Leo Felton
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Leo Vincelette Felton (born 1970, Silver Spring, Maryland) is an American white supremacist who was convicted of bank robbery and plotting to blow up Jewish and black landmarks around Boston.
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[edit] Biography
Leo's father, Calvin Felton (b. 1930), is of mixed race and considers himself black, while his mother, Corinne Vincelette (b. 1931), is a former nun who became involved in the black equality movement and had a Jewish grandparent.[1] His parents divorced when he was two and his mother announced herself a lesbian and started a new life with a Jewish woman. He was institutionalized at age 10 by his mother (both he and his father agree that this was unnecessary) and thereafter he committed a series of petty thefts which he has attributed to a combination of institutionalisation and "aggressive black DNA".[2]
[edit] White Power
Felton spent eleven years (1990-2001) in prison for the attempted murder of a taxicab driver during a road rage incident. According to Felton, his incarceration provided him with an opportunity to observe how different races reacted when integration was enforced and societal stigmas over racism were not in action to civilize conduct. He claims that the whites in prison were under a continual state of siege by the other races, and that he was welcomed by whites, while blacks tried to rape him (his prison sentence was extended for attacking two blacks who made sexual advances).[3] In prison, he became an organizer for white supremacist day groups, organizing book reviews and exercise while obscuring his ancestry. He also found inspiration from the White Order of Thule.[4] Felton read of Francis Parker Yockey's Imperium, which let him to believe that race was something spiritual, instead of something biological.[2]
[edit] Bomb plot
Out of prison and married, Felton began an affair with Erica Chase, a 21 year old alleged white supremacist. Felton robbed a bank with a friend from prison and forged money in order to buy materials to create a fertilizer bomb. It is unclear what the target was to be, but it is believed to have been a Holocaust museum in New England or the Leonard P. Zakim Bunker Hill Bridge, the latter named for an Anti-Defamation League (ADL) regional director. He also desired to assassinate high profile blacks and Jews such as Jesse Jackson and Steven Spielberg, as well as drawing cartoons of himself bombing the offices of the ADL. As is the case with many other white supremacists who become criminals, his motivations were to ignite a race war. An attendant at a donut shop spotted a counterfeit $20 Chase tried to pass him. He alerted an off-duty Boston police officer, who then arrested Chase and Felton. Felton was sentenced to 21 years in 2002 for bank robbery, conspiracy to commit bank robbery and other crimes.
After learning of his ancestry, many of Felton's comrades agreed to testify against him. He states that he no longer believes wholeheartedly in the cause that once became his reason for life, but he has not renounced or distanced himself from his former views. Reactions to the story of Leo Felton have been mixed, with strong support from many black commentators who claim that in a race-blind society all should be able to claim whatever racial ancestry one likes[2] He has faced disbelief or intrigue from many whites and constant mockery from both racist and antiracist groups. After separation from his former comrades, Felton wrote a letter in which he criticized his parents and said he is "ever an unrepentant enemy of the multicultural myth."[4]
[edit] See also
[edit] References
- ^ SPLCenter.org: From the Belly of the Beast
- ^ a b c Tough, Paul. "The Black White Supremacist", New York Times Magazine, 2003-05-23, p. 42. ([1])
- ^ Terror suspect no racist, supremacist, father says
- ^ a b Turn It Down
