The Buckner-based Missouri Patriots are a recent addition to Missouri's militia movement. Its newsletter, The Militia Minute, rails against the federal government, "international bankers" and the media. While itS size is not known, leaders of the militia are also members of the Kansas City-based White Knights of the Ku Klux Klan. In addition, a promotional item for the White Knights in their pubiication. The White Beret, features the slogan: "Join the White Militia."

Statewide, militias have been established in an estimated 14 counties and are recruiting actively, with some continued growth since the bombing of the Oklahoma city Federal Building. Although they maintain separate identities, several units in the eastern section of Missouri appear to operate under the leadership of the St. Louis- based 1st Missouri Volunteers Militia, a group established in January 1995 and led by John Moore. Militia groups in the western part of the state are directed by the Missouri 51st Militia, of Kansas City. The Springfield-area 24th Missouri Militia is the largest and most influential such group in the southeastern part of the state.

In March, the 1st Missouri Volunuers assembled a gathering of six state militia groups for a "Missouri Regional Conference." At the event, speakers, including State Senator David Klarich. declared that unlike their counterparts in other states, the Missouri Militia does not promote an agenda of bigotry. However, literature offered at the meeting included extracts from hate publications like the Liberty Lobby's The Spotlight, The Truth at Last, published by anti-Jewish agitator Ed Fields of Georgia, and The Jubilee, a journal that espouses the anti-Semitic pseudo- theology of the "Identity Church" movement.

ADL Fact Finding Report, "Beyond the Bombing: The Militia Menace Grows," Anti-Defamation League, 1995.

The original plaintext version of this file is available via ftp.

[ Index ] [an error occurred while processing this directive]