Darwin Award? Woman killed trying to join the Klan.

[Ed Mahmoud]

Although she was trying to back out, she probably wasn't as stupid as the boys in the pillow cases.

La. police say woman killed trying to leave KKK meeting

COVINGTON, La. — After a Ku Klux Klan initiation at a Louisiana campsite went awry, authorities said, a recruit who tried to back out was shot dead. The body of the woman, who traveled from Oklahoma, was dumped on a rural roadside and covered with brush. Her belongings were set aflame.

But the cover-up was stillborn: The body was found Monday, a day after the shooting. By Tuesday, a local Klan leader sat in jail on a second-degree murder charge, and seven others were charged with trying to help conceal the crime.

"The IQ level of this group is not impressive, to be kind," St. Tammany Parish Sheriff Jack Strain said Tuesday.

The woman, whose identity was not released, was recruited over the Internet to participate in the ritual and then return to her home state to find other members for the white supremacist group, Strain said.

It wasn't clear what rites awaited her at the campsite, but authorities believe the initiation had begun by the time the shooting happened. Strain said the group's leader, Raymond "Chuck" Foster, 44, shot and killed her Sunday night after a fight broke out when she asked to be taken back to town.

[Dionne]

If you'll take time to read the link provided by Ed.....you'll notice "banks of the Pearl River" mentioned. This immediately caught my attention. When the Klan was still active in this area, the meetings and hangings took place at traditional sites along the Pearl. Each site had what was known as a hanging tree. The reasons the Klan used these sites was two fold.....first.....there are some VERY rural areas along the Pearl and second was because of the river. A gutted corpse does not bloat and float downstream.....it sinks to the bottom and is rapidly eaten by large catfish in the river.

Someone in this group from Bogalusa knew of the old days when the Pearl locations were used for these crimes.

Make no mistake....this is terrorism. We're going to be seeing more of these unfortunate situations.

Why not just go down to the Pearl, camp out for the weekend, drink beer and run trot lines like the rest of us?

[Cryomaniac]

The KKK are a definite terrorist group. Unfortunately they aren't treated as such. I wont say why I think this is, because it's fairly political.

[Ed Mahmoud]

The KKK are a definite terrorist group. Unfortunately they aren't treated as such. I wont say why I think this is, because it's fairly political.

Nothing really political about it. The Klan was loosely affiliated with a US political party from the 1860s through the 1950s, but by the time LBJ pushed for civil rights and voting rights legislation, and was supported by members of both parties, the Klan was no longer accepted by any major party. There are a few elderly people left in politics who have had past Klan affiliations, but they have renounced it.


As far as being a terrorist group, they attempt to gain political advantage or advance an ideology through violence or intimidation. The very definition of a terror group. And Klan or like minded groups, like "White Power" groups or the skinheads, have on occasion resorted to violence, such as beating of immigrants and non-whites (one beating left an Ethiopian man dead), and acts of vandalism such as burning a cross on a persons property is clearly meant to intimidate.


They are fringey, most of them aren't too bright, but there are still enough of them to make trouble. Some of them are apparently somewhat aligned with European neo-Nazis, as well.


As far as avoiding political discussion on S2K, well, the National German Socialist Workers Party, or the Nazis, were a political party, but I don't think it is out of bounds to call them deluded at best, to downright evil, and anybody in this day and age, with the knowledge of the millions of European civilians dead, and ethnic minorities targetted for extermination, who has sympathy for the Nazis is almost certainly either a blithering idiot or a malevolent person.

[Cyclenall]

What do they mean by the cover up being stillborn?

[Ed Mahmoud]

What do they mean by the cover up being stillborn?

Just that the body was found the next day, because they didn't do a very good job of hiding it.


They're klansmen, not rocket scientists.

[Ptarmigan]

The KKK of today was different. The KKK was at its peak in the 1920s and they took on a more "moralistic" and "nativist" bent. They targeted mostly bootleggers, alcoholics, adulterers, and uppity White women. They engaged in terrorism, which led to the formation of House of Un-American Committees (HUAC) because of KKK and Nazis in the 1930s. The KKK was waning that time because of corruption.

Wikipedia-HUAC
NPS-HUAC
Spartacus-HUAC

[Category 5]

They're terrorists in my book.

[JTD]

They're terrorists in my book.

Interesting tidbit: Sitting US senators are former Klansmen including the president pro tempore. They have renounced ties long since of course.

[Aslkahuna]

Of course One of those esteemed personages is Robert C. Byrd of WV.

Steve

[Dionne]

Byrd was 23 years young when his KKK deal began. At that time the Klan was primarily an anti-communist organization. He had some reported contacts with Klan until 1952. Just Goggle the words Byrd-Klan. All sorts of info. It's mostly political. It's part of our history and an interesting read.

[Ed Mahmoud]

Byrd was 23 years young when his KKK deal began. At that time the Klan was primarily an anti-communist organization. He had some reported contacts with Klan until 1952. Just Goggle the words Byrd-Klan. All sorts of info. It's mostly political. It's part of our history and an interesting read.

Byrd wrote a letter opposing integration of the armed forcesthat is amazing for its virulence.

He was a much younger man in 1945, obviously, and has expressed regret for having been in the Klan.


Byrd, BTW, probably because of his age, will not seek being the president pro temp of the Senate next year.

[Ed Mahmoud]

Klan loses $2.5M lawsuit over assault on unprovoked assault on Native American teen.


These days, the Klan is very much on the fringe, but if half a dozen Klansmen and skinheads are stomping you with steel toed boots, that doesn't matter much at the moment.

[Dionne]

I hope everyone read the entire scripts.

Thanx for the links Ed.