#OTD in 1921, future Texas Ranger Red Burton, a sheriff’s deputy at the time, and Waco sheriff Bob Buchanan had a run-in with the Lorena Ku Klux Klan in Lorena, Texas.

While Burton and Buchanan were not opposed to the Klan’s announced march, they stated they were there to prevent violence, which they were unable to do.

The Klan incited violence, and in the chaos, Sherriff Buchanan was shot. He proceeded to use his switchblade in self-defense, wounding multiple attackers, one of whom was later identified as a Waco policeman.

Burton then shot Buchanan’s would-be killer, and began firing into the Klansmen who had begun shouting “Get a rope! Get a rope! Let’s hang ‘em!” Burton and Buchanan then escaped to shelter inside a Lorena drugstore.

Upon entering the drugstore, multiple other victims of gunshot and stab wounds were discovered, and it was clear the Klan rally had been meant as an event of violence and chaos rather than a demonstration.

With the mob continuing to threaten to break into the drugstore to hang the sheriff and his deputy, Burton decided to not wait for the ambulance and to drive Buchanan the 30 miles back to Waco himself.

The Klan reassembled in Waco on October 10, 1921 with the rumored intention of killing Burton, but he performed his duties as usual and appeared conspicuously in public without harm.

Information for this thread is thanks in large part to Just One Riot: Episodes of Texas Rangers in the Twentieth Century by Ben Proctor.