Although it has been well over a year since an Asheville, N.C., court issued a capias for the arrest of William Dudley Pelley, anti-Semitic Silver Shirt leader, he still remains free through a series of delaying legal moves by his attorney, T. E. O’Connell.
O’ Connell has filed his latest appeal on Pelley’s behalf in the District Court of Appeals. Pelley is wanted to answer charges that his activities as Silver Shirt leader had violated conditions under which a five-year sentence for violation of the North Carolina Securities Law was suspended.
O’Connell said today if his latest appeal fails he will carry the case to the Supreme Court. It is pointed out that if the extradition of Pelley to Asheville is delayed long enough it will provide the would-be American “Fuehrer” with an argument that the five-year sentence has elapsed and that he is not liable to court action.
Pelley’s anti-Semitic weekly, Liberation, has not appeared for several weeks. At a recent press conference Chairman Martin Dies of the House Committee on Un-American Activities said a check by committee investigators showed that the Silver Shirt movement had been “completely broken up and Pelley’s activities stopped dead” by committee exposes.
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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.
