Khaki Shirts of America
Khaki Shirts of America, also self-identified as U.S. Fascists, was founded in the summer of 1932 by Art J. Smith after the 1932 Bonus March on Washington. The organization's appeal was to the American veterans of the First World War, many were Italian-Americans.
In July 1933 the Khaki Shirts held a meeting at Columbus Hall on Astoria Avenue, in Astoria, Queens, New York. Communists invaded the meeting, the lights went out and communist Antonio Fierro was killed. Art Smith testified before a grand jury that Athos Terzani, an "anti-fascist", was responsible for the killing of his comrade. Terzani was tried for murder but acquitted.
- Raymond Joseph Healy also appeared as a witness to the murder of leftist anti-Mussolini agitator Antonio Fierro (22) in July of 1934. Athos Terzani (31), a Manhattan taxi driver and leftist communist agitator, was acquitted of the crime. Terzani was a close friend of Norman Thomas, perennial Socialist presidential candidate, and active in radical circles. The real target on 14 July 1933, so Healy, had been Arthur John Smith, but a Khaki Shirt, Smith's bodyguard Frank Moffer, grabbed the gun, thereby causing the bullet to strike Fierro. Later it was claimed, Terzani had ripped the weapon from Moffer’s hand and then accidentally shot Fierro while struggling with Moffer
Bodyguard Frank Moffer later confessed to the crime and was sentenced five to ten years in prison for first-degree manslaughter.[1] Art Smith was convicted for giving perjured testimony to a grand jury and was sentenced to 3 to 6 years in Sing Sing prison in New York state.[2] Healy was not indicted, he only testified to what he had heard. The group fell apart after an abortive march on Washington in October 1933.
See also
References
- ↑ Anarchist Voices: an Oral History of Anarchism in America, by Paul Avrich, page 526
- ↑ American Jewish Committee report on Pelley and the Silver Shirts (undated)
