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Posted: November 25, 2003
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| Fritz A. Springmeier |
White supremacist Fritz A. Springmeier, associated with the anti-Semitic and anti-government Christian Patriot Association, was sentenced to over nine years in federal prison for his role in a 1997 bank robbery by the U.S. District Court in Oregon on November 19, 2003.
In October 1997, Springmeier, sometimes known as Victor Schoff, set off a diversionary bomb at an adult video store in Damascus, Oregon, ten minutes before his armed accomplice, Forrest E. Bateman Jr., entered the Key Bank of Oregon. Bateman, who was wearing military fatigues, left the bank, located six miles away from the video store, with $6,000.
Springmeier, 48, was convicted earlier this year of armed bank robbery and using a firearm during a violent crime. Bateman pleaded guilty to bank robbery and gun charges and is also serving over nine years in prison.
Additional information about Springmeier's activities was made public a day after his sentencing; Clackamas County authorities released a binder labeled "Army of God, Yahweh's Warriors," which was seized in March 2001 during a raid by federal and local law enforcement agencies on Springmeier's home in Corbett. The binder includes what authorities call a list of potential targets, including a local federal building and the FBI's Oregon offices. During the raid, police also found weapons, equipment for growing marijuana, and white supremacist literature.
Clackamas County Sheriff's Deputy Angela Blanchard said Springmeier and Bateman first met at a meeting of the Christian Patriot Association, the Oregon-based extremist group run by Richard Flowers and his wife, Dorothy. In June 2002, a federal jury found six people associated with the group guilty of conspiracy to defraud the U.S. government.
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| Fritz and Patricia Springmeier |
In February 2001, authorities also raided a home in Sandy that was connected to the investigation into the Christian Patriot Association. Police seized weapons, some ammonium nitrate and fuel oil, marijuana plants and literature from the Army of God, an extreme anti-abortion and anti-gay group. At the time of the raid, police arrested three people, including Bateman.
Springmeier, well-known in "patriot" circles in the Pacific Northwest, published his notions about the government and mind control in his book "Bloodlines of the Illuminati."
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