The Richmond palladium and sun-telegram. [volume] (Richmond, Ind.) 1907-1939, 1922-12-27
NAN AT MER ROUGE
IS Fooled IN EFFORT
TO KILL U. S. AGENTS


MER ROUGE, Dec. 27.-Revelations
from authoritative sources here show
how members of the Ku Klux Khan In
this section plotted to kdnap and MUIR
der two operatives of the bureau of
investigation of the United States de-
partment of Justice investigating the
murders of Daniels and Richards and
how other secret service men unearth-
ed the plot, informed their comrades
and thwarted the conspiracy.
Two or three weeks after federal
agents began working on the case the
story runs, Klansmen in this section
became alarmed. They trailed the in
vestigators who were operating in the
open, but could not get any informa-
ton. The chief. operators of the fed
eral agents carried a large portfolio
which, the Klansmen believed, con-
tanned evidence against those impli-
Gated in the kidnapping and murder of
Daniels and Richards.
The Klansmen deliberately plotted
to kidnap the federal agents, seize the
portfolio and treat the agents as they
had Daniels and Richards. Two fed
eral investigators announced that they
proposed to go to Monroe on certain
train carrying the portfolio. A plot
was laid to take them from the train at
Collinston, a hotbed of the khan, eight
miles south of Mer Rouge and about
the same distance from Bastrop. Sig
mails were transmitted to khan "ter
riors" by telephone and runners were
sent out in automobiles to summon
enough men to assemble at Collinston
at designated hour to kidnap the two
men and seize the portfolio.
While the Klansmen were doing this
they were unaware that the depart
ment of justice had secret service men
in this and adjacent parishes who were
operating under cover These got wind
of the plot and notified the two men of
their danger. They boarded another
train, took another route, and were
not molested. The hooded mob assem-
bled according to orders, however, but
were foiled.
Call kansmen Bootlegeers.
Members of the Ku Klux Khan in
this section have asserted as justifica-
ton for the kidnapping and numbering
of Daniels and Richards, that condi-
tions around Mer Rouge were so in
tolerable that violence was necessary
to clean things up. Moonshining,
bootlegging and coneubinage, accord
ing to statements from khan sources,
have been common practice.
Citizens of Mer Rouge assert that
these charges were wildly exaggerated
and that the conditions existing in this
town and the surrounding country did
not justify mob violence. There was
some moonshining, bootlegging and
concupinage, they say, but no more
than in other sections of the United
States. The constituted authorities OF
the parish, citizens here say, could
have stopped these law violations al
any time if they hod done their duty.
Charges are made by responsible
citizens of Mer Rouge that the Ku
Klux Khan made raids only on those
who were not members of the khan
and that Klansmen who, according tt
authentic reports, are guilty of moon
shining, bootlegging and concubinagt
were not molested.
Only one explanation of this situa
ton can be given, these citizens assert
and that is to give bootlegging Klans
men monopoly of the bootlegging
business.