| abstract | - Virgil H. "Bert" Effinger (1873 – December 15, 1955) was a renegade member of the Ku Klux Klan who became the leader of the Black Legion in the United States. He advocated a fascist revolution in the US with himself as dictator. Effinger took control of the Black Legion, a group within the local Klan, in 1931 and saw in it the basis for a network of revolutionary cells. He soon advocated a revolution with the Legion seizing power in Washington D.C. and installing him as dictator. Effinger underlined his intentions when he described his movement as "a guerilla army designed to fight the Republican and Democratic parties". Such was his fanaticism that he even rewrote American history by claiming that the Legion dated back to the Boston Tea Party. When the legion began taking action against the Catholic church, though the murder of religious leaders, the federal government finally cracked down forcing Virgil into hidding. He resurfaced as leader of the Patriotic Legion of America, this time admitting Catholics into his organization. The group proved less sucessful. At this time Virgil began denying any involvement in the Black Legion. He would continue to deny his involvement till his dying day. Virgil died in a psychiatric hospital in Toledo, Ohio in 1955.
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