South Bend news-times. (South Bend, Ind.) 1913-1938, 1922-12-28
Child Asking
for "Daddy"
PeriLs Khan
Baby Girl on Gov. Parker 5
Knee Causes Executive
TO Begin Probe.

NEW ORLEANS. la, Dec. 81
A little blue eyed baby girl, scarce
ly more than three years old. is be-
hind the war which John NJ. Parker,
governor OF louisiana. is waging to-
day against the I[u KluX Khan.
To her alone are due the exposes
which are shaking the state and ma
ton and arousing action against the
hooded cohorts Of the invisible en-
pire." She alone. If her baby tongue
could do more than prattle or her
baby fingers do more than scribble,
could tell and write the inside story
of the Mer Rouge murders.
She Is back of the march and
cOunter-marCh OF armed troops
which maintain virtual martial law
in Morehouse parish today. She is
back of pistol bulging hips and light
y slung rifles and shOtguns on tho
arms OF scores of North Louisiana
citizens. She IS back OF the half ton
Of dynamite, mySteriO uSly exploded,
that brought 20 the surface of Lake
la F'ourche the headless. wire bound
bodies Of Thomas Richards and Watt
Daniel after their four months rest
I'm the coze of the lake bed. She is
back of legal and medical talent
being assembled by Gov. Parker TO
place the resp 0nSibility for that dOu-
bic murder and the torture men say
preceded IT, She is back Of the sec
ond public hearing Of this sort i'm
two centuries OF Louisiana history
when on January 3 men will gather
in the machine gun ringed court
house at Bas.rOp 10 threSh out the
case.
This little girl is Leota Richards
daughter of Thomas +. Richards.
one OF the men tortured and muir
6ersd by the Mer Rouge mob which
Gov. Parker asserts was made up Of
members of the Ku KluN Khan and
which daily Developments substan-
Jiate.
Bring My Daddy Home.
The machinery which started the
clean UP drive AGAINST the khan in
this state was put in motion after
Gov. Parker heard a tale 90 mid
night murder. OF a mothers GRIEF.
OF supiue local authority and at last
swCre q lnighty oath when the little
child climbed on his knee i'm his Of
Zee at Baton Rouge and pleaded.
Wont you please bring my daddy
home for Christmas"
The story goes gaCk 80 the sEm-
uer night when little Leota and
her daddy hand ir hand. were going
homo. \ group Of men intercerteI
them. They wore moods and masks
Come with US" they told Rich
ar L. lie came. Gun muzzleS enforced
obedience. An employee Of the E.rh-
ards garage tpoi. Leota horo" she
;ried L. Tell her mother what snd
happened. But 10 was not until Rich
ards had been questioned. released
and sent home with warning
thai Mrs Richards knew her nus
band had fallen into The hands ~
the hooded ones who were seeking
evidence or confessions as 30 the
attempt which DIR. II. r. McKoiu.
former mayor OF the little town. said
had been made TO assassinate him.
Leota only knew that masked men
had taken her daddy away
When Daddy Didn't Return.
Daddy came back that tsne.
But another time daddy didn't
come back. IL was after a night OF
terror on the BasJrop-Ner Rouge
road when masked and hooded and
robed men with firearms took FIVE
men from tho hundreds that were
motoring from the good roads piect-
ing at Bastrop. Ieota's daddy was
one of the Eve The world knows
that three o. The FIVE returned. Watt
Daniels and Richards did not. Days
and nights OF search followed along
with grand jury sessions which in
Jicted nobody The constituted au-
th0r.ties OF Morehouse parish seem
ed singularly supine. Sinister whis-
pers creTt a5out 40 arrest was
made. Nothing TO report was the
official attitude
Then one day Mrs. Thomas Rich