On Oct. 28, 1977, the Ku Klux Klan was planning a search in Douglas for illegal border-crossers, an effort coordinated by Klan national director David Duke. During his one-month organizing trip, Duke said he estimated that two to three dozen Klansmen would begin patrols of the Arizona-Sonora border. According to Duke, the KKK picked Douglas as a base for patrols instead of Nogales because the people in Douglas had showed, in the case against ranchers Thomas and Patrick Hanigan, that they "were willing to stand up and be counted." The Hanigans had recently been acquitted of state charges of assaulting and kidnapping three illegal immigrants on their property near Douglas.
SCOTT BRAUCHER / ARIZONA DAILY STAR 1977