polls had projected, an indication that thousands of Louisiana voters did not want to admit their preference for a candidate with racist views. Duke, though he never won the high political office he often sought, proved himself a master of information abuse. As Grand Wiz- ard of the Knights of the Ku Klux Klan, he was able to compile a mail- ing list of thousands of rank-and-file Klansmen and other supporters who would eventually become his political base. Not content to use the list only for himself, he sold it for $150,000 to the governor of Louisiana. Years later, Duke would once again use the list himself, let- ting his supporters know that hed fallen on hard times and needed their donations. In this way Duke was able to raise hundreds of thou-       T he K u Klux Klan and R e al-Es t at e A gent s     sands of dollars for his continuing work in the field of white su- premacy. He had explained to his supporters in a letter that he was so broke that the bank was trying to repossess his house. In truth, Duke had already sold his house for a solid profit. (It isnt known whether he used a real-estate agent.) And most of the money he raised from his supporters was being used not to promote any white supremacist cause but rather to satisfy Dukes gambling habit. It was a sweet little scam he was running-until he was arrested and sent to federal prison in Big Spring, Texas.