Detroit of the 1920s and '30s was a rollicking mishmash of industrial and culture-shock malaise. The Polish and Hungarians imported their witches and superstitions from Europe to salve over the working class struggles, the Italians brought all that plus the Black Hand and black folks had the religious fervor all subjugated groups experience when given the leading hand in their own salvation and demise. From competing Christs to voodoo hexes transported from the Southern homeland.
For Robert Harris it all culminated in himself becoming the King of the Order of Islam (later Nation of Islam). Within that realm he was given the divine right of sacrifice to the Gods.
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| Detroit Free Press, November 21, 1932 (enlarge) |
He chose James J. Smith as the chosen lamb for slaughter. Upon the altar he brought the poor unsuspecting soul--randomly chosen from the throng of human specimens by chance when he was the first person encountered by Harris upon leaving his home at 1429 Dubois Street; though the story was later changed to accommodate the fact that Smith lived with him and supposedly agreed to be sacrificed--quieted him with a car axle and removed his soul from the living sphere with an 8-inch knife to the heart.
The why was almost as simplistically fatalist as the how, as it was determined 1,500 years ago that in the 9th hour of the 20th day he should die and die he did.
Harris's fingerprints were compared to those at the brutal Benny Evangelista family murder scene a few years earlier but proved neither a match or a resolution for the unsolved case.
Harris was eventually linked to leader of the sect Wallace Fard Muhammad--he was then going by the name Wallace Farad--whom eventually was recognized as the founder of the Nation of Islam. While touted as a "negro" (or at least a white-skinned Arab) by his anointed successor Elijah Muhammad and later by Malcolm X, police contend that Farad was actually Wallace Dodd, an New Zealand national born of a Polynesian mother and a British father.
When the Nation of Islam put out a $100,000 reward to prove that Fard wasn't of African heritage, it is said that his wife came forward with documentation before the sect backed down from their previous offer. The Nation of Islam contends this supposition, claiming that the entire Dodd/Farad connection was an FBI hit piece and the evidence supporting it was bogus.
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| The San Francisco Examiner, July 28, 1963 (enlarge) |
I've come across at least two other instances of plots being uncovered to sacrifice more victims but in those cases undercover black police informants or family members came forward to halt the cult's crazed actions.
Included among the proposed victims was a 21-year-old welfare worker who had taken several members off the dole who had other means of income while investigating truancy among the black schoolchildren. It turned out that they were purposely being withdrawn and educated by the cult.
TO BE CONTINUED
FURTHER READING
1931
Warrant Is Asked For Mayor's 'Guest'; Detroit Free Press, November 20, 1931
1932
Voodoo Slayer Admits Plotting Death Of Judges (2); Detroit Free Press, November 22, 1932
Raided Temple Bares Grip Of Voodoo In City (2); Detroit Free Press, November 23, 1932
Negro Leaders Open Fight To Break Voodooism's Grip (2); Detroit Free Press, November 24, 1932
500 Join March To Ask Voodoo Kings' Freedom (2); Detroit Free Press, November 25, 1932
New Human Sacrifice With A Boy As Victim Is Averted By Inquiry (2); Detroit Free Press, November 26, 1932
Evangelist Case Still Is Unsolved; Detroit Free Press, November 27, 1932
Pastors Decry Growth Of Cult Practice Here (2); Detroit Free Press, November 28, 1932
Pontiac Temple Discovered; Detroit Free Press, November 29, 1932
Suburbs Also In Voodoo Net; Detroit Free Press, November 29, 1932
Voodoo Chief Held Unsound; Detroit Free Press, November 30, 1932
Voodoo's Reign Here Is Broken; Detroit Free Press, December 30, 1932
1933
Banished Leader Of Cult Arrested; Detroit Free Press, May 26, 1933
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| Wallace Fard Muhammad and Elijah Muhammad founded and organized the Nation of Islam in the early 1930s in Detroit. A headquarters and school, set up Hasting Street, was raided by police and Detroit schools officials on April 16, 1934. Several members were arrested and held. They were charged with contributing to the deliquency of minors by withdrawing children from the public schools and "teaching subversive doctrines." The next day 500 Nation members marched to police headquarters to see those who were arrested. They were met by Detroit police. --Detroit News |
1937
Death Rituals Revived In City By Voodoo Cult; Detroit Free Press, January 19, 1937
1959
Trouble Is Old Stuff For Secret Cult; Detroit Free Press, August 14, 1959
1963
Black Muslim Fake (2); The San Francisco Examiner, July 28, 1963
1965
Violence, Dissension Hit The Black Muslims; The San Francisco Examiner, February 28, 1965
