Evening star., 1936-05-31
IS SEEN
IN BLACK LEGION
Members Are Declared De.
fectiVe in Education and
Social Outlook.
Special Dispatch to The Star.


The midnight robes of the Black
Legion are night shirts of the TWEEN
tieth century Ku Klux Klan. dyed
black. They are the robes Of men
who dissented from that order be-
cause that secret and once powerful
organization was not cruel enough In
q the execution of its judgments, or
= perhaps because in their warped
minds the khan did not go far enough
in protecting true Americans and
true AmericaniSm" from the Negro,
the Catholic, the Jew and the for
eigner"
= That statement, of course, is a gen.
~ erality, and, like all generalities, sub
ject to exceptions. That it is true
has been rather definitely established
in the few days since Detroit detec-
tives announced that members of the
legion were responsible for the death
of Charles A. Poole the w. P. A.
worker who knew too much about the
secret society.
The members of the legion-at least
those held on charges of having mur-
dered Poole-are defective in intelli-
:
and in their social outlook. Even So
they are roughly typical of the typical
. Klansman of 10 years or more ago.
when the white hooded order all but
dominated the governments of several
. Of the States and became an issue
In q national political convention.
Objectives Roughly Alike.
he al iy, txvH nd "a
. rough parallel in objectives that first
, gave rise to theories the legion might
be an offshoot of the latter-day Klan.
The most recent confirmation of that
theory has come from DR.. William j.
Shepard, the small-town doctor at
Bellaire, Ohio, who is reputed to be
: the national commander of the terror
/: list society.
According to Dr. Shepard, the Black
: Legion got its start in 1925. when he
= took a group of black -robed men to
the national encampment of the khan
: at Buckeye Lake, near Newark, Ohio.
. I'VE guarded the barrels that Hiram
; Evans, the imperial wizard of the klan,
= put the money in," Shepard observed.
= "I guess the only mistake we made
: was in not taking some of those
barrels"
: 1t is Shepards belief that the Black
!. Legion idea originated in that khan
= encampment. He disavows response
= bility for the Black Legion in Mich
: igan, but he talked quite bit about
= how the idea of the legion came to
: his mind while studying the exploits
: of Moseby and Quantrell, Civil War
= guerilla raiders.
. Order Entirely in North.
: Quantrell was mentioned in litera-
: ture Of the legion seized at jackson,
:; Mich, where five members Of the
: order were held on charges Of having
+. fogged neighbor.
= The order, incidentally, is reported
= to have different names in different
: States, being known in Indiana as
= the Red Legs" and in West Vir-
: ginia as the BLACK Brigade
: Shepard believes that the men who
a killed Poole should be hanged He
: shares that opinion with Virgil H.
: Efinger Of Lima, Ohio. the loose
iowled, tobacco chewing ex-contractor
: who is reputed to be the leader of the
: society in Michigan, Ohio and Indi-
ana.
Efinger, like Shepard, would not
: admit outright he was an officer of
: the legion. He did admit, however
that he had been a member of the
Klan, and an organizer Arthur F.
: Lupp, the reputed Michigan COM
mander Of the Legion, has not admit
ted any former Klan af1liation. A
to be members of the legion in Mich
igan have been identified as former
members Of the Klan.
Khan Called Racket.
Lupp and Efinger were both born
. In Northern States. OF the 16 men
originally arrested in connection with
Poole's death, two-thirds were from
. Tennessee or Georgia or Kentucky.
They are sallow. thin, pathetic types.
Some of the former Klansmen who
are now in the Legion assert they left
. the Klan because it was a racket"
and that the wizards and imperial
potentates were interested primarily
. In the $40 initiation fees.
The Black Legion's initiation fee is
10 cents, none Of which is kept by
. local officers. The local leaders make
their profit through the sale Of the
black robes, with their white skulls
and cross-bones. These robes sell at
. about s675 and do not cost more than
S1.50 or SITS.
j. A. Colescott. head of the Klan
In Ohio. Michigan, Indiana and
Kentucky, has stated that he was
aware some persons were deserting
: his organization in favor Of the black
robed legion. He has also stated that
he considers it good riddance."
Recruits Slow of Late.
He first heard Of the legion in 1926,
he said, and at that time went to
Bellaire, Ohio, the home of Shepard, |
. to investigate.
Although Shepard says the legion |
idea originated in 1925, there Is little |
: evidence that it gained many recruits |
!: until recent years. Most Of those who
. have gone to the authorities with |
: their stories said they joined in 1890,
1881 or subsequently. Some of them |
are hardly more than boys, and are
too young to have been Klan men,
bers.
Colescott's theory is that the de-
serters to the legion were men who
considered the Klan was not violent
enough.
Klan memberships were largely vol
untary. The Legion recruits its men,
bers, according to credible testimony,
by compulsion and terror. The
prospective candidate has little choice.
Usually he is too terror-stricken at
. the horrendous ritual even to pro-
test.
No Way 70 Quit, Either.
And once member, he is told that
there are no ex-members-except those
who are 6 feet under ground.
The distinctions between the Klan |