Roy Elonzo Davis

==Early life==
Davis was born on April 24, 1890, in [[Omaha, Texas|Omaha]], [[Texas]], as one of eleven children to Joshua Savington Davis and Mary Elizabeth McCoy.<ref name=":0">{{Cite book |last=Collins |first=John A. |title=Stone Mountain to Dallas: The Untold Story of Roy Elonza Davis |publisher=Dark Mystery Publications |year=2016 |location=Jeffersonville, Indiana}}</ref> In 1906, Davis was living in [[El Paso, Texas]], where he was employed as a clerk at the [[Southwest Railroad]].<ref>{{cite news|title=About Railroad People|date= June 14, 1909|publisher=El Paso Herald}}</ref> By 1912, at age twenty-two, Davis was traveling regularly and preaching as a Christian minister connected to the [[Baptist Missionary Association of America|Baptist Missionary Association]].<ref>{{cite news|title=Convention Schedule|publisher=The Weekly Herald of Weatherford Texas|date=October 21, 1915}}</ref>

Throughout his adult life, Davis was regularly involved in criminal activity and various money making schemes. In 1912, he began traveling to multiple states and selling "Electro Galvanic Rings" which claimed could cure [[rheumatism]].<ref>{{cite news|title=Afflicted People Take Notice|date=May 8, 1912|publisher=The Montgomery Times}}</ref> Later that year he was arrested and charged based on complaints filed against him. Davis was indicted by a grand jury and held for trial. The judge set his bond, permitting him to leave jail.<ref>{{cite news|title=The Courts|date=September 11, 1912|publisher=El Paso Herald}}</ref><ref>{{cite news|title=Justices' Courts|date=September 19, 1912|publisher=El Paso Herald}}</ref>

Davis was a nearly lifelong member of the KKK. Davis told newspaper reporters that he had been a KKK member since 1915. Davis was reported to be among the founding members of the William J. Simmons revival of the Ku Klux Klan. Davis also told newspaper reporters that he was a coauthor of the KKK's constitution, bylaws and rituals which were first published in 1921.<ref>{{cite news|title=Ku Klux Klan Active In Shreveport Area|publisher=The Times of Shreveport|date=February 10, 1961}}</ref>

Davis continued to committ fraud across the [[Southern United States|American South]]. In 1916, he went on a forgery crime spree with his brothers who seem to have operated with him as a gang. Davis presented himself as a minister at a bank asking them to cash a fraudulent cashier's check created by his brother who presented himself as a business owner making a donation to Davis's ministry. Davis's swindle involved multiple banks, including Continental State Bank, First State Bank, and Toyah Valley State Bank in west Texas during 1916. Davis was pursued by local law enforcement for his crimes causing him to flee the state. He abandoned his wife Emma and their three children in Texas and fled to Georgia where he took the alias of Lon Davis and married another woman, Elva Gravley.<ref name=":0" /><ref>{{cite news|title=Sheriff Mann Goes To Tipton|date=March 10, 1916|publisher=Wise County Messenger}}</ref><ref name="rdms" /><ref>{{cite news|title=Bank Duped By Young 'Minister'|date=March 18, 1916|publisher=Wise County Messenger}}</ref> Davis was apprehended in Georgia during May 1917 after being turned in by a woman who recognized him and was upset that he had abandoned his Texas family and remarried illegally.<ref>{{cite news|title=Young Lady Knew Davis As A Preacher in Texas|date=May 26, 1917|publisher=Wise County Messenger}}</ref> Davis was returned to Texas where he was convicted on swindling and forgery charges and given a two-year jail sentence on June 29, 1917.<ref name="rdms">{{cite news|title=Rev. Davis, Singer and Masher, Goes to Prison|publisher=Wise County Messenger|date=June 29, 1917}}</ref>

By January 1919, Davis was released from prison, returned to [[Acworth, Georgia]], and had resumed preaching as a Missionary Baptist minister under the name Lon Davis.<ref>{{cite news|title=Minister Debating Church Differences|publisher=Columbus Ledger|date=January 15, 1919}}</ref> Davis posed as a [[Christian missionary]] bound for [[Egypt]] to gain the trust of the community and was later offered the pastorship of the Acworth Baptist Church during the summer of 1920.<ref>{{cite news|title=Christian Church|publisher=The Liberal Democrat|date=August 14, 1919}}</ref> In 1921 Davis started publishing ''The Progress'' newsletter from the church. The newsletter focused on exposing what Davis believed were secret subversive activities of the [[Catholic Church]].<ref>{{cite news|title=Listen!|publisher=Marietta Journal|date=April 14, 1921}}</ref> Davis also began holding [[Ku Klux Klan]] meetings at the church. Although unknown to his church, Davis had been appointed by [[Imperial Wizard]] [[William Joseph Simmons]] as an official spokesperson for the KKK and charged with organizing new chapters of the KKK. Members of his church became upset about some of the material Davis published in ''The Progress'' and began investigating his past. They soon discovered his criminal record in Texas, and discovered he had abandoned his wife and children. At a meeting on July 14, 1921, he was removed as pastor. A newspaper article covering the event contained information suggesting that Davis had been involved organizing KKK groups at Baptist churches in multiple other cities in South Carolina and Georgia.<ref>{{cite news|title=Pastor Is Ousted|publisher=The Atlanta Constitution|date=July 15, 1921}}</ref>

Davis ran into legal problems again in 1921. He purchased the printing press for ''The Progress'' newsletter using a fraudulent check, swindling the seller out of $1,000.<ref>{{cite news|title=Davis' Record in Texas Aired By Ku Klux Klan|publisher=Wise County Messenger|date=August 26, 1921}}</ref> After being exposed in Georgia, Davis left the state, leaving by train with his wife and their five-year-old daughter. They traveled to Oklahoma where Davis continued holding revival meetings in Baptist churches and conducting KKK recruiting.<ref>{{cite news|title=Revival Meetings|publisher=McCurtain Gazette|date=August 3, 1921}}</ref><ref>{{cite news|title=Great Revival At Shults being Held By Rev, Davis|publisher=McCurtain Gazette|date=August 27, 1921}}</ref>