2020-07 2 sessions
This lot is closed for bidding. Bidding ended on 7/23/2020
Imprint "Journal of the National Horse Thief Detective Association" 1924, 64pp. octavo, with original blue wraps. Boasting 15,500 members. Great directory information. Fine condition. The NHTDA was as much civic organization as law enforcement agency - largely composed of white, propertied men who were wealthy enough to pay the dues. By 1926 there were still as many as 300 active companies in the region, some of which formed alliances with the second wave of the Ku Klux Klan. It is this late association with the KKK that hastened the end of the organization and tarnished its history. In 1928, the group dropped "Horse Thief" from its name, becoming the National Detective Association, in an attempt to rid itself of the Klan connection. The name change didn't work. By 1933, Indiana lawmakers had repealed all laws that gave the HTDA enforcement powers. All such groups had dissolved by 1957, after horse thievery "had ceased to be a major problem."
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