Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1922-01-18
Oklahoma Trial
May Sound Knell
of Ku Klux Khan

Ardmore, Okla, Jan. IA case
which, in the words Of State Attorney
General S, P. Freezing. will mean the
life or death of the Ku klux Khan in
Oklahoma" will be called here to-
day when eleven of Carter county's
most prominent citizens are to be ar
raigned before Judge Thomas w.
Champion in district court for trial
on charges Of murder.
The defendants, all well known
business and professional men of the
country, We're among seventeen ar
rested following an attack by nine
masked men upon Joe Carroll at his
home in Wilson the night of Decem-
Der Is when three men. one of them
Carroll. was fatally shot.
Originally, fifteen were held for
murder and two as witnesses for the
the joint examining trial of seven
of the men before Justice u. w.
Butcher, the eases against four, one
of them a Baptist minister, were dis
missed on motion of the prosecution
that no evidence was at hand to con-
meet them with the affair.
On this night in mid-December.
the state charges. more than 100 men
from Ardmore and the surrounding
county, all masked and with buckets
of tar and pillows OF feathers, gath
cred in pasture Just five miles south
of Wilson and later sent eight of
their number in two automobiles I'M
der the leadership of c. G. Sims, Ard
more police detective, to get" Joe
Carroll. A statement to authorities
by one Of the defendants shortly after
his arrest was to the affect that Sims
had persuaded the band of men to
accompany him that night ito round
up several wet car dealers and boot
leggers."
Unable to find Carroll's residence,
the eight men then called at the
home of John Smith in Wilson and
one of their humber, q relative of
Smith, made him leave a sick bed and
guide them to Carroll's house, telling
him. according to the testimony of
Smiths wife at the preliminary hear
ing. that you are forced to do it as
have been forced"
When the men called at CARROTS
home he answered their summons to
the front door and at their command
to throw UP his hands drew his re-
volver and wounded one of the men
who attempted to wrest 1t from him.
Then amid the screams of women
and shouts of men, a gun battle en-
sued, also participated in by Carrolrs
brother, who lived next door. When
the fierce exchange of rife and pistol
shots subsidized and the masked men
had fed in their automobiles, Car
rolls lifeless body was picked up off
his doorstep. and John Smith, a few
minutes later, was found on a street
in Wilson not far from the scene of
the engagement, suffering from bull
let wounds which within two hours
caused his death.
The following day, shortly before
noon, Sims dead body. clad in a suit
OF khaki unionalls. was found lying
in the pasture where twelve hours be-
fere. he had planned to administer
punishment to Carroll for his alleged
activities as bootlegger.
jeff Smith, the man who was
wounded in the ARRAY, guided the au-
thorities to the pasture when Sims
body was discovered and told them, il
was brought out at the preliminary
trial, that the place had frequently
been used as meeting place for the
Citizens League or ku Klux Khan"
He Is one of. the defendants in the
case.
The custodian Of local lodge hall,
in which the Ka Klux Khan rents
rooms. testified at the hearing that
on the night Of the killings, one of the
defendants and another man whom
he did not recognize. left the proper
ty" room rented by the ku Klux kIan
with bundles under their arms. The
defendant admitted in a signed state
ment to authorities that he was one
of those who later met in the pasture.
Efforts Of the prosecution then
were directed toward establishing the
ku Klux Klan's connection with the
incident and the examination of witt
nesses ended abruptly when Frank
Bourland. who, the lodge hall eusto-
dian testified, paid rent on the Ku
kiux Khan rooms, refused to testify
rs to his connection with the organi-