The Birmingham age-herald., 1923-01-15
NE W sENSAT IONS ARE PROMISED IN MOREHOUSE PROBE
Developments Expected to Follow as Fast as State Un- folds Its Case Against.
 Alleged Mob Members
By Associated pr.ss

BASTROP, Jan. 14-Development in the open hearing into the investi- gation of maske band atrocities in Warehouse parish are expected to fly fast this week.
 A. " Coco, attorney general, and his staff spent the weekend in checking up the testimony adduced from more than 40 witnesses during the week just closed and laying their plans for procedure this week.
 They expressed themselves as being well satisfied with the progress so far and added that a sensational story may be told by witnesses they have summoned to appear during the next few days.
 Indictment weather caused a lull in official activities today. Citizens of this place and Mer Rouge spent the day discussing the case. Capt. J. K. Skipwith, whose name has been mentioned repeatedly by witnesses as the exalted cyclops of the More house klan and as a prominent fig ure in hooded band activities, was missing from his various hang outs" today. A check up of his movements showed he journeyed to Monroe to spend the day with rela- tives.
 Black Hoods Mentioned
 During the last week there was one thrill after another during the prog ress of the open hearing. Evidence was produced from former members of the Warehouse klan that the black hood" similar to those used by members of the band which kid naped Watt Daniel and T. F. Rich ard was part of the regalia of the organization.
 Daniel and Richard disappeared after they had been seized along with w. c. Andrews, "Tot" Daven- port and J. l.. Daniel on August "A, last. on the Bastrop-Mer Rouge highway by a black -hooded band. The Kidnapping was witnessed by scores of people. Andrews and J. l.. Daniel. father of Watt, were flogged and released The last they saw of Watt Daniel and Richard was when they were being hauled away in a truck. Their mutilated bodies were found last month floating in Lake La Fourche after being mysteriously dynamited from the bottom of the lake.
 The state produced a witness who testified that Captain Skipwith in his explanation for the disappear ance of Daniel and Richard said that they talked too much for their good"
 Skipwith Ruled Parish
 wi tnn ha tain Skipwith was the ruler of the parish, that his word was final and that the advent of the klan brought about chaotic conditions through this section. They further testified that Fthe invisible empire" of the Ku Klux Klan had superseded the constituted authorities of the parish that courts were not functioning properly and that the sheriff. district attorney, court clerk and other off cials were members of the lSlan.
 Another witness testified that Sheriff Carpenter was standing 100 feet away on the afternoon of August IT. when Thomas F. Richard was Kidnapped the first time from a Bastrop garage and taken to the woods and lectured while still an other witness said that Captain Skip with told him to keep quiet and he would fix 1t up with Judge Odom' presiding jurist in this district, after band of men had raided his home and accused him of making whisky.
 This same witness later testified that when he personally called on Judge F. L. Odom regarding the charge he found that "Skipwith had failed to fix it as he had promised and that the court informed him that if he wished to plead guilty he would have to take the conse- quences."
 TeIs of Conferences
 MT. Smith in detail recited the va rious conferences held by citizens of Bastrop, Mer Rouge and Monroe and officials of the Morehouse klan in an effort to restore peace, to pre- vent threatened revenge on prom inent citizen of Mer Rouge who had been accused of "being the brains of the Anti-K -Ku <lux Klan move ment in the parish" and to prevent
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