By The Chronicle Staff
The suspect in the April 13 shootings at the Jewish Community Campus and Village Shalom that killed three people has been identified by Overland Park police as Frazier Cross. Police report he also goes by Glenn Frazier Miller or simply Glenn Miller. The Anti-Defamation League, and the Institute for Research & Education on Human Rights (IREHR) have confirmed that Cross is a white supremacist from southwest Missouri with a career in hatred and white supremacy that has spanned more than three decades.
On Tuesday Johnson County prosecutors filed two types of murder charges against Cross. He is charged with one count of capital murder in the killings of Dr. William Lewis Corporon and Reat Griffin Underwood at the Campus. A conviction could result in the death penalty or life without parole. Prosecutors will determine at a later date whether they will seek the death penalty.
He was also charged with first-degree murder for the shooting of Teresa Rose LaManno in the Village Shalom parking lot. His bail was set at $10 million.
ADL reports in the early 1980s Glenn Miller was one of the more notorious white supremacists in the United States, but he eventually ran afoul of both the federal government and members of his own movement and has spent most of the last decade at the periphery of the white supremacist movement — no less radical but far less able to influence others.
Leonard Zeskin, president of IREHR based here in Kansas City, issued a statement about the alleged shooter while in Europe, following a special 50th Anniversary event for Searchlight magazine (an international anti-fascist magazine), and has been following the suspect for decades.
“Many of those on IREHR’s boards, including myself, have had past dealings with Frazier Glenn Miller and the effect of this alleged shooter’s racism, anti-Semitism and anti-gay bigotry. Whatever name Mr. Miller goes by today, we remember him from the heavily armed para-military organization he created in North Carolina. We remember the bravery of those from the now-defunct North Carolinians Against Racist and Religious Violence organization who faced Miller down in the 1980s. And we praise the good common sense of the voters in southwest Missouri who did not vote for him when he ran for office in the recent past, and we condemn those who did vote for this raving bigot,” said Zeskin, who is Jewish.
According to the ADL, Miller, originally from North Carolina, began his career as a neo-Nazi in the mid-1970s, but soon switched to the Ku Klux Klan. He was present at an infamous shooting of left-wing activists by white supremacists in Greensboro in 1979 that left five dead, but was never charged with a crime.
By 1980, Miller had formed his own Klan group, the Carolina Knights of the Ku Klux Klan (later changed to the White Patriot Party), a large regional Klan group that drew notoriety for its paramilitary training exercises. Members of the group committed several hate crimes against African-Americans during the decade, while its second-in-command was convicted of a plot to purchase stolen weapons, ostensibly to target a civil rights organization. During this period, Miller was one of the more notorious white supremacists in the United States.
The activities of Miller and his group eventually led to a federal court order prohibiting its paramilitary training. Rather than obey the order, Miller went underground with several followers in 1987 after issuing a “Declaration of War” that called for the “blood of our enemies [to] flood the streets.” Federal agents soon arrested Miller hiding out in the Ozarks in Missouri on charges related to his “Declaration” and explosives violations.
Miller eventually pleaded guilty to possession of a hand grenade and received a five-year sentence. He also agreed to testify against other prominent white supremacists in a sedition trial in Arkansas in 1988 — this latter decision forever earned him the enmity of the majority of the white supremacist movement, which now considered him a traitor to the movement.
Zeskin, the area’s foremost expert on anti-Semitism and racism, included a discussion of Glenn Miller during two recent presentations he gave on anti-Semites and racists in the Kansas City-area region — including a talk he gave at the Rabbinical Association of Greater Kansas City’s annual Day of Discovery held at the Campus last August.
Zeskin has also included some facts surrounding Glenn Miller and his testimony at the 1988 trial in Arkansas of white supremacists for seditious conspiracy in his book, “Blood and Politics.” (They were all acquitted). He is especially cautious regarding this suspect.
“There is still much we do not know about these shootings and warnings that must be issued. First, where and how did Glenn Miller get the guns he allegedly used in this case? Second, even if Miller is talking to police authorities as you read these words, I urge those authorities not to believe a word that cannot otherwise be proven. Third, at all times, please regard Miller as a suicide risk. His worship for Hitler and Hitlerism is real, and he may choose to finally follow his fuehrer,” Zeskind said.
Overland Park Police have confirmed a shotgun was used in both shootings and Cross was also in possession of a pistol. On Monday they would not disclose any other details regarding the number and type of weapons found in his vehicle as it was an ongoing investigation.
According to the ADL, in the years prior to the Overland Park attacks, Miller was a perennial but peripheral figure within the world of white supremacy. The FBI has confirmed Cross was on its radar, but was not currently being watched.
Editor Barbara Bayer, Community Editor Marcia Montgomery and contributing writers Heather Swan and Kelli White contributed to this story.