(Reuters) - The suspect in the Passover Eve killings of three people at two Jewish community centers near Kansas City is a former Ku Klux Klan leader with history of spewing vitriol against Jews, law enforcement officials said on Monday.
Frazier Glenn Cross, 73, faces local and federal prosecution on hate crime charges after his arrest on Sunday for a shooting spree that killed a teenager and his grandfather outside a Jewish community center, and a woman visiting her mother at a nearby Jewish retirement home.
Both facilities are in Overland Park, Kansas, an upscale suburb outside Kansas City, Missouri. It was a bitter irony noted by many in the area that none of the victims was Jewish. The boy and his grandfather were members of an area Methodist church and the woman attended a Catholic church.
Cross, of Aurora, Missouri, had a prior criminal history and was known by law enforcement and human rights groups as a former senior member of the KKK movement and someone who had long made public comments against Jewish people, according to the FBI.
"Yesterday's attack ... strikes at the core fundamental freedoms ... of how our country was founded and what we live by every single day," said FBI agent Michael Kaste. "We've now determined that the motivation behind this was a hate crime. The acts that this person committed were the result of beliefs ... that he had."
Johnson County District Attorney Steve Howe and U.S. Attorney for the District of Kansas Barry Grissom said they were collaborating on charges in local and federal courts.
Both the Southern Poverty Law Center, a leading anti-hate group, and the Institute for Research and Education on Human Rights (IREHR) have tracked Cross, who also goes by the name Frazier Glenn Miller, for years. The groups say he was involved in creating an armed paramilitary organization in North Carolina 20 years ago.
The Southern Poverty Law Center said Cross is a "raging anti-Semite" who has posted online rantings that include "No Jews, Just Right." And the IREHR said he idolizes Adolf Hitler.
"His worship for Hitler and Hitlerism is real," said Leonard Zeskind, president of IREHR, in a statement issued Monday.
The shootings started around 1 p.m. at the Jewish Community Center of Greater Kansas City.
High school student Reat Griffin Underwood, 14, was with his grandfather, 69-year-old William Corporon, outside the Jewish Community Center when attacked. The teenager was at the center to audition for a singing competition, according to family member Will Corporon.
The grandfather died at the scene and the boy died later at a hospital, police said.
The shooter then drove a little more than a mile away to the Village Shalom retirement community and fatally shot 53-year-old Terri LeManno, police said. LeManno was an occupational therapist and married mother of two children and was making a regular visit to her mother who lived at the retirement facility, police said.
It appeared the gunman had used a shotgun and possibly other firearms, police said.
Kaste said the FBI had been aware of Cross and his background but was not monitoring him and had no warnings of the attacks. He said that it did not matter that the victims were not Jewish because hate crime violation are tied to the biases and beliefs of the suspect that motivate the crime, not the identities of the victims.
The FBI believes Cross acted alone, but is still investigating, Kaste said.
President Barack Obama offered condolences and called the events "heartbreaking."
The Jewish Community Center, known locally as "The J" is a popular recreational and educational spot for many families throughout the area, Jewish or not. It is also the site of Kansas City's only Jewish community day school, the Hyman Brand Hebrew Academy.
"Everybody is shocked that it would happen here," said Rabbi David Glickman, of the Beth Shalom synagogue in Overland Park. "This is a community that enjoys very strong and positive relations between the Jewish community and the rest of the community."
The Kansas City area's Jewish community numbers about 20,000.
(Reporting by Kevin Murphy in Kansas City and Carey Gillam in Overland Park; Additional reporting by Curtis Skinner and Chris Michaud in New York; Editing by Clarence Fernandez, John Stonestreet and Tom Brown)
Wow, 73 years old. I'd wager that he's terminally ill and will die before he sees trial, so he decided to go out in a blaze of stupidity and hatred.
"There is a principle which is a bar against all information, which is proof against all arguments and which cannot fail to keep a man in everlasting ignorance--that principle is contempt prior to investigation." -Herbert Spencer
"Against stupidity the gods themselves contend in vain." - Schiller, Die Jungfrau von Orleans, III vi.
Alferd Packer wrote:Wow, 73 years old. I'd wager that he's terminally ill and will die before he sees trial, so he decided to go out in a blaze of stupidity and hatred.
And knowing that he failed to get a single Jew. Outside of a Jewish center. On Passover.
Yes, well, it's the rest of society being so "duped" by the "Jewish menace" they've thoroughly integrated them into the society, to the point where non-Jews and Jews are equally likely to be in a Jewish community center or retirement home.
A life is like a garden. Perfect moments can be had, but not preserved, except in memory.Leonard Nimoy.
Now I did a job. I got nothing but trouble since I did it, not to mention more than a few unkind words as regard to my character so let me make this abundantly clear. I do the job. And then I get paid.- Malcolm Reynolds, Captain of Serenity, which sums up my feelings regarding the lawsuit discussed here.
If a free society cannot help the many who are poor, it cannot save the few who are rich. - John F. Kennedy
At the risk of asking the obvious, Frazier Cross shouldn't have been able to get a firearm after his 1987-1990 stint in federal prison for weapons violations (incidentally, he snitched on three codefendants in a sedition trial, IIRC).
Turns out that a five way cross over between It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia, the Ali G Show, Fargo, Idiocracy and Veep is a lot less funny when you're actually living in it.
Pelranius wrote:At the risk of asking the obvious, Frazier Cross shouldn't have been able to get a firearm after his 1987-1990 stint in federal prison for weapons violations (incidentally, he snitched on three codefendants in a sedition trial, IIRC).
He didn't. IIRC the weapon was purchased illegally through "straw buyer"
"This business will get out of control. It will get out of control and we’ll be lucky to live through it.” -Tom Clancy
These white supremacist KKK guys are hilarious because they can't even play nice with hardcore right-wing evangelicals, because evangelicals just can't enough of their Israel. If you read this guy's website (please don't) it's funny because he actually supports the *Arabs* in the Israel-Palestine conflict.
So I'm in an argument with a dude on FB (there's my problem right there) claiming that this dude is a neo-Nazi, and guess what, Nazism is a liberal ideology now apparently... so he's trying to blame socialists for Nazism. Fun times.
Elheru Aran wrote:So I'm in an argument with a dude on FB (there's my problem right there) claiming that this dude is a neo-Nazi, and guess what, Nazism is a liberal ideology now apparently... so he's trying to blame socialists for Nazism. Fun times.
Well technically, Nazis ARE socialists. It's even in their party name. But yeah they're pretty much as anti-liberal as you can get.
There's an argument which I feel is fairly adequate-- that the "National" part of the party name is indivisible from the "Socialist", a belief in Socialism for the German nation as a superior principle. Something like that. I need to get off the computer and take a bloody nap.
Borgholio wrote:Well technically, Nazis ARE socialists. It's even in their party name.
Does that apply to the Democratic People's Republic of Korea?
"Oh no, oh yeah, tell me how can it be so fair
That we dying younger hiding from the police man over there
Just for breathing in the air they wanna leave me in the chair
Electric shocking body rocking beat streeting me to death"
- A.B. Original, Report to the Mist
"I think it’s the duty of the comedian to find out where the line is drawn and cross it deliberately."
- George Carlin
These white supremacist KKK guys are hilarious because they can't even play nice with hardcore right-wing evangelicals, because evangelicals just can't enough of their Israel. If you read this guy's website (please don't) it's funny because he actually supports the *Arabs* in the Israel-Palestine conflict.
That's actually pretty consistent with historical KKK positions. They don't like Jews almost as much as they don't like black people so yeah, they take the Arab side. They aren't too fond of Catholics and a few other groups.
A life is like a garden. Perfect moments can be had, but not preserved, except in memory.Leonard Nimoy.
Now I did a job. I got nothing but trouble since I did it, not to mention more than a few unkind words as regard to my character so let me make this abundantly clear. I do the job. And then I get paid.- Malcolm Reynolds, Captain of Serenity, which sums up my feelings regarding the lawsuit discussed here.
If a free society cannot help the many who are poor, it cannot save the few who are rich. - John F. Kennedy
Broomstick wrote:Yes, well, it's the rest of society being so "duped" by the "Jewish menace" they've thoroughly integrated them into the society, to the point where non-Jews and Jews are equally likely to be in a Jewish community center or retirement home.
Huh. It would never occur to me to visit a (religious/ethnic group) Community Center (or anything else similarly labeled) where I wasn't a member of that religious/ethnic group. I always interpreted that as a "All non-religious/ethnic group people keep out, you aren't wanted."
When you need a large venue in the Midwest it's not that unusual to rent space from a church or community center owned by a particular sect because that's who has the large buildings, regardless of whether you're a member of that group or not.
As for Village Shalom where the third victim worked, it was a retirement home and even if it's owned or was originally owned by a Jewish group they're no more allowed to discriminate in hiring than anyone else, which is probably how a Catholic therapist came to work there. Just as Jewish people work in Christian workplaces the reverse is also true.
A life is like a garden. Perfect moments can be had, but not preserved, except in memory.Leonard Nimoy.
Now I did a job. I got nothing but trouble since I did it, not to mention more than a few unkind words as regard to my character so let me make this abundantly clear. I do the job. And then I get paid.- Malcolm Reynolds, Captain of Serenity, which sums up my feelings regarding the lawsuit discussed here.
If a free society cannot help the many who are poor, it cannot save the few who are rich. - John F. Kennedy
Broomstick wrote:Yes, well, it's the rest of society being so "duped" by the "Jewish menace" they've thoroughly integrated them into the society, to the point where non-Jews and Jews are equally likely to be in a Jewish community center or retirement home.
Huh. It would never occur to me to visit a (religious/ethnic group) Community Center (or anything else similarly labeled) where I wasn't a member of that religious/ethnic group. I always interpreted that as a "All non-religious/ethnic group people keep out, you aren't wanted."
Dude, JCCs typically have a free gym, after-school programs for kids, a bunch of classes for adults, senior services, all open to non-Jews. The Kansas one also had a theater.
JCCs are awesome, and they don't usually care if you're a Jew or not. It's NOT a religious center like a synagogue (although it does sometimes offer religious services).
A life is like a garden. Perfect moments can be had, but not preserved, except in memory.Leonard Nimoy.
Now I did a job. I got nothing but trouble since I did it, not to mention more than a few unkind words as regard to my character so let me make this abundantly clear. I do the job. And then I get paid.- Malcolm Reynolds, Captain of Serenity, which sums up my feelings regarding the lawsuit discussed here.
If a free society cannot help the many who are poor, it cannot save the few who are rich. - John F. Kennedy
Thing is, I can perfectly see how a KKK lunatic could see that as a greater threat. In his mind, these jews would be infiltrating society and saducing people or something like that.
It has become clear to me in the previous days that any attempts at reconciliation and explanation with the community here has failed. I have tried my best. I really have. I pored my heart out trying. But it was all for nothing.
You win. There, I have said it.
Now there is only one thing left to do. Let us see if I can sum up the strength needed to end things once and for all.
Sure, the "moderate" KKK position is for separation of "races", they have a terrible fear of miscegenation. As I'm a half-and-half and look like their variety of white person I'm sort of one of their worse nightmares. Not quite a bad as Obama, who really is their worst nightmare come to life.
A life is like a garden. Perfect moments can be had, but not preserved, except in memory.Leonard Nimoy.
Now I did a job. I got nothing but trouble since I did it, not to mention more than a few unkind words as regard to my character so let me make this abundantly clear. I do the job. And then I get paid.- Malcolm Reynolds, Captain of Serenity, which sums up my feelings regarding the lawsuit discussed here.
If a free society cannot help the many who are poor, it cannot save the few who are rich. - John F. Kennedy
Gandalf wrote:Does that apply to the Democratic People's Republic of Korea?
Oh, no, they're commies. It applies only when you whitewash conservatism, right-wingers, religion and capitalism. Didn't you get the memo, you anti-Ame... FREEDOM traitor?
Funny enough, when you ask the idiot 'Nazis are socialists' crowd which pro-corporation, pro-religion, pro-wealth, pro-conservatism, anti-communism laws of III Reich (besides tiny amounts of lip service to workers who bore all the weight of the regime otherwise) had anything in common with social democratism or socialism as practised in Soviet zone you usually get very loud silence. If anything, III Reich actually cut on existing 'social' public programs Germany had, but hey, it's in the name, so it must be true!
Fun fact: the platform of the NSDAP was obsessed with minorities who take from society without giving back. A favourite target were Jews from eastern Europe and disabled people who were "parasites" and lived of the hard working German people and were about to "outbreed" them. The nazis claimed that the social state was unsustainable if he had to protect all the disabled and "lazy" minorities and wanted to cut them off from all help.
Except for the following genocide and the particular targeted groups this could be repeated by any modern right-winger.
Frazier Glenn Miller, the former Ku Klux Klan "grand dragon" and proud anti-Semite accused of killing three people outside Kansas Jewish centers earlier this month, was not always so strict about his discrimination, at least in private. Before becoming an FBI informant, Miller, who had founded North Carolina's White Patriot Party, was caught in a compromising position — in the backseat of a car — with a black man, doing things a federal prosecutor is not comfortable saying out loud.
ABC News reports, via Gawker:
In the course of their investigation, authorities also learned the stunning details of Miller’s arrest a year earlier. Raleigh police officers had caught Miller in the back seat of a vehicle, in mid-act with a black male prostitute masquerading as a woman.
“It was pretty shocking,” says [then-federal prosecutor J. Douglas McCullough], “because of his personal stances that he had taken and what he was now accused on engaging in.”
McCullough says he has read the police report of the incident but declined to comment on the specifics. “I would rather not go into the details,” he said. “They’re rather salacious. I think the facts speak for themselves and people can draw their own conclusions about how incongruous that is.”
Miller once wrote, "White men, not to be outdone by their women, bed down with colored women, accelerating even more rapidly their own racial demise. The reason one doesn't see more White men and Black women together in public is because Whitey fears the Black man," and much more like it.
But in case you thought this guy could not get any worse, the 73-year-old claimed last year, in a phone call with the Southern Poverty Law Center, "that he had lured the prostitute to the meeting with the intention of beating him." Then one thing led to another.
Yeah, I've always taken the subtext of the Birther movement to be, "The rules don't count here! This is different! HE'S BLACK! BLACK, I SAY! ARE YOU ALL BLIND!?
- Raw Shark
Destiny and fate are for those too weak to forge their own futures. Where we are 'supposed' to be is irrelevent.
When did this notion that bigots don't fuck the objects of their bigotry get started? In this case, his fear of miscegenation is probably fed in part by his own fear of his own impulses.
A life is like a garden. Perfect moments can be had, but not preserved, except in memory.Leonard Nimoy.
Now I did a job. I got nothing but trouble since I did it, not to mention more than a few unkind words as regard to my character so let me make this abundantly clear. I do the job. And then I get paid.- Malcolm Reynolds, Captain of Serenity, which sums up my feelings regarding the lawsuit discussed here.
If a free society cannot help the many who are poor, it cannot save the few who are rich. - John F. Kennedy
