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The 1922 Ku Klux Klan Inglewood raid | South Bay History
In April 1922, area Klansmen got wind of a bootleg operation in Inglewood being run by Basque immigrants Fidel and Angela Elduayen. The illegal liquor they had sold from their Pine Avenue home allegedly had sickened one man and caused the death of another.
On April 21, a Klan meeting was held at the Inglewood funeral home owned by H.B. Beaver. Nathan A. Baker, the Kleagle, or chief recruiting officer, of the local chapter led the meeting, which involved the planning of a raid the next night on the Elduayen house.
On April 22 at around 11:30 p.m., a band of about 200 men descended on the Elduayens, whose number included Fidel and Angela, their two teenage daughters, Mary and Bernarda, and Fidel’s brother, Mathias.
News accounts of the actual raid vary, but most say that the Klan members blocked off surrounding streets before the Elduayens were threatened, bound, and beaten up and the house’s furnishings smashed and destroyed. The arrival of so many hooded Klansmen and the subsequent tumult caused enough of a neighborhood disturbance for Inglewood police to be summoned.
Inglewood city marshal Frank Woerner arrived at the scene on a motorcycle driven by 19-year-old volunteer Clyde Vannatta. According to Vannatta’s later account, Woerner was challenged immediately by hooded Klansmen.
Words were exchanged with one of the Klan members along the lines of “I’m a policeman,” with a hooded man responding to the effect that, well, he was, also. Shots were fired, and when the dust cleared, Inglewood city constable Medord B. Mosher was discovered to be the Klansman in question. He died, and two other Klansman were injured in the shooting.
In April 1922, area Klansmen got wind of a bootleg operation in Inglewood being run by Basque immigrants Fidel and Angela Elduayen. The illegal liquor they had sold from their Pine Avenue home allegedly had sickened one man and caused the death of another.
On April 21, a Klan meeting was held at the Inglewood funeral home owned by H.B. Beaver. Nathan A. Baker, the Kleagle, or chief recruiting officer, of the local chapter led the meeting, which involved the planning of a raid the next night on the Elduayen house.
On April 22 at around 11:30 p.m., a band of about 200 men descended on the Elduayens, whose number included Fidel and Angela, their two teenage daughters, Mary and Bernarda, and Fidel’s brother, Mathias.
News accounts of the actual raid vary, but most say that the Klan members blocked off surrounding streets before the Elduayens were threatened, bound, and beaten up and the house’s furnishings smashed and destroyed. The arrival of so many hooded Klansmen and the subsequent tumult caused enough of a neighborhood disturbance for Inglewood police to be summoned.
Inglewood city marshal Frank Woerner arrived at the scene on a motorcycle driven by 19-year-old volunteer Clyde Vannatta. According to Vannatta’s later account, Woerner was challenged immediately by hooded Klansmen.
Words were exchanged with one of the Klan members along the lines of “I’m a policeman,” with a hooded man responding to the effect that, well, he was, also. Shots were fired, and when the dust cleared, Inglewood city constable Medord B. Mosher was discovered to be the Klansman in question. He died, and two other Klansman were injured in the shooting.
