RITUAL MURDER ALLEGED

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume LXIII, Issue 19023, 25 May 1936, Page 5

RITUAL MURDER ALLEGED

DETROIT "BLACK LEGION" YOUNG MAN SHOT DEAD KU KLUX KLAN MODE DETROIT, May 23. The police to-day exposed a strange masked organisation) known as the "Black Legion," the.leaders of which are charged with practising ritual murder. On May 13 the body of Charles Pool, a young woTkcr on a Federal relief project, was found shot near a suburban road.

According to the police, some members of the "Black Legion" admitted that he was killed because of his illtreatment of his wife, while she was an expectant mother. The organisation apparently follows the principles of the Ku Klux Klan, attempting to enforce morality through vigihmto tactics. Police investigation into the "Black' Legion" revealed to-day almost incredible details of its methods of operation and the. extent of its activities The prosecution officials announced that at least 16 members of the hooded organisation will be indicted for the murder of Poole, who it now appears, was assassinated because he was a Catholic and because ho had learned the organisation's ritual. MANY THREATENED • '; His widow denied that he mistreated her, and an examination proved that this is true. Since the. publicity in connection .vith the Poole case scores of persons reported to the police that they have been threatened with death, or otherwise intimidated. '", ) . It is now nelieved that any number, of murders may have been committed by the legion. Furthermore, the police believe that the legion is the direct offshoot of the Ku Klux Klan which terrorised parts of the nation a decade ago. The regalia and, ritual closely resemble that of the klanship. The police believe that there arc at least 10,000 legion members in Detroit, and perhaps thousands more in other parts of the State and the country. Like the Ku Klux Klan the programme oi! the organisation is directed against Catholics, Jews and negroes and it appears to pursue this policy sven more vigorously than did the Ku Klux Klan.