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A28 u.s. news
Diaranson 28 Juli 2021

Inside a KKK murder plot: Grab him up, take him to the river

“White supremacist groups new klan group. Within a few
have historically engaged in weeks, Moore had scheduled
strategic efforts to infiltrate a meeting with the Grand
and recruit from law enforce- Dragon and second-in-com-
ment,” said an FBI document mand at a Dollar General
released by a congressional parking lot in Bronson, Flor-
committee in September, ida.
about four months before the
Capitol riots. In the intelli- The klansmen checked
gence assessment, written in Moore’s drivers license and
2006, the FBI said some in tested him in an exchange of
law enforcement were vol- klan jargon.
unteering “professional re-
sources to white supremacist Moore told them that he’d
causes with which they sym- killed people before, includ-
pathize.” ing a hit in China in 2005. He
was lying. He’d never seen a
In November, a Georgia battlefield and the medals he
deputy was caught on an FBI wore were fakes.
wiretap boasting about tar-
geting Black people for fel- But the leaders were im-
ony arrests so they couldn’t pressed. They invited Moore
(AP) — Joseph Moore agreed to plead no contest in for years. He had been dis- vote, and recruiting col- to be “naturalized.” He filled
breathed heavily, his face exchange for a reduced sen- ciplined more than once by leagues into a group called out an application, paid a $20
slick with nervous sweat. tence, and an order to receive the corrections department “Shadow Moses.” In 2017, an fee along with $35 in annual
He held a cellphone with a mental health evaluation for violent incidents, accord- interim police chief in Okla- dues.
a photo of a man splayed and treatment under county ing to records obtained by homa was found to have ties
on the floor; the man ap- supervision. The AP. Despite this, Moran to an international neo-Nazi He also signed a “blood
peared dead, his shirt torn had been kept in a position of group. In 2014, two officers oath,” part of which read, “I
apart and his pants wet. Williams told Driver to stop power over inmates. in Fruitland Park, Florida, swear ... to be Klannish in
blowing smoke at him, he’d were outed as klansmen and all things, to accept the life
It was 11:30 a.m. on March report later. Driver blew Moore was a U.S. Army vet- forced to quit. of the Brotherhood of Ser-
19, 2015, and the klansmen more, and Williams told him eran. When not in his klan vice, to regenerate our coun-
were celebrating what they to stop again. “helmet,” he often wore a Despite repeated examples, try and to the white race and
thought was a successful baseball hat pinned with white supremacists who are maintain the white blood
murder in Florida. When Driver continued, military medals, including a fired from law enforcement and natural superiority with
Williams jumped him and Purple Heart. He command- jobs after being discovered which God has enabled it.”
But the FBI had gotten wind they hit the ground. As they ed respect and fear from his can often find jobs with other The Grand Dragon told him
of the murder plot. A con- struggled, Williams bit Driv- klan brothers, and often re- agencies. There is no data- that a violation of his blood
fidential informant had in- er and gained an advantage, galed them with stories of his base officials can check to see oath was punishable by death.
filtrated the group, and his according to both men’s ac- work killing targets overseas if someone’s been identified
recordings provide a rare, de- counts of the fight. as part of an elite U.S. mili- as an extremist. Williams and his family live
tailed look at the inner work- tary squad. today with uncertainty and
ings of a modern klan cell and A group of guards responded, Domestic terrorism experts paranoia.
a domestic terrorism probe. and beat Williams so badly The very existence of a plot have been calling for better
that he required hospitaliza- to murder a Black man by screening to help identify ex- “My fears? That maybe some
That investigation would tion, his mother and lawyer Ku Klux Klan members tremists before they’re hired. of the other klan members
unearth another secret: An said. working in law enforcement Some states, such as Califor- could come around, and try
unknown number of klans- evokes past tragedies like the nia and Minnesota, have tried to find us and harm us,” his
men were working inside Driver, in turn, needed a bat- 1964 ”Mississippi Burning″ to pass new screening laws, mother, Latonya Crowley,
the Florida Department of tery of precautionary tests for case, where three civil rights only to be prevented by po- told The AP in her first inter-
Corrections, with significant HIV and hepatitis C because workers were slain by klans- lice unions, whose legal chal- view about the ordeal.
power over inmates, Black of the bite. They would all be men. Sheriff’s deputy Cecil lenges argued successfully
and white. negative, but the ordeal en- Price Sr. was implicated in that such queries violate free Looking back, Crowley re-
raged him. the deaths and was convicted speech rights. members weird occurrences
Thomas Driver took a pull of violating the young men’s around the house before the
off a cigarette, and exhaled More than a year later, in De- civil rights. Without screening, white su- FBI got involved.
the smoke at Warren Wil- cember 2014, a wooden cross premacists who get inside can
liams. Driver, a white prison ignited in a field hidden by Today, researchers believe operate with impunity, tar- In one instance, a neigh-
guard, and Williams, a Black tall trees. that tens of thousands of geting Black and other people bor said they saw two white
inmate, faced each other. Americans belong to groups of color, and recruiting oth- men — they looked like po-
Dozens of hooded klans- identified with white su- ers who share their views. lice — in Crowley’s yard at
The two men stood in a swel- men gathered around for a premacist extremism, the daybreak. “No police came to
tering prison dorm room in “klonklave,” a meeting of the klan being just one. These A few years later, Moore’s my house,” Crowley remem-
rural north Florida’s Recep- Florida Traditionalist Ameri- groups’ efforts to infiltrate cellphone lit up with an un- bered replying to the news,
tion and Medical Center, a can Knights of the Ku Klux law enforcement have been known number. The voice, dismissively.
barbed wire-encircled com- Klan. Members of a biker documented repeatedly in re- however, was familiar. It was
plex built among farmland club were being “natural- cent years and called an “epi- an agent who’d known him A bag of her trash full of her
an hour south of the Georgia ized” as citizens into the In- demic” by legal scholars. from his previous work with empty insulin containers —
state line. The RMC is the visible Empire of the Klan. the FBI, asking to meet about she’s diabetic - also disap-
state’s prison hospital where FBI Director Christopher a new investigation into an- peared. She wonders if that’s
new inmates are processed. Driver, known by his fellow Wray said at a March Senate other violent klan cell. Be- why Newcomb thought to
klansmen as “Brother Thom- hearing that “racially moti- cause of Moore’s success in- use insulin.
Williams, a quiet, 6-foot-1, as,” was there with Sarge vated violent extremism,” filtrating the klan before, the
210-pound inmate, suffered Moran, who was also a pris- mostly by white suprema- agency recruited him again. But Williams and Crowley
from severe anxiety and de- on guard. Moran had worked cists, accounts for the most are thankful, too. The FBI
pression. He was serving a for the Florida Department rapidly rising share of do- The FBI bought him a com- saved his life, and the state of
year, records show, for strik- of Corrections for decades; mestic terrorism cases. puter and phone so he could Florida prosecuted the men
ing a police officer. Williams he’d also been a klansman make contact online with the who threatened him.