15 Supremacists Indicted on Conspiracy, Death Counts

Fifteen white supremacists were indicted today in Arkansas and Colorado allegedly for conspiring to overthrow the U.S. government and for murdering a Denver radio talk show host in 1984, the Justice Department announced.

A federal grand jury in Fort Smith, Ark., accused 10 of those indicted of conspiring to topple the government over a 21-month period beginning in July, 1983. The members were affiliated with white supremacist groups the Order, Aryan Nations or the Ku Klux Klan.

One of the 10 charged with sedition, Robert Edward Miles, 62, leader of the Mountain Church of Jesus Christ the Savior, Cohoctah, Mich., said in a 1985 interview that his dream was for separatists to migrate to five Northwestern states and live by themselves and create the “New Israel.”

Miles is the former head of the Ku Klux Klan in Michigan.

In Denver, a one-count indictment was returned against four people, including three who were charged in the Arkansas indictment, for murdering radio talk show host Alan Berg.

The four were charged in a federal civil rights indictment with interfering with Berg’s right to engage in his employment because of his religion, race or national origin. Berg, who was Jewish, frequently used his show to attack and embarrass white supremacist movements and their leaders. He was slain with a submachine gun the night of June 18, 1984, as he got out of his car in front of his apartment.

U.S. Judge Targeted

The Fort Smith indictment also charged five people with conspiring to murder the chief U.S. district judge of the Western District of Arkansas, as well as a special FBI agent assigned to the bureau’s Little Rock office.

One of the five was among the 10 accused elsewhere in the indictment with sedition.

The indictment said that the 10 financed their efforts by armed robberies and counterfeiting and that they planned to assassinate federal officials including a judge. The indictment also said they targeted members of ethnic groups for bombings.

They also plotted to destroy utilites, pollute water supplies and establish guerrilla warfare training camps, according to one of the indictments. In addition, the 10 procured false identification to allow members of the group to remain unidentified.