The original draft of this article was presented at a Wayne State University/University of Michigan—Dearborn History Colloquium in March 1980. I am indebted to the participants for helpful and constructive criticism. I have also benefited at various stages from the critical comments of colleagues and former colleagues: Sidney Bolkosky, Melvin Cherno, Patrick Dobel. Gerald Moran, Donald Proctor, Richard Roehl, and Frank Wayman. My research on the Black Legion has been supported by a Rackham Faculty Research Grant, by several University of Michigan-Dearborn faculty research grants, as well as by a National Endowment for the Humanities Summer Stipend.

¹ For my views on nativism, I have relied on three complementary standard works: Billington, Ray Allen, The Protestant Crusade, 1800–1860—A Study of the Origins of American Nativism (New York, 1938)Google Scholar; Higham, John, Strangers in the Land—Patterns of American Nativism, 1860–1925 (New Brunswick, N.J., 1955)Google Scholar; and Brown, Richard M., Strain of Violence. Historical Studies of American Violence and Vigilantism (New York, 1975).Google Scholar

² I am aware of the objection that students of nativism have always noted the wave-like, intermittent nature of nativist “crusades.” Even though the collapse of the second Ku Klux Klan by the mid-1920s undoubtedly left organized nativism in one of its periodic troughs, there is no reason to suppose that the attitudes and resentments on which the Klan had fed had suddenly vanished.

³ Some of the major comparative studies of fascism, generally confined to Europe, which I have examined are listed below, roughly in the order of their appearance: Nolte, Ernst, The Three Faces of Fascism, Vennewitz, Leila, trans. (New York, 1966; München, 1963))Google Scholar; Weber, Eugen, Varieties of Fascism (New York, 1964)Google Scholar; Rogger, Hans and Weber, Eugen, eds., The European Right: A Historical Profile (Berkeley, 1966)Google Scholar; Laqueur, Walter and George L, Mosse, eds., International Fascism, 1920–1945 (New York, 1966)Google Scholar; Weiss, John, The Fascist Tradition: Radical Right-Wing Extremism in Modern Europe (New York, 1967)Google Scholar; Carsten, F. L., The Rise of Fascism (Berkeley and Los Angeles, 1967)Google Scholar; Woolf, S. J., European Fascism (London, 1968)Google Scholar; Woolf, S. J., ed., The Nature of Fascism (London, 1973);Google ScholarCassels, Alan, Fascism (New York, 1975)Google Scholar; Allardyce, Gilbert, “What Fascism is Not: Thoughts on the Deflation of a Concept,” American Historical Review, 85:2 (04 1979), 367–98CrossRefGoogle Scholar; and Payne, Stanley G., Fascism—Comparison and Definition (Madison, Wis., 1980).Google Scholar Some of the major theoretical analyses or surveys are Nolte, Ernst, Theorien über den Faschismus (Cologne and Berlin, 1967)Google Scholar; Schultz, Gerhard, Faschismus, Nationalismus; Visionen und theoretische Kontroversen, 1922–1972 (Frankfurt a/M./, 1974)Google Scholar; Gregor, James A., Interpretations of Fascism (Morristown, N. J., 1974)Google Scholar; Turner, Henry A., Jr., ed., Reappraisals of Fascism (New York, 1975)Google Scholar; Wippermann, Wolfgang, Faschismustheorien (Darmstadt, 1975)Google Scholar; de Felice, Renzo, Interpretations of Fascism (Cambridge, Mass., 1977).Google Scholar

⁴ Amann, Peter H., “Les fascismes américains des années trente: aperçus et refléxions,” Revue d'histoire de la Deuxième Guerre Mondiale, forthcoming.Google Scholar

⁵ I am defining “proto fascist” rather narrowly as “having the potential of developing into full-fledged fascism.” Personally I doubt whether either Coughlin or Long may legitimately be characterized as having been fascist in 1935, though the former was evidently moving in that direction, while the latter, despite his scant regard for legality, was, if we accept his major biographer's interpretation, a genuine populist diametrically opposed to the revolutionary conservatism with which fascism is usually equated. For Father Coughlin's evolution, see Marcus, Sheldon, Father Coughlin: The Tumultuous Life of the Priest of the Little Flower (Boston, 1973)Google Scholar; Tull, Charles J., Father Coughlin and the New Deal (Syracuse, 1965)Google Scholar; Bennett, David H., Demagogues in the Depression—American Radicals and the Union Party (New Brunswick, 1969)Google Scholar; Fenton, James, “Fascism and Father Coughlin,” Wisconsin Magazine of History, 44 (08 1960), 6–11Google Scholar; Newton, Craig, “Father Coughlin and His National Union for Social Justice,” Southwestern Social Science Quarterly, 41:3 (12 1960), 341–50Google Scholar; and Marx, Gary T., The Social Basis of the Support of a Depression-Era Extremist: Father Charles E. Coughlin (Berkeley, 1962)Google Scholar; as well as such theses as Gordon, G. A., “The Politics of the Social Justice Movement” (Ph.D. diss., University of Tennessee, 1963)Google Scholar; Masters, Nicholas Arthur, “Father Coughlin and Social Justice: A Case Study of a Social Movement” (Ph.D. diss., University of Wisconsin, 1956).Google Scholar For the Kingfish, the magisterial biography is Williams, T. Harry, Huey Long (New York, 1969),Google Scholar the conclusions of which were conveniently previewed by its author in “Gentleman from Louisiana: Demogogue or Democrat?” Journal of Southern History, 26:1 (02 1960), 3–21.CrossRefGoogle Scholar Williams confirms earlier positive reappraisals such as Dethloff, Henry, “Huey Pierce Long: Interpretations,” Louisiana Studies, 3:4 (Winter 1964), 219–32Google Scholar; and King, Peter, “Huey Long: The Louisiana Kingfish,” History Today, 14:3 (03 1964), 151–160.Google Scholar Earlier biographies, such as Davis, Forrest, Huey Long: A Candid Biography (New York, 1935),Google Scholar and Beals, Carleton, The Story of Huey P. Long (Philadelphia, 1935),Google Scholar tend to be much more critical. The national movements of both Coughlin and Long are treated with great acumen and original documentation in Seymour Martin Lipset and Raab, Earl, The Politics of Unreason-Right-Wing Extremism in America, 1790–1977, 2d ed. (Chicago and London, 1978), 167–99.Google Scholar

For the Silver Shirts, see Werly, John M., “The Millenarian Right: William Dudley Pelley and the Silver Legion of America” (Ph.D. diss.. Syracuse University, 1972)Google Scholar; and Ribuffo, Leo P., “Protestants on the Right: William Dudley Pelley, Gerald B. Winrod and Gerald L. K. Smith” (Ph.D. diss., Yale University, 1976).Google Scholar For the German-American Bund, there is Bell, Leland V., In Hitler's Shadow (Port Washington and London, 1973),Google Scholar which ignores the German documentation, and Diamond, Sander A., The Nazi Movement in the United States, 1924–1941 (Ithaca and London, 1974),Google Scholar which is excellent. Among comprehensive studies of right-wing extremist movements in the United States may be cited Strong, Donald S., “Anti-Revolutionary, Anti-Semitic Organizations in the United States since 1933” (Ph.D. diss., University of Chicago, 1939),Google Scholar which appeared in a somewhat different format as Organized Anti-Semitism in the United States: The Rise of Group Prejudice during the Decade 1930–1940 (Washington, D.C., 1941)Google Scholar; Ferkiss, Victor C., “The Political and Economic Philosophy of American Fascism” (Ph.D. diss., University of Chicago, 1954)Google Scholar; Schonbach, Morris. “Native Fascism during the 1930's and 1940's. A Study of Its Roots, Its Growth and Its Decline” (Ph.D. diss., University of California, Los Angeles, 1958)Google Scholar; Smith, Geoffrey S.. “A Social and Diplomatic History of American Extremism, 1933–1941” (Ph.D. diss., University of California, Santa Barbara, 1969),Google Scholar which has been published in a condensed form as To Save a Nation: American Countersubversives, the New Deal and the Coming of World War 11, (New York, 1973).Google Scholar Even though brief, the chapter on the 1930s in Lipset, and Raab, , Politics of Unreason, 150–208,Google Scholar is the most satisfactory synthesis available. None of the studies here listed benefitted from the Freedom of Information Act riches in the files of the F.B.I, and Army and Navy Intelligence. There may still be gold in them there hills!

⁶ Payne, , Fascism, 6–7.Google Scholar

⁷ Although this essay is, to the best of my knowledge, the first published study to make extensive use of manuscript primary sources, I would like nonetheless to acknowledge some of my predecessors. Morris, George, Black Legion Rides (New York, August 1936)Google Scholar, is a well-informed, though ideologically predictable, 64-page pamphlet by the Michigan correspondent of The Daily Worker; Janowitz, Morris, “Black Legions on the March,” in America in Crisis, Aaron, Daniel, ed. (New York, 1952), 305–25,Google Scholar the work of a well-known sociologist, devotes only a sketchy four pages to the Black Legion, and the rest to a disquisition on the sociology of American nativist and extremist movements; a brief but acute discussion may be found in Lipset and Raab, , Politics of Unreason, 157–59,Google Scholar although I believe the authors are mistaken in classifying the Black Legion as a “pure” nativist movement; Clinansmith, Michael S., “The Black Legion: Hooded Americanism in Michigan,” Michigan History, 55:3 (Fall 1971), 243–62,Google Scholar is a straight narrative, somewhat careless with details, based on the newspaper record, supplemented by scattered official documents from the Michigan State Archives. Two unpublished papers on the Black Legion should also be noted: Sugar, Maurice, “Memorandum on the Black Legion” (several drafts, ca. 44 pages),Google Scholar is an authoritative, systematic brief by a left-wing labor lawyer, himself a victim of Black Legion harassment and nearly of assassination. Sugar had intended to write a history of the Legion (Sugar Papers, Box 16, Archives of Labor History and Urban Affairs, Wayne State University (cited hereafter as Sugar Papers)); Dolgin, Lynn. “The Black Legion: A Study of American Nativism during the 1930's” (March 1967).Google Scholar is a thoughtful and competent graduate seminar paper on deposit with the Michigan Historical Collections, University of Michigan. The extensive files accumulated for the present study will be turned over to the Archives of Labor History and Urban Affairs, Wayne State University.

⁸ For a brief but helpful rundown of K.K.K. nomenclature, see Rice, Arnold S., The Ku Klux Klan in American Politics (Washington, D.C.. 1962), 2–5.Google Scholar

⁹ Chalmers, David M., Hooded Americanism—The First Century of the Ku Klus Klan, 1865–1965 (New York, 1965), 179Google Scholar; Carlisle, John M., “Night Rider Chief Tells of Founding,” Detroit News, 27 May 1936, pp. 1, 2.Google Scholar

¹⁰ Carlisle, , “Night Rider Chief,” pp. 1, 2Google Scholar; “6-Million List, Claim of Ex-Ku Kluxer,” Detroit Times, 26 May 1936, p. 2Google Scholar; “Klan Leader Offers to Aid Roundup of Legion Killers,” Detroit News, 30 May 1936, p. 4Google Scholar; Davis, Forrest, “Real Fuehrer of the Black Legion Is Being Sought.” New York World Telegram, 29 May 1936, p. 3AGoogle Scholar; Carlisle, John M., “How Many Men in Black Legion,” Detroit News, 31 May 1936, pp. 1, 4.Google Scholar

¹¹ George “Shotgun” Sheperd was one of Colonel William Clark Quantrill's lieutenants in the Confederate guerilla warfare in Kansas and Missouri. After the Civil War, he joined the James and Younger brothers (who were also Quantrill veterans) as a bankrobber, a trade which netted him several years in the Kentucky State penitentiary. He was last heard from as having rejoined the Younger brothers in Texas in 1872. See Harry Drago, S., Outlaws on Horseback (New York, 1964), 43–44, 53–54Google Scholar; and Wellman, Paul I., A Dynasty of Western Outlaws (Garden City, N.Y., 1961), 38–43, 68–69, 73, 80, 108, 129.Google Scholar Dr. Shepard's other legendary hero was Colonel Quantrill himself, who, upon his death at the age of twenty-eight, left all he had to Kate Clarke, who used his $500 to set up a whorehouse in St. Louis. One may conclude that the doctor admired a very special brand of “southern chivalry.” Castel, Albert E., William Clarke Quantrill: His Life and Times (New York, 1962), 213.Google Scholar

¹² The following printed sources have been useful: “Dr. Sheperd [sic] Not with Legion, Black,” The Intelligencer [Wheeling, W. Va.], 26 May 1936, p. 2Google Scholar; “Crowley Will Grill McCrea on Riders,” Detroit Free Press, 27 May 1936, p. 8Google Scholar; Carlisle, , “Night Riders Chief”; Detroit News, 27 May 1936, p. 1Google Scholar; idem, “The Town Folks' 'Dr. Billy' is 'Chief in Another Role,” Detroit News, 28 May 1936, pp. 1, 2.Google Scholar There are obituaries varying in detail in the Wheeling News Register 19 May 1969, p. 2Google Scholar; The Intelligencer, 19 May 1969, p. 2Google Scholar; The Times Leader [Martins Ferry, Ohio], 19 May 1969, p. 1.Google Scholar There is also a fascinating, if unsubstantiated, speculation that Dr. Shepard got the inspiration for his nightriders in the course of a visit to Wellston, Ohio, in 1916. “A Sucker Buying the Beer the Start of Black Legion,” Detroit News, 16 June 1936, p. 17.Google Scholar Most of my information on Dr. Shepard is derived from interviews conducted in March and May of 1979. In fact, almost any Bellaire native over fifty years old can offer a Dr. Billy anecdote or two. In some way all of the following contributed to my portrait of the doctor: Frank Cooke, former assistant coroner; Jimmy Mountain, Times Leader city editor; Emest Giffin, bank president; Wilbur Armstrong, retired probate judge; David Campbell, grocer and Dr. Shepard's neighbor; Charles Jewell, retired fire chief; Dr. Peter Lancione, physician; Edward Sustercic, Belmont County prosecutor; Common Pleas Judge William Irwin (former county prosecutor); Robert J. McDonald, photographer; Helen Jane Jordan, Dr. Shepard's daughter.

¹³ Carlisle, John M., “‘Dr. Billy’ also ‘Chief,’“ Detroit News, 28 May 1936, p. 2.Google Scholar

¹⁴ Bellaire informants whose memory goes back to the late 1920s and early 1930s invariably recall seeing crosses burning on the hills overlooking the city. Since there apparently was no K.K.K. chapter in the area by then, the cross burnings evidently had become standard Night Rider procedure. Since in the other areas, the K.K.K. and the Black Legion co-existed—for example, in the Detroit downriver suburbs—the responsibility for cross burnings in those lo calities is unclear. I have found no unequivocal evidence that, outside of Dr. Shepard's home town, it ever became part of the Black Legion routine.

¹⁵ Though weighed down by jargon, Hirschman, Albert O. has relevant and interesting observations about organizational loyalty in Exit, Voice and Loyalty—Responses to Decline in Firms, Organizations and States (Cambridge, Mass., 1970), esp. ch. 7.Google Scholar

¹⁶ The ceremony up to but not including the colonel's final lecture seems to have been unchanging; at least every account published in 1936 is identical. The lecture ending the ceremony was more or less elaborate, in some cases tracing the Black Legion back to the Boston Tea Party, at other times starting with Quantrill. State of Michigan, Circuit Court for the County of Oakland, , Report of Black Legion Activities in Oakland County, Hartrick, George B., Circuit Judge (September 1936)Google Scholar; [Charles F. Dexter], “I Was a Captain in the Black Legion,” True Detective, January 1937, 26–29, 74–77Google Scholar; “Cult Secrets Bared by Candidate; Kept Silent Fearing Death,” Detroit Times, 24 05 1936, pp. 1, 2Google Scholar; F.B.I., “Black Legion,” File 62–3, Cleveland, Ohio, office, Smith, C. E., 24 May 1936, pp. 8–11Google Scholar; “Black Legion's Blood Oath,” Detroit Times, 25 05 1936, p. 3Google Scholar; “Vigilantes' Death Vow Revealed,” Detroit News, 25 05 1936, pp. 1, 4.Google Scholar The Black Oath should be compared to the official K.K.K. oath, which reads as follows:

In the presence of God and man, I pledge, promise and swear unconditionally, that I will faithfully obey the [Klan] constitution and laws, and will willingly conform to all regulations, usages and requirements of the Ku Klux Klan, which now do exist or may be hereafter enacted, and will render at all times loyal and steadfast support to the imperial authority of same, and will heartily heed all official mandates, decrees, edicts, rulings and instructions of the Imperial Wizard thereon. I swear that I will keep secure to myself a secret of a Klansman when same is committed to me in the sacred bond of Klansmanship.

¹⁷ “Cult Secrets Bared by Candidate,” pp. 1,2Google Scholar; Bates, Albert, “'Legion' Bared by Threat to Ex-Officer,” Detroit Times, 24 05 1936, p. 4Google Scholar; Leibundgut, John, “Shanghaied Member Tells of Black Terror,” New York Post, 27 05 1936, pp. 1,10Google Scholar; “Defies Threat of Death, Ohioan Exposes Cult,” Detroit Times, 27 05 1936, p. 8Google Scholar; “Reveals Farm Chief Tried to Expose Cult,” Detroit Times, 27 05 1936, p. 22Google Scholar; Mclntyre, Thomas, “Pastor Defied Hooded Mob,” Detroit News, 27 05 1936, pp. 1,2Google Scholar; Johnson, George C., “Forced to Join Cultist in Trip,” Detroit Times, 28 05 1936, p. 14Google Scholar, “‘Roped in’ Cult 8 Ousted City Employees,” Detroit Times, 4 06 1936, p. 19,Google Scholar“Black Rider Kept in Line with Threats,” Detroit News, 10 06 1936, pp. 1,2Google Scholar; Swom Statement, Harold Hubbard, Flint, Michigan State Police, “Black Legion,” File 5947.

¹⁸ Carlisle, John M., “Black Legion Chief Speaks,” Detroit News, 27 05 1936, p. 2.Google Scholar

¹⁹ Ibid.

²⁰ Ibid; idem, “Town Folks' ‘Dr. Billy,’“ pp. 1,2.

²¹ Interview with Cooke, Frank, Bellaire, Ohio, 23 May 1979. Cooke was friends with Dr. Shepard from ca. 1929 until the doctor's death in 1969.Google Scholar

²² “Package by Mail Reveals Night Riders Data According to Belmont Prosecutor,” Daily Times [Martins Ferry, Ohio], 6 04 1929, p. 1.Google Scholar I first became aware of the 1929 incidents through unidentified newspaper clippings in F.B.I., File 44–114–1, Washington, D.C.

²³ Interview with Judge William Irwin, former Belmont County prosecutor, St. Clairsville, , Ohio, 22 05 1979.Google Scholar

²⁴ “Night Riders Lash St. Clairsville Man,” Daily Times, 4 04 1929, p. 1Google Scholar; “Seeks, Rider Victim $1000 From County,” Daily Times, 5 04 1929, p. 1Google Scholar; “Proof County Has ‘Night Rider’ Organization Reported in Hands of Prosecuting Attorney,” Daily Times, 6 04 1929, p. 1Google Scholar; “Package by Mail, ,” p. 1Google Scholar; “Indict Eight Night Rider Suspects,” Daily Times, 11 04 29, p. 1.Google Scholar

²⁵ Noble, Madeleine M., “The White Caps of Harrison and Crawford County, Indiana: A Study in the Violent Enforcement of Morality.” (Ph.D. diss., University of Michigan, 1973).Google Scholar For a brief, broader perspective on this phenomenon, see Brown, Richard M., Strain of Violence (New York, 1975), 24–25.Google Scholar What Professors Rosenbaum and Sederberg label “social-group-control vigilantism” does not quite fit Shepard's Night Riders. See Rosenbaum, H. Jon and Sederberg, Peter C., eds., Vigilante Politics (Philadelphia: 1976), 12–17.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

²⁶ “Package by Mail,” p. 1.Google Scholar

²⁷ “Black Legion Ritual Bared by Man Here,” The Intelligencer, 26 05 1936, p. 2.Google Scholar

²⁸ Carlisle, , “Black Legion Chief Speaks,” p. 2.Google Scholar

²⁹ Ibid.

³⁰ My dating relies on the information conveyed to the F.B.I, by George T. Scheid, a Lima plumber and Black Legion colonel, who defected in 1934. In 05 1935 he mentioned to the F.B.I, agent questioning him that he had joined “about 3 years ago” at a time “when there had been only 12 members in the County.” F.B.I., “Black Legion,” File 62–3, Cleveland, Ohio, office, Smith, C. E., 21 May 1935, p. 3.Google Scholar By August 1932, Effinger, in an anonymous letter to the sheriff, Allen County, was claiming “500 vigilantes.” “‘Vigilantes’ Offer Aid to Sheriff in Drive against Gang Members,” Lima News, 16 08 1932, p. 2.Google Scholar The nearest thing to direct evidence of the “transfer” is the statement ascribed to Shepard by Carlisle, John M., who “stayed with the doctor for several days” in late May 1936.Google Scholar (This stay is attested to by Mountain, Jimmy, interview, 22 May 1979,Google Scholar Bellaire, Ohio, though Mr. Mountain did not recall the journalist's name and thought, mistakenly I believe, that he represented the New York Times when in fact it was the Detroit News): “A lot of folks got tired of the Klan and all the dues it charged. They started organizing black outfits of their own. But they're wildcat outfits. I haven't got anything to do with them. I guess Bert Effinger up in Lima tried to get the thing started nationally.” “How Many Night Riders?” Detroit News, 31 05 1936, p. 4.Google Scholar

³¹ The single most vivid portrayal of Effinger is in F.B.I., “Black Legion,” File 62–3, Cleveland, Ohio, office, Manson, N. E., 14 April 1936, pp. 3–5Google Scholar. “6-Million List,” p. 2; Carlisle, John M., “A Black Legion General,” Detroit News, 29 05 1936, p. 4Google Scholar; Brown, Vera, “Cult General to ‘Fight’ for Detroiters,” Detroit Times, 2 06 1936, p. 14.Google Scholar

³² F.B.I., “Black Legion,” File 62–933, Cincinnati, Ohio, office, Buchanan, W. L., 8 July 1935.Google Scholar

³³ “Dr. Shepherd [sic] Not with Black Legion,” p. 2.Google Scholar

³⁴ “Lima Paint Jobs Would Furnish Hundreds Work,” Lima News, 5 08 1932, p. 18.Google Scholar

³⁵ “May Use Unemployed to Direct Traffic,” Lima News, 21 09 1932, p. 14.Google Scholar

³⁶ The references to Effinger's “extreme conservatism” and his self-characterization as a “constructive radical” are lifted from F.B.I., “Black Legion,” File 62–3, Cleveland, Ohio, office, Manson, N. E., 14 April 1936, p. 3.Google Scholar The wording of the remainder of the sentence is my own, but the sentiments ascribed to Effinger are in character. For the full flavor of Effinger's racial/sexual obsessions, see the lengthy sworn statement by an unnamed ex-Klan organizer before Wayne County Prosecutor Duncan McCrea, and forwarded by Reinecke, H. H. of the Detroit F.B.I, office, 7 August 1936,Google Scholar File 61–7393–101, p. 18 (cited hereafter as “Ex-Klan Organizer's Statement.”) Page numbers furnished are my own numbering, as the F.B.I, copy is un- or misnumbered.

³⁷ The ups and downs of Effinger's career may be charted objectively by an examination of the Lima City Directory, an annual or biennial publication, during the years 1912–36. An echo of the rancor of the outsider was provided by a telephone interview with Marjorie Hart, Effinger's oldest daughter, 29 June 1979.

³⁸ Interviews with Harry R. Meredith, attorney and former American Legion commander, Lima, Ohio, , 4 June 1979Google Scholar; and with George T. Scheid, Jr., head, City Department of Public Works, Lima, Ohio, , 19 June 1979.Google Scholar Scheid's father was a Black Legion colonel who broke with Effinger.

³⁹ Testimony, Dayton Dean, Wilson v. Council of the City of Highland Park, Record on Appeal (Michigan Supreme Court), Records and Briefs, vol. 284, pp. 96–106.Google Scholar The only deliberate deviation from United States Army organization was to have squads of five rather than eight men to make rapid movement (in one car) possible. A discrepancy in the sources should be noted, as an F.B.I, report on the Black Legion, based on unidentified informants, recorded three companies per battalion and three battalions per regiment, which would put regiments at just under 1,200 men. F.B.I., “Black Legion,” File 62–3, Cleveland, Ohio, office, Smith, C. E., 24 May 1935, p. 11.Google Scholar This report is almost certainly mistaken. It is nearly inconceivable that Dean, a long-time Black Legion activist and ex-major, would err on such organizational details.

⁴⁰ F.B.I., “Black Legion,” File 62–3, Cleveland, Ohio, office, Smith, C. E., 24 May 1935, page 11Google Scholar (for the scheme), page 4, para. 3 (for evidence that such rankings were in use in the Lima area).

⁴¹ “Bare Bullet Club as Pontiac Cult,” Detroit Times, 23 05 1936, p. 2Google Scholar; “Oakland Recalls Murder; Begins Bullet Club Quiz,” Detroit News, 25 05 1936, p. 8.Google Scholar Also, Michigan State Police, “Black Legion,” File 5947, Captain I. H. Marmon to Commissioner Olander, Oscar G., 25 May 1936.Google Scholar

⁴² For the “Iron Guard,” see State of Michigan, , Report of Black Legion Activities in Oakland County, 31.Google Scholar There is, incidentally, no evidence that the name was borrowed from the Romanian fascist organization of the 1920s and 1930s. For the “Death Squad,” see the autobiographical account of Margaret O'Rourke, the former common-law wife of Dayton Dean, Detroit Times, 2 June 1936, pp. 1,8.Google Scholar For the “Intelligence Squad,” see “Set Fires for Legion. 4 Confess,” Detroit News, 10 06 1936, pp. 1,4.Google Scholar For the existence of an “intelligence squad” in Toledo, Ohio, see United States Senate, [Robert LaFollette] Subcommittee on Violations of the Civil Rights of Labor, National Archives, NNFL, Legislative Records 7E–4; Box 4, August 1936, “Bert Rickard” (cited hereafter as LaFollette Subcommittee). For a distinction between regimen tal and national “death squads,” see testimony, Dean, Wilson v. Council of the City of Highland Park, 190–91.Google Scholar

⁴³ “Black Legion Ritual Bared,” p. 2Google Scholar; “Black Legion on in Pennsylvania,” Detroit News, 1 06 1936, p. 2.Google Scholar It should be noted that J. L. Megahan, president of the Pennsylvania Bucktails, denied any links with the Black Legion in a June 1936 letter to J. Edgar Hoover (F.B.I., “Black Legion,” File 61–7398–7, Washington, D.C.), but he admitted hearing about the growth and plans of the Black Legion during 1934. On the other hand, Captain I. H. Marmon of the Michigan State Police, the chief investigator into Black Legion activities, credited Peg-Leg White with founding the Pennsylvania Bucktails (Michigan State Police, “Black Legion,” File 5947, Captain I. H. Marmon to Sargeant Knies, Arthur K., Pennsylvania State Police, 12 June 1936).Google Scholar

⁴⁴ “‘Black Legs’ in Kentucky” Detroit Free Press, 29 05 1936, p. 3Google Scholar; “Seven Members of Terrorist Kentucky Organization in Jail,” Detroit News, 8 01 1937, p. 2.Google Scholar

⁴⁵ White is identified as the original organizer of the Black Legion in Michigan in Michigan State Police, “Black Legion,” File 5947, on the back of his photograph. The file also contains some biographical information in connection with Michigan State Police attempts to locate him after he became a fugitive in June or July 1936. For background on the Bielak murder (though not for White's link to it), File 5094 is useful. White was arrested, ill with pneumonia, near Somerset, Pennsylvania, and died 16 December 1936 in a hosptial in Cumberland, Maryland. For his deathbed statement, see LaFollette Subcommittee, Box 85, File January 1937. For White's role in organizing the Black Legion in Oakland County, Michigan, see State of Michigan, , Report of Black Legion Activities in Oakland County, 2–3.Google Scholar For White's connection to the Marchuk murder, see “Lincoln Park's Council Hears Attack on Cult,” Detroit Free Press, 16 06 1936, p. 2.Google Scholar For White's links with the “Citizen's Committee” and the Bielak murder, see “Plant Visit Admitted,” Detroit News, 2 06 1936, p. 4.Google Scholar For White's leading role in the arson of the Farmington, Michigan, “worker's camp,” see “Five Confess Cult Burning,” Detroit Free Press, 27 06 1936, p. 9.Google Scholar

⁴⁶ State of Michigan, , Report of Black Legion Activities in Oakland County, 3.Google Scholar

⁴⁷ The figures for Bucyrus and Lima, Ohio are all derived from varying estimates by F.B.I. informants in 1935 and 1936, most of whom were disaffected Black Legionnaires. I did not include Bowling Green, Ohio, which was a Black Legion center, but for which I have no data, or the Dayton area, where the one available estimate—over 20,000 members—leaves me frankly incredulous. The Monroe, Michigan, figure is also derived from F.B.I, files. The Toledo, Ohio, figures are derived from announcements from the Prosecutor's Office that appeared in the Toledo Blade and from estimates in the Toledo City Council secret hearings on the Legion, Black, October 1936Google Scholar (519 pages, Toledo City Council archives). The number of regiments for Detroit, Highland Park, and the downriver suburbs is derived from the testimony of turncoat Black Legionnaires such as Charles F. Dexter, Dayton Dean, and others. The impression they convey is that these six regiments were at near full strength (which would have amounted to 9,500 men), but it is probable that they had no hard figures. It is characteristic that Dean estimated the Michigan membership at 20,000, Dexter at 30,000. Pontiac had, according to the Oakland County grand jury report, two full-strength regiments in 1934 (a minimum of some 3,200 members), but was down to one under-strength regiment by the time of the Black Legion's exposure in 1936. The Royal Oak regiment is documented in the same source, but it was begun only after the Black Legion collapse in Pontiac in 1934 and was probably never at full strength. My figures for Flint and the Saginaw/Bay City area are based on newspaper stories reporting estimates by local authorities. I reach my grand total by counting the lowest estimates where numbers are cited and counting regiments at 1,000 (or two–thirds) strength. The only possible element leading to an overestimate is that the Black Legion did not peak everywhere at the same time, so that by 1936, for example, the totals for Oakland County, Michigan (Pontiac) and Lucas County, Ohio (Toledo) were down from the figures indicated. For a brief but knowledgeable history of the Black Legion in Toledo, see [Edward Lamb], “Report of Black Legion Activities in Ohio” (10 pages, prepared in January 1937 for submission to the LaFollette Subcommittee), Sugar Papers.

⁴⁸ “Drive on Terrorists Nets More Evidence,” Daily Times, 27 05 1936, p. 1.Google Scholar

⁴⁹ The Michigan counties where grand juries under the supervision of the State Attorney General were held were Wayne (Detroit), Jackson (Jackson), Genesee (Flint), and Oakland (Pontiac). In 1938 there was an additional Black Legion grand jury, called on local initiative in Macomb County (Mount Clemens). Under a peculiar Michigan statute in force, all of these were one-man grand juries, with the grand juror either a circuit judge (Wayne, Oakland, Genesee) or a justice of the peace (Jackson, Macomb). Although I located the Macomb County grand jury records, my request to examine them was formally denied by the Michigan Supreme Court. The Oakland and Wayne County records were definitely destroyed, and the Jackson County files apparently lost. I did not investigate the whereabouts of the Genesee County grand jury records.

⁵⁰ For Fort Wayne, Indiana, see “‘Black Snakes’ Threaten 2,” Detroit Times, 28 05 1936. p. 7Google Scholar; “Indiana Floggings Reported,” Detroit Free Press, 29 05 1936, p. 3.Google Scholar F.B.I., “Black Legion,” File 61–7398–4, for Indianapolis, File 61–7398–44, Washington, DC; “G-men Probe Black Legion Here,” Indianapolis Times, 28 05 1936, p. 1.Google Scholar For the South Bend, Indiana, area, F.B.I., “Black Legion,” File 61–7398–48, Washington, D.C., which also in cludes clippings from the Chicago Herald and Examiner, Indiana Section, 28 May 1936.Google Scholar on both Fort Wayne and Hammond. For Mishawaka, , Indiana, “Indiana Death Laid to Band,” New York Times, 30 05 1936, p. 6.Google Scholar

⁵¹ [Dexter], “I Was a Captain,” January 1937, 74.

⁵² Michigan State Police, “Black Legion,” File X–9, [Charles F. Dexter] reports.

⁵³ Fifteenth Census of the United Slates, 1930Google Scholar, Population, IV, Occupation by States, 782–91.Google Scholar

⁵⁴ State of Michigan, , Report of Black Legion Activities in Oakland County, 5–6Google Scholar; [Dexter], “I Was a Captain,” February 1937, 55, 123–24; and January 1937, 28. Brigadier General Arthur Lupp, the Black Legion's Michigan commander, claimed in an interview that “some of Michigan's most representative men” were members. “Cultist Chief Conceals ‘Big Men,’“ Detroit Times, 30 05 1936, p. 2.Google Scholar In Oakland County, where the grand juror issued a comprehensive report on members who were public officials or employees, the Black Legion included the county prosecutor and several of his assistants, half a dozen deputy sheriffs, one drain commissioner, the local state representative, the Pontiac city treasurer, two members of the Board of Assessors, one member of the Police and Fire Trial Board, the head of the Pontiac Law Department, the chiefs of police of Pontiac and Royal Oak, the state liquor inspector and the manager of the State Sales Tax Division—not counting lower-level employees, some of whom certainly held patronage, hence political, jobs. State of Michigan, , Report of Black Legion Activities in Oakland County, 23–24.Google Scholar

⁵⁵ Effmger's open letter in leaflet form may be found in the Black Legion newspaper clippings file, Michigan State Archives, Lansing, Michigan. A somewhat different apologia is reprinted in the Lima News for 26 May 1936Google Scholar: “V. H. Effinger Gives Statement on Ideals of Black Legion.” A copy of the fake Communist leaflet manufactured by the Black Legion may be found in the Sugar Papers, as is a leaflet advocating racial segregation of schools. See also the testimony of the Black Legion printer, Guthrie, William, in “Red Printing Plot Charged,” Detroit News, 3 08 1936, pp. 1,4.Google Scholar

⁵⁶ The Rail-Splitter (not listed in the Union List of Serials, nor found in either the Illinois State Library or likely public libraries in the Rock Island, Illinois, area) was published by William Lloyd Clark from 1915 through 1936, claiming a peak circulation of 20,000 in 1929, which gradually declined to 13,500 in 1936. Clark, who alternated, or even better, combined, his “anti-Romanism” with an antiprostitution crusade, wrote and privately published an autobiography (Story of a Stormy Life, 1924Google Scholar) and a stream of pamphlets. With the help of Suzanne Kridner of the Rock Island Argus, I was able to locate one regular September 1931 issue in the Rock Island County Historical Society, Moline, Illinois. I also found a special “Pamphlets for Sale” issue in the archives of Our Sunday Visitor, the Catholic weekly published in Huntington, Indiana. The Rail-Splitter is listed in Ayer, N. W. and Son's Director of Newspapers and Periodicals, an annual, 1915 through 1936.Google Scholar

⁵⁷ Interview with George T. Scheid, Jr., Lima, Ohio, 19 June 1979. Similar concerns, though voiced in a somewhat different way, motivated the commanding officer of the Black Legion in Wheeling, West Virginia, to dissolve his unit of 462 men in 1933. “Black Legion Ritual Bared.” p. 3.Google Scholar

⁵⁸ “‘Vigilantes’ Offer Aid to Sheriff,” p. 2.Google Scholar

⁵⁹ United States Post Office Department, Office of Inspector, Report on the Black Legion in Lima, Ohio, Cordrey, J. F., Post Office Inspector, 23 February 1935, Case No. 19566, p. 3, para. 11.Google Scholar See also F.B.I., “Black Legion,” File 62–3, Cleveland, Ohio, office, Smith, C. E., 21 May 1935, p. 3.Google Scholar It is not clear whether the order was actually carried out, as the report comes from an informant who, when he received the order, refused to carry it out. Effinger had also bragged about the burning down of two local road houses. An anonymous informant refused to obey orders to burn down a third.

⁶⁰ [Maurice Sugar?], “Black Legion Activities at Workers' Camp, Twelve Mile Road and Halstead Road,” 1–5, Sugar Papers.

⁶¹ People v. Hepner, Record on Appeal (Michigan Supreme Court), Records and Briefs, vol. 285, pp. 631–45Google Scholar; “People v. Pettijohn,” Record on Appeal (Michigan Supreme Court), Records and Briefs, vol. 283, pp. 108–16Google Scholar; the case of Martin H. Zink, the Highland Park city councilman, led to a pretrial examination but not to trial. See “Legion Victim to Take Stand,” Detroit News, 24 10 1936, p. 7Google Scholar; “Hired as Killer Cultist Asserts,” Detroit Free Press, 24 10 1936, pp. 1,12.Google Scholar For Dean's, Dayton testimony, see “Beating Laid to Vigilantes,” Detroit News, 22 10 1936, pp. 1,2.Google Scholar

⁶² “Armed Revolt Was Goal of Cult,” Detroit Free Press, 26 10 1936, pp. 1,3Google Scholar; Interview with Scheid, George T., Jr., Lima, Ohio, 19 June 1979Google Scholar: “Effinger among Accused,” Detroit News, 21 08 1936, pp. 1,2Google Scholar; “Seek Extradition of Cult ‘General’ from Ohio,” Detroit Times, 21 08 1936, p. 4Google Scholar; Attorney General Crowley, David H., “Black Legion Secrets Never Told Before,” True Detective, 12 1936, 86Google Scholar; “Ohio Cult Chief is Facing Trial,” Detroit Free Press, 16 08 1936, p. 1.Google Scholar In private conversation, Effinger apparently also cited Mussolini and Hitler. See “Ex-Klan Organizer's Statement.”

⁶³ For the testimony of Charles T. McCutcheon, the bacteriologist, see “Vigilantes' Lethal Gas Plot Bared,” Detroit News, 2 08 1936, pp. 1,11Google Scholar; “Terror Cost Him His Job,” Detroit News, 5 08 1936, pp. 1,2Google Scholar; “City Dismisses Bacteriologist,” Detroit Free Press, 5 08 1936, p. 2Google Scholar; “Night Rider,” Detroit Times, 5 08 1936, p. 3.Google Scholar For confirmation from another disenchanted Black Legionnaire, William H. Guthrie, see “Cult Plot to Murder with Germs Charged,” Detroit Times, 31 08 1936, p. 1Google Scholar; Beresford, Victor C., “Germ Plot is Charged to Legion,” Detroit News, 31 08 1936, pp. 1,2.Google Scholar

⁶⁴ The fullest statement is by the ubiquitous Dayton Dean (Testimony, Dean, Wilson v. Council of the City of Highland Park, Record on Appeal, 228–29), which Dean repeated on various other occasions, for example, “Thirteen Arrested,” Detroit Free Press, 22 08 1936, pp. 1,3.Google Scholar Dean's story is corroborated by Charles F. Dexter, who in a sworn statement cited Brigadier General Lupp as announcing “a bloody night” (“Revolt Plot Told in Trial,” Detroit News 23 10 1936, p. 59Google Scholar) and, even more elaborately, by the “Ex-Klan Organizer's Statement,” esp. 11–12.

⁶⁵ “Ex-Klan Organizer's Statement,” 3,7–9.Google Scholar The next “project” was for each Black Legionnaire to kill two Negroes (ibid., 9), though Effinger was more immediately concerned with the extermination of Jews. A few words of explanation of this bizarre document may be in order. According to his own account, the witness was a former Klan organizer, unemployed and living in Cincinnati, Ohio. In July 1936, believing the Black Legion maligned, he had written to Effinger to offer his services as an organizer. Once inducted into the Legion, however, the ex-Klan organizer was sufficiently jolted by Effinger's confidences to wire Wayne County Prosecutor McCrea. According to his sworn statement, his sole compensation from the State of Michigan was a reimbursement of his bus fare. The statement is extremely detailed—names of restaurants, makes of cars, license plate numbers—and, in my view, persuasive. It is also interesting as linking Effinger with another known (but totally ineffective) fascist organization, the Paul Reveres. For the latter, see Strong, “Anti-Revolutionary, Anti-Semitic Organizations,” 163–70. It is conceivable that the myth among Black Legionnaires that there was an inner circle of 300 Night Riders (sometimes referred to as the National Death Squad) is a reference to the Paul Reveres, whom Effinger may have regarded as some sort of parent organization. This is tenuously corroborated in the interrogation under oath of Colonel Hepner (in connection with the 1935 attempt to disrupt a campaign meeting of Maurice Sugar). Hepner testified that the real name of the Black Legion was “S.O.L.,” initials he never identified. The most likely interpretation of S.O.L. is, of course, “Sons of Liberty,” which is close to “Paul Reveres.” For the Hepner examination, see Sugar Papers.

⁶⁶ Interview with Scheid, George T., Jr., Lima, Ohio, 19 June 1979.Google Scholar

⁶⁷ This complicated story is embedded in the conflicting testimony in the transcripts of “Wilson v. Council of the City of Highland Park” and “People v. Hepner,” the former a removal proceeding and therefore subject to looser rules of evidence, the latter involving the conspiracy to murder the newspaper publisher, Arthur L. Kingsley. I have had the benefit of a joint undergraduate seminar paper on Highland Park by Elsie August and Kevin P. Webb (December 1978).

⁶⁸ It was never even entirely clear whether the entire membership of the Wolverine Republican League had taken the Black Legion oath, though it is probable that all its officers were members. Because the League had obvious ramifications in Michigan Republican politics—for example, a former governor, Wilber M. Brucker, began his successful campaign for the Republican nomina tion for United States Senator with an April 1936 speech at a Wolverine Republican League meeting—both newspapers and authorities were content to leave the question unresolved. For the list of officers, see the Wolverine Republican League letter announcement, in Kraus Papers, Box 12, “Black Legion” file, Archives of Labor History and Urban Affairs, Wayne State University; and some additional information in Civil Rights Congress Papers, Box 12, “Black Legion, 1936,” Archives of Labor History and Urban Affairs, Wayne State University. For newspaper accounts, see “‘Wolverine Republican League’ Mask of Black Legion,” Detroit Times, 22 05 1936, p. 3Google Scholar; “Denies G.O.P. Club a Cloak for Vigilante Group,” Detroit Times, 23 05 1936, p. 3Google Scholar; “Court Clerk is League Chief; Asserts Murder Stuns Him,” Detroit Free Press, 23 05 1936, p. 5Google Scholar; “‘Knows Nothing’ of Cult, Marx Defended Three in Row,” Detroit Times, 24 05 1936, p. 2Google Scholar; “Johnson Denies a Part in League,” Detroit Free Press, 24 05 1936, p. 2Google Scholar; “Disprove Cult Link, Edict of Marx to Club,” Detroit Times, 25 05 1936, p. 7.Google Scholar

⁶⁹ “Investigation of Irregularities in Allen County Works Division,” Investigation Re: Bullet Club, Black Knights, Night Riders, etc., Lima, Ohio-Allen, County, 23 January 1935,Google Scholar no. 34, National Archives, NG 165, Records of the War Department, Military Intelligence, Case 10261–32–5; F.B.I., “Black Legion,” File 62–3, Cleveland, Ohio, office, Smith, C. E., 21 May 1935, pp. 1–4, and 6 September 1935, p. 1.Google Scholar

⁷⁰ The most careful account is Sugar, “Memorandum on the Black Legion,” Section VII, Sugar Papers.

⁷¹ Pickert, who doubled as a brigadier general in the Michigan National Guard, was a notorious reactionary. For his record as Detroit police commissioner, see the petition of the Michigan Conference for the Protection of Civil Rights to the Detroit Common Council for his removal, 15 April 1936, and the Conference secretary's report on the hearing, 22 May 1936, Civil Liberties Union Papers, Michigan, Box, 1936,Google Scholar Princeton University Library. Pickert was represented at the removal hearing by Harry Z. Marx, an officer of the Wolverine Republican League, which, a month later, was to be exposed as a Black Legion front. Pickert, widely suspected of being a member by labor and left-wing circles, used the discredited Black Legion fake “Communist” leaflet of 1935 in a 1936 speech against Maurice Sugar. In April 1937, long after trial and conviction, three of the imprisoned Black Legionnaires, one of whom was Dean, testified having seen Pickert at Legion meetings in an interview with Robert Sher, a lawyer working for the LaFollette Subcommittee. Sher believed them. Robert Sher to Senator Robert LaFollette, 14 April 1937, LaFollette Subcommittee, Box 86. A year later in a sworn statement for the United States Attorney and the F.B.I., Dayton Dean reiterated this assertion. F.B.I., “Black Legion,” File 45–46, Detroit, Michigan, office, John S. Bugas to Director, 6 December 1938, in which Dean also noted the promotion of police inspectors aware of Pickert's ties. This can readily be confirmed in the sense that the police inspectors in charge of the Homicide Squad and of “Special Investigations,” the two units that dealt with the investigation o the Black Legion, both received two promotions within five months. John A. Hoffman went from the position of Inspector, Head of “Special Investigations” (an “internal” unit) to Chief Inspector of Detectives in August 1936 (Detroit News, 8 September 1936, p. 2Google Scholar) to Chief Inspector of the Detective Bureau in October 1936 (Detroit Free Press, 2 October 1936, p. 22Google Scholar). John L. Navarre, Inspector, Homicide Squad was promoted to Assistant Deputy Chief of Dectectives in August (Detroit News, 9 August 1936, p. 2Google Scholar) and to Deputy Chief of Detectives in October (Detroit Free Press, 2 October 1936, p. 22Google Scholar). Similar rapid advancement took place at lower levels, as I learned when I interviewed one surviving police officer who had seen Police Commissioner Pickert's Black Legion membership card. In that sense, the Black Legion turned out to be a “progressive” movement indeed.

⁷² Even though the Black Legion was out to “get” McCrea, the multiple testimony against him by convicted Black Legionnaires (including Dayton Dean, who had no grievance against the prosecutor) is, I believe, conclusive. The very attack on McCrea—and there was no attack on Assistant Attorney General Chester P. O'Hara, who was more centrally involved in prosecuting Black Legion cases—makes sense only against a renegade. For the two sets of affidavits for and against McCrea, see “6 Affidavits Are Revealed,” Detroit News 20 10 1936, pp. 1–2Google Scholar; “Terrorist Stands by Charges,” Detroit News, 21 10 1936, pp. 1,4Google Scholar; “Six Affidavits Call McCrea Cult Member,” Detroit Free Press, 21 10 1936, pp. 1,5.Google Scholar See also “Duncan McCrea Removal Hearing,” 1940Google Scholar, transcript, book 28, pp. 4463–508, Michigan State Archives, Lansing, Michigan. McCrea was removed for corruption, not for his membership in the Black Legion.

⁷³ “Grand Jury Quiz Will Start Next Week,” Detroit News, 4 06 1936, p. 50.Google Scholar

⁷⁴ State of Michigan, , Report of Black Legion Activities in Oakland County, 5–7.Google Scholar

⁷⁵ Ibid., 5. See [Dexter] “I Was a Captain,” January 1937, 28.

⁷⁶ For an extended sworn testimony on this by an “expert,” namely Dayton Dean, see Wilson v. Council of the City of Highland Park, Record on Appeal, 215–16. For the account of a refuser who was merely threatened, the Reverend Ralph C. Montague of Rives Junction, Michigan, see Detroit News, 28 May 1936, pp. 1,2Google Scholar; for another refuser who was whipped, see the account of Smith, William M., farmer, Waynesfield, Ohio, Detroit Times, 27 May 1936, p. 8.Google Scholar

⁷⁷ “Black Legion Ritual Bared,” p. 3.Google Scholar

⁷⁸ Dean himself claimed his flogging was for failure to recruit enough new members (“‘Trigger Man’ Says Black Legion Flogged Him,” Detroit News, 3 06 1936, p. 1Google Scholar), but the story of his former common-law wife (Detroit Times, 7 June 1936, pp. 3,7Google Scholar) is confirmed by Colonel Hepner (“Dean's Story Is under Fire,” Detroit News, 16 06 1936, p. 2).Google Scholar

⁷⁹ Pitcock's killers, though known to the state police and F.B.I., got away with the murder, partly because the owner of a motorboat identified by a witness near the scene of the crime—Pitcock was found hanged on Fighting Island, on the Canadian side of the Detroit River—was conveniently killed in an industrial accident before police could question him, and partly because authorities were stumped by a legal conundrum involving jurisdiction. This grisly story may be followed in exhaustive detail in Michigan State Police, “Black Legion,” Case 4144 file; and in F.B.I., “Black Legion,” File 45–46, Detroit, Michigan, office, Newman, Jay C. to Director, 20 May 1938Google Scholar; Hoover, , “Memorandum for the Assistant to the Attorney General,” 16 June 1938Google Scholar; Hoover, to office, Detroit, 25 July 1938Google Scholar; Foxworth, P. E., “Memorandum for the Director,” 10 Ausgust 1938Google Scholar; Hoover, to office, Detroit, 27 October 1938Google Scholar, and 16 November 1938; Loughran, H. A. report, 15 December 1938Google Scholar; Hoover, to Bugas, , 28 December 1938Google Scholar; Bugas, to Director, 3 January 1939Google Scholar; Hoover, to Bugas, 19 January 1939.Google Scholar

⁸⁰ Carlisle, , “How Many Men in Black Legion,” pp. 1,4.Google Scholar For a confirmation of what Effinger's office was like, see also F.B.I., “Black Legion,” File 62–3, Cleveland, Ohio, office, Williams, E. H., 1 October 1935, p. 2.Google Scholar

⁸¹ For Oakland County, Michigan, see State of Michigan, , Report of Black Legion Activities in Oakland County, 25–28.Google Scholar The petition of the Michigan Conference for the Protection of Civil Rights for the removal of Detroit Police Commissioner Pickert lists a series of Detroit arson cases and bombings that probably were Black Legion instigated. Civil Liberties Union Papers, Box Michigan, 1936, Princeton University Library.

⁸² The complete story may be found in People v. Pettijohn, cited in note 61.

⁸³ “Link Snooting with Vigilantes,” Detroit News, 25 07 1936, p. 9Google Scholar; “Shooting of Factory Worker Believed Solved,” Detroit Free Press, 26 07 1936, p. 1Google Scholar; “Victim of Vigilantes Makes Statement,” Detroit News, 27 07 1936, p. 6Google Scholar; “Victim of ‘Prank’ Will See Cultists,” Detroit Free Press, 27 07 1936, p. 2.Google Scholar

⁸⁴ The trial of five Black Legionnaires for the murder of Silas Coleman may be followed in the Detroit dailies: “Legion Killer Takes Stand,” Detroit News, 25 11 1936, p. 5Google Scholar; “Five on Trial in Thrill Death,” Detroit Free Press, 25 11 1936, p. 1Google Scholar; “Dean Details Thrill Killing,” Detroit Free Press, 26 11 1936, p. 5Google Scholar; “Dean Details Death Party,” Detroit News, 26 11 1936, p. 16Google Scholar; “Rebuke Given to Attorneys,” Detroit News, 27 11 1936; p. 2Google Scholar; “ColemanCase Nearing Jury,” Detroit Free Press, 28 11 1936, p. 2Google Scholar; “Lee Denies Dean Charge,” Detroit News, 28 11 1936, p. 2Google Scholar; “Davies and 4 Found Guilty,” Detroit News, 29 11 1936, pp. 1,2Google Scholar; “Found Guilty in Cult Slaying,” Detroit Free Press, 29 11 1936, pp. 1,8Google Scholar; “5 Killers Get Life Terms,” Detroit News, 4 12 1936, p. 57.Google Scholar

⁸⁵ The story of Poole's murder first broke on 23 May 1936 and succeeding days, to be rehashed at the pretrial examination before coming to trial. The trial may be followed in any of the Detroit dailies, 13–30 September 1936. The police investigation is detailed in a number of ghostwritten articles that appeared under the names of various police officers involved in solving the homicide. See Pickert, Heinrich A., “Black Legion Secrets Never Told Before,” True Detective, 10 1936, 8–13, 82–85Google Scholar; Olander, Oscar G., “Black Legion Secrets Never Told Before, Part II,”Google Scholaribid., November 1936, 46–49, 94–95; Detective Sergeants Charles Meehan and Jack Harvill, and Alfred E. Farrell, Criminal Investigator of the Wayne County Sheriff's Office, as told to John, W. St., “Michigan's Black Legion Murder,” Official Detective, 09 1936, 3–7, 34–36Google Scholar; Inspector Navarre, John I., as told to Paul Walterson, “Unmasking the Black Legion,” Real Detective, 09 1936, 12–19, 63–65Google Scholar; Chief of Detectives Henry W. Piel, as told to Weaver Little, “Secrets of the Black Legion,” Inside Detective, 09 1936, 22–27, 39–40.Google Scholar

⁸⁶ F.B.I., “Patriotic Legion of America,” File 61–29, Cleveland, Ohio, office, Kleinkauf, C. E., 29 May 1940, pp. 3–5Google Scholar; Blissell, Jim, “Effinger Admits He Is Leader of Patriotic Group,” Lima News, 11 03 1938, pp. 1, 10.Google Scholar

⁸⁷ U.S. Congress, Senate, “Nomination of Robert F. Jones to the Federal Communications Commission,” Hearings before a Subcommittee of the Committee on Interstate and Foreign Commerce, 80th Cong. 1st sess. 27 June, 3, 7 July 1947.Google Scholar The testimony of Frank Barber (p. 61) indicates that in Allen County, Ohio, there still were Black Legionnaires who considered themselves “members in good standing” as late as 1947. Yet it is not clear whether this was simply because of the binding character of the Black Legion oath or because the organization was still functioning. Effinger by this time was senile (pp. 37–40). The fight over the nomination of Jones was, in any event, the last time the Black Legion broke the surface. For a rueful account of its background, see Jack Anderson with Boyd, James, Confessions of a Muck-Raker (New York, 1979), 24–48.Google Scholar

⁸⁸ Cf Higham, John, Send These to Me—Jews and Other Immigrants in Urban America (New York, 1975), 157–62Google Scholar; Murphy, Paul L., “Sources and Nature of Intolerance in the 1920's,” Journal of American History, 51:1 (1964), 69.Google Scholar