2 Held in Slayings Are Suspected in Arsons

Two brothers arrested in connection with the slayings of a gay couple in rural Northern California are suspected of playing a role in arson attacks on three Sacramento synagogues last month, law enforcement officials said Friday.

Authorities said a notebook compiled by the two men contained the names of various synagogue members culled from news accounts of the fires, prompting fears that some individuals were being considered for future attacks by white supremacists.

James Maddock, the FBI’s top agent in Sacramento, called the arrest of two suspects in Shasta County a “potentially very significant break” in the arson case.

Although refusing to divulge specifics, he said a series of searches that followed the arrest of the men by Shasta County sheriff’s deputies Wednesday yielded evidence that the two were involved in the arson plot.

Other law enforcement authorities confirmed that federal arson investigators are focusing on two Redding-area men who were arrested Wednesday in connection with the slaying of a gay couple whose bodies were discovered at their home July 1.

Benjamin Matthew Williams, 31, and James Tyler Williams, 29, both of the Redding area, were arraigned Friday on charges of receiving stolen property after discovery of the gay couple’s missing car helped lead police to the brothers.

The bodies of Gary Matson, 50, and Winfield Scott Mowder, 40, were found in the mobile home they shared on five acres in Happy Valley, a rural enclave near Redding. The longtime companions had been shot to death. There was no sign of forced entry and nothing had been taken from the home, although Matson’s small station wagon was missing.

A search by deputies of the brothers’ home yielded pamphlets, magazines and other literature espousing white supremacist beliefs, said Lt. Bradd McDannold of the Shasta County Sheriff’s Department. McDannold declined to go into detail about the contents of the literature.

“We’re certainly looking into the hate crime aspect of it,” he said.

Maddock said the two suspects in custody had access to “substantial” firearms and ammunition. Authorities felt that it was appropriate to warn the public “about the ability and possible intent” of hate groups. He also said investigators are looking into the possibility that there may be other people involved in the arsons.

Authorities normally would not “go public” at such an early stage of their investigation, Maddock said. But they became concerned when investigators uncovered the notebook filled with names, most of them associated with the three burned synagogues. Every name in the notebook had been included in media reports on the arson blazes, he said.

“It was our obligation to notify those individuals today and we have done so,” Maddock said. Though authorities do not know for sure the motive behind compiling the list of names, he said that “we are concerned for their safety and the public safety as well.”

A law enforcement source told The Times that the suspects in Shasta County were under investigation for a role in the synagogue fires before they were picked up in connection with the double slaying.

“There are a wide variety of people that were under investigation related to the arsons,” the source said. “These are two of them.”

Authorities estimate that the June 18 fires caused $1 million in damage, most of it to Congregation B’nai Israel in Sacramento. Knesset Israel Torah Center and Congregation Beth Shalom, two suburban synagogues, were less severely damaged. A leaflet blaming the “International Jew World Order” for the war in Kosovo was left at one of the synagogues.

Investigators said Friday that they have yet to establish any connection between the synagogue fires and an arson attack July 2 at a suburban Sacramento medical building that houses an abortion clinic. Nor do they know whether the slayings are connected to the June 20 murder in the same town of a 66-year-old neighbor.

One worshiper at Congregation B’nai Israel said Friday evening that her first emotion was joy that there were suspects in custody in the synagogue fires.

“But my next reaction was: You get two people. . . . How about all the other people committing hate crimes?”

At Congregation Beth Shalom in suburban Carmichael, members filed somberly into the burned temple and turned aside requests by reporters for interviews. A woman who identified herself as president of the congregation said members had been told by the FBI not to talk to the press or divulge their names.

“We will have plenty to say when it is over, but we want to let the FBI do its job,” said the woman.

The law enforcement task force looking into the Sacramento arson fires, Maddock said, will coordinate with other federal agents around the country to determine any possible connections to crimes elsewhere.

Authorities said those include the rampage by a white supremacist last weekend that left two people dead in Illinois and Indiana. Benjamin Nathaniel Smith, who shot himself to death as he was being chased by police, was allied with the World Church of the Creator, a group that has a substantial presence in Northern California and is being scrutinized in connection with the Sacramento arsons.

Shasta County deputies arrested the Williams brothers Wednesday at a shopping mall in Yuba City, more than 100 miles south of Redding, just hours after police discovered Matson’s vehicle abandoned in another Central Valley community.

At the time of the arrest, the brothers were attempting to retrieve property from a private postal service in Yuba City. The property had been ordered with the credit card of one of the victims after the slayings, Shasta County sheriff’s officials said.

Authorities said evidence was retrieved from Matson’s vehicle, from a car driven by the Williams brothers and from several buildings frequented by the suspects.

Friends of Matson and Mowder said they know nothing of the Williams brothers. But investigators said the brothers crossed paths with the gay couple because of an interest in horticulture.

Matson, a plant expert who had just launched an Internet business to market native California species, was a lifelong resident of the Redding area. He helped establish a natural science museum and arboretum in Redding as well as a weekly farmers market. Mowder, his companion for the past 16 years, ran the plant department at a local hardware store and had recently graduated from Chico State University with a degree in anthropology.

“They never, as far as I knew, had any real enemies,” said Nancy Greene, a Happy Valley neighbor.

The elder Williams brother, known as Matt, worked for a time at a nursery, authorities said. He also had a booth at the farmers market where he sold plants. More recently, the brothers had been trying to establish a landscaping business, McDannold said. Neither one has any prior arrests, he said, and acquaintances described the brothers as friendly, intelligent and very religious.

Rabbi Marvin Hier, dean and founder of the Simon Wiesenthal Center in Los Angeles, said the discovery of the list of names of synagogue members raised an ominous new threat for the Sacramento congregations. “The concern is whether this is part of a larger conspiracy,” he said.

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Times staff writers Virginia Ellis, Mark Gladstone and James Rainey contributed to this report.