Joseph C. Stockett, an anti-Semite with an arson conviction on his record, was arrested in Terre Haute, Indiana, on a firearm possession charge after making statements about killing Jews.

Stockett, 57, was arrested after he purchased a handgun from a police informant on November 21, 2003. The previous day, the informant told authorities that he thought Stockett may have been responsible for a November 18 fire that gutted a Terre Haute museum dedicated to Holocaust survivors.

Prosecutors said that after buying the gun from the informant, Stockett said that he was on his way to "a major confrontation with the Jews" and that he intended to recruit people into a neo-Nazi organization. According to a transcript of the recording the informant made of their conversation, Stockett then added, "This struggle that I've embarked on to save my race from the Jews might require that I kill someone some day." He also gave the informant "Hitler's Second Book, The Unpublished Sequel to Mein Kampf," which he borrowed from the Vigo County Public Library.

Magistrate Kennard P. Foster classified the possession charge as a violent crime because of the statements Stockett made to the informant.

Stockett has not been arrested or charged in connection with the museum arson and was described by Captain Rick Erney of the Terre Haute Police Department as "just an interesting person that's emerged."

In 1976, Stockett served five years in prison for setting fire to a Planned Parenthood office in Eugene, Oregon. As a convicted felon, he is prohibited from owning weapons.

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