Four-Eight-Four [dot org]

On April 19, 1928, more than 5,000 spectators packed the jail courtyard to see Birger die. Children skipped school to watch him walk to the gallows and up the steps to the trap door, where he shook hands with executioner Phil Hanna.

“They’ve accused me of a lot of things I was never guilty of, but I was guilty of a lot of things of which they never accused me,” media accounts quoted the former cowhand and Army veteran as saying. “So I guess we’re about even.”

Before his head was covered by a black hood - he declined a white one, saying he didn’t want to be confused with the Ku Klux Klan - Birger grinned and said, “It’s a beautiful world.”

So went a colorful character.

Across the hall [inside the museum] is the cell where he watched the gallows being built and, according to Rea, barked out to kids he saw climbing it: “Get off of it, that’s mine.”

Charlie Birger and the rival Shelton Brothers Gang fought for control of the coal fields of Southern Illinois, but their attention was soon diverted by a common enemy. In the 1920s the Ku Klux Klan supported prohibition. Alcohol was viewed as an “unamerican” vice practiced by immigrants, many of whom belonged to the Catholic Church and other religions. Many immigrants worked the coal mines of Southern Illinois, living mainly in very small towns with a strong ethnic identity. Alcohol was a part of their life, and bootlegging came naturally to them.

In the spring of 1923, the Klan began organizing in Williamson County, holding meetings attended by more than 5000 people. The Klan drew its support from both the farming community and people in the larger towns, the latter being mainly of southern origin and followed the Baptist and other traditional protestant faiths.

The Klan soon found a charismatic leader in S. Glenn Young, who was a former federal law enforcement officer. Large mobs began going door to door searching houses for alcohol. If alcohol was found, the occupants were taken to Klan prisons. Federal authorities had apparently deputized the Klan to aid in the enforcement of Prohibition.

Of course … I didn’t hear much about the real origins of the Klan in high school. It wasn’t until I was in college that I discovered that the Klan was originally more of an anti-Reconstruction organization. Of course, things didn’t stay that way for long …

Technorati Tags: history, Charlie Birger, Illinois

At least 65 slayings in 2006 have been classified as Katrina-related, meaning either the victim, suspect or both evacuated to Houston after Katrina. Police have not kept records of how evacuees have affected crime rates other than homicide. The murder rate began to rise at the end of last year, when the city recorded 334 homicides. During the previous 10 years, Houston never exceeded the 316 slayings counted in 1995.

Read More: Houston homicides spike; evacuees cited 

Personally, I was thought that many times the news media crossed the line in their coverage. Several days in a row I saw photos on the front page of web sites (or the paper) depicting members of the Amish community, and they were clearly recognizeable … and even I knew that the Amish don’t want to be photographed.

The Newsweek article delves into some of the decision-making that went on concerning how to cover the event and its aftermath, and it shows that deciding where to draw the line is not the easiest decision to make. Obviously, there is a tension between respecting the desires of a very private, secluded community for continued privacy, especially in a emotional situation like the massacre, and bringing the story to a nation hungry for news.

Consider this quote:

Paul Carpenter, a columnist at the Morning Call in Allentown, Pa., published a piece about the debate he had with his editor, Ardith Hilliard, over whether to print photographs with recognizable Amish faces. Hilliard argued that it was necessary to publish the upclose images it used because they were part of a breaking news story. �These were very gentle people who � are pacifists by belief and had imposed upon them this unspeakable horror,� Hilliard says. �In the process of storytelling, I would�ve found it extremely difficult to tell that story without in some way depicting the human beings that were affected.� Carpenter thought the paper should not have run the photos. �The mainline news media � has contempt for paparazzi and the tabloid approach to journalism,� he says. �But when you think about it, the paparazzi targets celebrities who have sought the spotlight. So which is more intrusive�that, or what we did to the Amish?�

I still wouldn’t have personally published the photos of the faces of Amish men and women, had I been editor.

Fortunately for the news media (and for those of us whose hunger for news drives them), the Amish seem just as willing to forgive those who transgressed against them and bothered them during the few days the tragedy was in the national spotlight. There are some things, it seems, that we all could learn from the Amish. Perhaps they hope that we might learn something, most importantly the value of forgiveness and not holding grudges, from them as a result of the news coverage. I certainly hope we do.

Read more: Amish Massacre Missteps?