Tabor City tribune. (Tabor City, N.C.) 1946-1991, 1952-05-28
llEFiaa08UAgin Of the fire e, g.

! Hamilton WIFI the logging VI
Woodrow Jackson, the Whiteville
mechanic, who was beaten in a
cemetery for excessive drinking.
And the solicitor intimated strong
ly he may be able 10 connect the
grand dragon with at least one
other flogging case, in the role Of
conspirator.
Evidently, Hamilton knew the
heat was on before the SBI ag-
ents and Sheriff Nance confirmed
his suspicious. The grand dragon
had scheduled a rally and cross
burning at Darlington, S. c., last
week, Suddenly he sent word over
the Klan grapevine that the rally
was off.
Khan activities, the boss klans-
man added, were suspended until
further notice.
Hamilton has been arrested on
three occasions since he assumed
the leadership of the Ku Klux
Khan in 1949.
Charged with conspiracy to in
cite to mob violence in Horny
County in 1850, he escaped trial
when the grand jury refused to
return indictments against him
and several of his khan associates.
This case grew out of Myrtle
Beach demonstration by the Khan
at Negro night club. A Conway
policeman in the traditional robe
hof the Khan was slain in an ex-
change of gunfire.
The Klan's Imperial Wizard al
so faced a similar charge two
years ago at Camden after a
YMCA worker at Sumter was
beaten by the Khan.
A Federal grand jury indicted
Hamilton last June for violating
the postal laws after he had been
accused Of mailing a postal card
containing statements obviously
intended to reflect injuriously up
on the character and conduct" of
Wilton E. Hall, a newspaper pub
Usher at Anderson.
To escape prison term of one
year, Hamilton chose to pay
$1,000 fine.
Since the first flogging began
in Columbus County late last year,
officers had been anxious to grab
Hamilton. They got their chance
after several admitted Klansmen
were put on the witness stands n
Whiteville and Wilmington, and
after the xxx members had been
grilled privately by State and Fed
eral investigators.
Rev Conner, 50-year-old farmer
of Cerro Gordo, Route l, who
pleaded no contest to charges that
he helped flog Woodrow Johnson,
Whiteville mechanic, first intro
duced the name of Hamilton in
Columbus Superior Court.
Early Brooks, exalted cyclops
of the Fair Bluff Klavern, read q
letter from Hamilton al one of the
Khan meetings, Conner remem-
bered. The letter, Conner added,
"said that some Fair Bluff women
had written him (Hamilton) that
a horse trader would have this
woman's husband arrested and
then 60 cut with her."
Hamilton said she wanted it
taken care of immediately" Con-
nor quoted the letter as saying.
Steve Edmund, the 25-year-old
roly poly Columbus farmer who
was a star witness for the prose-
cution in both the State and Fed
eral trials, said he filled out his
Klan membership blank "and gave
it to Hamilton"
Along with the blank, Edmund
said he gave the xxx grand
dragon $40 as an initiation fee,
Sc for a robe and hood, and So
for the quarters dues.
Another link in the evidence
against Hamilton was forged by
Walter A. Murphy, who is in
charge Of the Charlotte FBI Of
flee. In the Federal trial, Murphy
testified that after Early Brooks
was arrested, Brooks said Hamil-
ton promised him (Brooks) 81
out of each $40 collected from new
Khan members.
Swayed By Speech
Like Edmund, another former
Klansman, Frank Lewis of Fair
Bluff, said he was swayed by
Hamilton's vitriolic speech at the
first Klan cross-burning in Co.
lumbus in August, 1851. Lewis,
a former Fair Bluff police chief,
later repented and helped impi-
cate other Klansmen.
Referring to the cross-burning
when Hamilton, surrounded by
hooded figures, stood ON an i'm
provised platform to deliver his
speeches of hate, Lewis said true
fully:
II wish I'd took a rock and
knocked him (Hamilton) off that
stand"
Hamilton always has commended
that the only beatings the Klan
condone are those which occur
'at the ballot boxes He had
piously proclaimed that "disgrun-
tied persons" non-Klan members,