In a move that has people either scratching their heads in confused disbelief or spitting-mad with disgust, the recent shotgun killings by a reported ex-member of the KKK has drawn the harshest of condemnation from two highly unlikely organizations — the Ku Klux Klan and the Aryan Nation, as reported by both USA Today and WDAF Fox-4 Kansas City on April 14, 2014.
The first day of this week was not only the Palm Sunday holy day for Christians but also the first day of Passover for the world’s Jews, thus ensuring that the shock and sadness was multiplied when three were killed and two wounded in a shotgun shooting spree outside two Jewish Centers in the Kansas City suburb of Overland Park, KS.
Frank Ancona, the Imperial Wizard of the Missouri Klan, made no bones about it. If and when Frazier Glenn Cross (AKA: “Frazier Glenn Miller”) is found guilty of the killings, Ancona indirectly called for the death penalty:
We condemn the actions of Glenn Miller and if convicted support the maximum punishment for his crimes. Our thoughts and prayers go out to those affected by this heinous crime. We pray that God comforts those who lost their loved ones.
Echoing Ancona’s sentiments was Kansas City’s Buddy Rumble, formerly aligned with the neo-Nazi National Socialist Movement. Rumble was quoted as saying the Aryan Nation and KKK share “similar non-violent missions.” The former National Socialist made his displeasure with Cross known by stating, “people in our movement are upset … at this man for doing what he did, we don’t condone that.” Cross surrendered to local law enforcement Sunday after the shootings at two separate Jewish organization buildings in Overland Park, KS. Cross reportedly yelled “Heil Hitler!” to TV cameras as he was placed in back of one of the police cruisers.
The three gunned down include Reat Griffin Underwood, 14-years-old, and his 69-year-old grandfather, William Lewis Corporon. The grandfather-grandson duo were both white, both identified by family as Christians. The two were paying a visit to the Jewish Community Center so Reat could attend tryouts for a singing competition.
Also murdered was a 53-year-old occupational therapist named Terri LaManno, who also was white as well as Catholic. She was visiting her mother in the Jewish Center retirement home when gunned down. Two other individuals were wounded in the spree, but their identities have yet to be made public.
Meanwhile back in Kansas …
As cited by the Orlando Sentinel from 1994, there is only one crime that the State of Kansas dictates worth of the death penalty: Capital murder. Despite reinstating the death penalty in 1994, the state hasn’t executed a guilty party since 1965, when it hanged murderers George Ronald York and James Douglas Latham.
