DETROIT MURDER CASE

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXIII, Issue 22539, 2 October 1936, Page 11

DETROIT MURDER CASE

"BLACK LEGION" CRIME ELEVEN MEN FOUND GUILTY (Received October 1, 5.5 p.m.) DETROIT, Sept. 30 All except one of the 12 men tried for the murder by the "Black Legion" of Charles Poole were found guilty of murder yesterday. Seven of the culprits have been condemned in tho first degree and will receive life sentences. Two others were convicted in the second degree and may receive any term including imprisonment for lifo.

Charles Poole, a young worker on a Federal relief project, was found shot in a Detroit suburb on May 13. The police traced the crime to a strange masked and hooded organisation known as tho "Black Legion," the leaders of which were charged with practising ritual murder.

The organisation apparently followed tho principles of the Ku Klux Klan fn attempting to enforce morality through "vigilante" tactics. It. was thought that Poolo was killed because he was a Roman Catholic and because he had learned about the organisation's ritual. Scores of people reported to the police that they had been threatened with death or otherwise intimidated. The police believe that the organisation is a direct offshoot of the Ku Klux Klan with at least 10,000 members in Detroit and perhaps thousands more in other parts of the country.