2002 white supremacist terror plot


In 2002, a pair of white supremacists planned to bomb a series of institutions and people associated with African American and American Jewish communities.

Crime

and Erica Chase, a boyfriend and girlfriend team, planned to blow up a museum with a fertilizer bomb, as was used in the Oklahoma City bombing. Felton wanted to rid the United States of those he called "mud people"; Asians, Blacks, Latinos and Jews. A member of the White Order of Thule, Felton was also ironically part African American. Chase was a member of the Creativity Movement.
Felton then robbed a bank with a friend from prison and forged money in order to buy materials to create a fertilizer bomb.
Targets included the United States Holocaust Museum, the New England Holocaust Memorial; well-known American Jews, including Steven Spielberg; and black leaders, including Rev. Jesse Jackson. An attendant at a donut shop spotted a counterfeit $20 bill that Chase tried to pass him. He alerted an off-duty Boston police officer, who then arrested Chase and Felton.

Trial and sentencing

The trial resulted in a conviction for both Felton and Chase on charges of conspiracy to commit bank robbery and plotting to blow up landmarks associated with Jews and African-Americans. Felton was sentenced to 21 years in prison, while Chase was sentenced to 57 months, although Judge Nancy Gertner had set aside the jury's conviction on a gun possession charge.
A federal appeals court reinstated the gun charge in 2005, requiring Gertner to decide on appending longer sentences within a surplus of five years on Chase and Felton; in 2006, Gertner added a full five years to Felton's sentence, while only additional three months was appended to Chase's sentence, the judge stating that Chase had "made a profound change in her life".