Charles Manson Didn't Kill Anyone, Either. He Just Made It Seem Like a Good Idea

Law enforcement agents have broken up a plot by two neo-Nazi skinheads to assassinate Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama and shoot or decapitate 88 black people, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco Firearms and Explosives said Monday.

In court records unsealed Monday in U.S. District Court in Jackson, Tenn., federal agents said they disrupted plans to rob a gun store and target a predominantly African-American high school in a murder spree that was to begin in Tennessee. Agents said the skinheads did not identify the school by name.

Jim Cavanaugh, special agent in charge of ATF's Nashville field office, said the two men planned to kill 88 black people, including 14 by beheading. The numbers 88 and 14 are symbolic in the white supremacist community.

The men also sought to go on a national killing spree after the Tennessee murders, with Obama as its final target, Cavanaugh told The Associated Press.

“They said that would be their last, final act —that they would attempt to kill Sen. Obama,” Cavanaugh said. “They didn't believe they would be able to do it, but that they would get killed trying.”


I'm sure it took little to incite Jed and Jethro, here, to action, just as I'm sure the inflammatory language of the vice presidential candidate played a part. Well played, madam.