What original 1927 New York newspaper clippings name Fred Trump and how do they phrase his arrest and disposition?
Executive summary
Contemporaneous New York newspaper clippings from June 1927 — most notably The New York Times and at least one Queens-area paper reproduced in archives — name a "Fred Trump" with a Devonshire Road Jamaica address as one of several men taken into custody after a violent May 30 Memorial Day parade involving Ku Klux Klan marchers and police [1] [2]. Those clippings consistently state he was "discharged" or "was discharged" when arraigned, while some local papers list him among "Klan arrests" or "Klan arrests" with the Devonshire Road address [3] [4].
1. The New York Times clipping and its wording
The archived New York Times dispatch from June 1, 1927 is the central primary clipping cited by many later reports; it lists names and addresses of multiple men taken into custody after a "near‑riot" between about 1,000 Klansmen and police in Jamaica, Queens, and includes the line "Fred Trump of 175‑24 Devonshire Road, Jamaica, was discharged," wording that has been reproduced by BoingBoing and noted in contemporary fact checks [1] [2] [3].
2. Brooklyn and Queens local papers that name him and how they phrase it
At least one Brooklyn/Queens daily — preserved in newspaper archives and cited online — ran brief clippings naming a Fred Trump among arrestees from the May 30 parade; versions of those local accounts either list him among "Klan Arrests" or note he was discharged at arraignment while giving his Devonshire Road address [5] [4].
3. How fact‑checkers and later outlets quote those 1927 clippings
Fact‑checking outlets and reporters have repeatedly quoted the 1927 Times line that a Fred Trump at the Devonshire Road address "was discharged," and they emphasize the limited scope of that sentence: the contemporaneous reports name him as one of seven men arrested and explicitly state he was discharged while other arrestees faced charges [3] [1].
4. Variation in phrasing across clippings and what is silent in the text
While the Times and corroborating local clippings name a Fred Trump and record his disposition as discharged, several contemporaneous local reports described the arrestees generally as "berobed" or "Klan arrests" and did not parse individual roles or robes for each named person; thus the surviving text from 1927 identifies name, address and that he was "discharged" but does not itself assert membership, robe‑wearing, or conviction for Fred Trump [4] [2] [3].
5. How later reporting interprets the clippings and limits of the primary evidence
Subsequent articles from national outlets (The Washington Post, Vice) and summaries in the Independent, Daily News and elsewhere repeat the primary clipping language — naming Fred Trump of Devonshire Road among those taken in and noting he was discharged — while some later pieces seek corroboration in additional local clippings (Richmond Hill Record, Queens County Evening News) that also list him among arrestees or as "discharged," but none of the cited 1927 extracts in these reports provides judicial detail beyond discharge and the contemporaneous police characterization of other arrestees [6] [7] [4] [8].