New Britain herald., 1924-07-31
Crowd of 5000 To 5000 Klansmen Fig. ure In Armed Clash Outside City Of Ha. verhill.
Hooded Members Said to Have Been Armed and Many Wore Ex-Service- mems Uniforms.

Haverhill. Mass. July si.-Four men were shot here early today when hostile crowds clashed with between 5000 and 5000 members of the Ku Klux Klan who held a meeting last ing into the early morning on a hill in the neighboring town Of Grove land. State and local police at length quelled the disorders. taking into custody 23 men, including three of the wounded men, and confiscated six shotguns. several revolvers and quantities of ammunition.
 Shots Are Fired
 The disorders broke out at the con- clusion of a klan initiation ceremony on Perry Hill, Groveland, and con- tinued as nearly 1000 automobiles bearing klansmen from Worcester. Boston. Springfield and other cities travelled from the meeting place. homeward over the road toward Hav- erhill. Shots were fired and many missiles were thrown at the passing cars but so far as is known. only four men were known to have been injur- ed. None of the injured men. all of whom suffered buckshot wounds in the legs, was believed to be danger ously hurt.
 The wounded men, James Connolly, Francis Cotter. Edmund Lucey and . fourth named Buckley. all of Haver- hill were in one automobile.
 Say They Were Fired Upon
 They alleged that they were fired frIo 4r< I.p tvfS lr when they attempted to pass the vehicle after state police had signall- ed them to move ahead.
 Approximately half of the score of men arrested were Hayerhill residents and the others were from Massachu- setts cities as far west as Worcester. All were charged with disturbing the peace.
 About 300 armed guards sur rounded the ten acre field in Grove land in which the ceremonies were in progress last night, witnesses said. A crowd of about 400 men collected outside the field but although hostile. no disturbance arose until about 1 o'clock this morning when the meet ing ended and the klansmen, openly armed. witnesses said, marched out of the field beside the cars as measure of precaution against attack. Large numbers of the klan group were ap- parently former service men, wearing army uniforms.
 Cars Are Bombarded
 Stones were hurled at the machines and occasional shots were fired as the klan members, riding in their cars, drove toward Haverhill. The firing and stone throwing increased as the klansmen entered Haverhill and it was in Haverhill that all the arrests were made, 13 by Haverhill police and 10 by state patrolmen, before the last of the klan cars had dis Arrests appeared to be evenly divided between persons attending the klan meeting and opposition.
 Police Court Hearing
 Twenty-one men arrested in connec- ton with the disturbance, of whom 20 were said to be klan members, were given hearing in the district court today on charges of disturbing the peace. Police officers testified that they heard shot guns fired and men shouting and ieering In the vicinity of the Groveland street fire station early today. They said that Klansmen and their opponents were fighting and that traffic was blocked by automobiles re- turning from the klan meeting.
 The officers said that they found shot guns in the possession of some of the men whom they arrested When a noon recess of court was taken 1t was expected that the hearing would last the rest of the day.