Under the Shadow of the Hood: When Denver fell to the KKK Artwork

False Summits: A History Podcast about the American West

The American West has been capturing the imagination for hundreds of years. Hollywood being one of its biggest promoters it gave it an almost mythical status in minds worldwide. Depicted as a rough and tumble place but with a bit of grit and termination on could achieve love and prosperity. Dose the realty hold up to the image? And if so, does it the same ring true today?

Dive into the blurry side of the American West with this darkly comedic history podcast. Join Mason Orlando, Jess Leigh, and Marcelo Aguilar as they explore the wild, weird, grim often terrifying events that create what the American West is today.

From bizarre outlaws and forgotten massacres to eccentric hermits and religious followers attempting to create utopia, this podcast takes a sharp, absurdist twist on Western American history. With a blend of dark humor, historical insight, and a dash of heathy commentary, each episode we cover weird, unsettling, and sometimes hopeful stories that may challenge your conception of the wild West.

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False Summits: A History Podcast about the American West

Under the Shadow of the Hood: When Denver fell to the KKK

May 23, 2025 • Mason Orlando - Jess Leigh - Marcelo Aguilar • Episode 30

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🎙️ This episode, we delve into a dark and unsettling chapter of Colorado history — the era when the Ku Klux Klan created a shadow government that infiltrated Denver’s City Hall and eventually reached the State Capitol.

We explore the societal and economic conditions that made it possible for a secret terrorist group of the 1870s to be born again in 1916 as a fraternity— and how, by the 1920s, they seized power with the aid of Freemasons, Woodsmen, and other fraternal organizations

But the so-called Invisible Empire wasn’t invincible. We break down how internal corruption, scandals, and rising public opposition brought the Klan’s Colorado reign to a swift and dramatic end.

Discretion Advised: sensitive topics

#WesternHistory #ColoradoHistory #DenverHistory
#BenjaminStapleton #JohnGalenLocke #BrownPalaceHotel #TabletopMountain
#PhilipVanCise #PhilHGoodstein #LindaGordon

Sources:

The second coming of the KKK : the Ku Klux Klan of the 1920s and the American political tradition

By Linda Gordon

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/34082146-the-second-coming-of-the-kkk

In The Shadow of the Klan: When the KKK Ruled Denver 1920-1926

Phil H. Goodstein

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/2158055

Stapleton accused of paying off history museum to remove family’s KKK past from exhibit

By: Madeleine Schmidt

https://coloradotimesrecorder.com/2018/04/stapleton-kkk-past-paying-off-history-museum/8585/

“Murder Wasn’t Very Pretty”: The Rise and Fall of D.C. Stephenson

By Abbott Kahler