Klan Meeting Disruption

Jutt’s Hall, packed full of Klansmen and lady Klansmen, were thrown into near panic last Thursday night when some unknown person fired several shots from a 45-calibr automatic pistol, presumably at a fiery cross, electrically wired, which hung from one of the windows directly under the hall.

  The shots from the heavy automatic spattered against the wall, one passing through a large plate glass window.  Another cut the electric wire which furnished the current for the cross.

  Before the crowd in the hall could get into the street the shooter had disappeared into the darkness.  A search revealed the empty shells which had dropped from the pistol and the tracks of the shooter who stood in a vacant lot just across the street from the hall.

  Mulliken’s bloodhounds were brought here Friday morning in the hope that they would take to the trail of the disturber but failed to take the scent. It is claimed that cayenne pepper had been thrown on the trail and a small quantity of the pepper was found on the street and in the lot where the tracks were found.

  The Klansmen kept a delegation here all day Friday who sought clews as to the identity of the man who fired the shots but were evidently unsuccessful.  If they met with any success, they have kept it to themselves for presentation to the grand jury which convened Monday. The shooting took place just before midnight when practically the whole town was asleep with the exception of the Klansmen who were present at the meeting.

Grant County News, February 8, 1924