Richard Snell (criminal)

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Richard Snell (1931 - April 19, 1995) was an American involved with filming the planes that landed at the restricted airport in Mena, AR. He believed that the CIA was using this airport to smuggle drugs into America. He was a White-racist and a believer in the Christian Identity religion.

He claimed that the police departments (local and state) were involved in the cover-up of the Mena, AR drug deals. He had told many people that he filmed the then Governor of Arkansas Bill Clinton at the Mena airport. He further claimed that one of the Arkansas state troopers, who was working as a private security guard for Bill Clinton had beat-up his wife trying to make her revealed the location for the video-tapes that Snell had taken at the Mena airport.

Snell then, somehow, ended up in a gun-fight with this particular off-duty state trooper, who was also an african-american. Snell was well-known for his racist views, so when this shoot-out occurred it was reported as a racist killing, without any reference to the Mena drug smuggling operation.

After Snell was wanted for murder he went to a pawn-shop to kill the owner, who was rumored to be involved with trafficking in Child Pornography and to be Jewish. Snell shot this pawn-shop owner dead and was then captured by the police. It turned out that the pawn-shop owner was not Jewish.

While in prison his wife stayed by his side, even though he admitted to both murders. He became even more closely linked to his Christian Identity beliefs and signed all of his mail with "Christ is King". He believed in Adolf Hitler's National Socialism was fond of the writings by Friedrich Nietzsche and Oswald Spengler.

On the day he was scheduled to be executed, on 19 April 1995, the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma was destroyed by a bomb (or two). Snell thought this was done for him and it made him quite happy. He ate his last meal laughing saying that he had been avenged. There has never been any real link found to the bombing and Snell's execution.

There was also the rumor that Snell planned to attack the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma way back in 1983. He was executed by the state of Arkansas on April 19, 1995 on unrelated murder charges, the same day as the Oklahoma City bombing. [1]