HE was a daring cop who infiltrated America’s feared Ku Klux Klan – duping Grand Wizard David Duke and foiling deadly attacks.

But one major difference marked out Ron Stallworth from other undercover officers fighting the racist Klan in the 1970s . . . he was BLACK.

Teaming up with a white officer to share a single identity, Ron pulled off one of the most audacious stings in police history. His enthralling true story has now been made into the movie, BlacKkKlansman. But first director Spike Lee had to be convinced the tale was real.

In events that seem too fanciful even for Hollywood, Ron became the first black member of the all-white KKK.

Ron’s gripping memoir tells how he was even asked to LEAD the vile group’s Colorado Springs chapter, so convincing was his cover. The intelligence he gathered let cops stop bombings, stamp out the burning of crosses to intimidate black locals and also identify white supremacists in the military ready to prepare explosives and supply guns.

Ron — played in the movie by John David Washington, son of Hollywood A-lister Denzel — recalls: “From an intelligence standpoint, we were successful. No cross-burnings in seven and a half months during this investigation.

“They talked about bombing two gay bars — but they didn’t. We stopped two Klansmen whose job in the military was to deal with explosives from carrying out a threat to bomb. They talked about stealing automatic weapons from Fort Carson (army base) in preparation for a race war. We gained valuable intelligence.”

For decades, the KKK waged a campaign of hate, violence and murder against non-whites. Ron was frequently on the receiving end of racist abuse.

He was sworn in as a Colorado Springs police officer on his 21st birthday in 1974, and spent those first years honing his skills as an undercover cop, becoming their first black undercover narcotics detective.

His infiltration of the KKK came about almost by chance. In 1978, while scanning the local papers for suspicious activity, Ron spotted a classified ad for a local KKK chapter. He answered using his real name, doubting he would hear back.

Now 65 and retired, Ron says: “I told him I was a white man, that I hated blacks, Jews, Mexicans, Asians, that I thought the white man had not got a fair deal in this country. I signed my real name instead of my undercover name and mailed it off, thinking I would get a pamphlet, a brochure or something.”

Two weeks later, the phone rang at Ron’s desk. To his amazement, it was a local KKK organiser.Shocked Ron reached for the most hate-filled response he thought would impress a Klan member.
He said his sister had been dating a black man and he wanted to “stop these things from happening”.

The delighted Klansman replied: “You are just the kind of guy we are looking for. When can we meet?”

Ron says: “I had to formulate a plan real quick. I told him I couldn’t meet him now. We agreed to meet a week later.I started putting things in motion, getting a white officer to pose as me for this face-to-face meeting.”

Ron scrambled to put together an official investigation, recruiting narcotics officer “Chuck” — not his real name — to play Ron in person. He would conduct most of the work over the phone, while Chuck went to secret Klan meetings. Star Wars’ Adam Driver plays a character similar to Chuck in the movie.

Though their voices sounded very different, the investigation was never rumbled — despite one close call.

Ron, who now lives in Utah, says: “The people I was dealing with were not, to use an old adage, the brightest bulbs in the socket. Only once in the entire seven months of the investigation was I ever challenged as to why my voice sounded different to Chuck’s.

“Chuck had gone to a meeting I set up and later that day, as I thought about something said at that meeting, I got on the phone and called the local organiser. I started talking as if I’d been at the meeting.

“But he said, ‘You sound different — what’s the matter?’ I coughed a couple of times and said I had a sinus infection. He said, ‘Oh, I get those all the time. Here’s what you need to do to take care of that’.”

Ron even had conversations with “Grand Wizard” David Duke — a former Klan boss and one of America’s most reviled racists.

Ron came across a phone number for “the Voice of the Klan” and Duke, played in the movie by Topher Grace, picked up on the other end.

Ron says: “He laughed and said, ‘I’m the Voice of the Klan’. He identified himself as the Grand Wizard, the director. I told him I was a new Colorado Springs chapter member and was honoured to speak with him.

“He was very much like Donald Trump in that he liked to be fawned over. He liked flattery. I played that game and flattered him a lot.”

During their conversations, Duke, now 68, had no idea he was talking to a black man. He found out for the first time a decade ago. Ron even describes Duke — a white supremacist and Holocaust denier — as being pleasant to talk to when he wasn’t discussing race.

Ron says: “Inevitably, race would come up. Dr Jekyll turned into Mr Hyde and the monster in him came out. He said vile things about racial groups and people of colour, ethnicities and people, as they put it, who were not ‘pure Aryan white’.”

The racism Ron fought has not gone away Ron cheekily asked Duke if he ever worried about talking to black men over the phone without realising.

The clueless Duke told Ron he could tell if callers “weren’t pure Aryan white” by the way they pronounced “certain words and phrases”. The remark had Ron “cracking up laughing”.

In another twist, Ron was asked in his role as police officer to guard Duke at a rally in Colorado. Duke never recognised the man he had been speaking to on the phone.Ron even had a Polaroid photo taken with Duke, throwing his arms around the Klan leader. Behind the camera was Chuck, the cop who played his white alter ego.

Ron says: “Duke ran to get (the photo) out of my hand. I told him, ‘If you touch me, I will arrest you for assault of a police officer. That is worth about five years in prison. Don’t do it’. He stood there dumbfounded.”

Sadly, the picture was lost as Ron moved house 40 years ago.

His undercover operation was brought to a close in March 1979, after the local organiser of the Colorado Springs Klan asked Ron to take over as LEADER. Instead, he was ordered by the police chief to shut down the investigation and cease all contact with the group.

Ron says: “The chief made it clear he wanted ‘Ron Stallworth, Klansman’ to completely disappear.”

No arrests were made during the sting. Ron says: “That was always a bone of contention around law enforcement circles — and among people like David Duke, who try to downplay it. Nobody was arrested for a criminal offence.”

But, Ron insists, the investigation WAS a success. When he got a tip that a cross-burning was about to happen, the police would send cars to prevent it.

When the operation was wound up, Ron’s boss ordered him to destroy all evidence of the investigation.

But he took home some files — including his Klan membership card with his name on it. After his operation ended, Ron spent time as a narcotics investigator and on special assignment with the Colorado Attorney General’s organised-crime strikeforce. He retired in 2005, writing his memoir in 2014.

Spike Lee’s film opened here yesterday, a year on from the death of Heather Heyer, 32. She was killed in Charlottesville, Virginia, when a white nationalist driver ploughed his car into a crowd of people protesting against a far-right rally.

daughter, 12
Footage of that is included in the film, underlining that the racism Ron fought against has not gone away.

Ron says: “Spike Lee has done a masterful job making this movie.”

Predictably, a lonely dissenting voice is that of duped David Duke. The bitter racist tweeted: “This whole KKK film is a big lie.”