Church of the Creator: Creed of Hate
On July 26, 1993, police arrested two Washington state
residents. Jeremiah Gordon Knesal (a
reported leader of the COTC) and Wayne Paul Wooten, both 19,
for shoplifting at a mall parking lot
in Salinas California During a search of Knesal's car, the
officers uncovered three pipe bombs, four
loaded long-barrel weapons, military apparel, ammunition,
wigs, climbing gear, white supremacist
literature and a page from a Portland, Oregon, telephone
book listing Jewish agencies and synagogues.
Under subsequent questioning by the FBI, Knesal
confessed to his involvement in the July 20
bombing of an NAACP office in Tacoma, Washington. According
to the FBI, Knesal also implicated
Mark Frank Kowaalski (aka Mark Stevenson), 24, an ex-convict
and member of the Skinhead group
American Front, in the Tacoma bombing. Kowaalski was
arrested the same day in Seattle and was
charged with being a convicted felon in possession of a
destructive device. Agents reported that the
Skinhead ringleader possessed "physical evidence" linking
all three suspects to the bombing.
Authorities stated that the Tacoma firebombing was part
of a larger plot to attack Jewish and
African American institutions, military installations
(particularly those housing submarines), gay and
lesbian gathering places, and radio and television stations.
The three also reportedly planned to
assassinate two rap music performers, Ice Cube and Ice-T.
In addition to Kowaalski's association with American
Front, Knesal described himself to the FBI
as Washington state director of the Church of the Creator.
His COTC membership card was among
the white supremacist paraphernalia found at the time of his
arrest.
COTC has figured prominently in Northern California
recently, too, due to the distribution of
Racial Loyalty in Berkeley, Piedmont, and Oakland. In
Berkeley, police have speculated publicly that
COTC members may be linked to swastika graffiti painted on a
Judaica store, "Afikomen," on July 18;
on June 27, copies of the COTC pamphlet "On the Brink of a
Bloody Race War: With the White
Race Targeted for Extinction" were left on the doorsteps of
the shop, as well as at several other
businesses and homes in the area.
Following the Tacoma bombing, McCarty for the second
time in two weeks felt the need to
distance himself from the actions of some of his West Coast
followers. "These kids are crazy, aren't
they" he told The San Francisco Chronicle. "We don't promote
any type of violence whatsoever. We
do, however, want to repatriate the colored races back to
their own countries and stop immigration
and so forth. just like the [U.S.] government used to move
Indians around. we want to do the same
thing."
As of October 1993, the three Skinheads currently
remain in police custody awaiting trial; in
addition to the charge filed against Kowaalski relating to a
"destructive device," Knesal and Wooten
have been arraigned on three counts of manufacturing and
possessing explosive devices, felony
offenses carrying a maximum penalty of 10 years in prison
and a $10,000 fine on each count.
The
original plaintext version
of this file is available via
ftp.
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The Tacoma Plot