Furrow Threatened His Lawyers, U.S. Says

In the year since he was arrested and charged with a racially motivated shooting spree, avowed white supremacist Buford O. Furrow Jr. allegedly has threatened to kill his team of public defenders and a fellow inmate he considers to be Satan, federal prosecutors disclosed in court papers.

The 38-year-old Furrow is accused of opening fire and wounding five people at a Jewish community center, then gunning down postal worker Joseph S. Ileto during a day-long paroxysm of violence that shook the San Fernando Valley and focused national attention on hate crimes.

Furrow, who allegedly has admitted to the Aug. 10, 1999, shootings in a lengthy statement to the FBI, is accused of murder, attempted murder, civil rights violations and hate crimes in a federal grand jury 16-count indictment. Federal prosecutors will seek the death penalty if Furrow is convicted of the most serious charges. His trial is set to begin in U.S. district court in February.

While at the Metropolitan Detention Center in downtown Los Angeles, Furrow “told a guard that he felt like killing his lawyers,” and was later restrained during at least one meeting with his federal public defenders, Judy Clarke, Marilyn Bednarski, William Forman and Sean Kennedy, court papers say.

Maria Stratton, head of the federal public defender’s office, said, “We have never felt threatened by our client in any way. He is a very mentally ill person, and we see him on a daily basis. He struggles with it, and we struggle with it with him.”

In addition, prosecutors’ court papers say, Furrow twice threatened the life of a Latino inmate who worked as an orderly at his high security, six-cell unit.

The first threat against inmate Raul Lopez occurred in the form of a “bizarre” letter discovered in the pocket of Furrow’s prison jumpsuit Oct. 27, according to a memo included in the court papers. In the letter, Furrow had written “You must kill Lopez and all his protecting angels” 129 times. The number 129 was derived by assigning numerical values to the letters in Lopez’s name and in the name “Satan.”

“During my subsequent conversation with Mr. Furrow, he claimed that he could not rest until he killed Mr. Lopez and the unit staff,” prison psychologist Maureen Burris wrote in the memo. She added that Furrow, speaking in a matter-of-fact tone of voice, “maintained that Mr. Lopez was Satan and that he had been given an order by God to kill.”

In another memo, dated Nov. 12, Burris reported that Furrow again had expressed a desire to kill Lopez. “He stated that he is waiting for the opportunity for the unit officers to make a mistake, and as soon as he sees his opportunity, he intends to kill Mr. Lopez,” Burris wrote.

The threats were revealed in the government’s response to legal motions filed by the defense. The defense had accused the prosecutors--Michael Terrell, Michael Gennaco, Caroline Wittcoff and Bobbi Bernstein--of spying on Furrow and using the grand jury to fish for evidence that can be used to seek his execution.

The defense seeks to bar from the trial any evidence gleaned from a 24-hour video camera in Furrow’s cell or gathered by prison staff.

Prosecutors say in their court papers that they do not intend to tell jurors about Furrow’s alleged threat to his lawyers.

According to the government documents, Furrow also told a special agent with the federal Bureau of Prisons that he considered himself a “terrorist” and his crimes “a terrorist act.”

And, he asked a prison worker who served him dinner to mail two letters, one addressed to prison psychologist Burris, and the other “on up the line to Washington, D.C. (J. Reno).”

The contents of the letters were not disclosed. But as he handed them over with his meal tray, Furrow reportedly told guard Stanley Colvin:

“Here, I want you to give these to Dr. Burris and tell her that I’m tired of playing her like a fool. If she wants me to play the good little racist for her, I will. You can read them if you want.”

Furrow, who has a history of mental problems, allegedly told Burris that he was on medication at the time of the shootings, and that he is fully aware of what he is doing--whether he is medicated or not.

Furrow, who is from Washington state, allegedly drove to Los Angeles, targeted children as he shot up the North Valley Jewish Community Center in Granada Hills, then gunned down Ileto in Chatsworth because his skin was brown and he wore a government uniform. Furrow then took a cab to Las Vegas, where he turned himself in to the FBI and allegedly admitted to the community center shootings as “a wake-up call to America to kill Jews.”