Supremacist’s North Dakota takeover plot ends with guilty plea

As far as racial takeover conspiracies go, Craig Cobb’s idea to conquer part of North Dakota with an army of white guys has not gone according to plan.

First, the 62-year-old supremacist’s plot to overrun the tiny town of Leith with fellow supremacists -- to buy up property and win a voting majority -- was exposed in August by the Southern Poverty Law Center’s Hatewatch blog.

Then, awash with national attention (and battling health code violations), Cobb went onto a daytime TV show to take a DNA test. It revealed, in front of rolling cameras, that he was actually 14% sub-Saharan African.

After that disclosure apparently turned at least one of his fellow supremacists against him, Cobb, along with another ally, was arrested in November for marching through town with a gun and intimidating local residents while on an ill-advised armed patrol.

Now, Cobb is apparently abandoning North Dakota. After making a deal with the prosecutor Tuesday, Cobb pleaded guilty to one count of felony terrorizing and five counts of misdemeanor menacing.

The Bismarck Tribune reported that a judge ordered Cobb released for time served, on four years’ supervised probation, with Cobb planning to move his probation to Missouri so he can care for his mother.

The prosecutor handling the case, Todd Schwarz, and Leith’s mayor, Ryan Schock, could not immediately be reached for comment. (The Los Angeles Times also couldn’t immediately reach an attorney for Cobb, who has burned through at least three public defenders.)

According to an interview with the Associated Press earlier this month, Cobb said he plans to “retire from white nationalism” because he’s tired of the spotlight.

That would perhaps be a wise move, given that one of his associates and fellow supremacists, Frazier Glenn Cross Jr., 73 -- also known as Frazier Glenn Miller Jr. -- is facing murder charges after a shooting rampage at two Kansas City, Mo.,-area Jewish facilities claimed the lives of three people.

Cobb reportedly spoke to Cross in a jailhouse phone call just before the rampage, and he told reporters that Cross had given no sign that he was planning an attack.