Federal judges family slain: White supremacist groups draw scrutiny

White supremacist Matt Hale, the self-proclaimed "Pontifex Maximus" of the World Church of the Creator, sits in a cell, isolated from other inmates and allowed only rare visits from his parents. But investigators want to know whether his malign influence extended beyond the prison walls. Police are investigating whether the shooting deaths of a federal judge's husband and mother were carried out by hate groups that were linked to Hale or were sympathetic toward him and thought they were avenging his cause. But Chicago Chief of Detectives James Molloy cautioned that the possibility of hate-group involvement is one many angles under investigation, adding: "It would be far too early to draw any definitive links." Hale, 33, is facing up to 40 years in prison at sentencing next month for trying to arrange the murder of the judge, Joan Humphrey Lefkow, who presided over a trademark dispute involving the name of his group. On Monday night, Lefkow came home to find her husband and mother shot to death in the basement. Hale's call for "racial holy war" was previously linked to a deadly, three-day shooting rampage against minorities by one of his followers in 1999. [more]

• The Aryan Nations - one of the most notorious neo-Nazi groups in the United States - is moving its national headquarters to Kansas City, Kansas. The group's members, who believe that Jews are "the children of Satan" and African-Americans are "beasts of the field," chose Kansas City, Kan., because of its central location, said "High Counsel" August B. Kreis III. [more]
• Hate crime shocks Paiute reservation [more]