The judgment of the Klan was that he was to be given ten lashes across the bare back and that he was to be tarred and feathered.
EYES OF "UNKNOWN" ON HIM
"Scott left Beaumont on Monday, July 18, and spent the major portion of the day in Orange parading the streets and proclaimed the diabolical lie that he had been subjected to the tortures of the inquisition. He posed to the gullible public and sensational newspapers as a patriot and a hero. All these things the eyes of the unknown have seen and their ears have heard. We can not be deceived and JUSTICE will no longer be mocked."
The seal of the Beaumont Klan was attached to the end of the statement.
Rev. Caleb Ridley, known as the imperial chaplain of the order, acknowledged that the Klan's purpose was to set itself up as prosecutor, jury, judge and sheriff.
PASTOR GIVES WARNING
On Aug. 26, 1921, he issued to the citizens of Dallas county, Texas, the following warning:
"To the Citizens of Dallas County, Greetings: This organization has caused to be posted the following proclamation:
"Be it known and hereby proclaimed
"That this organization is composed of native-born Americans and none other.
"That its purpose is to uphold the dignity and the authority of the law. * * *
"That this organization * * * recognizes * * * that situations frequently arise where no existing law offers a remedy.
"That this organization does * * * not countenance and will not stand for social parasites remaining in this city. It is equally opposed to the gambler, the trickster, the moral degenerate and the man who lives by his wits and is without visible means of support.
"The eye of the unknown hath seen and doth constantly observe all, white or black, who disregard this warning. 'Whatsoever thou sowest that shall you also reap.' Regardless of official, social or financial position, this warning applies to all living within the jurisdiction of this Klan.
"This warning will not be repeated.
"'Mene, Mene, Tekel, Upharsin.'
"Hereafter all communications from us will bear the official seal of the Klan.
"KNIGHTS OF THE KU KLUX KLAN."
KU KLUX KLAN SHOOTS SHERIFF
The attitude of members of the Ku Klux Klan toward officers of the law was demonstrated on October 1, 1921, in Lorena, Tex., when the Ku Klux Klan shot Sheriff Bob Buchanan of McLennan county, when he attempted to stop a parade of Masked Knights.
Without getting an official permit to hold the parade, the Ku Klux Klan announced that it would be held at 8:30 p.m. The sheriff notified the community that the parade was against the law and that he would not allow it. The word was carried to the Ku Klux Klan leaders. Messages were sent back and forth, and the Ku Kluxers tried to scare the sheriff into a retreat. He refused to back down, however, and ended the negotiations by telling the Klansmen that they had to obey the law as well as other citizens.
The sheriff said there was a law against uncertain masked men who refused to divulge their identity. He would agree to the parade if the names of the masked men were furnished to him. This the Klan leaders refused to do.
The Klansmen held a council of war at which the sheriff was denounced for daring to give them orders. They decided to show the people of Lorena that they were bigger than the sheriff or the law that he represented. The chief of the Klansmen gave the order for the parade to start.
With a posse of citizens and deputies, Sheriff Buchanan met the parade at the intersection of the main streets. Thousands of persons were out to witness the test of strength between the law and the Ku Klux Klan. The sheriff approached a masked Klansman who carried a fiery cross. He attempted to seize the cross. There was a shot. A bullet hit the sheriff in the right arm. A general gun fight followed and ten persons were injured. The Masked Knights hurriedly departed, carrying one of their number who was wounded.
Sheriff Buchanan is hailed as a hero in Texas by the law-abiding element. The United States needs more public officials like him--men with the courage to stand by their oaths of office.
OTHER OUTRAGES
Since the Ku Klux Klan was organized night outrages in which masked men are involved have increased to a frequency not known in the United States since the years just following the Civil War, when the original Ku Klux Klan was active in the southern states against "carpet baggers" and Negroes.
A murder was committed on June 9, 1921, at Sea Breeze, Fla., by masked men who said they were Ku Klux Klan. They took Thomas L. Reynolds from his bed and punched and kicked him. Then one of the masked men shot him. He died later. Official investigation failed to involve the Ku Klux Klan.
WIZARD SIMMONS DENIES
In the case of Paul and Scott in Beaumont, Tex., an organization claiming to be the Ku Klux Klan admitted under a seal that it was responsible. In many other instances the masked riders have openly boasted that they were Ku Kluxers. In other cases they have worn regalia like that of the Ku Klux. Imperial Wizard Simmons has denied that the Ku Klux is responsible for any outrages. Whether he knows what he is talking about probably will be determined only by a Congressional investigation.
Meanwhile the people of the country have the big fact on which to form their judgment--namely, that since the Ku Klux has extended its membership and influence by influencing hundreds of thousands to get down on their knees and take the oath of "white supremacy," bands of night riders who take the law into their own hands have been carrying on these disgraceful marauding "parties" with a boldness that challenges public attention.
In Daytona, Fla., H.C. Sparkman, an editor, carried on a campaign against the Ku Klux Klan. On June 12, 1921, Sparkman received by mail a threat warning him that if he did not let the Ku Klux alone the Klan would take up his case and that he might be killed. In Pensacola, Fla., on July 8, 1921, a band of men wearing white robes like those of the Ku Klux Klan in their initiation ceremonies appeared at the store of Chris Lochas, a restaurant keeper, and while the chief of police was looking on gave him a written order to leave town because of certain charges. The warning was signed "K.K.K."
KU KLUX KLANSMAN KILLED
In the city of Atlanta, Ga., where the Ku Klux Klan is strongest a killing resulted from a raid by masked men on J.C. Thomas, who had a lunch room at 280-1/2 Decatur street. Thomas had received letters threatening him with violence unless he "let alone" a certain woman in his employ. On March 12, 1920, four men got Thomas to enter an automobile and drove him to a spot in a lonely neighborhood. There they took him from the car and told him that he was to be punished because he had not observed their warnings. When they started to strike Thomas, he took a knife from his pocket and killed Fred Thompson who was later identified as a member of the Ku Klux Klan.
The case of killing against Thomas was put before a grand jury but the jury refused to indict him. At the inquest into the death of Thompson, Homer Pitts was identified as the driver of the car in which Thomas had been kidnapped. Pitts was represented in the proceedings by Attorney W.S. Coburn. In the official list of Ku Kluxers there is a H.R. Pitts who is a kleagle at Fresno, Cal., and a W.S. Coburn who is a grand goblin with headquarters at Los Angeles, Cal.
100 OUTRAGES IN TEXAS
Texas, where the Ku Klux Klan is strong, has been the scene of nearly 100 unlawful punishments by masked men. In one case the initials "K.K.K." were branded on the forehead of a negro who was horsewhipped on the charge of having been found in a white woman's room.
Something the same treatment that was given Dr. Paul was handed out to J.S. Allen, an attorney of Houston, Tex., who on April 10, 1921, was whisked from a downtown street, driven to the country and tarred and feathered. The masked men then took him back to the city and threw him out of the automobile into a crowd. He was nude except for his coat of tar and feathers.
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+-----------------------------------------------------------+ | Typographical errors corrected in text: | | | | Page 10: aids replaced with aides | | Page 32: agres replaced with agrees | | Page 40: "If the Klansmen rides a horse" replaced with | | "If the Klansman rides a horse" | | Page 51: Bulter replaced with Butler | | Page 63: orgaization replaced with organization | | Page 67: law-aboding replaced with law-abiding | | Page 68: maurading replaced with marauding | | | +-----------------------------------------------------------+
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End of Project Gutenberg's Ku Klux Klan Secrets Exposed, by Ezra Asher Cook