(Jewish Daily Bulletin)
Disclosure of the secrets of the Ku Klux Klan was demanded by Attorney Gilliom, who asked the Marion County Circuit Court to mandate the Knights of the Ku Klux Klan Corporation to produce facts relative to its finances, total membership, distribution of funds, political activities and policy regarding religion.
The Attorney General listed 119 questions which he petitioned the court to compel Hiram W. Evans of Atlanta, Ga., Imperial Wizard of the Klan, and Joe M. Huffington of Evansville, Ind., Grand Dragon of Indiana, to answer.
Attorney General Gilliom recently filed suit in the Circuit Court to enjoin the Klan from operating in the State and asking that a receiver be appointed. He charged the organization had failed to pay taxes and was operating illegally.
The Klan’s influence in Indiana politics; whom it supported in the last Governorship race; the ranking of the various National and State officers and the pay they receive; the limits of their authority; for what monies have been expended after salaries were met, and other data are requested through answers to the questions.
Gilliom also wanted to know whether Thomas Heflin, United States Senator from Alabama, was procured by the Knights of the Ku Klux Klan, or Klansmen in Indiana, to make speeches within the State in 1927 “for the purpose of creating sentiment among Democratic voters against the nomination of Alfred E. Smith for President by the next Democratic National Convention.”
The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
