The Indiana Klan

Hello and welcome to another episode of the William Brannum Historical Research Podcast. I'm your host John Collins, author and founder of William Brannum Historical Research, and with me I have my co-host, researcher, minister, and friend Charles Paisley, the founder of Christian Gospel Church.org. And together we're examining the history and the intersections in history between William Brannum and other key figures that either influenced or were influenced by the post-war war two healing revivals.

Charles, I'm so excited about this episode. I know this one does not have a lot to do with William Brannum from the surface, but we're getting into the fun stuff for me. We're talking about the deep dark secrets of the message that that lied underneath William Brannum in his ministry. And just what was it yesterday?

You gave me a new piece of information that I did not have. I did not know which we're going to talk about later in this episode. But my mind was blown. Yeah John, there's so much stuff that we're going to talk about today. And you know we we know of course everyone knows the message, official message history of everything that happened. But today we definitely want to lay the early part of Brannum's life and the start of his ministry against the backdrop of what was going on in the culture around him at that time. Help some people connect some

dots and lay some framework for definitely some other stuff we're going to talk about later as well. Yeah, I'm just aching to get into this. This is such exciting stuff. Yes, me too. Me too. I know I'm looking forward to it as well. We've got great stuff going on, John. I've did all kinds of refreshing myself on some of the books here in my library. And I've got some interesting little evidences here maybe to hold up. And we can share with people as we go through. I've got even some original documents from the period.

Wow. That's amazing. And you've got some exciting stuff going on just here locally, right? I do. Yes, John. You know, we have we've got the church building now. So that's for news. We're going to process a moving in, getting everything set up. And we will be open by the time this podcast goes live for, you know, anyone in this area who is just looking for some good Christian fellowships, some healthy Christianity. And you know, especially people that are coming from places we know, they're just looking for some support and comfort.

We're definitely there to help with that, John. So I am really excited about that. That's awesome. That'll be a big help to a lot of people. Yeah, so on our agenda today, John, we're talking about the history of the Indiana Ku Klux Klan.

Oh boy. The Indiana Ku Klux Klan. And maybe we should give a little warning to people before we go into this, because there's a part of this that gets pretty dark. It does. And so this podcast might, parts of this might not be appropriate for young children.

Right. So we definitely might want to turn off if you got some kiddos in the car, or listen to it right now. Exactly. And we probably should pause just a minute, because I'm sure somebody who's new to my research or new to the website, et cetera, who are familiar with William Brannum, will look at this podcast in its title and think the Klan.

Well, what does that have to do with William Brannum? William Brannum was a lover of all people, we're told, right? So it's probably good to just take a minute before we get deep into it and just explain that things were not quite as they seemed.

I won't go into full detail, because I don't want to spoil the surprises that are coming in the future podcast, but I will say that there were two main characters who were involved in William Brannum's ministry.

They were fundamental to the creation of what is called the message. And by extension, all of these movements that were built on top of William Brannum's ministry, the latter reign, the, I mean, today, we call it the New Apostolic Reformation, this big umbrella of all of these things, the Kansas City Prophets.

I think we mentioned some of them in our last episode. All of this sits on top of this foundation of William Brannum in his ministry, and yet all of these men who were involved with this have built this platform on top of what we're gonna talk about today.

And interestingly, from my research, I can say truly that some of these men knew this, not all, but some of these men knew this. William Brannum's mentor, the literally the man who started his ministry, Roy E. Davis, was the official spokesperson for the 1915 Ku Klux Klan.

Yeah, it's incredible. It's unbelievable. He was a revivalist, a con man, a grifter, a swindler, so many things I could say about him, we'll save it for another episode. But he toured and held revivals, and some of those revivals where William Brannum was present included the KKK Clud.

And for people who aren't aware of the hierarchy, this is the supreme religious chaplain of the Ku Klux Klan. Basically, the highest ranking religious leader of the... Ku Klux Klan was with Roy Davis and with William Brannum, and Davis's partner in this whole thing and what would eventually become the third wave of the Ku Klux Klan, which we'll talk about again later.

Davis's partner was Congressman William D. Upshaw, who many in William Brannum's cult will be familiar with, Upshaw posed as a wheelchair invalid in one of the meetings, though he had not needed a wheelchair since the early 1900s, and William Brannum raised him out of the wheelchair and he claimed healing, etc.

Well, Upshaw was deeply embedded in the clan. He was William Joseph Simmons' right hand man, basically, and literally the reason why we have the Ku Klux Klan today, because he fought and saved it in Washington.

That's right John, that's right John, these key figures that were the key in launching William Brannum's ministry were clan affiliated, and not just simply clan affiliated, but some of the highest ranking members of the Ku Klux Klan.

Right. And as we'll show as time goes on, it wasn't just that they were with the clan. One of the arguments that a lot of supporters of William Brannum have is quote unquote, guilt by association, that this is just jumping to conclusions, because William Brannum, I mean, I've heard this frequently, well Jesus was with Judas, right?

But there's a key difference here, Jesus did not support, promote, and lift up Judas. Jesus did not continue the ministry of Judas. Jesus was not a secret conspiracy, creating conspiracy to create a third wave of Judas, right?

William Brannum was deeply embedded with these men that we're talking about. You're right John, and the way William Brannum was around these men so much that they influenced his ministry in some key ways.

And I know definitely at a certain point we want to get to talk about Serpent Seed, Christian identity theology, and Brother Brannum actually imported some pretty significant parts of his teaching from these men.

He learned these from these men in the clan. So they didn't simply ordain him and he was around them. They also influenced his ideology, his teachings, and those teachings are carried all the way down to the present day in the message, John.

And I know I've already shared with you, John, I have some of these, they'll, leaders will say this stuff maybe is not there anymore or we're making this up, but we got them on tape, John.

We got them on tape. We have recordings that are not available to the public, the public, which before it's over, we're going to share some of that with people because we're definitely certain that these things are still going on.

under the present day. And all, all, all, let me maybe just tap into my personal knowledge on this, John, I was the assistant pastor of the second oldest message church continuously operating message church in the world. I personally received the white supremacist instructions from the leadership in that church and we'll, we'll definitely get to that and explain all that. So we're not out on a limb at all, John.

No. Right. And the last point that I'll make before we get into today's episode, my grandfather was the pastor at William Brannum's Brannum Tabernacle. And I won't go to deeply right now, but I grew up in a very racist environment. I have family members who would not rent properties to black people. I have family members, high ranking family members who would not eat if being served by a black person in a restaurant. And these are people that everybody knew. I won't go to deeply now. We will be getting into that, but I could go on and on about these stories. And the people in this area have convinced all of the victims

of the cult of the cult personality of William Brannum that all these records were destroyed in the 1937 flood. So I've spent almost a decade, probably over a decade now of researching William Brannum. And one of the one of the last point I'll make the key arguments that is defending William Brannum's association with these dark characters is that William Brannum abandoned this. And whenever he quote unquote received his angelic visitation, he was commissioned by God to become into this faith healing ministry. And prior to that, he had no faith healing ministry. And they used the date 1946, as we'll prove in the

upcoming episodes, William Brannum was mentored by a person who claimed to have the gift of healing. When the revival started in Jeffersonville, prior to the date that William Brannum gives as his ordination, William Brannum was already working with these men, with these clan white supremacists. And they were holding a healing revival in Jeffersonville. And with that, let's get into it. We're going to talk today about the Ku Klux Klan in Indiana, because this is a background to the history for the upcoming episodes that has long since been forgotten.

All right. Great. So I guess John, maybe let me just say I love Indiana history and you know, long before, long before we ever got in touch with each other, I have been a, I will call myself an amateur Indiana historian. I have wrote hundreds, hundreds of articles John on Indiana history and I'm, and ultimately, intimately familiar with with many aspects, even especially this period of time.

And I will interrupt and I will say that it's not amateur. I've read some of those articles. And even though I didn't know it was you, I was I was gleaning facts from your research.

And then we met and I realized, oh my gosh, these articles come from Charles Basley. These are not amateur articles, people. This is the real thing. So and as you can see in my library, you can't see in my background, but actually off here to my side is my actually Indiana section.

So what you see behind me is Brandon. I have an Indiana section over here as well. And so I did pull a few of the books off the shelf here that maybe I'll show at the end that way people can they want to do some reading of their own. But so maybe just as we talk about the Ku Klux Klan in Indiana a little bit, you know, when we, when most people in America think of the Ku Klux Klan, they tend to think of the South, right? They think of Jim Crow, they think of, you know, what happened in the Civil War years. The Southern States trying to suppress the African

Americans. And that's that started and the years after the Civil War, I think about 1867, roughly 65, 67 in there is when the Klan started in the Southern United States. In the same period coming out of the Civil War here in Indiana, the exact same kind of thing happened, but they didn't call themselves the Ku Klux Klan at the time. They called themselves the white caps and it was vigilantes coming out after the, after the American Civil War. And I don't know if you know this John, but the first train robbery in the United States happened in Indiana happened here in your Seymour.

Oh, I didn't know that. That's amazing. Yeah. And so this was the actual first appearance of the white caps in Indiana when this happened. So there was a gang that was terrorizing Southern Indiana. The first outlaw gang in the United States, the Reno gang. So they're terrorizing Southern Indiana. They eventually get caught. They're putting jail down here at New Albany and the white caps appear and they're marching in military formation, their Civil War veterans, obviously all wearing their white hoods. They go to the jail, they lynch these men and then they march back wherever they came from. So this was the start of that vigilanteism in Indiana. And in Indiana, it was never

in those days, it was not really something racially targeted, right? It was always kind of something you might call them morally targeted or vigilanteism. And so that really a lot of it is to do with the fact that there just are not very many people of racial minorities in Indiana, especially back then.

And so as you come up through time, you come up to the early 1900s, we know the KKK revived in the South at that time, right? William Simmons, start of the clan. Again, I think 1915 on Stone Mountain.

And Roy Davis in one of the newspaper says that he was there, he wrote the bylaws, the constitution that he was involved. So he was one of those men. that created the clan. Exactly. Roy Davis was there from the start in 1915, okay? Then shortly after they start the clan, they send a man, his last name was Huffington to Indiana to start a chapter of their branch of the clan here in Indiana. He started in Evansville. And in Evansville, their chapter got pretty good size, but that it more or less just stayed there in Evansville.

Then they, at a certain point, I think about 1918, roughly, they decide to spread through the rest of the state. And so at that point, a man named DC Stevenson, a really important figure here, DC Stevenson replaces Huffington as the leader of the clan in Indiana, reporting back to Simmons in Georgia. Simmons and Roy Davis and that crowd in Georgia. And so they go out, they they tour the whole state. And they find just huge, huge acceptance in Indiana. Because the vigilanteism, like I mentioned, was so widespread. And so it was kind of a natural, hey,

we've already got white hoods. Let's join the clan, right? And this is a fact probably, probably none of our listeners know this fact. The KKK in Indiana was the largest KKK organization in American history. Right. Indiana was by far the largest, most developed, most powerful branch of the KKK ever. Physically and politically, they almost took over Washington. Exactly. They completely took over the state of Indiana. By the time Stevenson, here's just one book I'll reference. It's the clan in Indiana. It's a pretty good book by Leonard Moore. And as time goes on, they quickly get about one third of the white population in Indiana

joins the clan in those years, right? So we're talking, you know, in excess of a million people have joined the clan in those years. It's really just a phenomenal, incredible growth. And they had outreach. They were so the this clan split into factions. And I've read articles where they were recruiting for the Indiana sect of the clan, even in other states. And in other countries, I've found one article, I think as far as Canada, they had an outreach for recruiting members into this philosophy or this sect of the clan. And one point I want to bring up for

listeners who are overseas, who aren't as familiar here, the name clan. And everybody seems to know that these are these men in white hoods. And they they have the misconception that they were only anti black. But this was a domestic terrorist organization. This was not in any way, shape, or form a good thing. If you were to compare it in today's world, it would be to Christianity as al-Qaeda is to Islam. This was an extremist, a militant extremist, version of Christianity from its inception.

Yeah, that spot on, John. They used violence. They used intimidation threats in all means to achieve and implement their agenda. And like you mentioned, John, as they, as they, they were so ubiquitous, they were so common in Indiana. This probably, again, things probably nobody knows.

So in, in Kokomo, Indiana, for example, they had a clan rally, in Kokomo, Indiana, 100,000. I saw that. 100,000 masked clansmen marched in the rally at Kokomo. It was the largest clan rally, you know, I believe ever, John.

It was even bigger than the ones that they held in DC back, back in that period. 100,000. The, the state government was entirely elected by the clan, entirely controlled by the clan, the governor, the general assembly, everything.

And the, the state fair in those days had a clan day, John. And they would have a, have a nighttime cross-burning at the state fair. Right. So, I mean, it, I'm hopefully setting the tone.

This was just everyday life in Indiana during the 1920s. They had a women's branch of the clan. They had a children's branch of the clan. And it, it would be like, you know, kind of like the Boy Scouts.

But it was clan instead. And they had movies that there were clan movie producers that were producing propaganda movies for white supremacy that churches in Indiana were playing in their churches. Right. And, and so my family has lived in Indiana for generations, John.

And my great grandparents were in the clan back then. I mean, and of course you know the rest about me, right? So the, the, there's the, our families were in the clan back then.

It was a widespread thing in the state. It was huge. It was huge. And so one, one thing that people often, maybe in a little slight misnomer about the clan in Indiana. So when, when we think of the clan nowadays, we almost think of them always strictly in, in their racial views, right?

Yeah. Number one, enemy of the clan is racial minorities, right? And usually the misconception, it's just black people. Exactly. And when we look at that historically, certainly in the south, in the south, racial minorities have been enemy number one.

But in the north and the states like Indiana, enemy number one of the clan was not racial minorities. And I think this is perhaps the fact that when I say this, is going to connect some dots for some people who are very familiar with William Brown, it was ministry. Right.

Enemy number one of the clan in Indiana was the Catholic Church. Yep. Enemy number one was Catholics. And that was who was the primary target of the clan in those years. Not to say they weren't also targeting enemy...

number two and three. Right, right. Well, there weren't that many black people in Indiana, right? There wasn't a chance for them to be so much anti-black. Interestingly, I've done deep studies on this and some of it is in my research into my books, but this misconception that it's just anti-black mostly comes from the third wave of the clan, whenever they're lynching black people.

That's the image that people get formed in their mind. But there were a lot of key factors. The idea was that from its inception, there was this notion by white supremacists in Georgia and well, Georgia through Texas.

I mean, this was a big in the South that Protestant, white Christianity was being invaded by Catholicism, by the sudden influx of Jews. There was this, there's a complicated route springing in multiple different directions.

One of the biggest factors right before the 1915 clan was rebirth was a, there was a Jew by the name of Leo Frank who got falsely convicted of murder in one of his factories.

He was a businessman and so the clan was not just anti-black, they were targeting basically anybody who didn't fit the white Protestant mold in America and they called it, quote, true Americanism and which is a point that will keep bringing up throughout the series.

Right, you're spot on, John. I'll just read a sentence or two here out of this book on the Indiana clan. It says, American Catholics were the most frequent targets of the Indiana clan's propaganda and activities, right?

So that's who their number one target was and they were, their main goal through government was passing laws as a number of anti-Catholic laws were proposed by the clan-dominated legislator in Indiana. For the most part, they were targeting shutting down Catholic parochial schools, trying to hinder the expansion of their churches, anything they could to run Catholics out of the state.

That was, that was agenda item number one for the clan in Indiana. And, you know, of course, we're not here defending the Catholic church, John. Certainly, you know, they've got their fair share of problems, right?

But when you know William Brown, I mean, you know his background, his ideology, the things he preached, realizing he was part of a militant anti-Catholic organization is something that is perhaps more comprehensible to people like I hope.

And there was a war, you can find this on my website, you can find some research articles, but the clan published newspaper outside of Indianapolis. And they mentioned a war on the Catholic priest in Jefferson.

So right at home, this war is raging between the Catholics and the clan, and William Brannum himself even mentions which side he took in this war, which we'll again talk about later. Yeah, and you know, a lot of what set this off as Indian, obviously, had been a very low and high.

I could find the page in there. It was almost no racial minorities in the state historically, almost no Catholics in the state historically. But from 1910 to 1920, the Catholic population jumped to about 20% of the state.

And that's part of what was driving this reaction of the clan, was this large influx of Catholic immigrants from Europe that was feeding into some of these tensions that the clan was trying to battle against.

Right. And there were some strange minorities, right? So at the same time that all of this is being formed, you had the Asusus street revival. So you had this influx of Pentecostalism, which initially was accepted because it was just simply, there were a lot of white people in these revivals and whatnot.

But there was one key figure that's of interest in his name is GT Haywood, which I'm sure you're familiar with. Yes, John. Yes. The he was an important oneness Pentecostal leader here in Indiana and even nationally, you know, by the time his ministry was over internationally.

Yes. And and what what Azusa street did Azusa street and the and the revival of the spread from that it broke the rules, John. It started. There was racial mingling going on there. Yeah.

And that white supremacist did not like that. Yes. He did that, right? And so so you have you have in Indiana and United States, you have an element of white society who is egalitarian.

They're happy to you know, they have no problem at all, you know, getting along with their non white neighbors, right? But then you have this other segment that these people join in the clan who hate the fact that their other white neighbors are getting along and going to the same church as the Africans and so forth.

And culturally there's this weird thing in the state of Indiana because again, as Charles has pointed out, this was an Indiana version of the clan. They were more anti Catholic than they were anti black because there weren't that many black people.

They were also, if you think about the sheer number of people in the clan in Indiana, you had people who didn't know they were supposed to be anti black who were in this thing.

They were actually white supremacists in these organizations who were attending GTA Woods Revivals, which is crazy interesting. Yes. And Hayward, I think we said that he was African American and he was... One of the early oneness apostolic leaders, you know, in the mold of

Forget his name the leader of the revival in Azusa Street So he had parham and then you also had I Keep wanting to say William Joseph Simmons, but that's William Seymour's William Seymour's is so hey word was in Seymour's mold And here in Indiana and so yeah, he was very key in spreading the Jesus name Baptism formula. He was very key in spreading the non-Trenitarian view of the Godhead that is very popular in message circles still And to people who grew up in the message and under the propaganda and indoctrination Who were trained falsely to believe that William Branham brought on this or Jesus

Baptism as the original truth it wasn't Branham who did this GT Haywood largely popularized it and his It was popular worldwide because of Haywood long before William Branham even claimed to have been visaged by an angel Right, right this stuff was going on well before William Branham was was here and yeah, and For William Branham had grown up all this stuff already and in a lot of ways existed right you know Just like his Godhead views. There's almost nothing that William Branham preach. So it's actually original I know that I got a library here behind me to prove it

That that was one of the funny things that struck me and it took me years after being after escaping this thing after being under the The influence in mind control to realize that we were taught he had these original truth and not a single one of them What's original not one not one not a single one of not a single one of them John. It's hard to believe man I know I mean I still you've been out a lot longer than me for me It's still a knife in the heart, right? You know how in the world could he did that to us, but he did all right

He did yeah, so as we keep going on maybe we'll come back here to the clan just a little bit more and So is GT Hayward was was doing his stuff he called He what was he had a publication? What was it John called the victim of the flaming sword?

You remember that victim of the flaming sword. I actually did not know this until just I think it was End of last year. I'm working with another Pentecostal historian and He has explained to me the deep roots of racism in the Pentecostal movement Even though he is supportive of the Pentecostal movement But he found my research and we started collaborating and yeah, it's it's really a big deal that what's going on behind the scenes of all of these men Yeah, it's crazy and There there seems to be this attempt at this point in Pentecostalism in Indiana.

It's a attempt to segregate black and white Pentecostalism, right? There's a little bit of kickback against the racial mixing. J.T. keywords involved in it. And we know Davis in the 20s starts a group with Simmons called the Knights of the Flaming Sword.

And again, you wonder, is this related to Haywords victim of the flaming sword, right? Because the names are so similar in the things these things happen at the same time. Yeah, that's basically where this led.

When I started, I'd actually not heard of G.T. Haywood until I started working with this historian. He started explaining to me that he is the reason why when this Pentecostalism existed. And when I started looking through, I saw the victim of the flaming sword and already knew about the Knights of the Flaming Sword.

This was an even worst terroristic organization that they actually disbanded themselves because they became so militant people were dying. They were shooting each other, basically. And that was going on here in Indiana. That was going on, actually started in Chattanooga.

But if you look at what happened, if you look at the timeline and piece it together, G.T. Haywood published Victim of the Flaming Sword. It become widely popular. His interracial, desegregated revivals were quickly spreading.

He was creating a movement in the United States. White supremacists can't have this. So they, especially in the South. So they rose up, created the Knights of the Flaming Sword, which appears to be a response to it.

And then if you look at what happened historically, Davis starts moving his way towards Indiana. So there appears to be a significant connection. Right, I think you're spot on, John. There's definitely some reaction going on among the clansmen to what G.T. Hayward was doing in that period of time, John.

And so as these things are swirling, in the 1920s, William Brannum is growing up in Indiana. Teenager, he's in his teenage years at that point.

Something happens in the clan in here in Indiana. So Indiana, the biggest clan organization, the leader of the clan in Indiana, is probably the most powerful clan figure in the United States, perhaps other than the imperial wizard himself.

There was a man named DC Stevenson. We already talked about him. Came out of Evansville, became grand dragon of the state. And what happens is in the year 1925, he gets into trouble here in Indiana with the law.

And I've got one of them, maybe the first pictures that I will share here, John. Just a newspaper clipping and a picture of DC Stevenson in a woman named Madge Overberg. And what happened was DC Stevenson, He raped, murdered, and the way the newspapers described it, is it appeared she had been chewed on like a cannibal, had chewed on her, right?

And Stevenson had chewed on this woman like a cannibal, and then he killed her after he raped her. And she wasn't the only sexual victim from what I read in the newspapers. No, she was the point at which he got caught.

So the clan in Indiana is led by a rapist, murderous cannibal, right? Okay. Boy, that's pretty dark, isn't it, John? Pretty bad. And this is national news when this breaks, John, this is front page news, coast to coast.

The leader of the clan in Indiana is arrested. He has raped, murdered, and chewed on a woman until she died. And this, I mean, that's awful. And so this is happening also right here in Indiana, why William Brannum is a teenager.

And this actually is so scandalous, so awful that this actually starts the national decline of the clan, right? Yeah. The exposure, he started naming names because he was going to prison. Exactly, exactly. So once this happened, the clan membership in Indiana collapsed, 99% of the clan members exited the clan as soon as that happened, it just dropped away to a drop in the bucket from what it used to be.

And once he was in clan, he started calling in favors, governor, Edwards, I got you elected, I want you to pardon me, right? So he starts calling in these favors and they won't honor him, they won't pardon him, right?

And so then from prison, he starts threatening, I'm going to start outing all the clan members, all the clan leaders, and start selling all the clan secrets to the newspapers from prison, right? And that's what he starts to do in jail once he's arrested.

And as he does that, that takes a terrible toll on the clan here in Indiana and nationally, the clan goes into steep decline as you come into the year 1927. That's when he started selling the secrets until rat and everyone else was in 27.

So 1925, he's arrested, 1927, he goes to prison, starts rat and everybody else. And to further paint the picture of the scandal, it's not just that the leader was corrupt and the leader fell.

When he started naming names, it became obvious and apparent that they were bullying by force and violence, people into positions, and it wasn't just that they planted clan people into political offices. They planted non-cland people into political offices, but either blackmailed them or had information or bullied them or threatened their families.

When this thing was fully exposed at the time that William Brannum was being molded into what he would later become, this was the most villainous, scandalous, terroristic organization in the United States by far the most.

That's right. If somebody wants to get a book and read the kind of specific things of DC Steven, here's a great book, Grand Ragan, it's on the life of DC Stevenson, Chronicles, his misadventures and his ultimate being caught for just these horrendous things that he was doing while leader of the clan.

And back to the guilt by association claim, if you look at this exact scenario in William Brannum being in this environment, it would be the similar, not even close, actually, it would be you've got the choice of choosing Jesus or Judas.

Well, instead of choosing Judas, he chose far, far worse than Judas could have been. I mean, we're talking about the most filed form of evil in the United States at that time. Exactly, John.

You're spot on. And here's where we will maybe kind of pause talking about the clan and start asking the questions, what was William Brannum doing while all this stuff was going on? Where was he according to his life story testimony quotes he made and where does he fit into this picture?

And the first thing we know, so 1925 is the year that Stevenson does these terrible things and gets arrested. So that's about a year and a half after they've paid William Brannum's hospital bill.

Right. So in 1923, they've paid William Brannum's hospital bill. And remember, several years later, Brannum says, quote, I can never forget them, see, no matter what they do or what, there's still something that stays with me, you know.

They still have a special place in his heart. They have a special place in my heart, okay. Since people who kill anybody who's against them, who are doing just completely unethical and illegal things, they have a special place in his heart.

Right. Special place in his heart. And this happened, you know, within a year and a half, national news right here in Indiana, right where William Brannum was, their leader raped, cannibalized, murdered a woman, right?

And then Brannum says, no matter what they do, you know, I'm still going to like them and stick with them. And so, and so something happens there, 1925, 1927, okay. Everybody, 99% of the people drop out of the clan in Indiana as you come through that period of time.

But William Brannum stayed connected to the clan. So maybe we could say he maybe didn't realize what he was in up to that point, right? Like I'm sure we could make that argument. One of the critical facts that I did not have and you recently, I think within the last three weeks, gave me this one, is that DC Stevens, see the clan split in the early 1920s.

After there was a lot of people who were getting lynched, a lot of black people getting killed and the clan had taken over governments. It wasn't just Indiana. And whenever they became exposed, there was a New York World article that exposed the clan as being a domestic terrorist organization.

There was a congressional inquiry into the clan and William Joseph Simmons, the founder and William D. Uppshaw, Congressman William D. Uppshaw, who's affiliated with Brandon's ministry, went to defend the clan. Simmons is ousted in the clan split and there was a division.

And you basically had, at this point, two different sex of the clan, which later became many more. But one of the facts that you gave me is that DC Stevenson and Roy E. Davis, William Brandon's mentor, were on the same side of that split.

Exactly, you're spot on, John. When the clan split, the Indiana clan and its leadership went with the Roy Davis, William Simmons faction, right? Yes. And here on Evans, who led the alternate faction,

he actually ousted Stevenson. He tempted to oust Stevenson as leader in here in Indiana. And that's what triggered his separation and realignment back with Joseph Simmons and Roy Davis. Yeah. So they're in the same faction of the clan as William Brandon.

Yeah, very, very incredible. And so again, just for our, just to remind our listeners, so the 1923, the clan pays William Brandon's hospital bills.

1925, Stevenson is arrested for rape murder and cannibalizing a woman. And then two years after that, 1927 is when Stevenson starts outing people to the news from jail. 1927 is the year that William Brandon disappears as well, right?

Okay? Yes. What a coincidence. Yes, so 1927 is the year that William Brandon goes to, in his life story, he went to Arizona for, for some time. How long he was there? Did he even go?

It's still kind of an open question. You know, we have maybe some evidence to suggest perhaps he went. We have other evidence to suggest perhaps he didn't. It's not conclusive at this point, but, right.

Whatever the case, we'll, Brownham disappears at the same time that DC Stevenson is burning the Klan organization down to the ground out of revenge for him not being pardoned for his crimes. It also formed this void, if you will.

There was a time in which Indiana Klan was the largest Klan organization in the nation, and then DC Stevenson fell, the Klan imploded, and then there's this void which creates an opportunity for somebody to come in and take over.

Exactly. And who better to take over than someone from Stevenson's faction who can come in and use the same network that Stevenson built, right? Absolutely. Yep. And so, 1927, Stevenson's in jail, outing people, the Klan's falling apart, two years later, 1929, who arrives in town, John.

Roy E. Davis, and his brothers, and his brothers start coming to town. It's unbelievable. Yeah. They show up from a Klan central, down south. They come up here to Indiana, and we'll get more into what all he was doing.

But at the time, he was trying to found a new, he had started founding a new white supremacist organization in Tennessee, right? And he's also, simultaneously, with the Imperial Club, the national chaplain of the Klan, is also starting a new religious denomination, right, John?

Yes. And he's opening up branches of these denominational churches as he comes up through this area, and he lands in Jeffersonville, and they open a new church here in 1929. Yes. It should be pointed out, as you've found recently, and I was very excited to learn.

He was outstead. Roy Davis was outstead from the Baptist Church. He was in a missionary branch of the Baptist Church, and the missionary board ousted him. And what was it, August of 1926, I think, right?

That's right. And when he came, he actually didn't land in Jeffersonville first. He landed in Louisville first. And you can find on my website on the Roy Davis page, there are newspaper articles where there are ministers who are explicitly telling the warning the public that this person who's in the, quote, Pentecostal Baptist Church of God is not a Baptist, even though it has Baptist in the name, he is not a Baptist.

So for our listeners, John, I just want to share just a few very introductory things about Roy Davis. I have here a, this is an original Voice of Healing magazine, John, from 1950, and this is it.

So these are very rare. These are very rare. John, John. Let's go over right there. Yes. And I have on my. of a complete collection, John. So, and if you would like to know where these are, this came from a family that used to attend the brand of tabernacle.

And when they, the lady who owned this collection passed away, her family gave the collection to me. And so these people were at the tabernacle, you know, John. So this is straight from where these are from.

Anyways, in this 1950 edition, there is, and you can put a better picture for the people, this article talking about William Brannum's first pastor, Roy Davis, the man we're talking about. And we got his photograph here.

I'm so glad, John. I'm so glad they put his photograph in here. I know, because I linked it all together. If not for that, thank you, William Brannum. Right, if not for that, we could not have tied him to the imperial wizard of the Google's plans.

So here he is, okay. And now here is the same man in a newspaper article. Where he is being interviewed is the imperial wizard of the Ku Klux Klan, John. And when one thing I want to point out with that article, the title is the clan is very small in Texas.

I have to give some background because it was not very small in Texas. They're quoting what he's saying. And they have just gone through, it was a big cross burning, I think, is what started this whole thing.

There was a government inquiry into his sect. And he was trying to say, no, we're not very large. We're this little tiny group. They were, they were very, very large in Texas. And here is another picture of also Roy Davis.

Here he is in full clan uniform as imperial wizard in Shreveport, Louisiana, which is where William Brannum held many of his revivals at, which is also John. To my point, the sect went from all through Texas, all the way into Louisiana, Alabama, and even into Florida.

Right, and now Shreveport, which is also the same place voice of healing is published from. Right, John, there's so much that we're going to get into so much stuff, John, before this is over with.

What an coincidence. Yeah, no coincidence at all, right. But we'll get into that more at another later time. So at any rate, our reader should be able to see very clearly William Brannum was, this man Roy Davis, was the imperial wizard of the clan by the, by the fifties.

And, and this is the same man we can go back and find out was claiming to be second in command of the, of the national KKK in the twenties. And here I've got one other thing I want to read, John, just before we maybe step on just a little more.

This is he questions and answers on Hebrews from October 6th, 1957. And just one little quote, William Brannum is talking about his very first church here. And he says, now it's been said. And I hope my colored friends that's here will excuse this remark.

The first time I met anyone in my life after I'd been conferred, converted, I met brother George DeArc. And them down there, George DeArc was Roy Davis's, assistant pastor at the Jeffersonville Church and he said, as I walk the Lord led me to a little place and they was discussing where the colored man came from and they were saying the colored man was from Cain who married an animal like an eighth.

So without going into too much more racism, racial, very racial things were being taught and Roy Davis is church by William Brandham's own admission, there is no, we know exactly what these things were John that were going on and go ahead I'll add another thing after you do.

Yeah, so we're going to get into the serpent C doctrine much later but I want to point out that quote surprised me because we were taught he brought these original truths and if a prophet from God which he claimed to be brought an original truth that truth would be unwavering because even as William Brandham says God does not change his mind. In that quote he says he basically disagrees with the serpent C doctrine and it wasn't until the little rock nine incident or event in civil rights history you can look up little rock nine on the web and find everything about it.

This was a significant civil rights anti-integration protest by the state of Louisiana. It wasn't until the climax of that event that William Brandham introduced his Christian identity doctrine serpent seed which we'll get into in a later episode exactly exactly and it's certainly up until his mid to late ministry he was still publicly saying he did not believe these things but he did leave these nuggets here to let us know this he had heard and these things were happening all the way back to when he was with Roy Davis in the 1920s and so

and I'll add this on John I think I mentioned to you this before this call I you know I personally have known people who were in Roy Davis's church with William Brandham okay that's significant yes John and we're we'll get more into all these things but we know what we're talking about right like we're not I'm not out on a limb here right because I I I turned my life upside down over this stuff so obviously I didn't do it on a whim I'm just waiting for those interview details to be published and I'm sure our listeners are to the things that you have are amazing

and so as we kind of come back to William Brandham in the 1920s you know there's the question is when did William Brandham start working with Roy Davis you know what year and I just want to kind of work backwards from one more 100% sure back to when it's possible and so we are 100% sure William Brandham was working with Roy Davis from 1929 he was definitely working with them we you know we have newspaper articles putting them together we've got lots of records we're 100% sure they were together in 1929 and it should be point

out that was in Nashville, Tennessee. William Brannum. That shocked me. I learned that a few years ago because on one of our family vacations, we a friend of mine told me to go visit the Nashville Parthenon. I knew nothing about this connection and would never have known had I not visited.

But I walk in here and oh my gosh, this is the place that he's talking about. He says he can't remember where it's at, but he's out there outside of the Parthenon. He describes literally the Parthenon, which I'm standing in front of, you know, and I go back and look at the dates and oh my gosh, Roy Davis's revival at that Parthenon was in 1929 in Nashville. Yes, and let me actually back up in 1928 was that one, John? I believe. Oh, wow. Yeah. You're right. 1928. 20 years further back. So we also think it's incredibly likely just like you said, John, that they were even together

before that. They were together in 1928. It's because we... Yes, because William Brannum, he's out of town in those years, right? And he's describing those revival events. And like you said, we've been able to compare what he says. And we have a pretty good understanding of Roy Davis's

revival, sketchable from those years, right? And William Brannum does seem to be talking that he was at his meetings in 1928, helping him as well. And then there's also a possibility that he was with William with Roy Davis's earliest 1926 and 1927. And we arrive at that by William Brannum claimed to be ordained as a missionary Baptist, right? Right. And so Roy Davis was excommunicated and expelled from the Baptists in 1926. So if Roy Davis really was a missionary Baptist when he ordained William Brannum, that would have to put him together at least from 1926. So from there,

we have 1926, 1927, 1928, 1929 that William Brannum in those years somewhere in there, William Brannum has started definitely working with Davis. The exact circumstances of how it came about, you know, we're not 100% sure. But somewhere in there by the end of it, William Brannum is touring on campaign or revivals with the future imperial wizard of the Ku Klux Klan, the former second and command of the Ku Klux Klan. While he's building his sect. Exactly. While he's founding his new denomination being sponsored by the imperial club, the imperial chaplain, the national chaplain of the Klan. And again, the Klan was a religious institution. It was built on

the premise of religion and the fact that they're together, you know, we're going to get much deeper into this as we go. But there are a lot of our listeners who are just fascinated who actually are not interested in religion at all But they're more interested in this clan connection all the conspiracy behind where we're headed with this And a lot of these people like myself are interested in watching these documentaries on criminal minds and how they work And these listeners know some of our our former message or current message listeners may not know this but

Pathological liars are almost all the same They're the way in which you identify the truth behind a pathological liar statements Is you try to find the thread of truth that they wrap all of the lies around The only way that they can keep their stories straight is to put hints of truth and these are like your beacons in this sea of Darkness right and as we're as we're going to prove as time goes on in this podcast episode William Brannum was a pathological liar The things that he said are not true where we have so at this point we have

thousands of points of evidence of this But one of the elements that he gives That stays consistent the way in which you study a pathological liar see what is consistent over time That's your truth marker and then take all the things that change that's your fiction And then you try to find okay, why is he doing the fiction The marker in this case is he says missionary Baptist Church And he often gives the year 1933 is the beginning of his ministry But as we'll show his time goes on Roy Davis was out of the Baptist Church in 1926

And when he came to Jeffersonville it was a new sect. It was not the missionary Baptist Church But William Brannum consistently said Baptist and in one point he even says It's a part of the Southern Baptist Convention which fully identifies what Davis was prior to 1926 So this means that the dates that he's giving is wrong the The fiction we we now understand what is the fiction so now we want to know is what is the truth Why is he working with Davis during those years but more more to the point for the conspiracy theorists

The interesting thing is why do you lie to cover up your past and that's where we're going to get into some fascinating stuff Right, right John and that that really is the thing you know as we As our as our listeners Start maybe to have it sink in that William Brannum was doing some stuff that Was not all on the up and up during these years He was involved pretty closely with some very shady characters It starts to make sense to them why he started to reinvent his life story In later years, right because some of these figures are going to end up in jail at a certain point. Yes

And so William Brown is going to have to do something to change and rewrite some of these stories. So, you know, when I walk away from this episode, John, and just these things we've talked about, there's a lot of facts, but like you said, there's a whole lot of questions, right?

And one question I have, I go back to... This was a huge question for me when I first saw that William Brown was in the clan, John. When I first, you know, realized his clan connection, right?

I shouldn't say in the clan, but his clan connection, right? And how could he, you know, in 1923? Because again, I love Indiana history, and when I heard these things, it just... This don't make sense to me.

How could he, in 1923, the clan pays his bill? You know, a year and a half later, the Imperial Wizard... They're the Imperial, the Grand Dragon... Rape's cannibalizes murders a woman, and then William Brown, I'm saying, nothing they ever do could ever make me stop loving them.

What in the world? Right, so I... Because that happened in the exact same time period... Yes. ...that this hospital bill thing happened that he can never forget. So, apparently, apparently he don't have a problem with this stuff happening, because he says nothing he...

They do is gonna stop him from having a special place in his heart. Mine. Well, so I have that question, and that question plagued me. I continued digging. I don't have the full answer, because we'll never know.

We'll never have that answer. No, we won't, we'll never know. But I do have some additional puzzle pieces that sort of paint the picture that the answer could be. The clan is moving in, they're invading Jeffersonville.

You've got Charles Brannum, William Brannum's father who's producing liquor for the Wathen liquor ring that is supplying Chicago mob. It's not just Chicago mob, they're supplying Cincinnati mob other places too. You've got the Catholic priests who are moving into Jeffersonville.

So the white supremacists are wanting to clean up Jeffersonville. Also at the same time, Jeffersonville is widely known throughout the state of Indiana and the state of Kentucky for its quote-unquote quick marriages. For people who come to Jeffersonville to have sex, but because their convictions wouldn't allow them to do it unmarried, they would quickly get married, have sex, and then go get divorced in Kentucky.

This was a real problem in Jeffersonville. Clan comes in, moves in, cleans up the liquor ring, starts fighting the Catholics, William Brannum gets shot in the middle of this. Now he clearly does not like his father.

His fathers are using him for slave labor to produce the whiskey, and he gets shot. The statements he made are one question, but then shortly after... after getting shot, he buys a brand new vehicle and starts touring the country.

Where this family, if you read the newspaper articles, they were so destitute they had to have the clan pay the hospital bill. They didn't have food to put on the table. They became a charity case in Jeffersonville.

Where does this kid get the money to buy a new car and start touring the country? There is definitely something going on here in these years that William Brannum is hiding, he's covering up and he's rewrote his life story to hide and we have hints, we have bits, we've got clues that start to point to certain things.

We're not somewhere we can draw a conclusion for sure, but we can say John, with total certainty, what William Brannum told us was happening in these years, he was absolutely misleading us, totally misleading us.

And so, as we maybe bring this episode down to an end or close to an end, John, I'm excited for the next episodes. Absolutely, and our listeners too, I mean, I can picture everybody right now, everybody's hearing this, they're gonna be putting on their detective caps because this sets the stage for where we're headed with this and we're going to be giving you enough clues that this mystery can be solved, you can figure out what's going on behind the scenes and you know, William Brannum said some things that were true and good, I'm not gonna lie about that.

He said, sometimes you have to read between the lines, well, look what's going on here and read between the lines. Yep, exactly, John, exactly. That's a very good use of William Brannum's message right there.

The other thing he got right was you are supposed to baptize your pancakes. I'm not gonna lie. That is the way that you eat a pancake. That's a baptized pancake. We've got so much exciting stuff to talk about in the next episode, John, I'm really looking forward to it.

Let me share these books again real quick. DC Stevenson, the Grand Dragon by M. Lowhats and... Great books. Citizen Clansman by Leonard Moore. Must read. The Clan by Patsy Sims. And super interesting, this woman was also, believe it or not, a investigator into the healing revivals.

Can somebody shout a man by Patsy Sims? I was just going to ask if you got that book because that was the biggest surprise for me. I think, and I'm paraphrasing, but she said she attended the revival meetings of William Brannum and noticed that there'd be a clan rally in a city, and then suddenly there's this revival with William Brannum and the same people just seem to be in the place.

Right, she's at both. She don't fully make the... but she notes in her book. She was surprised to see the same groups of people at both events.

Yeah, what a read between the lines. Read between the lines, right? What's going on here? What's going on? Absolutely. And yeah, there we go. It's exciting stuff. I'm getting anxious because the next episode gets even better. If you've enjoyed the show and you want more information, check us out on the web. You can find us at William-Branham.org and Christian-GospelChurch.org. For an overview of the historical research of William Branham and the healing revivals, read preacher behind the white hoods a critical examination of William Branham and his message. It's available on Amazon, Kindle, and Audible. And we have an exciting episode next week. Join us again for more.