The Washington times., 1924-04-08
SUPPOSED KHAN
VICTIM HELD
CAPTIVE
Busey, Who Vanished From
Prison, Says Richards
Saw Daniel Slain.
Copyright, 1924. by International
News Servjce)

Copyright, 1924 by International
News Servjce.)
Reproduction in whole or part abso-
lutely prohibited.)
ATLANTA, Ga, April g.
Thomas F. Richards is still alive
and a captive of Ku Klux Klans-
menw
This is the keynote to an amaz-
ing story, which DR.. A. C. Busey,
the "man Of mystery" who has
disappeared from the Federal
prison here, boosted would solve
the infamous hooded mob murders
Of Mer Rouge, La, which shocked
the nation during the winter of
192271923.
In his startling tale, rivalling
the fancies of fiction, Busey fatty
repudiated the charges of the
State Of Louisiana that Richards
and Watt Daniel, his bosom friend,
were "fed into a torture machine"
by black-robed mob of klansmen
in August, 1922.
Daniel Slain, He Says.
Busey admitted Daniel had been
but he insisted that Rich.
ards left the scene Of the crime an
unframed man-but a captive Of
those whose hands were red with
Daniels blood. The two bruised,
mangled bodies, which authorities
later found in Lake LaFourche, and
which were identified by dry-eyed
friends as Richards and Daniel,
Busey classed as fakes" secured
from the riff-raff Of medical COL
leges.
For the last twenty months.
Busey claimed, Richards has been
held a captive by friends of the
men who killed Daniel. The captive
has been hurried from State to
State, surreptitiously and usually
in the dead Of night-a fugitive
from the Khan as well as from
those who represent the law.
From his prison cell, Busey wrote
a friend:
II hold the secret. Richards ia
alive and can lead you to him
any time. His mother lives at
West Monroe, La. and for her
sake, things must move. Some one
Is pleading for her and the prayer
of mother win be answered short.
1y. II / have to serve all my
time, I will do it like a man, but
Richards will be returned to his
mother at no distant day."
Busey's Story
Here Is Busey's story:
Richards was induced to betray
MS bosom friend to the masked
Dand OF murderers on that warm
August afternoon when the Khan
went raiding along the highways
OF Morehouse Parish. He lured
Daniel into the Klan's hands
and when, hours later, violence
ended in murder, they carried
Richard away to captivity lest his
lips send half a dozen of their
number to dangle at the end of
the hangman's moose.
Up into Arkansas the murdererS
carried their captive and then, on
a wide sweeping arc across the
State and southwark into Texas.
Weeks of captivity heightened
into months and finally into a
year and more. And today Rich.
ards still lives, a harried, broken
man-near death-but still under
the vigilant eyes. Of those who
fear his lips may spell for them a
murderer's doom.
This Is the story of the IMAM Of
Mystery" for whom the Department
Of Justice is conducting a nation.
wide search.
Must Remain Captive.
Richards must remain IN cap.
tivity." Bussey told a friend. "If
the Khan produced him it would
spell the death warrant for half a
dozen mon. Richards alive would
prove Daniel dead and give the
State its first eyewitness to the
crime. Until Daniels body is found
or Richards produced, no murder
charge can be proved against any
individual in Louisiana. This is
proved by the States failure to
bring a single murder trial even
to this day, although the murder
was committed a year ago."
In the secret archives Of the
highest Imperial Khan officers,
Bussey was marked down as a man
who saw the murderers at work on
that fateful August night. It was
even reported that he stood upon
the banks Of Lake La Fourche the
night that Daniel died. It was said
he heard the screams Of the victim
when the black-hooded slayers beat
him and at last, tied him to a
gigantic sawmill cogwheel and rolled
him down gentle hill to mangled
eternity. 1t was said Busey watched
a furtive group carry Daniels form
away and bury 1t beneath a cypress
log.
Khan Seeks Richards.
From other sources. it was
learned that an army of detectives
employed by the Klan's Imperial
Palace have honey-combed the
Southwest seeking Richards hiding
place.
A fortune, estimate by some as
high as $250,000, has been spent
on the search The murderers, how.
ever, have hidden him from even
the khan, 1t was said, fearing that
the recent clashes between khan
authorities might lead to q be.
trayal.
1t was said that Capt. J. X.
Sklpwith, cyclops of the Morehous
Klan, blamed by State authorities
for the murder, wasted his personal
fortune on similar search. It was
Skipwith who circulated a report
that Richards was alive, during the
famous Bastrop "open hearings"
One Of these reports was carried as
q news item by International News