From the editorial page of the Rockingham Post-Dispatch, Richmond County, September 7, 1922
One night last week Detective Tom Crabtree of the Raleigh
police force was shot down by a young white drunk, Charles Kluttz, who after
shooting once, jumped from his car and shot him again, then drove a heavy
Cadillac car over the body of the fallen officer. Crabtree died in the hospital
Saturday, and such was the crowd that desired to attend his funeral that it had
to be held in the huge city auditorium Sunday, 3,000 people attending.
At the
grave four white robed K.K.K. men placed a floral design on the grave, the
three capital letters emblazoned in red flowers on a background of white roses.
Scarcely had the officer died before a subscription was circulated over Raleigh
with the idea of raising $5,000 as a trust fund for his needy wife and
children.
The detective was in the discharge of his duty, and was shot
down by a drunken bully without a chance of protecting himself. His death,
however, will serve to awaken the Raleigh citizens to the necessity of a more
strict law enforcement—and it is but an object lesson to the people of ALL the
State to be vigilant in this respect, and wage an energetic campaign to stamp
out the liquor traffic.
Rockingham and Richmond county are doing this very
thing now and our people must stick behind the officers and let the blind tiger
and whiskey manufacturing element thoroughly understand that this kind of
business must stop!
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