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The death of James J. Smith occurred on November 20, 1932 when he was bludgeoned to death by Allah Temple of Islam member Robert Karriem as part of what he believed to be an initiation ceremony. The killing led to the technical dissolution of the organization, which was reconstituted under the name Nation of Islam.

Background

Robert Harris

Given the new name "Karriem".

Killing

On November 20, 1932, Robert Harris (who had received the name Robert Karriem from Fard) escorted James J. Smith into a room with a makeshift altar. In the audience were twelve adult witnesses and Harris's wife and children. Smith, who believed he was being inducted into the Allah Temple of Islam, was asked if he would sacrifice his life for Islam, and Smith nodded his assent. Harris then stabbed Smith in the chest, and proceeded to bludgeon him to death with an axle rod.

Arrest

After neighbors called the police, Harris was arrested. Under questioning, he confessed to the murder: "I had to kill somebody, I could not forsake my gods". Police initiated a manhunt for Fard and another leader, Ugan Ali, who were arrested and questioned. Harris was deemed insane and committed to a mental hospital. "The society cannot be blamed for anything he did," Ali was quoted as saying in the Detroit News. Fard and Ugan Ali, who acknowledged leadership of the Allah Temple of Islam but vehemently denied any teaching of human sacrifice, were examined by psychiatrist David Clark, who recommended they be committed for further observation. A judge agreed, and both Fard and Ugan Ali were placed in straitjackets and confined in padded cells.

With Fard and Ugan Ali still in custody five days after the murder, Elijah Muhammad, at the time known as Elijah Karriem, led over two hundred members into the court building and staged a protest on the main floor. The police spent a full day expelling the protesters.

"Semites and Egyptians, Peruvians and Aztecs, the aborigines of Polynesia, Tahiti and Fiji were devotees of , and until recently, thousands of human victims were slain before. the bland, sightless eyes of wooden gods in the demoniac rites of West African savages, from whom Voodoo practices were transferred to West Indian Negroes, and from them to the United States."

On November 25, Harris was arraigned on charges of first-degree murder; he pleaded guilty, but his bizarre courtroom behavior convinced witnesses of his insanity. On December 6, three psychiatrists testified that Harris was legally insane, and he was committed to the Ionia State Hospital for the Criminal Insane; he died there on June 19, 1935. Faced with criminal charges, Ugan Ali was released after promising to help disband the Allah Temple of Islam, while Fard agreed to forever leave Detroit as a condition of release.

"The lustful flame of jungle fanaticism which tortured Harris into murdering Smith, seemed to have died away in him, temporarily at least, Saturday."

References

1. Evanzz 2011, pp. 84–85. sfn error: no target: CITEREFEvanzz2011 (help)
2. Beynon 1938, pp. 903–904 harvnb error: no target: CITEREFBeynon1938 (help)
3. "Coverage Of "The Voodoo Murders" — Mythic Detroit". www.mythicdetroit.org. Retrieved August 10, 2020.
4. ^ Evanzz 2011, pp. 84–92. sfn error: no target: CITEREFEvanzz2011 (help)
5. https://www.newspapers.com/article/detroit-free-press-voodoo-cult-history-i/96484167/
6. "Voodoo's Reign Here Is Broken". Detroit Free Press. December 7, 1932. p. 7. Retrieved August 10, 2023 – via newspapers.com.

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