From the Times-Picayune:
A Tulsa, Okla., woman who traveled to Louisiana to join the Ku Klux Klan was shot to death by the leader of the group's Bogalusa chapter Sunday after she tried to back out of initiation rites at a remote, sandbar camp in northeastern St. Tammany Parish, authorities said Tuesday.
....
The woman apparently learned about Foster's group, the Sons of Dixie, through the Internet and applied so she could recruit others in Oklahoma, Strain said. Investigators have recovered the woman's application to join the Klan and noted that she had requested that the organization waive its typical membership fee.
The woman came to Louisiana by bus on Friday to begin her initiation into the group, Strain said. After several rites, including a head-shaving, she was taken to a camp on a sandbar, accessible only by boat, in the Pearl River Canal near Sun.
The initiation continued at the campsite, with rituals that consisted mainly of lighting torches and "running around in the woods," Strain said.
Sunday night, the woman decided she wanted to leave the camp, sparking an argument with Foster that soon turned violent, Strain said. Foster pushed the woman down and, as the argument continued, he shot her with a .40-caliber handgun, the sheriff said.
--- Belongings set ablaze ---
Foster immediately moved to cover up the crime, Strain said. He quickly flipped the woman's body over and tried to dig out the bullet with a knife before ordering his followers to destroy evidence, Strain said.
During the night, Klan members set fire to the woman's belongings as well as the campsite and dumped her body near Lock No. 3 Road, about a half-mile from the shooting site, Strain said.
Read the rest of the article on the whole vicious and bloody affair. This is sickening, but hardly surprising. At the moment, I have no words to express my horror.
Obama's election showed the best of us, but it will, at the same time, bring into the light the worst of some of us, not just in Louisiana, but around the country.
This should serve as a warning to anyone thinking about joining the Klan. If you say you want in and then reconsider, you could be dead.
Lord, have mercy.
Christ, have mercy.
Lord, have mercy.
Lord have mercy indeed.
ReplyDeleteAccording to the Southern Poverty Law Center's web site, there are more of these hate groups than I realized. That part of Louisiana seems to be home to several groups. I'm glad to know somebody is keeping an eye on them. Shouldn't Homeland Security be monitoring the activity of these terrorist groups, too? Maybe they are, anybody know?
ReplyDeleteCJ, Bogolusa, LA, has long had its share of KKK members and supporters going back to way before the civil rights struggles. I expect that the Dept. of Homeland Security is watching and will watch more closely now since the killing.
ReplyDeleteStrangely enough, little old Biggar, Saskatchewan (New York is big but this is Biggar) was a hot bed of Klan activity in the early mid-nineteenth century. Not one of our stellar moments in history but - thanks be to God - nothing as extreme as this story.
ReplyDeleteIt sits ill with me that the baptismal font in our church was made by one of the members of the Klan.
Love and Prayers,
Ann Marie
For me, it's a tragic and sad déja vu all over again, except the victims were black. This is something new. I think I'm safe in assuming the victim was white, since I am quite sure that the Klan would dismiss any thought of having a black person as a member.
ReplyDeleteHate devours even itself if no other victims are offered.
ReplyDeleteGang gatherings should be illegal. They are in Oz and they're bringing in tougher gang laws here too. I didn't know the evil KKK still existed.
ReplyDeleteMark, according to the news today, the bulk of the group was arrested for participating in the cover-up, along with the alleged murderer.
ReplyDeleteSteph, it's in the Constitution that folks may gather, but the members of the group are not free to commit crimes.