Jury Views Videotape in Cross-Burning Case
A Los Angeles Superior Court jury hearing the case against four white supremacists on Thursday watched a free-lance journalist’s videotape showing training sessions at a neo-Nazi paramilitary camp in Idaho.
The tape, made by Peter Lake, a journalist who posed as a tropical fish importer and infiltrated white supremacist circles, also showed a 1983 cross-burning in Kagel Canyon that prosecutors charge was staged to incite violence. Former Ku Klux Klan leader Tom Metzger of Fallbrook and three other participants in the cross-burning are charged with felony conspiracy to violate the municipal fire code and two related misdemeanors.
The tape shows men dressed in orange and black Klan-type robes and masks, hands raised in Nazi salutes, pledging revenge if “one drop of Aryan blood” is spilled. The video from the Idaho camp shows men firing guns in target practice, with pictures of Menachem Begin as the target.
Start your day right
Sign up for Essential California for news, features and recommendations from the L.A. Times and beyond in your inbox six days a week.
You may occasionally receive promotional content from the Los Angeles Times.
