KKK - The great pyramid scam Known for their white sheets and thick racism the KKK had a huge surge in membership in the 1920s and a lot of this was down to the hard sell. In 1920 a PR firm, whose clients included the Salvation Army, came to an arrangement with the KKK founder (well refounder - this was the second incarnation kicked into life by the Film Birth of a Nation which glorified the first KKK) and self styled Imperial Wizard, Rev William Simmons. They broke the country into regions each with a head salesman, called (I kid you not) Grand Goblins. These ran groups of salesmen on commission to recruit members. Each $10 dollar joining fee was split - the salesmen got $4, the Grand Goblins (yes it really is like the Wizard of Oz - have a look for pictures of their marches in the 1920's, it's a bunch of badly dressed fancy dress wizards walking down the street) got $1.50, the PR firm $2.50 and Simmons $2. As well as the joining fee the KKK actually made the white sheets in their own factory and sold them at more than 3x the price to members. Simmons also used the KKK to sell life insurance to the members. After a few years, despite raking in millions of dollars, with so much fiddling going on the business was nearly bankrupt. Simmons sold the business on to a new group in charge under Hiram Evans who, as well as continuing all the above (including the life insurance), also introduced a tax on each member. Running it into the ground, with people not renewing their membership and the loss of political clout the money had brought, he sold the failing business onto James Colescott in 1939 Eventually, in 1944 the tax man caught up with them and with a $700,000 tax bill, the sales schemes folded and the KKK was disbanded. This article came from issue 7 of Now or Never To get a copy of issue 7 check out the Shop
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