Garbed in white sweaters, and wearing what looked like women’s head-gear, a band of more than fifty men claiming to be members of the Ku Klux Klan, recently set a fiery cross burning in front of the home of Dave Milder, a fifty-six year old tailor at Long Beach, surrounded and entered the house and without any warning began to beat up the inmates of the household, severely wounding several of them. One of the guests in the home was discovered with a broken shoulder tied up and thrown in the bottom of one of the cars alleged to belong to the attackers. It is assumed that he was to be “taken for a ride,” tarred and feathered as an example.
The police arrived in time to trap sixteen of the raiders within the house, all but four of whom were released. Several were found to have guns upon them. These represented themselves as members of the Orange County police force. It was not explained what they were doing outside of their county. It was also not explained by the Long Beach police department why these four men were released, nor why any of the twelve of the sixteen marauders were allowed to go free.
Police say that they found distributed about the house circulars bearing the hooded insignia of the Klan and containing these words: “Communism will not be tolerated! The Ku Klux Klan rides again!”
Milder suffered a severe scalp wound. His daughter, a former University student, Mrs. Alvina Goodwin, was thrown to the floor. His son, Sam Milder, suffered a broken shoulder; Karl Kirchner, a guest of San Pedro, is reported to have suffered a broken leg. Ben Isgar of Los Angeles and Nathan J. Cytron of San Pedro were said to be beaten severely, and Mildred Watson of Long Beach was also severely handled by the invaders.
Mr. Milder did not admit any Communistic connections, and said that there was no political discussion going on at the time of the attack. They were drinking coffee, explained Mr. Milder, and were having a sociable time, when the men rushed in, pushed Mrs. Milder roughly aside and began beating the members of the party.
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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.
