MICHAEL DONALD
When a black man was taken to court in 1981 for the murder of a white policeman and released by an undecided jury, the KKK was outraged. They blamed the verdict on the fact that some of the jury were black, and decided to bring about their own justice by killing a black man in return. Henry Hays, the son of one of the most senior Klan officials in Alabama, and his friend James Knowles, searched the streets of Mobile until they found their target – a young black man named Michael Donald. Donald was forced into their car, driven out of the county and murdered.
A half-hearted investigation into the murder by local police came to the conclusion that the murder was the result of a botched drug deal. The case, as far as they were concerned, was then closed. Donald’s mother however, who knew that her son had absolutely no involvement in drugs, called upon Jessie Jackson for help. He came to Mobile and organized a protest march about the injustice served.
The case came to the attention of the assistant United States attorney in Mobile, and he raised his concerns with the FBI. Under FBI investigation, James Knowles confessed to Michael Donald’s murder. He was given life imprisonment. He was also called as chief prosecution witness at Henry Hays’s trial six months later, wherein Hays was was found guilty and given the death penalty for the crime.
Michael Donald’s mother went even further in her pursuit of justice for her son, and for all African Americans. She set out to bring down the Ku Klux Klan in Alabama. She filed a civil suit against the Klan in 1987, which resulted in an all-white jury finding the Klan, as a body, responsible for her son’s death. The Alabama Klan was ordered to pay seven million dollars.
THE KKK TODAY
The KKK is viewed by society as a racist, ignorant, violent and homophobic organization. The name of the KKK is immediately associated with crime. The Klan defends itself by attacking the members of the movement who commit the crimes. They, it claims, are not true members and joined the Klan for the wrong reasons.
However, the fact remains that they are still affiliated to this group. They attack blacks in the street, set fire to black churches, burn crosses in front of their houses and hang nooses above their doors. Media reports frequently describe murders linked to the KKK.
Generally, the name is now symbolic of hatred, racial fanaticism and bigotry. The group is unlikely ever to be able to rise above this status. It has neither the backing of society nor any kind of financial support to push it towards any kind of political credibility.
The Thugs Of India
19th Century cult worshipping Kali – the Goddess of destruction
in 19th century India there was a criminal gang who were called the Thugs. The Thugs were members of Thuggee (tuggee), a religious Indian cult that worshiped Kali.
Kali is the destructive and creative mother goddess of Hinduism. She is seen as the fierce aspect of God’s energy and is fundamental to all of the other Hindu Gods. Kali, the Hindu word for black, is seen as the opposite to Shiva but at the same time Shiva needs her to exist. In certain forms Kali is Shiva’s wife.
The Thugs were mainly found in the Vidarbha region of India, in the Central West, and although they worshiped a Hindu goddess, many cult members were Muslim – all were male. Access to the cult was hereditary and would be passed down from father to son and most of the time the women family members would be ignorant to what went on.
The original mission of the Thugs was to murder and then steal from their victims as sacrifices to their Goddess Kali. The unlucky victim would always be an affluent Indian man travelling for the purpose of business or a celebration such as a wedding. This class choice was because the Thugs believed that the Brahams, who were the top and wealthiest caste in India, were enemies of Kali and therefore had to be exterminated.
The Thugs were a well-oiled machine. They would work in groups of between 20 and 100 and each individual of the group would have a specific role. The ‘lughaees’ would prepare the graves, the ‘sothaees’ would lure travellers and the ‘bhuttotes’ performed the ritualistic murders. Even Thugs who were either too old or infirm to take part in the actual murder would still have a role. They would act as spies and cooks and would find out when a wealthy party were due to pass.
The Thugs also had their own language called ‘Ramasee’ which even members in the remotest parts of India were knowledgeable of.
THE RITUAL OF DEATH
To begin with the Thugs did everything in a ritualistic manner. The ritual would start out with the ‘sothaees’ becoming involved with the group of travellers that they wished to prey on. The Thugs were excellent cooks and it would not take long before they were entertaining the people they wished to murder and mug, with their victims soon becoming off-guard and relaxed in the Thugs’ company.
Once the travellers were enjoying eating, drinking and dancing with the Thugs a code phrase of ‘Bring the Tobacco’ would be uttered. This code meant that it was time to begin the slaughter. Each Thug would move towards a male member of the travelling party and then another coded order would be issued. Each Thug would then pull a long silk scarf, called an ‘arm’, out of their pockets which had a copper coin tied in the middle of it. In a matter of seconds the scarf would be around the victims neck with the copper coin positioned over the neck bone. With one powerful tug the victim would start to suffocate and then have a broken neck due to the pressure of the coin on the bone. Within a few minutes the strangled man would be dead.
The Thugs would then tie up all women and children, take anything of value from the dead men and then dedicate the corpses to Kali. The women and children would be left unharmed. The whole ritual was extremely silent and clean, not a drop of blood was ever spilled. As soon as they put their scarves away they would look no different from the next man who was to pass.
STEALING FROM THE RICH
The Thugs were seen by some as holy people whose destiny it was to follow such a path. They followed the command of Kali, who came to them through a series of omens, or as an inner God and told them to perform the sacrifices in her honour. To murder for monetary gain was a religious duty for them, in which the morality of the act was never thought about. In the eyes of the Thugs they were part of an honourable profession in which doing something for a higher power was of much more importance than the lives of mere mortals.
Over the years the Thugs’ ceremonial acts became slack and it was soon just murder for money in the style of Robin Hood. Although they were still sacrificing the Brahams for Kali, bodies were not buried and could be seen scattered around the Indian countryside.
They went for years performing their murderous operation and due to their tight-knit community and the security of their work they managed to practise their craft well into the 20th Century. They were tax-payers and under the banner of religion it was hard for the governments over the years to do anything about it.
Many Indians, due to the caste system, knew that they were not to fear as they were too poor to be affected, but the Brahams lived in constant fear of attack by this silent group of murderers who disappeared as quickly as they had arrived – without a leaving a trace.
Maybe the Thugs were just as much a group angry about class division as they were about pleasing their Goddess?
In the 1830s the British rulers in India managed to stop a lot of the Thug action that had been going on. A British man called William Sleeman started the witch-hunt which consisted of profiling, detective intelligence and execution.