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| Date | November 20, 1932 (1932-11-20) |
|---|---|
| Time | Noon |
| Location | 1429 DuBois Street, Detroit |
| Also known as | Detroit Voodoo Murder |
| Perpetrator | Robert Harris aka Robert Karriem |
| Arrests | Robert and Bertha Harris, Ugan Ali, and W.D. Fard |
| Sentence | Robert Harris committed to state hospital |
The killing of James J. Smith occurred on November 20, 1932 when he was bludgeoned to death by Allah Temple of Islam member Robert Harris. The killing led to the technical dissolution of the organization, which was reconstituted under the name Nation of Islam.
Background
Robert Harris was born on August 3, 1888, to parents Alec and Lulu in Mississippi. In July 3, 1929, he moved to Detroit, Michigan. He married a wife, Bertha.
In 1930, a man named W.D. Fard came to Detroit, ultimately founding a group called the Allah Temple of Islam. Among Fard's practices was to give new, Islamic names to members, replacing their inherited 'slave names'. Robert Harris was given the new surname "Karriem".
Killing
Around 9 a.m. 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 his (Harris's) home at 1429 DuBois Street. Robert Harris was described as a large 44 year old negro who had moved from Tennessee to Detroit on July 3, 1929. Smith, 40, was described as a negro. 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.
Smith's body was found on the altar, stabbed through the chest with an 8 inch knife. A "cheap magazine" was open to a story about "mysticism of the desert", with the underlined phrase "The believer must be stabbed through the heart".
Arrest
After neighbors reported the crime and named Harris as a likely suspect, Harris and wife Bertha (35) were arrested at 2729 Clinton street. In custody, Harris admitted to the slayings. Harris told police: "I had to kill somebody, I could not forsake my gods". Harris reportedly told police "The ninth nour of the twentieth day had come Sunday. It was predestined 1,500 years ago that at that hour I must make a human sacrifice to my gods. It must not be a member of the Order of Islam."
Press on November 21 reported Harris wws the self-described "King" of a 100-member cult. Police initially suspected Harris might be tied to the 1929 slaying of Benny Evangelista, whom press called a cult leader. Press ran a second story on the practice of Voodoo.
On November 22, press included picture of the "Voodoo house" where the slaying had occcurred. Picture of Voodoo house Photo of Harris It was revealed that Harris had taken on the name "Karriem", referring to "Harris" as his 'slave name'. His son has likewise been renamed Hasabas. Hasabas, age 12, and daugher Ruby, 9, had been forced to witness the ritual. Press reported: "With an insane light in his eyes, he admitted that he had planned to seek out and kill Judges Edward J. Jeffries and Arthur E Gordon for the purpose of propitiating jungle gods." Harris also reported wanting to kill a 21 year old social worker who had cut him from welfare rolls. Harris was compared to the Ahfed Abdullah, formerly James Moaning, described as psychopathic, who had gained entrance to the Mayor's home in the delusional belief that the Mayor was responsible for the government of Haiti.
On November 23, press discussed police access to a temple on Hasting Street using a secret password, their sraid on the temple, and their arrest of leader Ugan Ali, described as 'God of the Asiatics', after he admitted to having taught Harris.
November 24,
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."
Sanity commission
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. Judge John P. Scallen appointed three psychiatrists Overflow crowd pic Harris was described as throwing furniture at other prisoners.
Papers described Harris's confinement in a padded cell of the County Jail, writing "The lustful flame of jungle fanaticism which tortured Harris into murdering Smith, seemed to have died away in him, temporarily at least, Saturday ." On November 28, "Negro leaders" in Detroit publicly voiced opposition to the "cult". By November 29, police had seized ATI literature including a registry of 8,000 members.
On November 30, papers reported that Ugan Ali was likely insane, per paper, while Wallace Farad was reported as "not driven into his sinister teaching through insanity". On December 1, papers announce that the roster of ATI members had been conveyed to the Welfare Departments; Recipeents were to be banned from welfare if they retained their membership. On December 6, the 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. On December 6, 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.
Aftermath
In the state hospital, Harris was diagnosed with dementia praecox. He died there on June 19, 1935 of "mitral insufficiency and decompensation". His body was transferred to the Department of Anatomy at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor.
References
- ^ Death certificate
- "Nov 21, 1932 (Monday), Pg 1". November 21, 1932. p. 1 – via newspapers.com.
- Evanzz 2011, pp. 84–85. sfn error: no target: CITEREFEvanzz2011 (help)
- Beynon 1938, pp. 903–904 harvnb error: no target: CITEREFBeynon1938 (help)
- "Nov 21, 1932 (Monday), Pg 2, Column 2". November 21, 1932. p. 2 – via newspapers.com.
- "Detroit Free Press, Tuesday 22 November 1932, p. 1". November 22, 1932. p. 1 – via newspapers.com.
- "Article clipped from Detroit Free Press". November 23, 1932. p. 1 – via newspapers.com.
- "Article clipped from Detroit Free Press". November 23, 1932. p. 3 – via newspapers.com.
- "NOI Fard arrested Negro Leaders Open Fight. Nov 24 1932". November 24, 1932. p. 1 – via newspapers.com.
- "Coverage Of "The Voodoo Murders" — Mythic Detroit". www.mythicdetroit.org. Retrieved August 10, 2020.
- ^ Evanzz 2011, pp. 84–92. sfn error: no target: CITEREFEvanzz2011 (help)
- sacrifice, Human (November 27, 1932). "Voodoo cult history in Detroit". p. 4 – via newspapers.com.
- Drs. Albert C. La Bine, Carl Hanna, and John H. Slevin
- "Frenzied Father Sought by Police". November 26, 1932. p. 1 – via newspapers.com.
- DFP, Nov 27
- "Other possible victims". November 27, 1932. p. 1 – via newspapers.com.
- "Evangelista Case Still Is Unsolved". November 27, 1932. p. 8 – via newspapers.com.
- "Pastors Decry Growth of Cult Practices Here". November 28, 1932. p. 1 – via newspapers.com.
- "Suburbs Also In Voodoo Net". November 29, 1932. p. 9 – via newspapers.com.
- "Voodoo Chief Held Unsound". November 30, 1932. p. 3 – via newspapers.com.
- "Welfare Department Urgeds to Bar Aid to Voodoo Cultists". December 1, 1932. p. 16 – via newspapers.com.
- "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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