Major Klan Group Folds After Member Pleads in Arms Case
Another one bites the dust.
Riddled with informants and with one of its members off to federal prison, the officially disbanded on Jan. 4, shutting down its chapters, or klaverns, in Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Illinois, Tennessee and Virginia.
鈥淚 know the Nazis want to say I鈥檓 a quitter and a coward,鈥 Jeff Jones, the 53-year-old imperial wizard, or national leader, of the Knight Riders, told Hatewatch today. 鈥淚 don鈥檛 care what they think. I don鈥檛 want to go to jail and be surrounded by the people I don鈥檛 want to be around in the first place. The jails are full of blacks and Mexicans.鈥
Just before Christmas, a member of the Knight Riders, Michael Lee Fullmore, 30, was Fullmore, according to the office of the U.S. Attorney for the Western District of Virginia, came to the attention of the FBI when he began
He was arrested in June 2013, after telling a government informant that he wanted to firebomb a Catholic church with a large Latino congregation in Claxton, Ga., where he lives.
Jones said the Knight Riders have held dozens of anti-immigration rallies and protests 鈥 鈥渨ith legal permits鈥 鈥 across the South over the last 10 years. But the group, he insisted, has never advocated violence and he called Fullmore a 鈥渞ogue Klansman.鈥
鈥淢e being the leader of the group, if he really did do something like that, firebomb that church, I would be implicated,鈥 Jones said. 鈥淲hat I鈥檓 thinking, because of what this guy is doing out here with absolutely no direction by the Klan to do any such thing, [is] I certainly could be taken down.鈥
Jones refused to say how many members the Knight Riders had. 鈥淭he bigger the group gets,鈥 he said, 鈥渁nd the longer it鈥檚 been around, the greater the chance of it being infiltrated and its going down. How many Klan groups have gone down in the past? Countless numbers.鈥
Jones, who first joined the Klan in 1981 when he was 21, said his life in the invisible empire 鈥渋s over and done.鈥
鈥淚 think there has to be another avenue of approach,鈥 he said, adding that he in no way is 鈥渜uitting the movement.鈥
鈥淚鈥檓 what you call a racist,鈥 Jones said, adding that whatever path he takes next will be law-abiding.
He said it was unclear whether his former followers will join other Klan groups. 鈥淲hat direction they鈥檙e going to go, I don鈥檛 know,鈥 he said. 鈥淭hey鈥檙e on their own now.鈥
Jones said he still worries that FBI agents might show up at his door in the middle of the night, even though 鈥淚 didn鈥檛 do anything wrong.鈥
鈥淭hat person,鈥 Jones said of Fullmore, 鈥渉ad everybody for the most part hoodwinked as far as his integrity as a Klansman and these things won鈥檛 be tolerated and I鈥檓 not going to be in charge of an organization that is harboring idiots.鈥
Jones said Fullmore 鈥 鈥渁 real nut job鈥 鈥 had been a member of the group for several years and had been brought in by 鈥渙ur recruitment department.鈥
The former imperial wizard blamed Hollywood, the media and the Southern Poverty Law Center, which publishes this blog, for falsely characterizing the Klan as a terrorist group and attracting people like Fullmore.
鈥淵ou guys are fueling the nut jobs in the world to come into our organization,鈥 he said. 鈥淲e鈥檝e weeded them out. We鈥檝e got them left and right and got rid of them. It was a constant problem, I guarantee you.鈥
Along with the idiots and nut jobs in the Knight Riders, Jones said government informants heavily infiltrated the group.
鈥淔BI got in there and tore it to pieces,鈥 he said, 鈥渁nd idiots from the inside helped finish it off. It was destroyed from within. There was no sense carrying on with the Knight Riders.鈥
Jones said Jews were out to destroy the United States and 鈥渢he entire Anglo race鈥 because of 鈥渨hat happened to them in Nazi Germany.鈥 He said 鈥渢he Jews鈥 are calling the shots, manipulating Latinos and blacks, including 鈥渢hat joker in the White House.鈥
Still, he said, he does not understand why the Southern Poverty Law Center 鈥渃alls us a hate group.鈥
鈥淚 don鈥檛 get it,鈥 he said. 鈥淵ou guys are so hateful towards us and we鈥檝e never done anything to you.鈥