Typically, a friend or relative — sometimes it was just a mere acquaintance — invited a potential “Recruit” to a private meeting of an unnamed organization. Its purpose, the friend said, was “protection”; it could help with getting jobs too. At dusk on the appointed night, the friend picked him up at home in a car with maybe three or four other men already inside it, and they drove out to Henry Tapscott’s farm three miles east of Lima, Ohio. Once there, the Recruit was suddenly surrounded by thirty, forty, fifty, two hundred armed men — it was hard to see in the pitch-black dark, but some had flashlights — dressed in long black-hooded robes with eye slits, and on top a black pirate hat with a white skull and crossbones. The robes had white trim, a cape with red satin lining, and another white skull and crossbones cut out of felt and safety-pinned to the chest. The Recruit was told to kneel. As a revolver was shoved into his back, two robed men stood on either side of him pointing guns. The “captain of the guard” spat out three questions:

1. Are you a native-born, white, gentile, protestant [sic] citizen? 2. Do you understand that this organization you are about to join is strictly secret and military in character? 3. This organization is classed by our enemies as an outlaw organization; are you willing to join such an organization?

Once the Recruit replied “yes,” he was commanded to swear that he would never reveal anything about the organization or its activities, that he would “accept an order and go to your death, if necessary, to carry it out,” and that he would “forget your party and vote for the best man if ordered to do so by your superior officer.” A “Chaplain” proclaimed: “We class as our enemies all Negros, Jews, Catholics, and anyone owing any allegiance to any foreign potentate. We fight as gorillas [sic] using any weapon that may come to our hand, preferably the ballot, and if necessary, by bearing arms.” He made explicit the group’s goals: “Our purpose is to tear down, lay waste, destroy and kill our enemies without mercy as long as one enemy remains alive or breath remains.” After the Recruit swore to the oaths, he was taught the password — “elect only members to office” — and handed a 38-caliber gun cartridge to keep as a reminder of both his oath and what would befall him should he betray it.