William Dudley Pelley is an American author, occultist, spiritualist, and far-right political activist.
Born to a povertous family in 1890, Pelley originally came to prominence as writer, publishing several short stories and penning screenplays for Hollywood films. His time in Siberia during the Russian Civil War radicalized him to antisemitic conspiracy theories, and upon his return to the United States he began pubishing various articles and essays detailing his new religious "Liberation Doctrine". His 1929 short story "Seven Minutes in Eternity" described an out-of-body experience wherein God and Jesus instructed him to undertake the spiritual transformation of America, and he became a prominent spiritualist and occultist leader.
After Huey Long failed to win the Democratic nomination for president in the 1932 presidential primaries, Pelley founded the Silver Legion, a white supremacist paramilitary militia that has gained traction among supporters of Long's America First Party and with the second Klu Klux Klan. Pelley has recently struck an alliance with radio preacher and fellow white supremacist Herbert W. Armstrong.
History[]
Early Life and Writing Career[]
William Dudley Pelley was born on 12 March 1890 to a povertous family in Lynn, Massachusetts. His father, George Aspey Pelley, was previously a Southern Methodist minister before becoming a businessman and shoemaker. He dropped out of high school and worked at a tissue paper manufacturing comapny until the age of twenty-one, when he wrote for a series of small newspapers in New England. He gained respect for his writing skills as a journalist, with articles appearing in national publications such as The Chicago Tribune; two of his short stories even received the prestigious O. Henry award, "The Face in the Window" in 1920 and "The Continental Angle" in 1930. He was hired by the Methodist Centenary to study Methodist missions around the world and subsequently joined the Red Cross in Siberia, where he supported the White Russians during the Russian Civil War.
As a result of his time in Russia, Pelley began to subscribe to the conspiracy theory of Judeo-Bolshevism. Pelley argued that the boxcars of refugees he traveled with were victims of a revolution perpetrated by "two hundred and seventy-six Jews from New York's East Side", and viewed the Russian Revolution as merely the first step in this program of destruction. Pelley used his experiences in Siberia as first-hand "evidence" of the fate awaiting Americans if the Communists took power.
Upon his return to the United States in 1920, Pelley resumed his literary career, editing magazine titles, books, and short stories, as well as news articles and various religous and political tracts. He briefly worked as a screenwriter in Hollywood, authoring the Lon Chaney films The Light in the Dark (1920) and The Shock (1923). Perceived unfair treatment by Jewish studio executives increased his antisemetism and he became disenchanted with the film industry, moving to New York City where he began publishing magazines and essays detailing his new religious system, the "Liberation Doctrine".
Rise to Prominence[]
In May 1928, William Dudley Pelley reported to a group of occult authors that he had an out-of-body experience in which he travelled to other planes of existence devoid of corporeal souls. His experience became the basis of the short story "Seven Minutes in Eternity", which became a minor phenomenon when it first appeared in the American Magazine in March 1929. He wrote that he had met with God and Jesus during his experience, and they instructed him to undertake the spiritual transformation of America. The next three years saw Pelley expand on his new religious system, a combination of theosophy, British Israelism, spiritualism, Rosicrucianism, and pyramidism, in a variety of publishing and educational ventures. Pelley considered his new Liberation Doctrine a perfected form of Christianity, in which "Dark Souls" such as Jews, Communists, Papists, and African-Americans conspired against Anglo-Saxons in America.
Pelley moved to Asheville, North Carolina in 1932 and founded Galahad College, a "spiritual clinic for people troubled by religious and psychical problems". The college specialized in correspondence courses on "Social Metaphysics" and "Christian Economics". He also founded the Galahad Press, which he used to publish various political and metaphysical magazines, newspapers, and books.
The Silver Legion[]
In 1932, Pelley witnessed Huey Long lose the Democratic presidential nomination and subsequently became an ardent supporter. Through his Galahad Press, Pelley wrote endorsements of Huey Long's Share Our Wealth plan and urged his followers to join his new paramilitary organization, the Silver Legion. Headquartered in Asheville, North Carolina, the Silver Legion grew in the next three years to include branches in Washington, California, and New York. Members of the legion function as a militia, training with firearms and propagandizing at AFP rallies. The Silver Legion has gained some traction with members of the second Ku Klux Klan, which has experienced a sharp decline in membership following the conviction of Grand Grand Dragon D.C. Stephenson for the rape and murder of Madge Oberholtzer.
Herbert W. Armstrong.
Herbert W. Armstrong[]
In 1934, Pelley came into contact with Herbert W. Armstrong, a radio minister from the American Northwest. Armstrong had previously run a fairly successful Church of God (Seventh Day) church with fellow minister Andrew Duggar and A.O. Dodd, but was released from the Church after promoting British Israelism. Armstrong and Pelley have both made predictions in their religious groups about Huey Long and share a common belief in Anglo-Saxon supremacy. Pelley has recently allowed Armstrong to recruit for the Silver Legion on the radio.