In 1924, a woman in Tamaqua, Schuylkill County, Pennsylvania, made a complaint against four alleged members of the Ku Klux Klan – that they had kidnapped her, threatened her life, and accused her of having illicit relations with a neighbor. A county grand jury ignored bringing an indictment and the matter was dropped.
From the Mount Carmel Item, April 12, 1924:
SHAMOKIN MEN DENY CHARGE OF KLAN ACTIVITIES
A complete denial was entered today by four Shamokin men who are charged with being implicated in Ku Klux Klan activities and with forcibly entering the home of Mrs. Clara A. Frantz of Tamaqua. The men accused, Lee Miller, Francis Wildesmuth, W. F. Anderson and Guy Klinger, according to testimony offered at a hearing before Alderman Hiram Davies, of Pottsville, went to Mrs. Frantz’s home to stop her alleged relations with Howard Ware, a neighbor.
All four deny the charge and say they know nothing of activities in which they are supposed to have taken part. Counsel for the accused men will apply to Schuylkill County judges to admit them to bail, declaring… innocence. The men are well known and esteemed in Shamokin and state the entire affair is a mystery to them.
At the hearing, Mrs. Franz alleges that on February 8 [1924] the men, with others, invaded her home. All were hooded in Ku Klux fashion. Mrs. Franz says: They brought Ware to her and questioned her on her relations with him, she says, and finally they gagged her and took her several miles into the woods where an effort was made to compel her to confess by terrifying methods.
One of these methods it is said was to discharge revolvers close to her. Mrs. Frantz says the men blindfolded her, but the cloth slipped off her one eye, enabling her to recognize several of them. While she was in the woods it is alleged her home was ransacked and robbed of $55.
All of the accused entered indignant denials at the hearing and asked to be heard in their own defense, asserting they can easily prove their innocence but Alderman Davies said a prima facie case being made out, he would hold them for forcible entry and detainer and attempt to kill.
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From the Mount Carmel Item, May 7, 1924:
The case in which Mrs. Clara Frantz, of Tamaqua, accused four alleged members of the Ku Klux Klan of virtually kidnapping her and taking her to a lonely spot miles from her home has been ignored by the grand jury of Schuylkill County Court at Pottsville.
The defendants, Leo Miller, Francis Wildemuth, William Anderson and Clyde Klinger, were charged, technically with intent to kill and wantonly pointing a pistol. All defendants are residents of Shamokin.
Mrs. Franz alleges the defendants visited her home at night while her husband was away and endeavored to compel her to confess that she had improper relations with a male neighbor.
This post is a continuation of the reporting on hate groups that were active in the Lykens Valley area. It was a widely known fact that the Ku Klux Klan had a significant presence in the Lykens Valley and adjacent valleys during the early years of the 20th Century. This iteration of the Klan was strongly white supremacist and was opposed to equal rights for African Americans, Catholics, Jews, and immigrants.
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News article from Newspapers.com.
Corrections and additional information should be added as comments to this post.