Tried Under Real Names
“3. On October 31, 1919, ‘Jim Slaton’ and ‘Mrs. Carroll’ were brought into the Recorder’s Court in Atlanta for trial on charges of disorderly conduct. After consultation with Policewoman Davis, who had participated in the raid and arrests, Recorder George E. Johnson ordered the prisoners docketed under their real names of Edward Young Clarke and Mrs. Elizabeth Tyler, and under those names they were tried, found guilty of disorderly conduct and sentenced to pay $5.00 fines or each work twelve days on the streets or other public works of Atlanta. They paid the fines.
“4. Additional charges of possessing whiskey, based on the finding and seizure of such liquor by the police in the Pryor Street resort at the time of the raid, stood against both Clarke and Mrs. Tyler, but were dismissed when J. Q. Jett of Atlanta, the son-in-law of the Mrs. Tyler who is feminine chief of the Ku Klux Klan, came into the Recorder’s Court, claimed ownership of the seized whiskey and was fined $25 by the court.
“5. Clarke, Imperial Kleagle of the Ku Klux Klan, in its drive for $10 ‘one hundred per cent’ Americans, consecrated and baptized to uphold and enforce the law and protect the sanctity of American homes and the chastity of American womanhood, at this moment stands on the public records of the Fulton County (Ga.) courts and the Atlanta City police courts as a man who has deserted and abandoned his wife and child and has not to this day denied these charges.
Testimony Given By Police
“Imperial Kleagle Clarke and Mrs. Tyler were arrested at midnight in their bedclothes in the resort, according to the testimony of the witnesses, Policeman Jameson, since dead, and Policewomen Davis and Voss, still on active duty. The resort was at 185 South Pryor Street, corner of Fair Street, and it was operated by Mrs. Tyler. The raid occurred a few days prior to October 31, 1919, which is the date of the hearing before Recorder Johnson, at which the verdicts of guilty were rendered and sentences imposed. The numbers of the cases of the City of Atlanta versus E. Y. Clarke and the City of Atlanta versus Mrs. Elizabeth Tyler on the Recorder’s docket are 17,005 and 17,006, and the page number of the 1919 docket upon which they are listed is 305.
“Most surprising in view of Clarke’s efforts then in progress to make America dry by collecting funds to help the Anti-Saloon League is the fact that the police found whiskey in the house and seized it.
“But next morning as stated the super-Prohibitionist and the Ku Klux feminist were absolved from the legal responsibility involved in the discovery of liquor on the premises when Jett claimed the whiskey and paid the fine of $25.”
This story created one of the greatest sensations of the whole exposure, and was a blow to the entire propagation department. One Kleagle, A. B. Bate of New Jersey, wired to “Emperor” Simmons demanding the immediate removal of the offending pair. In reply to his telegram he was summarily dismissed as a Kleagle by Mrs. Tyler herself. For a few days chaos reigned in the Ku Klux Kamp. Clarke at first denied the truth of the story of his arrest, then made excuses, and then sent in his resignation to the “Emperor.” Mrs. Tyler issued a statement branding Clarke as a “weak-kneed quitter,” and repudiating him entirely. Simmons, knowing that the pair of professional publicity uplifters had made his organization declined to take any action against either of them, declaring that he had heard rumors of the story, but attached no credence to it.