Posted on 01/04/2002 9:15:33 AM PST by Vladiator
The former Pennsylvania Grand Dragon of the Ku Klux Klan narrowly escaped her home when it burst into flames yesterday.
Kathryn Negley Hedrick, who directed state operations for the American Knights of the Ku Klux Klan under the name Kay Ryan, fled the house without shoes when it caught fire shortly before 9 a.m. yesterday, according to her brother, Fawn Township Police Chief Tim Christy.
"Basically, it was an accidental fire," Christy said. "She woke up and there was fire in the home. She barely escaped."
The home, along Rustic Lane, a narrow road on a wooded hillside, had been the focus of controversy in past years after Hedrick, with her husband, Allan, hosted Ku Klux Klan meetings and, on one occasion, a cross-burning.
Hedrick's promotion to a statewide leadership post in the traditionally male-dominated Klan attracted widespread attention in the far-right movement.
Yesterday, a neighbor said he heard a loud pop from the wooden structure and discovered it was ablaze. Volunteer firemen from several departments arrived on the scene but were unable to save the building, which collapsed.
Fawn Fire Chief Dan Selfridge could not be reached for comment. His wife said that her husband would have no comment on the fire.
Under her pseudonym of Kay Ryan, Hedrick filed a federal suit in Erie to overturn the city's law against demonstrating in masks in 1998. Following a rally, Erie officials attempted to bill the Klan for $70,000 in security -- a bill the Klan refused.
Hedrick left the American Knights in 2000, after a dispute with Imperial Wizard Jeff Berry.
Second, this story makes me believe in Karma.
Third, what would you do if the sister of your township's police chief was the grand dragon of the Klan?
This has to be a hoax, there are no racists in the North...
The firemen should be commended for letting the building collapse.
1. Arson-related insurance fraud.
2. Flaming-cross reloading accident.
3. Cache of pipe-bombs went stale and cooked off.
4. The big coffee can of saved pork-grease on the stovetop finally composted and ignited on it's own.
5. Too many sheets in the dryer.
6. Global conspiracy of Catholics and Jews to set 'Real' American's houses afire from their secret microwave bases in Tel Aviv and the Vatican.
Ms. Hedrick or Ms. Ryan can again attain leadership of the Klan, if that's her career goal. Berry's cooling his heels in prison for the next few years:
http://www.bayarea.com/entertainment/tv/docs/033399.htm
Posted at 9:41 a.m. PST Tuesday, Dec. 4, 2001
Klan leader sentenced to prison for holding TV news crew in Indiana
AUBURN, Ind. (AP) -- A Ku Klux Klan leader convicted of conspiring to hold a television news crew hostage in his home was sentenced to seven years in prison.
Jeff Berry was sentenced Monday in a courtroom where sheriff's deputies checked everyone with hand-held metal detectors.
Berry, imperial wizard of the DeKalb County-based American Knights of the Ku Klux Klan, pleaded guilty Oct. 1 to conspiracy to commit criminal confinement with a deadly weapon. Prosecutors agreed to drop three other charges.
Reporter George Sells IV and camerawoman Heidi Thiel of Louisville, Ky., television station WHAS interviewed Berry at his home in northeastern Indiana in November 1999. They said he became angry when he learned the story also would include comments from a former Klan member.
Berry refused to let them leave until they surrendered the video of the interview with him, they said. Another man, who carried a shotgun, locked the door.
Berry acknowledged in testimony Monday that there was a confrontation, but he said it happened when he learned the station was not going to pay him $500 he said it had promised for the interview.
Prosecutor Monte Brown said Sells had denied in a telephone conversation that any payment had been promised.
Sells and Thiel, who were not in court Monday, won a $120,000 civil judgment against Berry this year.
No kidding. Did you spot the thread about the KKK's Attempt at Thought Control in Oregon Schools?
I get the feeling that there are no entrance or promotion standards any longer. Basically a kook says "I'm with the KKK" and they get a newspaper headline and everything.
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