The life of Ben Klassen

As early as 1974 I began thinking of building a central headquarters structure for our movement. The first question that preoccupied my thinking was not so much as to where I would build it, nor how I would pay for it, but what architectural style or motif I should choose that would best exemplify our innermost creed and program. Should we try to emulate the classic Greek and Roman type of architecture in the style of their “Temples” and call our churches temples also? Or should we go back even further in the White Man’s civilization and try to salvage something from the Ancient Egyptian culture and their great pyramids? Or, should we try to adopt something from Hitler’s Nazi era as a role model?
For a long time I mulled it over and gave these questions a considerable amount of thought. I wrote one of our supporters, a man by the name of Emory Burke, who was an architect by trade. He was from Eclectic, Alabama, and had visited me in Pompano Beach in August of 1973.  I remembered that he had said that he specialized in the design of churches. In April of 1975 I wrote him a letter and asked him for some suggested design sketches for our particular church. He came up with some kind of a Runic sketch that was in the style of a primitive “A” frame that fronted in four different directions, and looking down on it from the top, was in the shape of a cross. Apparently it represented something the early Vikings had built, so he said. I wrote Burke again, asking if he might come up with something in the Roman style, or perhaps the Western Frontier motif.  However, I never did hear from him again.
After mulling all these ideas over for some time, I wasn’t really too happy with any of them, with one exception. The pyramid idea was totally impractical, and we didn’t really relate to the early Egyptians that much. Nor did we want to be represented by the Neo-classical architecture of the Greek-Roman tradition, although we greatly admired their civilization and culture. As far as the Nazi era was concerned, I could find nothing specifically distinctive about their architecture that could be pinpointed. The Viking sketch was at best too primitive, and it, too, was not us.
The motif inherent in “The Winning of the West” began to grow larger and larger in my mind as representing the best of what we were trying to project to the world. Why not adopt that as our leitmotif? Why not, indeed? I felt that I had finally come up with an answer. I began to look with keen interest at the buildings of the old Western towns in Colorado, Arizona, California, Texas, and other states. I also scanned with renewed interest the old Western movies and their settings and scenarios.
Having more or less resolved the architectural styling, I now began to concentrate on location. Where should we build it? I had a 2-1/2 acre piece of property in Pompano Beach that lay about a quarter of a mile north of Sample Road and some distance west of the railroad tracks. For some time I considered it as a probable site. But the more I considered the future ramifications of what we were doing, the less I liked that site. After all, if our movement was successful, this would become sacred ground, a Mecca for the White Race, a geographic shrine. Pompano Beach, with all the niggers expanding in the area, the Jews moving in to Deerfield Beach just north of this area, not to mention all the Cubans,
Haitians, South American refugees and other mud races taking over South Florida in general, this was hardly an auspicious selection for the location of such a momentous and historic center. Besides, two and a half acres was too small an area to expand from, and furthermore, any kind of security for our headquarters would be next to impossible in such a crowded and hostile environment.
All this led me to gravitate more and more towards North Carolina, where I had (at that time) as much as 50 acres at my disposal in a beautiful valley lying between picturesque mountains in the background. Furthermore, this idyllic and rustic locale was set in the peaceful and romantic Blue Ridge Mountains, an ideal spot indeed. There was one drawback, however. All of North Carolina lay in the so-called Bible Belt, and I was woefully aware that the fanaticism of born-again Christians could be as vicious as that displayed by our mortal enemies such as Jews and niggers. However, at least we would be in White territory, and the lesser density would give us considerably more room in which to maneuver.
No sooner had I come to this conclusion than I pinpointed a nice knoll in the valley along the road between our cabin and the Old Georgia Road. The more I thought about the location the more enthusiastic I became about the selection and soon I started drawing up sketches and different ideas for the building itself. These I took to my old friend Cranford Sproul, who was an architect in Pompano Beach. You might recall that it was he who was the John Birch chapter leader when I first joined that society back in 1963. In any case, Cran drew up a creditable design from my sketches, dedicating his time to the cause. For this I was ever so grateful, and although it was by no means the final design, it was an important beginning.
After playing around with the initial design for some months, I contacted a local architect in Franklin, North Carolina. His name was Jack Patton, who in turn was recommended to me by Billy Sanders, a contractor who had done some work for me before. On Tuesday, September 8, 1981, I got together with Jack Patton at our cabin in North Carolina. We met at 10 A.M. and for three and a half hours we discussed the design and the plans for a contemplated Church headquarters building. I found him compatible and cooperative. I was to employ him again in several other projects.
The next day I went to the contemplated building site in the cow pasture and set the corner stakes for the approximate acre of land on which the building would sit, and also the stakes for the approximate location of the building itself. My neighbor, Jerry Ayers, whose cows were in the fenced pasture, was with me.
On January 21, 1982, Henrie and I were back at the cabin again, and two days later I again met with Jack Patton. He had done a considerable amount of work on the plans, all of which we reviewed, but It was not until the next Tuesday that he brought over the final and almost completed plans. I gave him an initial check for $250. The next day, January 27, he completed the finishing touches and left me with four sets of blueprints.
At 9 in the morning of Saturday, January 30, 1982, I met with my contractor. Billy Sanders, at the cabin. Billy had done several small jobs for me before, such as building two separate double car garages, some modifications on the cabin, and I had complete confidence in him. We went over the blueprints in detail, discussed building materials, and went over the building site itself, where he now reset the exact corner stakes of the building. Altogether our conference lasted for five hours. I told him to work out a firm commitment on the total price.
The following Monday I had a similar meeting with another contractor, Harold Kimsey, who had built our cabin back in 1974. Although I had pretty much decided that Billy Sanders would get the contract, still, I wanted to have a competitive bid to make sure I was getting a fair price.
That meeting with Kimsey lasted from 9 in the morning until 12 noon. The next day, Willard Barrett and his crew from the Nantahala Power & Light were out to set the stakes for the power pole for the church. From their conversation, I began to detect a morbid curiosity as to what KIND of a church we intended to build. (When one of their trucks stalled, the foreman suggested some demons must have gotten into it.) On February 5 they were back and installed the power pole itself and hooked us up to their power line.
Four days later, after selling three more lots in Bavarian Village, and one in Swiss Village, Henrie and I left the cabin and headed back to Lighthouse Point. On February 27, I talked with Harold Kimsey on the telephone about the contract. He had completed his calculations and came up with a bid of $151,450, which included $22,000 for outside insulation, plus $8,000 for two 4 ton air conditioning units, a 1000 gallon septic tank and necessary drain lines, plus steel trusses for the first floor. On March 7, Henrie and I loaded up the station wagon and headed back to North Carolina again. On March 9, I had a meeting with Billy Sanders to finalize the building contract. He agreed to a bid of $128,800, which included everything that I had discussed with Harold Kimsey.
We both signed the contract and we were in business. The next day, March 10, 1982, was an important milestone for our church, which we later chose to call Foundation Day. Billy Sanders was out with his survey crew and set up various stakes. Henrie and I were out there with our camera taking pictures for posterity. At 10
A.M. Dean Connor and his crew arrived with their bulldozers and front-end loaders and started excavating and moving dirt. That same day I also met with Charlie Davidson, a well driller from Franklin, and negotiated a contract for drilling a well on the church site. He agreed to drill the first 100 feet for $10 a foot, and any succeeding depth necessary to bring in sufficient water, at $8 a foot. He was scheduled to start drilling on May 1st.
On March 15 Henrie and I left the cabin and started back for Florida. On the way south I stopped to talk to “Happy” Howard Williamson, who owned Radio Station WVMG at Cochran, Georgia. He had attracted my attention due to the fact that he had become heavily embroiled with the city management of that city of 7000 in exposing their corruption. For his philanthropic efforts, he had been physically attacked, beat up, and had landed in the hospital. Now recovered, he was carrying on his fight. My purpose in seeing him was to find out whether he might be a suitable candidate to take over the leadership of our church in the future. I gave him copies of our three books, and discussed our program with
him and his sidekick, Wayne Gordon. A week later I called him from Florida to get his reaction. He seemed to agree with us, but nothing further
came of our meeting.
Having left the blueprints in Sanders hands, and having him well started on the project, Henrie and I decided we would take a prolonged trip to parts West, especially to see Kim and Walt and our grandchildren in Colorado, where Walt was practicing Chiropracty in association with another doctor in Colorado Springs. We left Lighthouse Point on April 3, and there were enough events on that trip to leave that story for another chapter, which I will do.
In returning from that trip we headed for North Carolina, and arrived at the cabin at 9:40 P.M. on April 22. First thing the next morning I went down to the building site and checked with Billy Sanders as to the progress of the project. The basement walls were up, and looked somewhat higher than I had anticipated. The workmen were spreading crushed rock on the basement floor, getting ready to put in the rough plumbing and pour the concrete for the floor. Meanwhile, Sanders had ordered the steel beams for the first floor, and was waiting for their arrival.
While on the trip, I had thought of two changes I wanted to make in the design. One was to add a dormer over the second floor entrance, and the other was to extend the large beam at the top of the front facing so that it would extend about three feet on each side, purely for architectural effect and to enhance its Western look. Two days later we left for Florida, arriving home on April 26 to a pile of mail that needed attention. We had traveled a total of 5801 miles since we had left Lighthouse Point on April 3.
After answering a number of letters and shipping out a considerable backlog of COTC books and literature, Henrie and I prepared to take off for the Keys and our week at our time-sharing apartment at Hawk’s Nest. On the morning of Saturday, May 1, I called Billy Sanders on the phone. He informed me that they had poured cement capping over the basement walls, and by now they had received the steel beams. The weather projection looked good until next Thursday, and they would probably have the beams in place by that time. We arrived at Marathon and the Hawk’s Nest at 4:30 that afternoon.
We relaxed and had an enjoyable week in the Keys during which time I read “Physicians of No Value”, given to me by its author. Robe B. Carson, who went under the pseudonym of Miles R. Abelard. He was one of our staunch supporters, and his book was a critical analysis of Christianity. While in the Keys Henrie and I also drove to Key West, as we usually did on each of our trips to Hawk’s Nest. We had lunch at the Pier House Restaurant and visited the Martell Gallery and Museum. This heavily structured old brick building was originally a Union fort, built in 1862, and now renovated.
Back to Lighthouse Point the following Saturday and to a heavy accumulation of mail. A few days later, on Tuesday, May 11, I received a long distance call from Kim Kimmins, a reporter from the Franklin (North Carolina) Press. With an ominous note in her voice she informed me that there were wild rumors circulating in Franklin and surrounding Macon County. She claimed that the rumors contained reports that our church promoted blood sacrifice, devil worship, animal slaughter, kidnapping and Nazism. She wanted to find out all about it.
We talked for over an hour. She mentioned the ADL several times and what they said about us. Obviously, the ADL had instigated the sudden interest in our church and wanted to make sure we were thoroughly smeared before we even had our headquarters finished. They had sent Kim Kimmins a copy of the 1981 Miami Herald smear to get started and filled her in with a passel of misinformation as a further supplement.
That evening Billy Sanders, the contractor, called and asked if it was alright to give the reporter the three basic books (NER, WMB, and SL) I had given him earlier. I said, sure, why not? He sounded pretty apprehensive about the rumors.
The next day I called up Ed Gibson of the Swain Insurance Co. and told him to increase the amount of the insurance on the cabin and the two garages I had built by about $13,000, and also put $25,000 on the SL books I had stored in one of the garages. That night I also talked to Billy Sanders again and he informed me that the steel beams were in place and the ground floor had been poured. He suggested we get insurance on the church project while under construction. He said that we were now the main subject of conversation in Macon County and today’s big, glaring headline on the front page of the Franklin Press was “Pro-Hitler, Anti-Christ Leader Headquarters Here.”
The following Monday I called up Gene Huscusson, an insurance agent in Franklin, with whom a few weeks earlier I had discussed placing a considerable amount of insurance on the church while under construction. I told him to go ahead and put a binder on the project as of now. At the previous session he was most amiable and glad to get the business, but now, with all the bad publicity we were getting, he preferred to play the coward and backed off. The same day I received a call from Dean Connor, the grading contractor, who had put in all our roads in our two subdivisions and had done the excavation work at the church. He had agreed to be our Resident Agent for the COTC incorporation, and his
name was on the North Carolina State records as such. Now he was running for a seat on the County Commission, and one of his opponents had discovered his affiliation with our church and was using it against him in the campaign. He was angry and wanted his name off the records.
I tried to take it all in stride and not let it bother me any more than necessary. After all, we were a legally constituted church, and I had anticipated harassment and opposition from the beginning. What took them so long, I wondered. However, ten days after the nasty article appeared in the Franklin Press, Henrie and I were back at the cabin in North Carolina to check out the situation and the construction progress of the building.
On Monday, May 24, I met with Billy Sanders on the site, and also with Ronnie Holland and his crew of three who were laying blocks for the walls of the first floor. Billy informed me that a few days after the vicious article came out in the Franklin Press, he and members of his crew had received threats and anonymous phone calls to immediately stop work on the building. If they did not, the threats stated bluntly, some men with rifles would fire on them from the hill across the road. Naturally, this gave them pause, and they had stopped work for a few days. Then, they decided to bring their own guns with them and continued with the construction.
That same day, May 24, at 5:30 in the afternoon, as I was driving down the road to the church, Robert S. Scott, reporter for the Asheville Citizen, was on his way up to the cabin to see me. He had not made an appointment, but I decided to talk to him anyway, and we sat down on the deck of the cabin and talked. His article in the Asheville paper the next day was much more objective, but he apologized that half of what he had written (mostly the favorable stuff) had been cut.
Several months earlier Henrie and I had made plans to attend the World’s Fair being staged at Knoxville, Tennessee. The next morning at 10 we left for the Fair. After having a big lunch in one of the Fair restaurants, we attended the Saudi Arabia Exhibit and also the U.S. Exhibit that afternoon. We then left for Pidgeon Forge, about 29 miles distant, where we had reservations at the Wonderland Motor Lodge. After having a hearty dinner at the nearby Hearthside Restaurant, we called it a day. After rummaging around the Old Mill and its immediate shopping center in Pidgeon Forge, we left after lunch and drove back over the Smoky Mountains “hump” and back to the cabin. On the way through Franklin, I picked up a copy of the Franklin Press, and also a copy of the Asheville Citizen. The former had three nasty letters to the Editor about us, saying something to the effect that the Church of the Creator should be run out of the county. The Asheville paper was more tolerant, but, according to Bob Scott, the reporter, his editor was not.
A few days later, May 31, I had lunch with Bob Scott, and asked him about the set-up at the Franklin Press. He informed me that the owner was Jerue Badd, of Spartanburg, S.C., who had a chain of about 20 newspapers. Bob Sloan, the former owner of the Franklin Press, was now its editor. They had two reporters, Scott McRae, and Kim Kimmins, the latter having written the nasty article about our church. She was a member of Jehovah’s Witnesses. Bob Scott informed me that he himself was formerly a Presbyterian, but now belonged to the Methodist church.
On June 3 I sent a check to the Swain Insurance Co. in Bryson City and tied down an insurance policy that would cover us during construction of the church. That same day Charlie Davidson set up his churn drilling rig on the church site and started drilling. After checking further construction details with Billy Sanders the next day, Henrie and I left for Florida.
A few days after arriving back home in Lighthouse Point, I talked with Dr. Herb Poinsett, who informed me that an article had appeared in the Pompano Beach Sun Sentinel, and also in the Miami Herald, about the fact that we were building a church in North Carolina, having picked up that information from the Associated Press and the Asheville article. A few days later I talked to Billy Sanders on the phone and he informed me that they now had the second story framework up and the siding on. Checking with the well driller, he informed me that the well was now down to 185 feet and into 35 feet of rock.
On June 23 Henrie and I left for North Carolina again and arrived at the cabin at 4 P.M. the next day. I stopped at the church and checked the building progress with Billy Sanders. The roof was now on and the internal brick flue was going up rapidly. During our trips back and forth from Florida to North Carolina, I had picked up a pair of cast iron bells at an antique shop in Clarksville, Georgia. The day after arriving back at the cabin I went into Franklin and bought a spray can of Rustoleum and a can of gold metallic paint and painted the two bells that now adorn the facade of the church. That afternoon I had a meeting with Charlie Davidson, the well driller. He informed me that the well was now finished. It was 207 feet deep and into 57 feet of rock. We now had an excellent supply of water, at least 30 gallons per minute, he informed me. We decided on a 3/4 H.P. pump ($459) and a 44-gallon pressure tank ($155.)
During the next few days (a) I met with Sanders at Nantahala Lumber Co. in Franklin and decided on the different selections of wood paneling for the different walls inside, the type of vinyl for the flooring, and also the counter tops. (b) The roofers completed putting the shake shingles on the roof. (c) Met with the painter, Vie Sanders, and decided on outside colors, (d) Met with Arthur Provenchal of Sprinkle Surveyors and showed him where to place the corner stakes for the one acre plot on which the church was to sit. (e) Met with Bob Scott, the reporter, again, and asked him to check out whether Jerue Badd, the publisher of the Franklin Press, was a Hebe. Then, on July 3, Henrie and I left for Florida
again, arriving home the next day. We were back in North Carolina again July 29 and stayed until August 6. During this time there were a number of details to check out and attend to. The building site was now ready to have the dirt filled in around the basement walls, and grading the yard around it. Dean Conner, who was still in the political race, was reluctant to be seen working on our project. I therefore lined up Doyle Byrd, another heavy equipment contractor, to do the job. This he did the following week.
In the meantime, the one-acre plot had been surveyed, and my attorney, Richard S. Jones, of Franklin, had drawn up the deed conveying the property to the Church of the Creator, and had sent it to Lighthouse Point. On August 12 I signed it and sent it back to Jones to have it recorded. On August 23 I left for North Carolina again, this time by myself and on this trip I used the VW Rabbit (diesel.) Arriving at the building site the next day, I discussed the following items with Billy Sanders: (a) library shelves, (b) fill for the driveway, (c) colors for the drywalls, (d) brick pattern in the concrete porch on ground floor. Then I went into Franklin and picked out the paneling for the upstairs bedroom walls. That same day I called up George Dietz and arranged to see him the following Monday. On Thursday, August 26, I cranked up the VW and left the cabin and drove 400 miles to Louisville, Kentucky, to attend a convention the Universal Life Church was sponsoring. Arriving at 7 P.M. that night, I checked in at the Ramada Inn, where the meeting was to be held. In the lobby next morning I happened to run into Larry Harrison and his wife Mary, from Jacksonville, Florida. I had been corresponding with Larry for some time, and we were both surprised to run into each other. Larry introduced me to Kirby Hensley, the then 73-year-old head honcho of the ULC. I attended the meeting and listened to the speeches most of the day, interrupted only by having lunch with Larry and Mary. At night they came over to my room, and over a few highballs, we had a good rap session. Next morning I attended the morning session, and after being thoroughly bored with the vapid speeches and proceedings, I left the meeting at 11 A.M., checked out of the motel and headed for Spencerville, West Virginia. I drove 300 miles that afternoon and evening and checked in at the Grandview Motel. I called George Dietz and asked him if it was all right with him if I saw him tomorrow, a day early, since I had previously made the appointment for Monday. He replied it would present no problem. In the morning I
headed for Reedy, then to George’s home about five miles west of town and arrived at 9:30 A.M. After meeting with him, his wife, his daughter and her boy friend, we all had a good Sunday morning breakfast together, compliments of Mrs. Dietz. I talked with George until 1:30 P.M., then left to see Bill Parsche, who lived at Smithville, West Virginia, about 50 miles distant.
Bill was one of those intense, hyper persons. He had read my books and there was a period during which he wrote long, militant letters to me just about every other day. I had some trouble finding his place out in the country, and when I finally did find his ramshackle farmhouse it was so cluttered inside it was impossible to find a place to sit down. Bill had been a strong supporter of Dietz some time back, but evidently they had a falling out. Now Parsche was gung ho for Roger Elletson, of Cheyenne, Wyoming, who had written several books on finance and the Jews. It was this subject I wanted to talk to Bill Parsche about. Although he blustered and fumed and talked profusely, Bill made absolutely no
sense, and I felt my visit with him was a waste of time.
I arrived back at the cabin on Monday at about 7:30 P.M. and the next morning checked what progress had been made at the church. There had not been much activity and nobody was on the job that Tuesday. I called Dean Conner about grading the roads in the two subdivisions. Next morning I left for Florida again.
More than a month later, on October 5, Henrie and I headed for North Carolina again, arriving at the cabin the next day at 3:15 in the afternoon. About two hours later our friends of long standing, Bill and Mary Wimmer, from Lighthouse Point, arrived. After a congenial visit, we went to Tallent’s Steak House in Franklin and we all had a good prime rib dinner. The next morning I showed Bill and Mary the church premises, after which they left for Atlanta to see their nephew, David Johnson and his wife Beth.
Ever since I started building the church I had been planning to find a good reliable key man to help me put out the paper and run the operation. A young man by the name of Timothy J. Gaffney from Schenectady, New York, had read my books and had been corresponding with me for a few months. He was 27 years old, married, and was a college graduate, now an accountant with the State of New York. He was head of a small group called The National Force and Order, and they were vigorously distributing anti-Jewish literature to the point where even the Jewish Press took notice of them. I had mentioned to him that I was looking for a key man, and he seemed ready, willing and able to leave
New York and take on that job. After making arrangements, I met Tim at the Asheville Airport at 3 P.M. on October 9, and we drove back to Franklin, where we enjoyed a steak dinner at Tallent’s Steak House. We then drove to the church, where I showed him the layout, including the upstairs apartment, where they would live if he took the job. Since the stairs had not yet been built, we had to use a ladder to get to the second floor.
We put Tim up at the cabin overnight and we talked about the job and our program until 11 o’clock that night. He seemed eager, enthusiastic and dedicated. He agreed to take the job. Next morning we had breakfast in Dillard, then I took him back to Asheville to catch his flight back at 11:05 A.M.
Henrie and I stayed on a few more days during which time the outside wooden stairs were built to the second floor; I contacted Imperial Carpeting and selected the floor coverings and carpeting (cost: offices downstairs $270, upstairs living room and two bedrooms, $1387, for a total of $1657); met with Vernon Smith of Franklin and arranged for lawn and landscaping at both the church and at the cabin; and lastly, had Dean Conner finish grading the grounds around the church and cover the parking lot and circular drive around the church with gravel. Then, on Saturday, October 16, Henrie and I headed back to Florida. Meanwhile, back home, I contacted Greg Taylor of Design Plastics in Pompano
Beach, about designing a large plastic logo, about 7-1/2 feet in diameter, something that I had in mind to place on the upper facade of our church. We agreed on a design and Greg promised he would have the layout completed in a few days, at which time he could also give me a price. Some time later I also had Design Plastics construct our subsidiary signs, the large wooden planks now below the logo that boldly proclaim to the world:
The Winning of The West
The White Man’s Prototype For the Winning of the World
Then on Saturday, November 13, Henrie and I left for our two-week time-sharing stay at our Hawk’s Nest apartment in the Keys. On the way down I stopped at Oswald Ozon’s place in Southwest Miami (he is the artist that did the front cover for Salubrious Living) and picked up three different renditions I had asked him to do for the masthead of Racial Loyalty, the paper I was contemplating in publishing once we got settled in North Carolina next year.
While at Hawk’s Nest I read “Goodbye, Chicago”, and started writing two articles that were later published in Racial Loyalty, namely, “Not Likely a Who”, and “Point of No Return.” Then on Thursday we went back to Pompano Beach to attend a Seminar that Compugraphic was holding at the Holiday Inn, displaying their line of typesetting equipment. While at home I took care of an accumulation of mail, a number of payment books, and also checked the progress of Design Plastics on our large sign. Then back to Hawk’s Nest again. On Sunday Bill and Mary Wimmer came to visit us and stayed at the apartment with us for two days. On Monday we all drove to Key West, where we had lunch at the Pier House and also visited the renewed Audubon House. During the next few days I wrote “God and Country, The Flag and the Constitution, not the Issue nor the Solution”, and also “We Will Not Compromise”, and “Come out of the Closet, White Man.”  Henrie and I had Thanksgiving dinner at the Holiday Inn, Key Colony, just east of Marathon. Then on Saturday we left and returned to Lighthouse Point.
On December 4 I talked to Billy Sanders again, and he said the building had its electrical inspection and had passed, and for all practical purposes was now finished. We will leave the story here, but only to mention that changes, additions and subtractions to the church building would continue indefinitely. Whereas the building was now useable and livable, it was far from final, and its needs continued. I would say that by the time we started publishing Racial Loyalty the following May, what with the changes and additions made during construction, the excavating and grading, the landscaping, putting in the well and the pump, laying the carpeting, installing the typesetting equipment and other
office fixtures, I had spent well over $200,000 on the project. But I felt it was well worth it to now start on the long road of saving and rehabilitating Nature’s Finest. I still feel the same way today, more than ever.