Evening star., 1936-05-25
Murder and Kidnap War
rants Sought for 13 After
"RituaI Execution"
TWO ADMIT KILLING MAN
WHO "KNEW TOO MUCH"
Investigator Says Order Has
$4,000 Armed Members in
Michigan Alone.
picture on Page A-6.)
BY the Associated Press.

By the Associated Press.
DETROIT, May 25.-Murder and
kidnapping warrants were asked by
Prosecutor Duncan C. McCrea today
for 13 members of the Black Legion
held here in the Staying of Charles
A. Poole, and for IL John Does who
may have attended the meeting at
which Poole's execution" was planned.
The prosecutor. declaring the vigi-
lante society is IAN outlaw organiza-
ton national in scope" announced he
would ask the Department of Justice
to help us drive it out of existence"
Two of the men held. McCrea said,
had admitted that Poole, young w.
P. A. worker. was put to death be-
cause he knew too much" and not be-
cause he had been accused, falsely, Of
beating his wife.
The 13 named In the warrant rec
concentrations were:
Harvey Davis, a colonel" In the
black -cloaked order which has
deaths head for its insignia; Dayton
Dean, accused of emptying two pis-
tolls into Poole's body on a lonely
suburban road May 10; Erwin D. Lee
and Urban Lipps. both of whom
McCrea said have confessed; George
c. johnson, Paul r. Edwards and
Edgar Baldwin, who are accused of
having been present at the killing;
Herschel Gill and Lowell Rushing.
relatives of Poole by marriage; Thomas
r. Craig. John Bannerman. John B.
Mitchell and John S. Vincent.
Four Released.
James Roy Torrance. one Of the
men detained last week. will be re-
leased, McCrea said. Three others,
Bert Graham, Leonard Lpps and
Luther Glasgow were released previ-
ously.
Investigations were under way into
several unsolved deaths as State and
local agencies sought to determine if
they were linked with the Black
Legion, which. Harry Colburn. Nc
Crea's chief investigator, said, had
$4,000 armed members in Michigan
alone
In Jackson. Ray Ernest, q guard
at the State Penitentiary, was held
for investigation in the reported fog
ging death of Paul Every, who investi-
gators said had tried to withdraw from
the Black Legion. Papers seized in
Ernest's home indicated he was a
"brigadier general" In the secret
society, Prosecutor Owen Dudley of
Jackson County announced.
Membership lists confiscated with
Black Legion regalia in Ernest's home
indicated other prison guards we're
members, Dudley declared.
Warden Aroused by Letter.
Warden Harry Jackson aroused by
a letter taken from Ernest which was
signed art Lupp. B. g." it asked ::
How are you getting along with
your new boss? If you're not, maybe
we can do something about it,
McCrea said he was trying to
locate Arthur F. Lupp, ST., for ques-
tioning regarding rumors he was State
commander of the Black Legion.
McCrea said he also wanted to
question v. F. Effinger of Lima, Ohio,
who appeared last Summer before the
Lenawee prosecutor at Adrian to ask
release Of three men arrested by State
troopers when arms and regalia SINH
lar to that Of the Black Legion were
found in their possession.
grand jury at jackson was inves-
tigating the accusation lodged against
Ernest by Every's widow and son.
In Lansing, the State attorney gen.
eral said he was considering a State
investigation into the hooded riders.
In Pontiac, Charles z. Butler, chair
man of the Pontiac Police and Fire
Trial Board, said the board would
meet Tuesday to determine "once for
all whether there is any truth in
rumors that certain patrolmen are
members of a Black Legion unit called
"The Bullet Club"
Prospector's Death Probed.
Among the unsolved deaths under
scrutiny was that of Jerome Garfield
Wolfe, oil prospector whose body was
found late in 1888 by the roadside
near Napoleon, Mich.
Wolfe's death was pronounced due
to ruptured liver. but Prosecutor
Dudley said at jackson today that
Floyd Bober, a watchman at turkey
farm, testified at the inquest that
several automobiles had halted at the
scene, their lights out, and had left
after about Is minutes.
There were tire marks on Wolfe's
body, but no other evidence of ex-
ternal violence, Dudley said. Wolfe
was rumored to have been on severa
parties with men suspected Of mem.
bership in the Black Legion, he said
Capt. William Hanson of the State
police reported to Dudley that he hac
found two former members of th'
organization who had been flogged
and that they were willing to testify
/