The Investigation of a Murder in Detroit

On May 13, 1936, the body of Charles Poole was found in a pasture on Detroit s West Side. A neighbour said he had heard several shots just before midnight on May 12. A number of cigarette butts and several empty shells from a 38 revolver were found near the corpse. Poole's co-worker told inspector Navarre that he had been with Poole the night of his death, drinking with several friends, including a man named Eugene Sherman, at some West Side bars. When Sherman was brought in for questioning he told police that he had gone to Poole’s home that night, and that a man came over to invite Poole to join the Timken Axle Company baseball team later that night. Poole left for the meeting and was never seen again.

The detectives told Becky Poole her husband was dead at the hospital: she had just given birth to a daughter. Detectives Mechan and Havrill worked on the investigation, when a call came in from Poole's friend Sherman, who had just seen one of the men who had been looking for Poole the night of his death. Detectives rushed to the Fort Street location and picked up Marvey Davis and brought him in for questioning. Davis admitted knowing Marcia Rushing, Becky Poole's sister and her husband, Owen Rushing. Havrill interviewed the couple again, and Marcia Rushing began sobbing uncontrollably, saying: "We can't tell you! You don't know those people! They kill people. They carry guns, and there are thousands and thousands of them - like the Ku Klux Klan - only bigger and more awful". Owen's brother, Lowell Rushing was one of them. Havrill and Mechan brought Lowell to Davis, who claimed never to have seen him before. But when Mechan asked Davis, "What about your organization?", David fell for the trap and said, "I can't tell you". With a list of names, the detectives began to round up members, including Erwin Lee and John Banner-man, discovering black jacks, 38 revolvers, and robes of black satin trimmed with skull and crossbones in their homes.

The most crucial suspect they turned up was Dayton Dean who was the only one who braves enough to talk. He told the story of the Black Legionnares, a secret "patriotic" organization of white, native-born, Protestant Americans sworn to defending the laws, according to their interpretation of decency, especially regarding womanhood. At a meeting of the wolverine Republican League, a pseudonym for the Black Legion, was called, the organization charged Charlie Poole with mistreating his wife. After wearing down uninitiated members who left after endless hours of speeches and business meetings, the Black Legionnaires locked the doors and swore to kill the man they said had not only beat his wife, but killed his own unborn child in the process. Several men were dispatched to find their prey, while others put together rope, ceremonial gear, and instruments to punish Poole. Facing a group of seven men with ropes and guns, Poole professed his innocence, but was shot down. Learning that Poole was actually an upright family man, Dean regretted his mistake, adding, "But I was just following orders from my superiors".

The Black Legion case remained in the press for some time as reports of vicious vigilante killings and beating continued to grow. Dean unveiled a twisted conspiracy of a group similar to the klan, to which he had belonged in 1922, rising to the station of caption. He joined the Black Legionnaires in 1933, attending his first meeting in a small town north of Detroit. With secret rifles of "Black Knights" signing death and head agreements in Blood, vowing to use, extra-legal methods to preserve the white race and keep it strong, and members received.38 caliber cartridges with the warning that they would be killed if they ever broke their oaths. Davis testified to a plot to take over the government which involved planting typhoid germs in milk supplies to create a national emergency during which the Black Legionnaires would seize government arsenals, power plants and buildings. Dean explained how, as death squad leader, he had been assigned to assassinate Mayor William Voisine of Encorse. Voisine was charged by the organization for hiring blacks for civic jobs. When an at­tempt to bomb Voisine's home failed the frustrated Legionnaires murdered Silas Coleman "to see what it was like", Davis explained. Coleman was picked up by Davis, who promised him that he would be taken to a contractor's to collect some black wages owed to him. Davis instead took the black man to a swamp, ordering him out of the car with the words "okay, nigger, start running", while a hunting party chased him through the swamps and murdered him.

At least 50 deaths were attributed to the Black Legion. Dean's testimony helped convict twelve killers. He was sentenced to a term of life in prison. And the Black Legion disappeared.