DOUBLE BAYOU, Texas -- Residents who live near a Ku Klux Klan camp said they are fearful of the people who train in paramilitary tactics at Camp Puller and are afraid a stray bullet may kill someone.
The residents -- both black and white -- say they hear bullets whizzing by them, and one man has contacted Chambers County Sheriff C. E. Morris about the camp.
Morris said Monday no one has filed an official complaint, fearing reprisals, and until he gets a formal complaint his hands are tied.
He said none of the participants were local people, but from Harris County and 'mostly ex-Marines and all ex-military.'
Morris said nothing illegal is being done at the training facility east of Houston, but the shooting is causing apprehension to the handful of residents who live adjacent to the camp.
About 30 people were seen training over the weekend, and Morris said children were also at the camp. The participants had a barbeque Sunday.
The training facility, named after former Marine hero Gen. Lewis 'Chesty' Puller, consists of a mobile home, three cars and two trucks, two quonset huts, and a house moved there from nearby Anahuac. It has been used by the Klan to train military squads called Texas Emergency Reserve.
The Standley family, Lucille, 81, and her three sons, live nearby and have witnessed the training, heard weapons fired and bullets whizzing by.
'If they are so interested in military training, why don't they join the Army and do it right?' Mrs. Standley said Monday. 'They blow those bugles. And I hear them shouting. We sure don't like what's going on.'
