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Neo-Nazi is Landlord in Black Neighborhood

Avowed neo-Nazi Bill White has recently bought a group of rental properties in Roanoke, Va., in what he calls a 'ghetto beautification project.'

Bill White, a neo-Nazi propagandist with a taste for words like "n-----" and "nig-rat," has set up shop in a black neighborhood in Roanoke, Va., as the landlord of nine rental properties whose 18 units were rented to mostly black or biracial tenants.

A former anarchist who now runs the anti-Semitic Overthrow.com Web site, White said in August that his White Homes and Land, LLC, had some $636,000 in assets. He has described his purchases as part of his "ghetto beautification project."

News of White's venture hit the front pages of local newspapers this summer after a woman he describes as a former girlfriend began leafleting the West End area where his properties are located with "Meet Your Local Racist" flyers.

Erica Hardwick-Hoesch, a self-described former neo-Nazi who adamantly denies ever having been White's lover, was punched in the face by White as she passed out the flyers with a friend on July 6. In early August, a judge convicted White of assault, while Hardwick-Hoesch was fined for trespassing on his rental properties.

Not long after acquiring his properties last spring — he testified in court that he owns six outright, with three more under contract — White moved to evict Angie Layman, who said that she believed he was going after her because she has a black boyfriend and biracial children. White denied that, saying he was a "socialist" wanting to "assist the disadvantaged," and calling Layman a criminal.

White also denied being prejudiced against blacks, saying the only people he hated were Jews. But White's postings on own Web site — replete with slurs like "n-----" and including the complaint that whites "mistakenly believe nigs to be fellow humans" — make that assertion hard to swallow.