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In 1918, a Duluth vigilante group confessed its crimes in local papers

In 1918, the Knights of Liberty used local newspapers to claim responsibility for violent acts, including the abduction and tarring of Olli Kinkkonen, Finnish immigrant, later found hanged in Lester Park.
Against the backdrop of World War I, extreme nationalism and anti‑German sentiment fueled vigilantism as the Knights of Liberty targeted perceived disloyalists amid rising violence, Alexis Foster noted.
On March 23, 1918, the Duluth Herald published a Knights' warning threatening punishment for 'anti‑American' traitors, and on March 25, 1918, Gustaf Landin, 24‑year‑old Swedish photographer, was tarred by 11 masked men.
Governor Joseph Burnquist offered a $500 reward, yet no one was charged in the case despite The Bureau of Investigation noting Kinkkonen was likely hanged while Duluth officials labeled his death a suicide.
The Knights claimed membership, later dissolving after the war as the Ku Klux Klan grew locally, with victims memorialized by the Tyomies Society.

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In 1918, a Minnesota vigilante group of 'extreme nationalists' confessed its crimes in local papers

DULUTH — Confessions don’t typically come from the pages of a newspaper, but in 1918, a Duluth vigilante group used local papers to claim responsibility for a string of violent acts, including the torture of a Finnish immigrant who was later found hanged. The Knights of Liberty, also known as the Knights of Loyalty, was a nationalist secret vigilante group active in the United States towards the end of World War I. Rising with the wave of anti-G…

5 months ago·Fargo, United States

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