Waubonsee Community College

Freedom's detective, the Secret Service, the Ku Klux Klan and the man who masterminded America's first war on terror, Charles Lane

eng

Includes bibliographical references and index

individual biography

illustrations

index present

non fiction

Freedom's detective

bibliography

1091189008

Charles Lane

the Secret Service, the Ku Klux Klan and the man who masterminded America's first war on terror

Chronicles the story of the Reconstruction-era Secret Service and its battle against the KKK's effort to suppress the emancipated African-American vote, sharing particular insights into the career of controversial Secret Service chief, Hiram C. Whitley. In the years following the Civil War, a new battle began. Newly freed African American men had gained their voting rights and would soon have a chance to transform Southern politics. Former Confederates and other white supremacists mobilized to stop them. Thus, the KKK was born. After the first political assassination carried out by the Klan, Washington power brokers looked for help in breaking the growing movement. They found it in Hiram C. Whitley. He became head of the Secret Service, which had previously focused on catching counterfeiters and was at the time the government's only intelligence organization. Whitley and his agents led the covert war against the nascent KKK and were the first to use undercover work in mass crime--what we now call terrorism--investigations. Like many spymasters before and since, Whitley also had a dark side. His penchant for skulduggery and dirty tricks ultimately led to his involvement in a conspiracy that would bring an end to his career and transform the Secret Service. Populated by intriguing historical characters--from President Grant to brave Southerners, both black and white, who stood up to the Klan--and told in a brisk narrative style, Freedom's Detective reveals the story of this complex hero and his central role in a long-lost chapter of American historyIn the years following the Civil War, newly freed African American men had gained their voting rights and would soon have a chance to transform Southern politics. Former Confederates and other white supremacists created the KKK to stop them. After the first political assassination carried out by the Klan, Washington power brokers looked for help in breaking the growing movement. Lane chronicles the story of the Reconstruction-era Secret Service, and its controversial chief, Hiram C. Whitley. They were the first group to use undercover work in mass crime investigations. But like many spymasters before and since, Whitley's penchant for skulduggery brought an end to his career, and transformed the Secret Service. -- adapted from jacket

Prologue: Patrick County, Virginia, 1869 -- "Something terrible floats on the breeze." -- "You will all be blown to hell in short order." -- "He has worked his way through the labyrinth of lies." -- "A powerful instrument for good or evil." -- "The government secret agents were everywhere upon their track." -- "I am radically opposed to any organized system of espionage." -- "Suspicions come from Heaven."