Evening star., 1922-10-14
IKU KLUX ON TRAIL
| Of GAMBLING DENS
| OVER DISTRICT LINE
Present Charges and Will Be
Summoned by Arlington
Grand Jury.
COUNTY is PLACARDED
WITH EXPOSE OF PLACES
Prosecutor Clashes With Order.
Which Claims He Had Been
Told of Lawlessness.

! Charges of the Ku Klux Khan OF
arlington county. Va. in posters dis
trlbuted throughout the county last
| night that three gambling houses are
HourishinS within its borders brought
from Commonw ealth Attorney Frank
Bali today the announcement that he
VIII summon all known members of
| the organization to appear before the
grand jury Monday morning. Mr.. Ball
hopes to obtain sufficient evidence
from klansmen to indict the pro
prietors Of the gambling dens.
1 Will even pay a reputable lawyer
TO represent the khan at the hearing"
Mr.. Ball added
Members of the Virginia klans post
ed thousands of notices of the alleged
sdmpllng houses on trees and tele-
phonc poles last night at about IL
O'Clock. The notices met the ewes OF
| residents Of Arlington county as they
started the days work and resulted
IN much comment A poster was tax
en- from telephone pole by re-
| follows:
Text of Poster.
Friday October 13. 1922
Citizens Of Arlington county, Va.
Greetings:
There has been a great increase
IN the activities of the lawless ele-
tnent in this county during the past
Two years. Certain gambling and
ilquor interests in and around Wash
lngton, ID. c.. have apparently Sc
lected this county as a safe territory
in which TO ply their trade. Many
other unlawful operations continue
unmolested.
we are not fanatics on this sub
Ject, neither do we wish to appear
unreasonable, but. as citizens. tax
payers and voters, we demand that
an attempt be made to erase these
now intolerable conditions. We eX-
pect the law to be enforced, and when
| there is lax enforcement we stand
| upon our prerogatives as citizens. in
! seeking, by lawful means, to lind .
! remedy. We want the county TO be
| governed by the regularly cons,i-
tuted authorities and We agree that
/ no man or set of men should be
permitted to take the law into their
own hands We are lawabiding citi-
zens and we have never taken the
law into our own hands, nor have
We ever contemplated such action.
Declared Evidence Collected.
I'VE have collected evidence from
time to time and We have tried to
get action. but without success. We
recently called the public's attention
to a few conditions that existed in
| the county. We now wish to pre-
sent additional developments. q
| For some months we have beer
| investigating and observing the
! operations of one gambling ring
| which has been sponsoring three
| gambling places in this county. These
places are known as 'Dowerdy's tnear
| Alexandria): The Hilltop formerly
Columbus Country Club. and The
Elite tnear Chain Bridge.) Some
| forty odd klansmen have attended
! these places for the purpose of get
ting the Information and evidence.
| These three places have had an
aggregate attendance Of from one
to two thousand nightly and upward
of four thousand on Saturday nights.
Tens of thousands OF dollars change
! hands every night. A number OF
| bus lines convey members TO ana
/ from the houses. These automobiles
are run over a defined route and
| have regular schedule. Among
! others. the following are some OF
| the points at which these automo-
! biles receive and discharge pasSen-
gers: Thirty-fourth and NJ streets.
| 18th street anu Pennsylvania avenue.
| 18th and L streets. 18th and ii
streets. Wisconsin avenue and y
street, 18th and L streets.
Facts offered.
! Seeking a means TO close these
| places which had grown to such pro-
| portions, we decided to place the in
| formation and details i'll the hands of
| the commonwealth attorney. hoping
| that We might get the rinsleaders with
| the evidence and permanently stop
| their operations.
| I'VE now offer these facts: Prior
| to the opening of The Hilltop well
known gambling financier was seen in
| the county comforting with certain
| persons. He was observed at the
courthouse for three successive nights.
| The Hilltop then commenced its OPP
| erations. Our members commenced
| their operations. The Hilltop has OPP
| Grated steadily ever since. with eScep-
| ton of a few days when il suspended
| action due to the scare thrown into
it by our last public statement.
| Throughout all of this lime. no
| leak occurred among our membership
| to arouse the suspicion of the GAM
blers. On Monday night, October 3,
| full information and details were given
10 the commemorative attorney. On
| Tuesday night. October 10. all three
places were closed, and have been
closed since then.
| Said to Have Been "Tipped.-
THE same hilltop official previous
ly referred to was seen at the court
| house on Tuesday night, and later
| was present at the Maryland elite,
where he made a statement to sew
eral klanSmen as TO the .uenllts OF
the person who tipped him off. at
the same time remarking that that
person had received a goodly sum OF
money for the tip.
| Most of our county officials are
competent and efficient and have our
full confidence. We appreciate the
difficulties that confront the COM
monwealth's attorney or any officer
RESPONSIBLE for law enforcement We
know that there are some men work
ing under the commemorative attor-
news office who cannot be trusted.
| 1--WE desire a clean county. and we
have felt that the public should be
acquainted with conditions.
County of Arlington, Realm of Viz
| ginia. P. O. Box 1O2. Cherrydale, Va"
Says He Knows klansmen.
Asked how he was going to obtain
the names of the klansmen and pre-
sent them to the grand jury. Mr.. Ball
declared that he knew enough OF
them personally. Mr.. Ball stated that
| only a few days ago he was asked TO
Join the organization, but refused TO
do SO because of the masks. Il be-
,ieye in the principles of the order,
he eaid today, but do not like the
idea of the masks"
| Mr.. Ball stated that 1t was not true
that any one had taken steps to pro-
tect the alleged dens. The Arlinx.
- Daoo Caluron