George E. Deatherage
George Edward Deatherage (November 15, 1893 – March 31, 1965) was an American political activist and a promoter of nationalism. A native of Minnesota and an engineer by training, he authored several books on construction.
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He is best remembered for his political activities. He wrote speeches for General George Van Horn Moseley as well as being the founder of a later version of the Knights of the White Camellia and the American Nationalist Confederation.[1] Deatherage testified before the Dies Committee in 1939.[2]
Deatherage was an important player in domestic and international anti-Jewish circles in the 1930s and 1940s, including collaboration with the Welt-Dienst/World-Service propaganda agency headed by German Ulrich Fleischhauer. Both were also defendants in the Great Sedition Trial of 1944.[3] In 1942, the United States Navy declared Deatheredge to be a person “undesirable to have access to the work of the Navy Department” and directed his discharge from employment as chief engineer for private contractors on a $30,000,000 expansion project at the Norfolk Naval Base.[4]
In November 1952, Deatherage was living in Baltimore when he wrote to J. Edgar Hoover alleging ties between Presidents Roosevelt and Truman, referring to Tom Clark as a "Texas pussywillow". He further suggested that Huey Long was assassinated with "Washington" being aware "eleven minutes ahead of time".[5]
References
- Under Cover, p. 140, by John Roy Carlson, (1943)
- https://www.loc.gov/item/2016875694/
- Philip Jenkins, Hoods and Shirts: The Extreme Right in Pennsylvania 1925-1950 (Chapel Hill, NC: University of North Carolina Press, 1997), especially chapter 8: "Fascism and anti-war activism in the United States 1939-45" online at
- https://www.jta.org/1942/02/24/archive/navy-says-deatherage-is-undesirable-person-orders-his-dismissal-from-navy-work
- FBI Subject File 58-HQ-2000: Charles Gioe