Lefkow slayings divide white supremacists

The execution-style murders of the mother and husband of a federal judge in Chicago prompted celebratory — even triumphant — chatter in some white supremacist circles on the Internet.

But others in the movement are criticizing public displays of jubilation, provoking heated debate in white power circles on the best strategy for achieving racial purity. Skinheads in Nazi regalia and racist talk-show personalities are vying for relevance with white separatists who take a more scholarly demeanor in their fight against race mixing and what they consider Jewish conspiracies.

The current drama in the racial war revolves around U.S. District Judge Joan Lefkow, who had ruled against one well-known racist and anti-Semitic group, the World Church of the Creator, and its leader, Mathew Hale, in a trademark dispute, making her an "enemy" to many in the movement. Hale is now in jail awaiting sentencing on his conviction of soliciting an FBI informant to kill Lefkow.

The idea that one of Hale's followers may have killed Lefkow's husband, Michael, and mother, Donna Humphrey, at the family home on Feb. 28 is just one theory that authorities are considering. They have received more than 600 tips about the slayings, according to the Chicago Police Department, and last Friday the FBI announced a $50,000 reward.

The day after the bodies were discovered, some white supremacist Web sites had posted articles about the killings, along with the exclamation “Rahowa!”— an acronym for "Racial Holy War."

“Too bad she wasn’t home, too!” said one writer, referring to Judge Lefkow, on a bulletin board run by the Imperial Klans of America Knights of the Ku Klux Klan.

'The real villains'
Some of the most provocative comments have been made by New Jersey-based Hal Turner, who conducts a daily broadcast of fiercely anti-immigrant, anti-Jewish and anti-federal commentary via short-wave radio and the Internet. His Web site calls for three other judges —described as "the real villains" in the Hale case — to be exposed to "rousing public debate" and "the pressure of public scorn." He also urges followers to supply information on these judges:

“Needed immediately is: Home addresses. … Background and biographical info. Photos. Voting records, property ownership records. Info. about any skeletons in their closets. … You know, the whole nine-yards. The full monty."

Judge Lefkow's home address had been posted on the Internet by a member of Hale's group.

resist.com The home page for the group White Aryan Resistance, led by Tom Metzger, who calls himself a white separatist.

Turner's comments on his Web site do not explicitly call for violence against the other judges, and Turner adds: "Please do not break any laws when undertaking your efforts."

Nonetheless, Turner walks a fine line. "We are living in tyranny," he told racists gathered at an Aryan Nations World Congress in 2003. "The only solution for tyranny is to kill the tyrants."

Musing about a hypothetical terrorist attack on Capitol Hill, Hale said: "The Congress of the United States are enemies of the people and they must fall."

Fear of crackdown
In racist Internet forums, cooler heads argue that this type of talk is counterproductive, if for no other reason than it brings on the heat of law enforcement, which stepped up pursuit of white supremacists in the early 1990s and was given expanded investigative powers after the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001.

"The 'movement' is looking pretty stupid right now in the news because of these morons," wrote "Valhalla" in a posting on Stormfront.org, a white supremacist bulletin board. Referring to Turner and others making inflammatory statements, he said: "They certainly haven't helped Hale's case one bit by their stupidity. Who here thinks that the prosecution will use incriminating statements by Hale (followers) in the upcoming sentencing hearing."

Hale, his family and his associates were among the first to be questioned by investigators in the Lefkow case.

Hale, now 33, took over the World Church of the Creator in 1995. One follower went on a three-day shooting rampage in July 1999 that left two minorities dead and nine wounded. Other Hale followers have been arrested on charges of aggravated assault, armed robbery, witness intimidation and attempted murder.

Despite this history, Hale issued a statement through his mother, saying: “There is no way that any supporter of mine could commit such a heinous crime.”

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