Books: Serpents and Vipers

(3 of 3)

> He met American Patriots Inc.—"bitter old dowagers" who gave fat rolls of greenbacks to support a corps of "ushers" for "patriotic" rallies; who "sucked in their breath with horror" at the thought of "13,000,000 Communist niggers turned loose" to rape their daughters.

> He worked for Russell Roberts, who explained his plan for firing rocks from slingshots into the windows of Detroit's Negro section-with disastrous effects on production and racial compatibility.

> George Hornby of Idaho, ex-State Executive Committeeman' of the Disabled American Veterans, taught him a secret code: "I have inside information that the Jewish officers [in the U.S. Army] will kill all the Gentile ones and put Communists in their place. I want you to write me when the plot begins to take shape."

> From Edward James Smythe, Klan and Bund go-between, he learned Smythe's candidates for the "nationalist cabinet" of tomorrow: Secretary of the Treasury, Father Coughlin; Secretary of the Navy, Jacob Thorkelson; Secretary of State, Senator Burton K. Wheeler; Secretary of Public Health & Morals, Representative Clare Hoffman.

> "Pagnanelli" made secret photographs of a passionate lett r written to a friend by Salt Lake City's J. H. McKnight, a Mormon who always wore long flannel underwear in hot weather and had trouble with his spelling: "Oh, how I would love to strike hands with such nobelmen as Father Coughlin, Jearald Winrod, William Dudley Pelley .. . not to say Wheeler, Lindbergh the incomparable, Senator Nye and Walsh, and others too numerous to mention here. Oh, what I would give to be numbered with them, what an honor, what a rare prevelidge. . . ."

Good Fellows, No Brains. In his last interviews with Lawrence Dennis ("my most sensational . . . during my . . . years as investigator"), "Pagnanelli" got the frankest of statements on American fascism's tactics for the future—a statement that he urges the reader to consider well. Said Dennis: "Our only hope from now on is Congress. I've been needling them . .. and I intend to keep on." But it would not, he indicated, be plain sailing, since in his opinion not even the "best" Congressmen and their friends were entirely capable of introducing the New Order. He was specific about it:

1) "Fish has no brains"; 2) Reynolds has "no brains"; 3) Gerald L. K. Smith "is a good fellow, he listens to me"; 4) Nye is "the best of them all in Washington"; 5) "Wheeler is a good fellow, but he can't stand up to Nye"; 6) "Taft is coming along, but he is still old-fashioned"; 7) "Surrounded by a circle of advisers of the nationalist type, Lindbergh would make an excellent nominal leader"; 8) Colonel McCormick-"Dumb. No brains."

* Mrs. Washburn subsequently subsided into a letter-writing state. "On the upper right-hand corner of her last letter was her new . . . address': Cell 217, Women's Division, 200 igth Street, S.E., Washington, D.C. Jail."

* The material for the book was given to FBI and some of it has gone into a LIFE article (Voices of Defeat, April 13, 1942).

Quotes of the Day »

Get & Share
ROBB LEVIN, resident of Fairfax, Virginia, on the $15,000 lawsuit settlement made against Tareq and Michaele Salahi, the White House gate crashers, who are also involved in at least 15 other civil suits
For use in rail of Articles page or Section Fronts pages. Duplicate and change name as necesssary to distinguish.

Time.com on Digg

POWERED BY digg

Quotes of the Day »

Get & Share
ROBB LEVIN, resident of Fairfax, Virginia, on the $15,000 lawsuit settlement made against Tareq and Michaele Salahi, the White House gate crashers, who are also involved in at least 15 other civil suits

Stay Connected with TIME.com