One of the prime suspects in the murder of civil rights activists in the 1960s died on Wednesday. Richard Willis, a former Philadelphia, Miss., police officer, was long seen as part of the group of Klansmen involved in the killing of civil rights activists James Chaney, Andrew Goodman and Michael Schwerner in 1964. The incident spawned a massive FBI investigation and the indictment of nearly 18 men on federal conspiracy charges.

Four Texas men connected to a white supremacist prison gang have been arrested for a brutal home invasion. Jason Skolaski, 34, Shannon Michael Kasper, 20, Ned Alan Smith, 42, and his 15-year old son broke into the house of a San Jacinto County couple, stole $300, and then cut off the finger of one of the residents with a pair of bolt cutters before fleeing. The three adult suspects are believed to be part of the white supremacist Aryan Brotherhood of Texas.

A New Jersey woman was arrested for illegally occupying a foreclosed house and committing forgery. Jolanda S. Bordley-Jackson EL, 41, is accused of moving into a foreclosed home in Mullica Township, filing a fraudulent deed claiming ownership of the house, and putting the utilities in her name while changing the locks of the house. Police say the woman is a member of the Moorish Science Temple of America, some of whose members hold the beliefs of the sovereign citizen movement.

DNA evidence has been presented in the trial of two Illinois men alleged to have beaten and robbed a woman because of her sexual orientation. The defense is seeking a possible plea deal over the evidence, which may provide a definitive link to the crime in which the two assailants made anti-gay slurs at the woman before they punched, kicked and robbed her.

The FBI has begun an investigation into a possible hate crime in Nevada. As previously reported, a Native American family claims to have been targeted and assaulted by a group of three skinheads, which led to the arrest of one of the victims, Johnny Bonta, but not the attackers. The Lyon County Sheriff’s Office is disputing the claims, but concerns have arisen over one of the attackers being the son of a former deputy. ( continue to full post… )

The Associated Press today has an in-depth story about the revival of the Inland Northwest as a haven for anti-government extremists and white supremacists. The small town of Kalispell, Montana, has recently seen some new and infamous arrivals, including white supremacist stage mother April Gaede, Oath Keepers founder Stewart Rhodes, and Randy Weaver of Ruby Ridge standoff fame.

A Newark man was indicted today on charges of intimidating and murdering Victoria Carmen White after learning that White was a transgender woman. The slaying marks yet another example of the vulnerability of gays and transgender people. The SPLC reported recently that LGBT people are by far the group most targeted by violent hate crime.

Testimony in the trial of accused cop-killer and white nationalist Richard Poplawski has revealed that SWAT responders feared that Poplawski’s surrender was an ambush. Evidence presented today detailed the near-depletion of the SWAT team’s ammunition in the gun battle, Poplawski’s repeated use of racial slurs during the standoff, and his admission of murdering three Pittsburgh officers. ( continue to full post… )

It’s a new and twisted world when the Ku Klux Klan takes on the Westboro Baptist Church, the famously rabid anti-gay group founded by Fred Phelps in Topeka, Kan. Needless to say, most Klan groups despise gays and lesbians only slightly less than black and Jewish people.

But over Memorial Day weekend, about 10 members of a tiny Powhatan Va.-based Klan group called the Knights of the Southern Cross Soldiers of the Ku Klux Klan joined a counterprotest against Phelps’ church held by about 70 people waving pro-U.S. signs. Like the other counter-protesters who came to denounce the Westboro hate group, the Klan tried to screen funeral services being held at Arlington National Cemetery from the “God Hates Fags” signs that have come to define the Phelps family and its church. Phelps claims that U.S. soldiers are being killed by a God angered at America’s “fag-enabling” ways. ( continue to full post… )

A federal judge this morning sentenced Ronald Wayne Edwards (seen at right during a deposition in 2007), former imperial wizard of the Kentucky-based Imperial Klans of America (IKA), to 48 months in prison, The Associated Press reported.

Edwards, who was charged with federal gun and drug violations, pleaded guilty in March. Along with his longtime girlfriend, Christina Gillette, who pleaded guilty on drug charges, he was accused trafficking methamphetamines and painkillers. Gillette will serve 12 months and one day in prison, the AP said. ( continue to full post… )

Jarred Hensley is a white supremacist who likes to hurt people. He did prison time for it. And now he’s figured out a way to hurt people and even break a country’s laws without having to do jail time. Along the way, he’s also caused something of an international uproar on the Internet.

Hensley is a Cincinnati-based activist in the Imperial Klans of America (IKA), one who already brought serious trouble to the organization. In 2006, he and fellow IKA member Andrew R. Watkins brutally assaulted a 16-year-old in rural Kentucky because they thought he was Latino. The pair spent three years in prison for the attack, and the SPLC brought a lawsuit against the IKA that resulted in a $2.5 million judgment against the hate group.

Now, Hensley — out of prison and evidently with a lot of time on his hands — has joined the ranks of Internet “trolls” who haunt the Web and harass people for various reasons, including leaving ugly messages for bereaved family members and friends of the deceased. (A recent New York Times Magazine piece explored their weird world in depth.) ( continue to full post… )

Although it’s a small town of about 7,800, Pulaski, Tenn. may well be the white supremacist epicenter of the nation — at least if the number of rallies held there by bigoted groups is any indication.

The mayor and other residents aren’t pleased. “There’s never been a local person involved in these marches or rallies,” Mayor Daniel Speer told Hatewatch this week. But they’re resigned to being a favorite locale for the haters on the American radical right. Speer’s town is more than one-quarter black, but it has for decades been a favorite place for white supremacist groups to rally because of one unfortunate historical fact: This was where the Ku Klux Klan was born.

The next such event on tap in Pulaski: the annual European Heritage Festival, scheduled for Oct. 23. The event, despite its name, has the heavy footprint of the Klan all over it. Sponsors include the Christian Revival Center led by long-time Arkansas Klan leader Thom Robb; the Knights Party USA (better known by its original name of the Knights of the Ku Klux Klan), which is Robb’s “political” organization; Voice of Reason radio, which features interviews with white nationalist luminaries such as Jamie Kelso and Tomislav Sunic; and Abundant Life Fellowship of Morgantown, Ind. ( continue to full post… )

White racial extremists are certain that “their” culture is under attack and has to be defended with guns. “If there is going to be any salvation of our culture, white European culture, violence is guaranteed because they’re not listening,” says long-time neo-Nazi and White Aryan Resistance leader Tom Metzger. I am not quite sure what Metzger is talking about — salvation for European culture in the United States? What exactly is “white culture”? But as Mariah Wilson’s new documentary “Revealing Hate” shows, racial extremists are typically better at advocating and committing violence than coherently explaining their irrational views.

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Poor Ron Edwards. Even racist skinheads don’t want to hang out with the former Klan leader.

Edwards — the Imperial Klans of America (IKA) founder who defended himself against a successful lawsuit filed by the Southern Poverty Law Center — was arrested last week on federal drug charges, including methamphetamine distribution.

That was too much for the Supreme White Alliance (SWA), a skinhead group that had been assisting the IKA with its annual hate rock gathering, Nordic Fest. Less than a week before this year’s Nordic Fest — planned for Memorial Day weekend at Edwards’ compound in Dawson Springs, Ky. — the SWA announced it would no longer be involved with the event. “The Supreme White Alliance drops it’s [sic] support of the Imperial Klans of America, Ron Edwards, and Nordic Fest due to current events,” SWA Vice President Richard Kidd, a former IKA member, wrote on Sunday. “Even though innocent until proven guilty, in order to preserve our reputation as a club for our members, the SWA has always been a drug free club and always will be. This is not intended to disrespect Ron Edwards or the IKA, but we will not be affiliated with them until all legal charges have been dropped.”  ( continue to full post… )

The founder of a once-thriving Klan group has recently battled a major lawsuit, money woes and, now, federal drug charges.

Ron Edwards, the 50-year-old former leader of the Imperial Klans of America (IKA), appeared in U.S. District Court in Owensboro, Ky., today on charges of possession with intent to distribute and distribution of controlled substances, including methamphetamine, according to court documents. He was also charged with possession of a firearm to further a drug trafficking crime. Edwards’ girlfriend, Christina “Chrissy” Ann Gillette, was charged with possession with intent to distribute and distribution of methamphetamine.

The drug charges will likely further damage Edwards’ reputation in the white supremacist movement, where some supporters have accused him of keeping donations meant for his Klan group.

Edwards, of Dawson Springs, Ky., led a particularly dangerous Klan group that welcomes violent skinheads and declares on its website that it “hates Muds, spics, kikes and niggers.” In an effort to cripple the organization, the Southern Poverty Law Center sued Edwards in 2007, after members of his Klan group were convicted of attacking a 16-year-old U.S. citizen of Panamanian descent because they thought he was an “illegal spic.”

Edwards showed up to a deposition with the words “Fuck S.P.L.C.” tattooed on his head. In November 2008, a jury awarded a $2.5 million judgment to the victim; the verdict is currently under appeal. Last year, the group had five groups in four states, down from 23 chapters in 17 states in 2006. Though smaller, the IKA remains active and continues to hold Nordic Fest, its annual hate rock gathering held on Memorial Day weekend at its compound and headquarters in Dawson Springs.

An FBI affidavit indicates that Edwards’ was allegedly dealing drugs shortly after his civil trial in Brandenburg, Ky. The affidavit gives the following account: On Jan. 6, 2009, Edwards pocketed $800 after selling 120 prescription Lortab pain pills to an undercover officer during a meeting in Bardston, Ky. (The pills contained hydrocodone, a controlled substance.) During the drug sale, Edwards kept a semi-automatic pistol concealed under his leg and then behind his back. On Aug. 13, 2009, Gillette, Edwards’ girlfriend, sold methamphetamine for $300 to a “cooperating witness” who met with her in Central City, Ky. On Sept. 2, 2009, in Dawson Springs, Edwards did the same, earning $500. And on Jan. 16, 2010, Edwards and the cooperating witness met again in Dawson Springs, where Edwards gave the witness 70 Lortab pills in exchange for $560.

Both Edwards and Gillette were released today on $25,000 bond issues. The conditions of release require them to remain under home detention and to avoid contact with each other. They are scheduled to appear in court again on June 24.