I later researched the pointed hats and robes and learned that criminals were forced to wear the cones in humiliation as they were marched through town and pummeled with rotten fruit and mud. The Spanish Catholics adopted the pointed hat and cloak as a sign of guilt and humility during Easter week and marched through the cities as penance for their sins. The Ku Klux Klan co-opted the hood, for reasons unclear. Maybe in reference to holiness. Maybe to look like scary ghosts to intimidate blacks. It’s fitting that those hoods were meant for dunces and sinners.
