Ku Klux Klan in Inglewood, California

Ku Klux Klan
Ku Klux Klan
Ku Klux Klan, often abbreviated KKK and informally known as the Klan, is the name of three distinct past and present far-right organizations in the United States, which have advocated extremist reactionary currents such as white supremacy, white nationalism, and anti-immigration, historically...

activities in Inglewood, California
Inglewood, California
Inglewood is a city in southwestern Los Angeles County, California, southwest of downtown Los Angeles. It was incorporated on February 14, 1908. Its population stood at 109,673 as of the 2010 Census...

, were highlighted by the 1922 arrest and trial of 36 men, most of them masked, for a night-time raid on a suspected bootlegger and his family. The raid led to the shooting death of one of the culprits, an Inglewood police officer. A jury returned a "not guilty" verdict for all defendants who completed the trial. It was this scandal, according to the Los Angeles Times, that eventually led to the outlawing of the Klan

Ku Klux Klan

Ku Klux Klan, often abbreviated KKK and informally known as the Klan, is the name of three distinct past and present far-right organizations in the United States, which have advocated extremist reactionary currents such as white supremacy, white nationalism, and anti-immigration, historically...

in California. The Klan had a chapter in Inglewood as late as October 1931.

Principals

Fidel and Angela Elduayen, identified contemporaneously as Spanish, although a 1999 report said that they were Basques, and their children, Bernarda, 13, and Mary, 15. They lived on Pine Avenue, Inglewood, with Mathias Elduayen, Fidel's brother.
Medford B. Mosher, Inglewood city constable, killed by a gunshot.
Frank Woerner, Inglewood city marshal (also identified as a "traffic cop") the man who killed Mosher and wounded two others.
Leonard Ruegg, wounded by Woerner.
Walter Mosher, son of Medford B., also wounded.
Clyde Vannatta, a 19-year-old volunteer who drove Woerner to the scene of the shooting on the back of his motorcycle.

Defendants

Nathan A. Baker, Kleagle
Kleagle
A Kleagle is an officer of the Ku Klux Klan whose main role is to recruit new members.-Kleagles:*Edgar Ray Killen, a Mississippi Klansman long suspected of involvement in a notorious civil rights movement murder that were the subject of the movie Mississippi Burning...

of the KKK, who collapsed and never completed trial.

H.B. Beaver, undertaker, whose chapel was used the night before as a place to plan the raid, where the coroner's inquest was held, and the site of last rites for Medford Mosher.
William S. Coburn, formerly Grand Goblin of the Klan on the Pacific Coast, who returned from Georgia to face trial.
Walter E. Mosher, son of M.B. Mosher.
Gus W. Price, King Kleagle of the KKK in California.
W.A. Alexander, contractor of Huntington Park
Huntington Park, California
Huntington Park is a city in Los Angeles County, California, United States. As of the 2010 census, the city had a total population of 58,114, down from 61,348 at the 2000 census.- History :...

; R.D. Aylsworth, engineer of Inglewood; C.J. Brown, real estate man of Venice; L.L. Bryson, druggist of Huntington Park; J.G. Baum, real estate man of Inglewood; Charles Casto, amusement man of Venice; Nathan H. Cherry, surveyor of Inglewood; M.D. Hurlburt, dry cleaner of Bell
Bell, California
Bell is a city in Los Angeles County, California. Its population was 35,477 at the 2010 census, down from 36,664 in the 2000 census. Bell is located on the west bank of the Los Angeles River and is a suburb of the city of Los Angeles...

; William Hall, transfer man of Inglewood; Warren Hall, hauling contractor of Inglewood; J.R. Hamilton, machinist of Huntington Park; Thomas H. Jennings, auto salesman of Inglewood; Frank C. Lemon, cafe man of Bell; Gustav Leonhardt, painting contractor of Venice; Harvey C. Leavitt, motion picture man of Los Angeles; Roy Mears, amusements of Venice; H.A. McCallister, real estate man, Inglewood; William Mitchell or Michel, repair man of Redondo
Redondo Beach, California
Redondo Beach is one of the three Beach Cities located in Los Angeles County, California, United States. The population was 66,748 at the 2010 census, up from 63,261 at the 2000 census. The city is located in the South Bay region of the greater Los Angeles area.Redondo Beach was originally part of...

; W.B. Moll, motion pictures of Los Angeles; Leonard Ruegg of Inglewood; E.J. Robichaux, real estate man of Inglewood; Joseph P. Reed, cafe man of Huntington Park; E.E. ReId, repair man of Redondo; W.D. Record, engineer of Inglewood; Earnest M. Schultz of Santa Monica
Santa Monica, California
Santa Monica is a beachfront city in western Los Angeles County, California, US. Situated on Santa Monica Bay, it is surrounded on three sides by the city of Los Angeles — Pacific Palisades on the northwest, Brentwood on the north, West Los Angeles on the northeast, Mar Vista on the east, and...

; Thomas E. Truelove, poultryman of Inglewood; Walter Harrison Ulm, motorman of Inglewood; H.A. Waite, garage man of Inglewood; E.M. or F.M. Walton, patrolman of Bell; M.L. Whaley, auto shop of Venice; Russell Williams, motion picture man of Los Angeles; and James P. Williams, painter of Culver City
Culver City, California
Culver City is a city in western Los Angeles County, California. As of the 2010 census, the city had a population of 38,883, up from 38,816 at the 2000 census. It is mostly surrounded by the city of Los Angeles, but also shares a border with unincorporated areas of Los Angeles County. Culver...

.

In the courtroom and behind the scenes

Paul Barksdale D'Orr, chief counsel for the accused.
Chief Deputy District Attorney
District attorney
In many jurisdictions in the United States, a District Attorney is an elected or appointed government official who represents the government in the prosecution of criminal offenses. The district attorney is the highest officeholder in the jurisdiction's legal department and supervises a staff of...

William C. Doran
William C. Doran
William C. Doran was an associate justice of the California Court of Appeal, Second Appellate District, Division 1, from October 14, 1935, until 1958...

, representing Los Angeles County at the coroner's inquest.
Raymond I. Eurney, deputy district attorney
R.W. George, foreman of the grand jury
Grand jury
A grand jury is a type of jury that determines whether a criminal indictment will issue. Currently, only the United States retains grand juries, although some other common law jurisdictions formerly employed them, and most other jurisdictions employ some other type of preliminary hearing...

that indicted the defendants.
Superior Court
Superior court
In common law systems, a superior court is a court of general competence which typically has unlimited jurisdiction with regard to civil and criminal legal cases...

Judge Frederick W. Houser
Frederick W. Houser
Frederick Wilhelm Houser Frederick W. Houser was born to Justus Christian Houser and Martha Rodman in Jones County, Iowa...

, in charge of the criminal trial.
Asa Keyes
Asa Keyes
Asa Keyes was district attorney of Los Angeles County, California from June 1923 until 1928, when he was found guilty of accepting a bribe from the Julian Petroleum Company and was sentenced to five years' imprisonment...

, deputy district attorney
John T. Mulligan, attorney for W.B. Coburn.
Frank D. Parent
Frank D. Parent
Frank D. Parent was a Los Angeles County municipal court judge between 1930 and 1958. He coached President Dwight D. Eisenhower on championship football and baseball teams at Abilene High School, Kansas, between 1905 and 1909. The Frank D...

, member of the coroner's jury and later a Superior Court judge. Others on the coroner's jury were George G. Clarken, foreman; F.J. Maher, Fred U.S. Hughes, J.A. Griffith, and S.S. Lee.
Clarence J. Reed, foreman of the trial jury.
Inglewood Motorcycle Officer Blake B. Shambeau, a witness who said the raid was planned in a KKK meeting but who was not present at the raid itself.
Superior Court Judge Willis, presiding over the case in the absence of Judge Houser.
Los Angeles County District Attorney Thomas L. Woolwine
Thomas L. Woolwine
Thomas Lee Woolwine was a California politician. He was District Attorney of Los Angeles County 1914-1923. He began his career as a deputy DA in 1908. He ran for Governor of California under the Democratic ticket in 1922, but lost to Friend Richardson. See also William Desmond Taylor case. When he...
Arthur B. Yorba, clerk of the trial court.

Planning the raid

Police officer Shambeau told a coroner's jury that he had talked with some of Inglewood's leading citizens about the prospective raid several days before the event. Ku Klux Klan official N.A. Baker was in charge of a planning meeting held in the Beaver funeral home

Funeral home

A funeral home, funeral parlor or mortuary, is a business that provides burial and funeral services for the deceased and their families. These services may include aprepared wake and funeral, and the provision of a chapel for the funeral....

on Friday, April 21, where the meeting started with prayer and then several people took an oath of fealty to the Klan, including Shambeau. It was later said that the Elduayen family were bootleggers who had sold liquor causing the death of one man and the blinding of another. A Los Angeles Examiner reporter testified at a coroner's inquest that the assemblage was told that there was to be "no tar and feathers," by order of "the big boss." Shambeau testified at the trial that the raiders "did not have enough robes to go around" for the raid on some "Mexican's place where rotten booze was made," that Baker ordered white handkerchiefs to be used on automobile radiator caps as identification and that handkerchiefs were also to be used as masks.

The raid

The next night, Saturday evening, April 22, 1922, a group of 20 to 25 men from Inglewood, Huntington Park, Los Angeles, Venice, and Redondo Beach assembled at the Titan Garage in Inglewood; They included H.B. Beaver, H.A. Wait, Thomas Jennings, and Dr. Ed Campbell, according to Shambeau's testimony. They went to Pine Avenue, where they helped make up a band of 50 to 200 men (the estimates varied), most of them masked, who were gathered near the home of Fidel and Angela Elduayen, their children, Bernarda, 13; and Mary, 15, and Fidel's brother, Mathias. Some entered the house, and others remained in the yard, occupied a barn or guarded the roads. Fidel Elduayen told the coroner's inquest in Spanish that he and Mathias were seized, bound, and threatened with death. They heard shots fired, then they were driven first to the Inglewood jail and then to one in Redondo Beach, where their captors tried to lodge them but were refused by the officials in charge.

In a neighboring house a "Japanese" man, T. Shitara, telephoned Inglewood officials to report the event; his first call, to the "constable of the town" was unsuccessful; then he called the city marshal's office, and Frank Woerner responded aboard a motorcycle that was piloted by a civilian, Clyde Vannatta. Shots were exchanged and one of the Klansmen fell mortally wounded. He was M.B. Mosher, the constable who could not be reached when Shitara called earlier.

Woerner had been driven to the Pine Avenue home from the City Hall by motorcyclist Vannatta; they were greeted by armed men, one of whom, M. B. Mosher, threatened the two with a gun, but Woerner fired first, mortally wounding Mosher and injuring his son, Walter, and another man, Leonard Ruegg.

The two Elduayen girls told reporters and later testified at trial that they were forced to change from their nightgowns with their bedroom door open as the masked men roamed their home. At the first opportunity, they and their mother fled and hid in the alfalfa

Alfalfa

Alfalfa is a flowering plant in the pea family Fabaceae cultivated as an important forage crop in the US, Canada, Argentina, France, Australia, the Middle East, South Africa, and many other countries. It is known as lucerne in the UK, France, Australia, South Africa and New Zealand, and known as...

fields.

Coroner's inquest

A coroner's inquest was held on Monday, April 25, in the same room in Beaver's combination furniture store and funeral home, where, according to the testimony of participant Shambeau, the Inglewood police officer, the KKK action had been planned just four days before.
Included in the testimony was that by Grand Goblin William S. Coburn, who said he knew there were no Klansmen present at the Inglewood raid because he walked through the groups gathered in front of the Elduayen home and gave the "Grand Goblin's call" and no one answered.

Coburn testified that if KKK members or applicants for membership conducted the raid, it was "unofficial." Shambeau testified he had attended another meeting the preceding evening at which the raid was planned. In its verdict, the jury found that an "illegal masked and armed mob, presumably instigated and directed by members of the K.K.K.," caused Mosher's death; it demanded action to punish perpetrators of the crime.

Mosher was buried in Inglewood Park Cemetery

Inglewood Park Cemetery

Inglewood Park Cemetery was founded in 1905 in Inglewood, California. A number of notable people, including entertainment and sports personalities, have been interred or entombed here.-List of notable and celebrity interments at Inglewood Park:...

on April 26.

Investigation

On the afternoon of Tuesday, April 26, 1922, in the offices of the Ku Klux Klan in the Haas Building at 7th Street and Broadway, Los Angeles, Grand Goblin Coburn refused to hand over to Undersheriff Eugene Biscailuz and Detective Walter Hunter the roster of Ku Klux Klan members. The two officers left but returned with a search warrant and a demand to open up the safe. Coburn declined. The officers called a locksmith and were prepared to crack the safe when Coburn changed his mind and ordered it opened. Inside were money receipts and correspondence. Elsewhere in the office searchers seized two embroidered Klan robes and a file of names.

Indictment

After more than a month of hearing 133 witnesses, an 18-person grand jury on June 7 returned an indictment

Indictment

An indictment , in the common-law legal system, is a formal accusation that a person has committed a crime. In jurisdictions that maintain the concept of felonies, the serious criminal offence is a felony; jurisdictions that lack the concept of felonies often use that of an indictable offence—an...

of two counts of false imprisonment

False imprisonment

False imprisonment is a restraint of a person in a bounded area without justification or consent. False imprisonment is a common-law felony and a tort. It applies to private as well as governmental detention...

of the Elduayen brothers, two counts of kidnaping the same men, and one count of assault with intent to commit the murder of Frank Woerner against each of the 37 defendants. All of them, except Coburn and Price, admitted taking part in the raid. There were six "John Doe

John Doe

The name "John Doe" is used as a placeholder name in a legal action, case or discussion for a male party, whose true identity is unknown or must be withheld for legal reasons. The name is also used to refer to a male corpse or hospital patient whose identity is unknown...

" indictments returned against men whose identities might become known later. Documents seized in a raid on the offices of former Grand Goblin Coburn were also submitted. A typewriter used in the Los Angeles Klan office was presented.

During the hearings, defendant Nathan A. Baker was being held at the County Hospital after his arrest on suspicion of felony

Felony

A felony is a serious crime in the common law countries. The term originates from English common law where felonies were originally crimes which involved the confiscation of a convicted person's land and goods; other crimes were called misdemeanors...

when Sheriff

Sheriff

A sheriff is in principle a legal official with responsibility for a county. In practice, the specific combination of legal, political, and ceremonial duties of a sheriff varies greatly from country to country....

Traeger and Undersheriff

Undersheriff

An Undersheriff is an office derived from ancient British practice and still extant in, among other places, the United Kingdom and the United States, though somewhat different forms.-United States:...

Eugene Biscailuz learned that he planned to escape from California and that he was bordering on a mental and nervous breakdown.

Later, on August 15, it was reported that a document had been stolen during the investigative period from the district attorney's office and found its way to the office of Paul Barksdale D'Orr and A.L. Abrahams, attorneys for most of the defendants. District Attorney Woolwine had wanted to use it as the basis for surprise testimony

Rebuttal

In law, rebuttal is a form of evidence that is presented to contradict or nullify other evidence that has been presented by an adverse party. By analogy the same term is used in politics and public affairs to refer to the informal process by which statements, designed to refute or negate specific...

during the trial.

Los Angeles Examiner connection

Donald Parker, photographer for the Los Angeles Examiner, who was present during the raid, told the coroner's jury that he had been a member of the Klan for several months but resigned after April 22. R.B. (or R.D.) Knickerbocker, an Examiner reporter, was also present. Parker said he had been "tipped off," possibly by Klan kleagle N.A. Baker, and Knickerbocker said he could not escape from the klansman who was guarding him after he learned of the action that was to take place.

Leaders of the proposed raid, Knickerbocker testified at trial, proposed at the Titan Garage to give him a typewritten statement of what had occurred and then, if he and Parker "behaved right on the story," they would be offered the opportunity to take part in two more activities planned by the Klan: The first would have been a sortie by Klan members, dressed in their robes, to make an ostentatious, public cash donation to a Culver City church, and the second would have been to witness the tar-and-feathering of a prominent Venice businessman accused of "mistreating a girl."

Trial

Trial of the 37 defendants began on August 7, 1922, with Judge Houser presiding and eight men and four women in the jury box. On August 10, Nathan A. Baker, the acknowledged leader of the April 22 action, collapsed, "crumpled up with a convulsion," during the testimony of 13-year-old Bernarda Elduayen and was taken from the courtroom. His case was later severed from the trial and never continued.

The defense referred to the events of April 22 as the "Inglewood enterprise" and sought to show that officer Frank Woerner shot Mosher without provocation and that the Elduayens were selling liquor; therefore the raid was justified. Defendant Bryson said he had been asked by Kleagle Baker to assist Constable Mosher in the raid and that he, Bryson, deputized some of the men on the way to the Pine Avenue address. He said he had bought whisky, brandy, wine, and gin from the Elduayens before the raid began. The bottles of alcohol were displayed for the jury. Hamilton testified that Charles Casto, one of the defendants, stood guard at the closed bedroom door of the two teenagers, forbidding entry to anyone.

In closing argument

Closing argument

A closing argument, summation, or summing up is the concluding statement of each party's counsel reiterating the important arguments for the trier of fact, often the jury, in a court case. A closing argument occurs after the presentation of evidence...

s, the prosecution stayed mainly with the facts of the case, and the defense used emotional appeals to sway the jury.
Prosecutor Turney "bluntly charged the raiders with being a mob

MOB

Mob may refer to:* A crowd Mob may refer to:* A crowd Mob may refer to:* A crowd (of people, from Latin mobile vulgus "fickle commoners":*An angry mob; see Ochlocracy*A criminal gang*In American English, organized crime; slang for Mafia or American Mafia*Mobbing, human bullying behaviour...

of men who terrorized a mother and two little girls." Defense attorney D'Orr painted a different picture:

Constable Mosher died there defending your children and mine. He died there upholding the majesty of the law. . . . Ladies and gentlemen, any man who loved his father, whom he believed was in the lawful execution of his duty, protecting your home and mine against criminality, and who is shot down by a man who had never been assailed, and sees the fire coming toward him and does not reply to that fire and seek to stop the assailant, is unworthy of the name of an American citizen.

Verdict

After five hours of deliberation

Deliberation

Deliberation is a process of thoughtfully weighing options, usually prior to voting. In legal settings a jury famously uses deliberation because it is given specific options, like guilty or not guilty, along with information and arguments to evaluate. Deliberation emphasizes the use of logic and...

— a delay caused by the need to fill out a ballot for each charge for each defendant — the jury returned with a verdict on August 26 of not guilty on all counts. When Judge Houser adjourned court, the defendants rushed forward to shake the hand of the jurors, some of whom said they considered it a "patriotic verdict." Many defendants then entered Houser's chambers

Chambers (law)

A judge's chambers, often just called his or her chambers, is the office of a judge.Chambers may also refer to the type of courtroom where motions related to matter of procedure are heard.- United Kingdom and Commonwealth :...

and returned with "large supplies" of the judge's campaign literature and posters.

Elduayens' arrest

Fidel Elduayen, 41, and Mathias, 31, were arrested on August 26, 1922, by federal agents who charged them with violation of the Volstead Act

Volstead Act

The National Prohibition Act, known informally as the Volstead Act, was the enabling legislation for the Eighteenth Amendment which established prohibition in the United States...

, which regulated the manufacture and sale of liquor in the United States. The charges were dismissed on February 2, 1924.

Split in Klan

On September 8, 1924, it was reported that more than 25 percent of the Inglewood Klan unit — named the Med Mosher Klan No. 1 — had left the national organization and formed a group called the Reformed Order of Klansmen. Spokesmen Lloyd S. Sanderson and A.H. Van de Mark accused the national body of despotism, graft and un-Americanism.

Affidavit

Affidavit

An affidavit is a written sworn statement of fact voluntarily made by an affiant or deponent under an oath or affirmation administered by a person authorized to do so by law. Such statement is witnessed as to the authenticity of the affiant's signature by a taker of oaths, such as a notary public...

s dealing with the split were filed in Superior Court

Superior court

In common law systems, a superior court is a court of general competence which typically has unlimited jurisdiction with regard to civil and criminal legal cases...

on November 7, 1924, by Ray Mears of Ocean Park and Earnest M. Schultz of Venice, both former defendants in the Elduayen trial, stating, among other claims, that G. W. Price, also a defendant, had been present on the Elduayen property and had given orders to "go home and keep our mouths shut about what happened."

On February 20, 1925, it was reported that the "Ku Klux Klan element" in Inglewood was supporting the recall of five city trustees (council members) in an attack on Street Superintendent O.O. Farmer "because of the employment in his office and field force of men who are not yet American citizens."

By 1931, an Inglewood Klan unit was known as "Loyalty Klan No. 25"; it sent a communication to the county Board of Supervisors seeking an eight-hour day and a five-day work week in public jobs, as well as the elimination of employment of wives, daughters, and sons of public officials in those positions.

Principals

Defendants

In the courtroom and behind the scenes

Planning the raid

The raid

Coroner's inquest

Investigation

Indictment

Los Angeles Examiner connection

Trial

Verdict

Elduayens' arrest

Split in Klan

See also

Books

Newspapers