Image by YouTube

A Kansas jury on Tuesday said a white supremacist who shot three people to death outside two Jewish centers last year should be put to death for the crimes.

Frazier Glenn Cross, 74, a former senior member of the Ku Klux Klan who has been representing himself in court, was found guilty last month of killing Reat Underwood, 14, and his grandfather, William Corporon, 69, outside the Jewish Community Center of Greater Kansas City, and Terri LaManno, 53, outside a Jewish retirement home, both in Overland Park, Kansas. The jury also convicted Cross of three counts of attempted murder for shooting at three other people.

Cross said during the trial he shot them because he thought they were Jewish but none of those killed were in fact Jewish.

Forwarding the News

Thoughtful, balanced reporting from the Forward and around the web, bringing you updated news and analysis each day.

Terms(Required)

I agree to the Forward's Terms of Service and Privacy Policy

Email(Required)

Cross, 74, gave a Nazi salute to the jury, and declared “Death to the Jews” at the end of his closing statement before the jury retired to consider his sentence.

At his two-week-long trial, Cross admitted he committed the killings, and said he had wanted to kill as many Jews as he could.

Cross, also known as Glenn Miller, said Jews control the media, financial institutions and the movie industry and he blamed Jewish women for backing a movement that led to the U.S. Supreme Court decision in 1973 to legalize abortion.

At the end of his closing statement on Tuesday, Cross glared at jurors over his reading glasses as he sat in a wheelchair and dared them to give him the death penalty.

“I voluntarily sacrificed my freedom for my people,” Cross said. “Do you see fear in me? You see a proud white man.”

The Forward is free to read, but it isn’t free to produce

I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward.

Now more than ever, American Jews need independent news they can trust, with reporting driven by truth, not ideology. We serve you, not any ideological agenda.

At a time when other newsrooms are closing or cutting back, the Forward has removed its paywall and invested additional resources to report on the ground from Israel and around the U.S. on the impact of the war, rising antisemitism and polarized discourse.

Readers like you make it all possible. Support our work by becoming a Forward Member and connect with our journalism and your community.

This is a great time to support independent Jewish journalism you rely on. Make a gift today!

—  Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO

Support our mission to tell the Jewish story fully and fairly.

$90 $180

$360

Other amount