Two Ku Klux Klansmen and a neo-Nazi were found guilty by a federal grand jury yesterday of plotting to blow up a synagogue, a television transmission tower and Jewish owned businesses in Nashville, Tenn.
The jury deliberated eight hours before convicting Gladys Girgenti, 50 years old, and Bobby Joe Norton, 32, both members of the Confederate Vigilantes of the Ku Klux Klan, and William Foutch, 48, a member of the American Nazi Party.
Girgenti and Norton were found guilty of transporting explosives and two counts of conspiracy and Foutch was found guilty on two counts of conspiracy.
The defendants were implicated in what prosecutors described as a “bizarre” scheme motivated by hatred and bigotry, by Robert Lee Vance, who was working for the Federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms. Vance had tape recorded conversations about the plot. The defense attorneys argued that Vance entrapped their clients.
Last May, federal authorities intercepted three people as they drove their pickup truck onto the property of The Temple, a Reform synagogue serving the estimated 3,700 member Jewish community of Nashville, in an alleged attempt to plant a bomb at the synagogue.
The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
