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THE KLAN UNMASKED CC You've been spouting nothing but lies! " the vet cried out. There was an angry roar as the Columbians charged him. One Columbian drew a pistol. Four policemen rushed in, but were submerged in a melee of swinging fists. There was a shattering ofglass, and a bomb came hurtling through the window. It was tear gas! Almostly instantly the room filled with choking, blinding fumes and the fight was off. There was a rush for the door-and the hall was soon empty. I hung around outside, and when the air had cleared inside the hall, re-entered and picked up the tear-gas container. "No doubt about it," Duke said when I showed it to him the- next morning. "This thing came from the Atlanta police department. One of the Columbians' pals on the police force must have slipped it to them, and they tossed it through the window themselves, just to make more headlines and give them something they could blame on theJews. Good thing it came through the window when it did, though; otherwise there would've been a real battle up there! " The first real crack in the Columbian case began to open up when Lanier Waller sickened at their brutality and began to talk about a night ride he had taken with Ira Jett. "Jett asked me if! wanted to go out and ride around with him," Waller said. "He asked Homer if it would be all right. Homer looked sort of undecided and then said, ' Yes, I think so.' So I went with J ett and we started driving towards out-of-town. " 'These damned niggers around here won't listen to what we tell them,' J ett said to me. 'We're going to have to show them what we mean! What we need is a bunch of guys who aren't scared of anything, who'll stick together and do what we tell them and not say nothing about it.' " , How do you mean? ' I asked him. " 'I mean if some nigger house got blowed up or burnt down, nobody would know anything about it,' Jett answered. DYNAMITE 155 " By that time we had come to a little shack. J ett cut off the lights of the car and told me to keep quiet. We went around to the side ofthe shack where there was an old barrel. It looked like it was full of chicken nests. Jett reached inside and pulled out a handful of dynamite sticks. " Then we went around to the front and knocked on the door. An old man opened it and Jett told him there was something else he wanted. So the old guy brought us about four or five ·45 and .38 pistols. Jett handed them to me and said, ' Take these out to the car and put them in the glove compartment, and be sure to lock it up! ' " When I came back J ett said, ' Waller, you know how to keep your mouth shut-look in here!' He showed me a whole mess of guns and ammunition. At a glance I would say there'was about twenty-five rifles and shotguns. " While we drove back to town Jett said, ' Waller, there is going to be some big money in this for all of us, but we've got to stick together and keep our mouths shut.' " I don't know how you feel about this, Perkins, but it's too much for me-I'm getting out! " Waller finished. " Who was the old codger at the shack? " I asked him. " I don't know his name," Waller said. "He lives way out yonder on Grist Mill Road. He's a well-digger by trade, and only got one arm." That should do it, I thought to myself-and hurried off to Duke with the big news. The next morning I was sitting in the office of Duke's secretary and was looking and listening through a crack in the door when his agents brought the man in. His name was Jess Johnson, he said-but that's all he would say. Duke went to work on him. He talked for a long time, trying to make the old man understand what a bad lot the Columbians were. But Johnson just looked at him. " Mr. Johnson," Duke went on in a friendly tone, "I can't believe a hard-working man like you would be mixed up with the likes ofthese...

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