Analysis: Trial of two self-described white supremacists charged with plotting to ignite a race war concludes today

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Analysis: Trial of two self-described white supremacists charged with plotting to ignite a race war concludes today

Host: JOHN YDSTIETime: 9:00-10:00 PM

JOHN YDSTIE, host:

After eight days of testimony, the federal trial of two self-described white supremacists concluded today in Boston. Leo Felton and Erica Chase are charged with conspiring to blow up black and Jewish landmarks in that city, a charge both defendants deny. But in their summation, prosecutors pointed to physical evidence and witness testimony to paint a picture of a couple who were bent on igniting a race war. From Boston, Phillip Martin reports.

PHILLIP MARTIN reporting:

In April of last year, just months out of prison, Leo Felton and his girlfriend, Erica Chase, moved to this apartment building on Salem Street. Many in this Italian-American neighborhood pride themselves on knowing everything that goes on here, but neighbor Andrea Sparks(ph) never noticed the 6'7" Felton, whose skinhead scalp tattoo was always hidden under a cap.

Ms. ANDREA SPARKS (Resident): You know, he was a big guy, so I thought if he came in, we couldn't have missed him, but I guess when it comes down to what he was all about, he probably didn't want people to see him.

MARTIN: And police say Felton's inconspicuousness had everything to do with what the couple was planning: the bombing of an ethnic landmark, possibly the New England Holocaust Memorial. And US prosecutors say they might not have discovered the alleged plot if not for an off-duty police officer who spotted Chase trying to pass a phony $20 bill at a local coffee shop. That led federal agents to the couple's apartment, where they allegedly discovered a 50-pound bag of ammonium nitrate fertilizer, similar to that used by Oklahoma City bomber Timothy McVeigh. Police also found a handgun, books on terrorism and a comic book script depicting a white supremacist ex-con planting bombs and killing residents of a black housing project.

Prosecutors describe the sketches as a blueprint for a race war. But Felton's attorney, Lenore Glaser, said they were nothing more than the expressions of an angry artist.

Ms. LENORE GLASER (Felton's Attorney): What is the evidence of actions that are criminal? Ideas in this country--the First Amendment stands for the right of all of us to associate freely and to express our ideas, whatever those ideas are.

MARTIN: Felton's induction into white supremacist culture, according to court documents, took place in Northern Prison in New Jersey, where he was incarcerated for beating up an Afro-Cuban taxi driver. During his 11 years behind bars, he slashed two black inmates and became a leader of the East Coast Aryan Brotherhood and the neofascist White Order of Thule.

Felton's ideas concerned Bob Moser of the Southern Poverty Law Center's intelligence unit. For years the group has monitored Felton's writings on an Internet Web site.

Mr. BOB MOSER (Southern Poverty Law Center): Felton has a very sophisticated knowledge of neofascist ideology and writings. He has a great grasp of Norse mythology and Jungian psychology. And really his letters and notes show a very, very active and very dangerous mind at work.

MARTIN: Toward the end of his prison term, Felton began corresponding with Chase, a young rising star in neo-Nazi circles. What she and others did not know was that Felton harbored a deep secret which did not emerge until after his arrest in Boston. He is the son of a white mother and a black father, both former civil rights activists. In letters from his jail cell to Boston's daily newspapers, Felton lashed out at his parents, saying their mixed marriage was the cause of his troubles, and he condemned what he called the soiling of white blood.

Felton and Chase never took the stand, and their lawyers offered few witnesses to rebut the prosecution's case. A jury is deliberating on multiple charges, including counterfeiting and conspiracy to bomb. Experts on hate groups say no matter how the case turns out, it will end in irony. Leo Felton, they say, will be shunned by the very white supremacist groups he hoped to lead into a racial holy war now that the truth about his mixed-race background has been made public. For NPR News, I'm Phillip Martin in Boston.