Pelley was a former journalist, novelist and screenwriter turned
spiritualist who began to promote
antisemitic views by 1931, including the belief that Jews were
possessed by demons. the paramilitary Silver Legion wore a uniform modeled after the Nazis'
brown shirts (SA), However, the
Democratic President
Franklin D. Roosevelt was re-elected, and Pelley failed to appear in the top four. By around 1937, the Silver Legion's membership had declined to about 5,000. In 1936, a small Silver Shirt office was established in downtown
Spokane. About 200 members participated before the group's end. When the Silver Shirts tried to hold a rally at the Elks Club in
Minneapolis, the meeting was interrupted by senior local
Jewish-American organized crime figure
David Berman. Pelley disbanded the organization soon after the December 1941
attack on Pearl Harbor. On January 20, 1942, Pelley was sentenced to serve two to three years in prison by Superior Court Judge F. Don Phillips, in Asheville, North Carolina, for violating terms of probation of a 1935 conviction for violating North Carolina security laws. The same sentence had been suspended pending good behavior, but the court found that during that period, Pelley had published false and libelous statements, published inaccurate reports and advertising, and supported a secret military organization. For claiming that the devastation of the
Pacific Fleet at Pearl Harbor was worse than the government claimed, Pelley was arrested by federal authorities and sentenced to 15 years in prison for
sedition and conspiracy to commit sedition, including for making seditious statements, obstructing military recruiting, and fomenting insurrection within the military. ==See also==