KU KLUX KLAN.

Otago Witness, Issue 3590, 2 January 1923, Page 18

KU KLUX KLAN.

VTSTERIOUS MURDERS. NEW YORK, December 20. A telegram from New Orleans states that a company of 66 State soldiers has been ordered to Bastrom to guard the courthouse for the next 30 days, during which open hearings will be lield to attempt to determine the fate of two men who disappeared last summer when, with three others, they were kidnapped by the Km Klox Klan following upon dissension over vice conditions in the town. Attempts by the authorities at a secret Investigation to determine the perpetrators of the crime were unsuccessful, and open hearings have therefore been decided on. September 22. At Mert-ouge (Louisiana) the bodies of Watt Daniels and Thomas Richards, the two men who were believed to have been kidnapped, were found at the bottom of & lake. Pieces were fastened to their feet, indicating that the bodies were weighted. The discovery of the bodies was made under amazingly sensational circumstances. Convinced that the bodies lay at the bottom of Lake Lafourche, detachments of troops and divers encamped on Thursday night preparatory to dragging the lake. During the night they were startled by a terrific explosion. "Simultaneously other troops 20 miles away at the other end of the lake saw mysterious flares on the water, revealing a number of hooded men wading in a swamp. The troops opened fire, whereon the men vanished. The next morning the two decomposed bodies were found floating. The theory is that the murderers, fearful of the discovery of their victims, shot the flares in order to attract the soldiers’ attention and then exploded dynamite in the hope of burying the bodies in the mud. With troops pouring into the neighbourhood the inhabitants became panicstricken by their fear of the Ku Klux

Klan. Mr J. L. Daniels, father of one of the dead men, was so terrified that he refused to identify bis son’s body. While the residents -were inflamed . against the Ku Klux Klan, they were afraid to aid the troops on account of the threats that their closest friends might be Klansmen. Governor Parker, who recently conferred with President Harding regarding the Ku Klux Klan menace, is determined to get to the bottom of the crime and to drive out the Ku Klux Klan. He has announced his intention to send sufficient troops to ensure justice being done. SECRET SERVICE MEN AT WORK. A message from Merrouge states that the first arrest was made to-day as a result of the Ku Klux Klan murders. The man apprehended has been charged with murder and will appear before the Federal Court. Secret service men worked for months before they secured enough evidence to start proceedings openly. Troops continue to pour into the territory, and now niumber nearly 1000. The scenes which occurred after the civil war when the Ku Klux Klan operations assumed the proportion of a national menace are being repeated in the Southern States. FORMER MAYOR OF MERROUGE ARRESTED. NEW YORK, December 26. A telegram from Baltimore, Maryland, states that Dr B. M‘Kain, a former Mayor of Merrouge, has been arrested on a murder charge upon the orders of Governor Parker, of Louisiana, in connection with the Ku Klux Klan murders. Dr M'Kain is now a post-graduate student at the hospital here. He described an ambush attempt on his life last August, and he declared that he would return _ to Louisiana without military protection. He declined to answer questions in regard to his membership of the Ku Klux Klan, but related decoy calls

made by the Ku Klux Klan on behalf of negro patients on the outskirts of a town. Dr M’Kain has protested his entire ignorance in connection with the murders or anything in connection with them.