George A. Bright, on trial here for bombing the Jewish Temple last October 12, once boasted that Jews would be “shot down in the streets.” This information came from an underground FBI agent who testified today in the state’s case against Bright.
Leslie E. Rogers, the undercover agent, said he attended meetings early this year posing as a racist. He testified that Bright and others accused of The Temple bombing were at a meeting in May. At that meeting a member reported on the death of 100 Jews in the Hungarian uprising in 1957. When they heard a description of the Jewish deaths, participants in the meeting displayed “glee,” according to the witness.
The witness said Bright told the others at the meeting that “if local conditions ever develop we will go to our homes and get guns and shoot Jews down in the street, stores and shops…wherever we find them.”
The witness testified further that he attended a convention of the National States Rights Party, an anti-Semitic racist group. He learned that this underground organization is established in 26 states. He testified that he was told its membership included Senators Strom Thurmond, South Carolina Democrat; Herman Talmadge, Georgia Democrat; William Jenner. Indiana Republican, and John Stennis, Mississippi Democrat.
The state offered as evidence against Bright an FBI report on Bright’s lie detector test. An FBI agent from Washington headquarters testified that the test showed Bright lied in answering questions concerning the bombing of the Temple. Judge Durwood Pye withheld an immediate ruling on admissibility of lie detector results as evidence. The jury was excused while the matter was debated by defense and prosecution attorneys.
Detective R.E. Little told the jury he found a note in Bright’s home that Bright admitted writing. The note, addressed to Rabbi Jacob Rothschild of the Temple, contained the phrase, “you are going to experience the most terrifying thing in your life.” Mr. Little said Bright had told him he wrote the note Curing a period in which questions had been put to the rabbi about the Jewish religion at a Baptist church meeting last May.
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.
