Jeff Berry, former leader of the American Knights of the Ku Klux Klan (AP Photo/April L. Brown)

Jeffery Lynn Berry, who once headed the largest Ku Klux Klan group in the United States, often called the “bully-boy Klan,” died of lung cancer on May 31 at a hospital in Cook County, Ill., authorities confirmed today. He was 64 and most recently had been living in Kankakee, Ill.

Despite the headlines he once generated with Klan rallies and marches and theatrical appearances on the Jerry Springer TV show, Berry’s death a week ago hasn’t sparked a ripple of attention anywhere – even in KKK circles and Internet racist forums. ( continue to full post… )

The new issue of the Southern Poverty Law Center’s Intelligence Report, released today, contains an in-depth look at the decades-long war between white supremacists and “anti-fascists” – highlighted by the bloody battle that erupted last  year at suburban Chicago restaurant.

The May 19, 2012, incident in Tinley Park, Ill., involved as many as 18 anti-racists in a fast and furious attack that resulted in five men pleading guilty to armed violence and receiving prison sentences as long as six years. The long history of violence between white supremacists and self-described “anti-fascists” also includes the 1998 murder of two anti-racist skinheads in a neo-Nazi plot. The latest incident has some anti-racists asking how things could have been different. It also underscores the challenge law enforcement faces in preventing such violence.

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Five Indiana men, all members of an anti-racist group, will serve between 3½ and 6 years in prison after striking plea deals for their roles in an armed attack on a group of white supremacists last May in the Chicago suburb of Tinley Park.

The guilty pleas came Friday on the eve of a trial for Alex Stuck, John S. Tucker and brothers Dylan, Cody and Jason Sutherlin, all members of the anti-racist group Hoosier Anti-Racist Movement, the Chicago Tribune reported.

The five, all from Bloomington, were charged with 37 counts, including armed violence, after they confronted a group of white supremacists who were holding a gathering May 19 at a Tinley Park restaurant. ( continue to full post… )

A Tinley Park man was charged with a felony hate crime for allegedly attacking a man who had been hired by a bank to maintain a neighbor’s foreclosed home earlier this month. Click here for full article.

Joseph Berndt, 47, of Tinley Park, appeared at the Bridgeview courthouse on Tuesday after being charged with a felony hate crime, according to the Cook County State’s Attorney’s office. He was ordered held on a $25,000 bond. Click here for full article.

Five Indiana men charged in a mob attack at a Tinley Park restaurant last month appeared in court this morning, each with a private attorney by their side, at least four of whom said they are taking the cases for free. Click here to read full article.

One of the two white nationalists arrested after a violent surprise attack by anti-racists in suburban Chicago has a long history of activism on the racist right and was suspected of having ties to several militias in the late 1990s. The other has a lengthy record of arrests on battery and drug charges and writes prolifically on a white nationalist Web forum.

Francis John Gilroy, 65, of West Palm Beach, Fla., was charged with unlawful possession of weapons by a felon after a melee that began when 18 masked intruders attacked a group of white nationalists, including Gilroy, who were meeting in a suburban Chicago restaurant last Saturday.

Longtime white supremacist and former Klan leader Don Black said on his radio show Monday that Gilroy was arrested for having a pistol in his truck. Gilroy has appeared on Black’s show – the “Don and Derek Black Show” – under the name “Father Francis.” ( continue to full post… )

Five Indiana men were charged today in a violent attack Saturday that injured 10 alleged participants in a meeting to plan white nationalist strategy at a suburban Chicago restaurant.

Anti-Racist Action (ARA), a loosely organized group that fights racism, took credit on its website for the attacks, but it wasn’t immediately clear if the suspects are members. The group does have a Hoosier chapter. ARA spokespeople did not respond to E-mail requests for interviews.

The men were charged with felony mob action, felony aggravated battery and felony criminal damage to property, according to Steven Neubauer, chief of police in Tinley Park, Ill. The alleged attack took place just after noon at the Ashford House Restaurant. The men charged are Jason Sutherlin of Gossport, Ind.; Cody Sutherlin, Dylan Sutherlin and Robert Stuck of Bloomington, Ind.; and John Tucker of Spencer, Ind. ( continue to full post… )