Edgar Steele Charged In Murder For Hire Case

Generally speaking, we focus primarily on racists in Canada. On occasion though we note links to racists who reside outside of the country when there is a connection to the people we cover here.

Today, Edgar Steele was arrested based on allegations of murder for hire:

North Idaho attorney charged in murder-for-hire plot
Prosecutors say Edgar J. Steele, long tied to hate groups, agreed to pay money to see his wife and her mother dead.

BY KATHLEEN KRELLER AND CYNTHIA SEWELL - kkreller@idahostatesman.com cmsewell@idahostatesman.com

Copyright: © 2010 Idaho Statesman (Published: 06/12/10)

Edgar J. Steele, 64, was charged Friday - the same day the women were to be killed in a car crash meant to look like an accident, according to a probable-cause affidavit.

A confidential witness occasionally employed by Steele met with the FBI Wednesday and told agents Steele would pay him to murder the women.

The witness said Steele had discussed a list of people he wanted dead, including his wife and her mother, six months earlier. The witness agreed to the plot and accepted travel money, court documents say.

According to the affidavit, the witness was supposed to kill the women Friday because Steele had an alibi for that day. So agents concealed a device on the informant and recorded Steele planning the murders, the document said.

"The United States magistrate had found probable cause for the offense," said Traci Whelan, an assistant U.S. attorney for Idaho. "As for the timing of the arrest, it was prudent, given he had apparently set a deadline for it."

Steele is well known from his work for hate groups such as the Aryan Nations and other high-profile clients, including the McGuckin family, who held off police during a 2001 Idaho standoff. He's also known for vocal anti-semitic and racist rants on the Internet.

The witness told the FBI Steele paid $500 in cash for travel expenses and promised as much as $25,000 if the murders were completed on Friday. According to the affidavit, Steele promised the witness another $100,000 if an insurance policy paid out after his wife's murder.

"Edgar Steele told (the witness) that he has no second thoughts and he wants the plan carried out," the affidavit said. "This statement was made multiple times during the meet."

According to the affidavit, Steele said he would deny knowing the witness if he were caught, but he would compensate the witness's family if Steele was never implicated.

The motive for the alleged plot is unclear. Whelan said she believes the couple is still married and has not separated. Steele's wife was visiting or helping out with a health care issue at her mother's house in Oregon this week, Whelan said.

Calls to the Oregon house were not immediately returned on Friday.

Whelan said the complaint is just a charging document and is not proof of guilt. Steele will likely appear at a preliminary hearing on Monday, and the case must go before a grand jury, she said. Steele was arrested Friday at his Sagle home.

"Neither the FBI or U.S. Attorney's Office would proceed in a case where we didn't feel there was proof to charge," Whelan said.

Steele is in custody on federal felony charges, she said, but she declined to reveal where he is being held.

According to his website, Steele is an author and trial lawyer who graduated from the University of California, Los Angeles, School of Law and has a law practice that is "noteworthy for cases that test the limits of constitutional law on behalf of politically incorrect clients." The website also says Steele recently considered a run for Idaho governor.

He unsuccessfully defended the Aryan Nations and its founder, Richard Butler, in a multimillion-dollar lawsuit brought against them in 2000. Steele penned the book "Defensive Racism: An Unapologetic Examination of Racial Differences."

Last year, in response to the shooting of a security guard at the national Holocaust Memorial Museum by neo-Nazi James von Brunn, Steele said, "Why did von Brunn choose to unload at the National Holocaust Museum? Because it is an edifice to one of the most stupendous lies of modern times, paid for and maintained with taxpayer dollars, that's why."

Kathleen Kreller: 377-6418

Steele is one member of the "Nazis in suits" crowd. You know, the people who dress in a professional manner and couch their racism "science" and "history", or at least an interpretation of said science and history. They also try to avoid racial epithets, at least in public. However, under the surface, they're just the same as the other boneheads.

Paulie is quite familiar with Steele, having participated in various speaking engagements down south. Paulie also recommends Steele's books to young boneheads:

July Show and Share 2

Though it's a bit old now, we found this to be an interesting article worth sharing with our readers:

The Hatemongers' New Tool: The Internet
Christopher Wolf: Internet Hate Is What Kept James Von Brunn's Hateful Lunacy At The Boiling Point

By Christopher Wolf
Special to CBSNews.com
June 17, 2009

Before the Internet, James Von Brunn, the self-proclaimed white supremacist, anti-Semite and Holocaust denier who stands accused of murder at the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, was relegated to using the mail to communicate his rage with like-minded haters. The only place for him to have his benighted views applauded was in sporadic clandestine meetings.

The Internet changed all that. Like his fellow bigots, Von Brunn found the Internet a boon to his warped causes. His maintained a hate Web site, "Holy Western Empire," where he touted and provided excerpts from his book that denied the Holocaust and praised Hitler. And online, in chat rooms, on bulletin boards and through links to other haters’ Web sites, Von Brunn had a virtual fan club, who cheered him on and legitimized his vicious thinking.

We will never know whether Von Brunn’s rage would have burned out but for the Internet, but we do know that he found validation for the rage he harbored on the Internet.

At the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum, where Von Brunn unleashed his hateful rage by killing Security Guard Stephen Tyrone Johns, there recently was an exhibit on the power of Nazi propaganda. The exhibit showed how the Nazi propaganda machine skillfully spread lies about Jews and perpetuated centuries-old anti-Semitic stereotypes, setting the stage for the Holocaust.

Today, the Internet Von Brunn used is a powerful and virulent platform for anti-Semitism - hate toward Jews that has a direct link to the deterioration of civil society, violence, terrorism, and - as we now know - murder. Hitler and the Nazis could never have dreamed of such an engine of hate.

The Internet as the new propaganda machine for anti-Semites is not under the central control of a political party or group. It gains its power by being viral in nature. Everyone can be a publisher, even the most vicious anti-Semite. Hate begets hate, and its common appearance makes it seem acceptable and normal. Internet hate is what kept Von Brunn’s hateful lunacy at the boiling point.

And, perniciously, Internet hate speech serves to mislead and even recruit young people to become the next generation of anti-Semites and, perhaps, murders.

Since its advent, we have been concerned about the incredible power and reach that the Internet has given anti-Semites and bigots. What has developed in the past few years, however, is much more dangerous. We are now in the world of what is called "Web 2.0,"transforming the way the Internet is being used. Any hater and propagandist can reach a mass audience, even an audience that didn’t think itself receptive to such hateful ideas. With the users of Web 2.0 comprised largely of younger people, the impact of the information posted there may persist for generations to come.

Blogging and social media sites are changing the way people communicate their reactions to events in the news and interact with each other. Those who harbor anti-Semitic beliefs are comfortable expressing themselves in cyberspace, where they can provoke a reaction from others or find like-minded individuals to affirm their beliefs.

In the aftermath of the Madoff revelations, the comments section following ordinary news stories contained rages against Jewish people for controlling (and ruining) the world’s finances. And YouTube frequently is the home of hate-filled replays of Nazi propaganda films.

The perniciousness of anti-Semitism on today’s Internet is that the more one sees it, the more one is likely to consider it normal, and acceptable. Good people are numbed by the proliferation, and daunted by the task of responding. Others consider it a reflection of what is acceptable in society. And then there are those on the fringe, like Von Brunn, who use such content as justification for murder.

The First Amendment protects essentially all hate speech, except that consisting of direct threats against specific people. But that does not mean we should throw up our hands and simply accept hate on the Internet as something that will always infect the Internet. There is a role for Internet users, for Internet companies and for educators. We should speak up when we see hate sites, explain to our kids what they are seeing, and counter the vicious lies.

Those offering Internet services with terms of use that prohibit hate speech should enforce those terms and remove offending content. And it is time for Internet education as a requirement in all schools, to teach kids how to filter what they are seeing and to reject hate online. (The epidemic of cyberbullying alone should inspire such attention to kids using the Internet.)

A fitting memorial to museum guard Stephen Johns would be for society finally to address hate on the Internet in a meaningful way, to prevent the next Internet-inspired murder.

Christopher Wolf, an attorney in Washington D.C., is Chair of the Anti-Defamation League’s
Internet Task Force and Immediate Past Chair of the International Network Against Cyber-Hate.

In light of the effort to gut or completely dismantle the CHRC and CHRT, this article is certainly food for thought.

James W. von Brunn Links to Canadian Boneheads

Although we hadn't yet commented on the incident before now, we have been following the situation regarding the attack on the Holocaust Museum by James W. von Brunn, an 88 year old known for decades as a virulent antisemite and racist who once was imprisoned for trying to kidnap members of the Federal Reserve back in 1981 and served a 6 year sentence.

A few of our readers asked us to write an article on any connection that von Brunn had to Canadian racists. On that we would invite our readers to take a look at BigCityLib's discussion of the subject, though we would add our own belated input as well. Below is an excerpt from an ADL profile on von Brunn:

To Von Brunn, the Holocaust was another Jewish sleight-of-hand; he was an avid Holocaust denier with connections to a variety of denier groups and individuals. Holocaust denier Jack Wikoff identified Von Brunn in 1995 as one of four "dedicated activists" who helped air the Holocaust denial videos of Canadian Holocaust denier Ernst Zundel on public access television. In return, Zundel interviewed von Brunn on his radio show, identifying him as an "American artist and businessman."

At the time that this interview occurred, Zundel's webmaster was Marc Lemire. Also, while Zundel was being held in detention in Canada awaiting deportation, von Brunn signed his name to a petition demanding that Zundel be released:

Dear Sir:

RELEASE Ernst Zundel, a great man, and with him RELEASE FREEDOM of THOUGHT.

James von Brunn USA

Well, at least he referred to Coderre as sir.

Not long after the attack that left one man, security guard Stephen Tyrone Jones, dead, the Aryan Guard forum announced the news of the attack. Bill Noble immediately justified the murder, as well as the 1981 attempted kidnapping:

Not to be outdone, other members of the Aryan Guard's forum chimed in to praise von Brunn for his attack on the Holocaust Memorial: