Slaying Suspect Admits Helping Burn Synagogues

A white supremacist jailed in the slaying of a gay couple admitted in a jailhouse interview Thursday that he helped carry out arson fires last summer that caused more than $1 million in damage to three synagogues near the state Capitol.

Benjamin Matthew Williams, 31, told reporters at the Sacramento Bee that he joined as many as eight white supremacists to torch the three Sacramento area temples.

Williams denied that his brother, James Tyler Williams, 29, took part in the arsons. They are in Shasta County Jail facing trial on charges they murdered a prominent gay couple in the Redding area a few weeks after the June 18 arson fires.

“I knew I was crossing the Rubicon,” Williams told the newspaper. “It was the cusp of my life where I was putting faith in my beliefs.”

Williams said he assembled the gasoline and oil firebombs used in the attacks and wielded a crowbar to pop open the door at the Congregation B’nai Israel, a large synagogue in a neighborhood just south of the Capitol. He said two other teams struck at the same time in the early morning hours at the other temples in suburban Sacramento.

“It was the state capital,” Williams said about the choice to target temples in the Sacramento area. “It just seemed like a good hit.”

Williams said his involvement in the arsons began when he met a white supremacist leader at a survivalist convention about a year ago at Cal Expo, the state fairgrounds in Sacramento.

The man, who shared Williams’ views on religion and anti-Semitism, invited him to join his white supremacist organization. To win membership, Williams said, he was required to take action to prove his loyalty. Williams said the result was the synagogue arsons.

He was joined by two men at Congregation B’nai Israel, Williams said. He poured the fuel mix on the floor of the synagogue’s library. One of the others ignited it, he said.

All those involved, Williams said, kept their identities secret from each other in case anyone got caught. But he said the men were from south Sacramento, other areas to the south, and the San Francisco Bay Area.

Williams said the arsons emboldened him and led to the slayings of the gay couple, as he carried out what he believes are God’s laws against homosexuals.

The reported confession is not the first time that Williams has voiced his guilt to the press. He told reporters from two newspapers in November that he acted alone in the July 1 slaying of the gay couple, Winfield Mowder and Gary Matson, in their rural home south of Redding.

At the time of the earlier confession, law enforcement officials expressed skepticism about some of the details, suggesting that Williams was coming forward in an effort to deflect attention from his younger brother, whose handprint was found on the murder weapon.

Again on Thursday, investigators suggested that Williams may be twisting some of the details in the arson case. While they believe he was the prime participant in the arsons, and expect to file charges in the coming weeks, investigators say Williams may be trying to protect his brother.

“Investigators are skeptical about some of his claims,” said Nick Rossi, an FBI spokesman. He added that “the statements of a potential criminal defendant should always be viewed cautiously in light of the personal and political motives of the speaker.”

In particular, Rossi said, members of the task force investigating the arsons question the accuracy of his claims that as many as eight people were involved and that Williams had been recruited by a white supremacist organization.

Rossi said investigators “will carefully scrutinize” details of the confession as they pursue the case.

Federal authorities also believe the two brothers were involved in the July 2 arson of a suburban Sacramento office building that houses an abortion clinic. Williams declined to discuss the clinic fire Thursday, saying he wanted to save some information for interviews with other reporters.