Racist Killer Thought He Killed Jews in Kansas Rampage
Frazier Glenn Cross Jr. Image by Getty Images
Prosecutors in Kansas rested their case on Thursday in the murder trial of a white supremacist after playing a recorded call in which he expressed surprise the three people fatally shot outside two Jewish centers last year were not Jewish.
Frazier Glenn Cross, 74, a former senior member of the Ku Klux Klan who is representing himself, could be sentenced to death if convicted of murdering the three people in April 2014 in suburban Kansas City, Missouri. He also is charged with the attempted murder of three others. Cross has pleaded not guilty to all the charges but has said several times in court that he is the killer.
Before resting their case, prosecutors played a recording of jail telephone call in October 2014 in which Cross can be heard saying he took a swig of whiskey in his car in celebration moments after the shootings.
“I’ve never felt such exhilaration and overpowering joy,” Cross said on the recorded call.
Cross told jurors he made the call. While it is not clear who Cross was calling, he said in court on Thursday that he knew and wanted the call to be recorded and to be made public.
He says on the recording he was surprised non-Jews would be at the two centers but did not regret the killings.
“It makes them accomplices of the Jews,” Cross says on the recording. “They are against us.”
Cross is charged with fatally shooting Reat Underwood, 14, and his grandfather William Corporon, 69, outside the Jewish Community Center of Greater Kansas City, as well as Terri LaManno, 53, outside a Jewish retirement home in Overland Park, Kansas.
Cross, also known as Glenn Miller, is expected to begin presenting his defense on Friday, including testifying himself. Judge Thomas Kelly Ryan on Thursday told Cross he would not be allowed to present as evidence videos, books and articles that support his anti-Semitic views.
“You are depriving me my right to give my state of mind,” Cross told the judge.
Over three-plus days, prosecutors presented witnesses, video and forensic evidence they have said connects Cross to the killings.
Cross has asked few questions of the prosecution’s witnesses and has been admonished repeatedly by Ryan for expressing his views instead of asking questions.
This is a moment of great uncertainty. Here’s what you can do about it.
We hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, we’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s independent Jewish news this Passover. All donations are being matched by the Forward Board - up to $100,000.
This is a moment of great uncertainty for the news media, for the Jewish people, and for our sacred democracy. It is a time of confusion and declining trust in public institutions. An era in which we need humans to report facts, conduct investigations that hold power to account, tell stories that matter and share honest discourse on all that divides us.
With no paywall or subscriptions, the Forward is entirely supported by readers like you. Every dollar you give this Passover is invested in the future of the Forward — and telling the American Jewish story fully and fairly.
The Forward doesn’t rely on funding from institutions like governments or your local Jewish federation. There are thousands of readers like you who give us $18 or $36 or $100 each month or year.
Support our mission to tell the Jewish story fully and fairly.
