Timeline

May 13: The body of Charles A. Poole, a 32-year-old Works Progress Administration worker, is found in or near a ditch on Gulley Road outside Detroit. 

May 22: The Washington Times reports Detroit Prosecutor Duncan C. McCrea has 11 men in custody in connection to Poole’s murder. Among the men is ‘Colonel’ Harvey Davis – the commander of the local Black Legion group. Also in custody is Dayton Dean, who has already confessed to being the ‘trigger man,’ and explains to authorities the group met the evening before Poole’s murder in the basement of Findlater Temple. Poole’s murder was prompted by a claim Poole was physically violent to his wife, a charge which proved untrue. 

May 26: Four state prison guards are dismissed after it is discovered they are members of the Black Legion.

Police begin an investigation into the death of Paul E. Every in relation to the group.

Circuit Judge James E. Chernot is named to be the ‘one-man grand jury’ for investigating the Black Legion in Wayne County.

May 30: In Jackson, four Black Legion members are charged with assaulting, kidnapping, and flogging a member who refused to attend group meetings.

June 3: Black Legion members are accused of two murders, four floggings, and three house burnings in Jackson County.

State police begin an investigation into the death of a 27-year-old auto factory worker in connection with the Black Legion.

June 4: Seven Detroit city employees are fired after learning they are part of the Black Legion.

June 5: Nine Black Legion members in Ecorse are charged with kidnapping and flogging a member. Among the nine men include a clerk of Dearborn Township, a former Ecorse trustee, and a discharged Ecorse policeman.

Separately, a new case is opened involving the kidnapping and flogging of Robert Penlan in Ecorse, prompting the arrest of nine.

June 9: Six members of the Black Legion are held on a bond of $50,000 each, for the kidnapping and flogging of Penlan.

June 11: Dean, the shooter in the Poole murder, implicates ‘Colonel’ Davis in an alleged plot to kill the village president of Ecorse, William W. Voisine. His home was bombed in August 1935.

June 18: Fifteen Black Legion members are accused of plotting an assisination of Arthur L. Kingsley of Highland Park for opposing a Black Legion candidate running for mayor.

A woman who testified against Black Legion members is “knocked unconscious, bound, gagged and beaten by an unidentified member of the order in her own home,” as reported by the Washington Daily News. Her husband, William Guthrie, is the printer for the Black Legion.

July 21: Dean informs police he and five other Black Legion members shot and killed black World War I veteran, 42-year-old Silas Coleman, May 25, 1935, near Pinckney, just for the ‘thrill.’ Dean also charges ‘Colonel’ Davis headed this plan, just like he did for Poole’s murder. 

August 1: Dean also informs police he and other Black Legion members were responsible for the attempted murder of a black Ford employee of Ecorse in the spring of 1935. After the party couldn’t find their intended target, another black man, they went in search of someone else.

Police begin looking into the death of Voisine campaigner James Balley, who died in a supposed house fire in February 1934. Police suspect the fire was used as a way to cover up evidence of a murder.

September 12: The trial for the murder of Poole begins.

September 26: A ‘Liberty Ball’ is thrown as a charity event for the widows and children of Poole and Coleman.

September 29: After roughly an hour and 30 minutes of jury deliberation, seven men are convicted of first degree murder in the death of Poole, including Davis. Four are convicted of second-degree murder, and one is acquitted. Dean pleaded guilty, and turned State’s Evidence.

October 14: Black Legion robes are found in an abandoned suitcase in Los Angeles.

November 28: Five Black Legion members are charged with the first-degree murder of Coleman after a 7 hour jury deliberation. Three of the men are also serving life sentences for the murder of Poole.