The Nation - News from April 3, 1988

A former grand dragon of the Texas Ku Klux Klan accused of plotting to overthrow the government called the federal trial of 13 white supremacists at Ft. Smith, Ark., “the McCarthyism of the ‘80s.” Louis Ray Beam Jr. of Houston, who never testified during the 7-week-old trial, was one of three defendants to make closing statements. “In McCarthy’s case, they called it communism and said they (communists) were trained to infiltrate the government. They’re calling us Nazis and saying we attempted to overthrow it (the government),” said Beam, who is also an official with the right-wing Aryan Nations Church. Beam is among nine white supremacists accused of conspiring to overthrow the government and replace it with an “Aryan nation” in the Pacific Northwest. Five of the defendants, including Beam, are accused of plotting to assassinate federal officials.