“BLACK LEGION” MEMBERS

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume 79, Issue 125, 28 May 1936, Page 7

“BLACK LEGION” MEMBERS

TWELVE ARRESTED SERIOUS CHARGES LAID DL’I'KOIT, Hay 25. Twcive members of the ‘‘Black Legion” arc held on warrar.ts charging thorn with the murder and kidnapping of Charles Poole. Three of the prisoners arc stated to have made confessions. One prisoner disclosed that he was 73 years of age. A Detroit cable published un Monday stated that the police had exposed a strange masked organisation known as the “Black Legion,” the leaders of which are charged with practising ritual murders. On May 13 the body of Charles Poole, a young worker on a Federal relief project, was found shot near a suburban road. According to the police some members 01. the “Black Legion” admitted that he had been killed because of ill-treatment of his wife while she was an expectant mother The investigation of the “Black Legion” revealed almost incredible details of its methods of operation and the extent of its activities. Since the publicity in connection with the Poole case scores of persons have reported to the police that they have been threatened with death or otherwise intimidated. It is believed that any number of murders may have been committed by the legion. Furthermore, the police believe the legion is a direct offshot of the Klu Klux Klan, which terrorised parts of tie nation a decade ago. The regalia and ritual closelv resemble that of the Klansmen. The police believe that there are at least 10.000 legion members in Detroit and perhaps thousands more in other narts of the State and nation. Like the Klu Klux Klan, the programme of the organisation is directed against Catholics, Jews, and negroes, and appears to nursuc this policy even more vigorously than did the Klu Klux Klan.