Shelton was a factory worker and a car-tire salesman. He also owned a printing business, with an office on Union Boulevard. By 1965, Shelton's organization had outgrown the other KKK factions to become the largest in the United States, according to the FBI. In 1966, Shelton was sentenced to one year in prison and fined $1,000 for contempt of the
United States Congress, "for refusing to turn over membership lists to the
House Committee on Un-American Activities." In 1969, after losing his appeals, he reported to prison to serve his sentence. In 1984, James Knowles, a UKA member of the UKA's Klavern 900 in Mobile, was convicted of the 1981 murder of
Michael Donald. At trial, Knowles said he and Henry Hays killed Donald "in order to show Klan strength in Alabama." Unable to come up with the $7 million awarded by a jury, the UKA was forced to turn over its national headquarters to Donald's mother, who then sold it. During the civil trial Knowles said he was "carrying out the orders" of Bennie Jack Hays,
Henry Hays' father and a long-time Shelton lieutenant. ==Death==