Devils Walking

by Stanley Nelson

  Ben Chester White, Adams County, Mississippi, June 10, 1966

  White, a sixty-seven-year-old sharecropper and farm employee in rural Adams County, Mississippi, was lured into James Lloyd Jones’s car and driven to the Pretty Creek Bridge, where Claude Fuller shot White seventeen times with an automatic rifle. Afterward, Ernest Avants shot White in the head with a shotgun. Fuller and Avants later set Jones’s car on fire at another location. Jones confessed and implicated the other two men. Despite an airtight case, neither Jones nor Avants was convicted by Klan-infested juries, while Fuller was never tried. Impressed by the murder, Red Glover made Fuller a member of the SDG. In 2003, Avants, the only suspect still living, was convicted in federal court after it was discovered the crime had occurred on federal property. Avants died in prison the next year.

  Wharlest Jackson, Natchez, Mississippi, February 27, 1967

  In January 1967, Jackson, a thirty-six-year-old married father of five, became the first black man at the Armstrong Tire Plant promoted to a position previously held by white men only. Among his coworkers were Red Glover and James Frederick “Red” Lee, who in 1965 had planned the car bombing that seriously injured Jackson’s good friend George Metcalfe. Metcalfe and Jackson were leaders of the reactivated Natchez NAACP. On his way home from work after an overtime shift ending at 8 p.m., Jackson died instantly when his truck exploded after he turned on his left blinker. The killing resulted in a massive FBI investigation that became known as WHARBOM. Hundreds of witnesses were interviewed by 180 agents. Additionally, WHARBOM included a second investigation into the Frank Morris murder and the first probe into the disappearance of Joseph Edwards. By 1970, the FBI had achieved one of its goals, “neutralizing” members of the Silver Dollar Group. While WHARBOM resulted in no murder convictions, it did bring about the conviction of Concordia Parish sheriff Noah Cross for his involvement in a mob-backed prostitution and gambling operation. Cross’s deputy, Frank DeLaughter, was also convicted in the case as well as for police brutality in the beating of a prisoner. In the Jackson murder, many in law enforcement, including retired FBI agents, believe that Glover acted alone in the bombing.

  CONCORDIA PARISH SHERIFF’S OFFICE

  COWAN, Ike, Jr. (1926–1985). A veteran of World War II and the Korean conflict, Cowan spent an afternoon in 1966 spilling the beans on the nefarious operations of the Concordia Parish Sheriff’s Office to FBI agent John Pfeifer. In particular, Cowan outlined how Sheriff Noah Cross collected protection money from gambling operators and pimps, with a primary focus on the Morville Lounge, operated by the Carlos Marcello mob. Pfeifer hoped to turn Cowan into an informant and attempted to convince him to testify in court against Frank DeLaughter, but Cowan considered the idea too risky and told Cross that the FBI was trying to pressure him into revealing the illegal operations of the sheriff’s office. Cowan and other line deputies were called before federal grand juries and subpoenaed to testify in the federal trials of Cross and DeLaughter, but they all refused to utter one disparaging word against either defendant. Born in Concordia Parish, Louisiana. Died in Alexandria, Louisiana. Buried in Natchez, Mississippi.

  CROSS, Noah Webster (1908–1976). Cross was elected to seven terms as sheriff of Concordia Parish beginning in 1941. His tenure ended in 1973, when he was imprisoned following his federal conviction in connection with a brothel and gambling den in Concordia Parish operated by the Carlos Marcello mob. While it is unclear if Cross was a member of the Silver Dollar Group, at least two of his deputies were. Cross held an honorary membership in the United Klans of America. The FBI considered Cross one of the most corrupt sheriffs in the South. Cross died in 1976 after serving briefly in federal prison. Never once did Cross investigate or assist in the investigations of the murder of Frank Morris or the disappearance of Joseph Edwards, crimes that involved the SDG and his deputies, who carried out the homicides in uniform and with the use of their patrol cars. Born in Concordia Parish, Louisiana. Buried in Natchez, Mississippi.

  DeLAUGHTER, Frank Edward (1927–1996). DeLaughter worked as a fireman, jailer, and radio dispatcher before becoming a police officer in Ferriday in 1962. As a fireman and later as a police officer, he killed at least two men under suspicious circumstances. While wearing a badge, DeLaughter operated his own criminal ring and extorted goods and services from local businesses, ranging from whiskey to shoe repair. Identified by the FBI as a member of the Silver Dollar Group, he was sworn into the United Klans of America in 1964 by E. L. McDaniel of Natchez, then grand dragon of the Mississippi UKA. DeLaughter participated in the 1964 disappearance/murder of Joseph Edwards and is believed to have masterminded Frank Morris’s murder by arson. He also used local thugs to beat CORE workers in 1965. McDaniel recognized DeLaughter as a Klan dignitary at a UKA rally in Natchez in 1966, and he served as secretary of a Concordia UKA klavern. In the early 1970s, he was convicted in federal court for promoting prostitution at the mob-operated Morville Lounge, where he picked up protection money every week for delivery to Sheriff Noah Cross. He was also convicted in federal court for police brutality in the savage beating of a white man who was believed to have stolen a slot machine motor from his employer, Blackie Drane. Following his release from federal prison after serving one year and a day, he was unemployed until 1976, when the Ferriday Town Council (which by then included a black alderman) hired him as a dispatcher, returning him to the same environs where he had brutalized countless prisoners in previous years. Born in Brookhaven, Mississippi. Died in Ferriday, Louisiana. Buried in Natchez, Mississippi.

  HARP, William Howell, Jr. (1930–2004). A police officer in Ferriday in the early 1960s who later became a Concordia Parish sheriff’s deputy, Harp worked closely with Frank DeLaughter. In 1962, Harp had a run-in with Frank Morris and alleged that he made improper comments to Harp’s wife. Harp admitted to the FBI that he confronted Morris at the shoe shop afterward while dressed in his uniform and wearing a sidearm. Harp drove the town firetruck to the shoe shop on the night of the fire and later stood at Morris’s bedside at the hospital while FBI agents questioned Morris about the arson. Harp drove a 1962 white Oldsmobile, similar to the one seen pulling over Joseph Edwards’s Buick in 1964. A suspect in that case, James Goss, told the FBI he believed Harp was involved in Edwards’s disappearance. Born in Concordia Parish, Louisiana. Died in Covington, Louisiana. Buried in Monterey (Concordia Parish), Louisiana.

  OGDEN, William “Bill” Howard (1913–2004). A Concordia Parish deputy and identified by the FBI as a member of the Silver Dollar Group, Ogden was known to advise Klansmen when FBI agents asked questions about them. As Ogden struggled with a drunken bar patron in the early 1960s, his pistol reportedly discharged, killing another man sitting at the bar watching the fight. He was a suspect in the disappearance/murder of Joseph Edwards. Ogden told a preacher that he and Frank DeLaughter had stopped Edwards in front of the bowling alley, but the young black man abandoned his Buick and ran up the levee. Ogden said he followed in his patrol car but Edwards got away. In 2008, a source reported to the Concordia Sentinel that Ogden had hallucinations suggesting his guilt in the Edwards case while in his final years in a nursing home. Died in Ferriday, Louisiana. Born and buried in Liddieville (Franklin Parish), Louisiana.

  SILVER DOLLAR GROUP MURDER SUSPECTS

  FULLER, Claude (1922–1993). An employee at International Paper Company in Natchez, Fuller set fire to his car in 1963 in a failed attempt to collect insurance money and blame black men for the crime. He also hoped to make white Mississippians believe that armed gangs of blacks were roaming the countryside looking for whites to attack. By 1966, he had proven too violent and too mentally unstable even for the White Knights, who put him out of the group. Longing for a Klan home, he recruited four men into the Cottonmouth Moccasin Klan, a group he created. He lied to the group, claiming that he was authorized by Klan higher-ups to kill a local black man in order to lure Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. to Natchez, where Klansmen would then assassinate the civil rights leader. Fuller, James Lloyd
Jones, and Ernest Avants picked up an aging African American named Ben Chester White. With Jones sitting in the driver’s seat, Fuller shot the man seventeen times with an automatic carbine as White slumped over in the backseat. Avants shot White’s corpse in the head with a shotgun, scattering flesh, blood, and brain matter throughout Jones’s car. (Avants, who like Fuller had been kicked out of the White Knights, was believed to have been involved in the 1965 beating death of White Knight Earl Hodges of Franklin County, Mississippi.) In the White case, the three Klansmen left a trail of witnesses, but despite an airtight case, Jones was freed after a hung jury, Avants was acquitted, and Fuller was never tried. In 1967, Red Glover rewarded Fuller with a silver dollar and membership in the SDG. (In 2000, Avants, the only survivor of the three defendants, was charged in the murder by federal authorities because it had occurred in a national forest. He was convicted in 2003 and died in 2004.) Born in Alabama. Died in Adams County, Mississippi.

  GLOVER, Raleigh Jackson (1922–1984). Glover learned to use explosives while serving in the U.S. Navy Seabees in World War II and Korea. As a Klan recruiter and investigator, Glover led several wrecking crew projects. In 1964, disgusted with traditional Klan groups and with politicians for their inability to stop integration, Glover started the Silver Dollar Group at the Shamrock Motel coffee shop in Vidalia. The group’s mission was to fight integration by any means. He presented a silver dollar to each SDG recruit as a symbol of unity. Glover was the only SDG member never to admit his Klan affiliation to the FBI. To an informant, Glover implicated himself in the 1964 Clifton Walker murder four years after the fact. A suspect in the 1964 disappearance/murder of Joseph Edwards, he also masterminded the attempted murder by car bomb of Natchez NAACP president George Metcalfe in 1965. Authorities believe he acted alone in the 1967 car bomb murder of Natchez NAACP treasurer Wharlest Jackson. Born in St. Augustine County, Texas. Died in Natchez. Buried in Natchez.

  HEAD, Kenneth Norman (1928–2004). Head served in the U.S. Marines in China at the end of World War II and later became the Exalted Cyclops of the Vidalia Original Knights klavern. A mechanic and electrician experienced in oil-field maintenance, Head also handled shaped electrical charges used to perforate well holes. A close friend of Red Glover, Head was involved in numerous wrecking crew projects and was a suspect in the murder of Joseph Edwards, the attempted murder of George Metcalfe, and the murder of Wharlest Jackson. Born in Natchez. Died in Bay St. Louis, Mississippi. Buried in Natchez.

  HESTER, Elden Glen (1928–2004). An Armstrong Tire employee, Hester was given the nickname “Junk Man” by fellow SDG members because he stored explosives for Red Glover. A suspect in the murder of Wharlest Jackson, Hester was a member of the Franklin County, Mississippi, White Knights unit headed by Clyde Seale. Before the Jackson bombing, an FBI informant saw explosives in Hester’s home outside Meadville. A short time after the bombing, another informant saw what was believed to be part of the same cache in an old farmhouse owned by Hester in Franklin Parish, Louisiana. Born, died, and buried in Franklin County, Mississippi.

  HORTON, Homer Thomas (1935–1995). Nicknamed “Buck,” Horton worked for Armstrong Tire before becoming a certified flight instructor and commercial pilot. He was elected as nighthawk in the Original Knights Klan unit in Vidalia in 1963 and was a suspect in the 1964 disappearance/murder of Joseph Edwards. Born in Brookhaven, Mississippi. Died in Jackson. Buried in Lincoln County, Mississippi.

  JONES, Tommie Lee (1936–2007). The International Paper Company employee was involved in the Original Knights, White Knights, and United Klans of America. A close associate of Red Glover, he participated in a wrecking crew project as early as 1963, when he and other Klansmen beat a black man who later disappeared. The unauthorized act drew the ire of E. L. McDaniel, then head of White Knights projects in the region. When McDaniel and other Klan leaders admonished Jones, he was defiant, a stance that McDaniel never forgave. McDaniel later implicated Jones and three others in Frank Morris’s murder. In early 1964, during a wrecking crew project, Jones was shot in the face by a black man the SDG was attempting to kidnap and kill. In 1965, Jones was arrested in Ferriday after hitting a black man in the head with the butt of a pistol. In 1967, Jones was incapacitated due to back surgery, thereby eliminating him as a physical participant in the car bombing of Wharlest Jackson, although one informant said Jones had indicated that Jackson should be killed. He acknowledged to the FBI his involvement in the beating of one black man, and the FBI believed it was close to turning him into an informant in 1967, but ultimately he hired a lawyer and quit talking. Jones died a few months after the FBI launched a new probe into the Morris murder in 2007; the bureau did not interview him prior to his death. Born in Gloster, Mississippi. Died in Natchez.

  LEE, James Frederick (1933–1999). Son of a Baptist minister, Lee went by the nickname “Red.” A veteran of the U.S. Army, the Armstrong Tire employee was a close associate of Red Glover and served as investigator for the Black River Klan in Concordia Parish. In 1965, Lee hosted a fish fry at his Lismore home, where SDG Klansmen experimented with explosives two months prior to the car bombing of George Metcalfe. Lee and Sonny Taylor perfected the bomb that injured Metcalfe. He also was a suspect in the car bombing of Wharlest Jackson. Born in Orange, Texas. Died in Tennessee.

  MORACE, E. D. (1926–1970). Morace was the investigator for the Original Knights unit in Ferriday and Clayton. A mechanic and part-time bouncer, he was described as the “head hatchet man” for the Ferriday Klan. By 1965, Morace was considered one of the FBI’s most reliable informers, although a 1966 victim of a Klan beating identified him as one of his attackers. A suspect in the Frank Morris murder, Morace told the bureau that he investigated several Klan complaints about Morris. He discovered these charges to be untrue. Morace said that a short time before the arson, Morris and Frank DeLaughter had a heated argument over a pair of cowboy boots DeLaughter had ordered but refused to pay for. Morace was the lone informant to tell the bureau that Vidalia Klansman Kenneth Norman Head had implicated himself, Red Glover, and Buck Horton in the 1964 murder of Joseph Edwards. Morace also implicated Glover as the mastermind of the 1964 murder of Clifton Walker in Woodville, Mississippi. Born in Concordia Parish. Died in Ferriday. Buried near Sicily Island, Louisiana.

  PARKER, Ernest Buchanan (1930–1996). One of the wealthiest Klansmen in the South, Parker was a self-employed farmer, oilman, and rancher, while also serving as Exalted Cyclops of the Morgantown White Knights klavern in Natchez. With his brother, Parker co-owned property on Parker’s Island, more commonly known as Davis Island, in Warren County, Mississippi. There, Parker and brothers Jack and James Ford Seale drowned Henry Hezekiah Dee and Charles Moore. Parker died in a tractor accident at Davis Island. Born in Natchez. Buried in Natchez.

  POISSOT, O. C. “Coonie” (1923–1992). In 1967, as an FBI informer, Poissot described his involvement in several wrecking crew projects with Red Glover and others. He also reported hearing Glover and Kenneth Norman Head confess to the car bombing of George Metcalfe. While riding with Frank DeLaughter in his police cruiser hours before the Frank Morris arson, Poissot claimed DeLaughter railed against the shoe repairman. The next night, the shoe shop was torched. Almost a half century later, following publication of an article on Poissot, by then dead, the Concordia Sentinel was contacted by two of Poissot’s daughters. One daughter said that her father claimed to have killed a black man for the Klan and that he carried a silver dollar. Weeks later, the Sentinel interviewed a son, an ex-wife, and an ex-brother-in-law of Arthur Leonard Spencer, a former Klansman from Rayville, Louisiana. They said they had learned from Poissot and Spencer years earlier that the two had torched a shoe shop in Ferriday in the 1960s and that the fire had killed a black man, who wasn’t supposed to be there. In an interview with the Sentinel in 2010, Spencer denied any knowledge of the Morris arson and denied having even heard the name “Coonie” Poissot, although two of Spencer’s children claimed Poissot was like a grandfather to them. The Sentinel’s story
of the allegations against Spencer, printed in January 2011, was followed by three separate grand jury investigations, the first launched in February 2011. A federal prosecutor was named an assistant district attorney in Concordia Parish to handle the state grand jury probe. No charges or reports were issued before or after Spencer’s death in 2013. Poissot, who was born in LaSalle Parish, Louisiana, had died two decades earlier in El Paso, Texas. He was cremated and his ashes scattered in the Franklin Mountains of west Texas.

  SCARBOROUGH, James Lee (1921–1985). Scarborough was an International Paper Company employee who had served as a coxswain in the U.S. Navy during World War II. He was Exalted Cyclops of the Ferriday-Clayton Original Knights unit until ousted from the position in December 1965 on charges of divulging Klan secrets to Frank DeLaughter and Blackie Drane. Involved in several wrecking crew projects, Scarborough was a suspect in the Frank Morris arson murder and the attempted murder of George Metcalfe. Born, died, and buried in Union Parish, Louisiana.

  SEALE, Clyde Wayne (1901–1983). A Bunkley farmer, considered the top White Knights Klan leader in Franklin County, Seale organized the attacks that resulted in the murders of Henry Hezekiah Dee, Charles Moore, and Earl Hodges. Seale’s sons James Ford and Jack were feared by other Klansmen, as was he. Born, died, and buried in Franklin County, Mississippi.

  SEALE, James Ford (1935–2011). Seale was the only SDG member convicted of murder (forty-three years after the crime); the original charges against Seale and Charles Edwards were dropped a few months after the 1964 murders of Henry Hezekiah Dee and Charles Moore. In 1967, Seale acknowledged to the FBI that he was in the SDG and that he attended the 1965 fish fry gathering in Concordia Parish. However, he denied any crimes. He was believed to be involved in the murder of Earl Hodges. In the years to follow, while working as a crop duster, Seale crashed two planes in Concordia Parish, walking away from both crashes uninjured. The second, in 1970, resulted in the deaths of all five passengers in another aircraft that allegedly clipped the wing of Seale’s plane over the Concordia Parish airport. Among the dead was Dr. Charles Colvin, who had been Frank Morris’s attending physician in 1964. Seale was the only eyewitness and only survivor of the collision; there were no charges. On the testimony of Charles Edwards, Seale was convicted of the Dee-Moore murders in 2007 and sentenced to two life terms in federal prison. While in prison, Seale was shocked to learn about a report in the Concordia Sentinel that his brother, Jack Seale, had become an FBI informant in 1967. He had told Red Glover following the 1967 car bombing murder of Wharlest Jackson that Klansmen should remain forever silent, noting, “A man’s mouth is his worst enemy.” Not once did he open his to help resolve other SDG crimes and provide closure to the families of the victims. Born in Franklin County, Mississippi. Died in Terre Haute, Indiana. Buried in Franklin County, Mississippi.