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Posted: November 20, 2002
Benjamin Matthew Williams, convicted along with his brother, James Tyler Williams, last December for torching three Sacramento synagogues and an abortion clinic in 1999, was found dead in his Shasta County jail cell on November 17. Authorities have determined that Williams committed suicide using a shaving razor.
Prison officials housed Williams in a high-risk section of the jail after a failed escape attempt along with another inmate this past June. In connection with that escape, authorities convicted Williams earlier this month of attempted murder for assaulting a corrections officer with a homemade hatchet. The officer, Timothy Renault, suffered serious multiple head injuries as a result of the attack.
Considered the "mastermind" behind the 1999 arsons, Benjamin Williams was serving a 30-year sentence for his role, while James Williams was given a 21-year sentence. The judge in the case also ordered the two brothers to pay more than $1 million in damage for setting the fires. Both brothers held white supremacist, anti-Semitic, and anti-gay beliefs. During their pre-sentencing hearings in the arson case, prosecutors revealed that literature from various extremist groups, including World Church of the Creator (WCOTC), Aryan Nations, and Christian Identity organizations, had been found in James Williams' bedroom. Authorities also found a large amount of anti-abortion literature on James Williams' computer.
In addition to the synagogue arsons, the brothers were awaiting trial for the murder of a gay couple found shot to death in their home near Redding a few weeks after the arsons.
After the brothers' arrests, Benjamin Williams confessed to the murder and the arsons in jailhouse interviews and reportedly said that he was willing to be executed to become a "Christian martyr" whose death would inspire others to commit crimes against Jews, homosexuals and other minorities.
The murder and synagogue arsons were among a rash of hate crimes committed by white supremacists during the summer of 1999, which included WCOTC member Benjamin Smith's deadly shooting spree in the Midwest and former Aryan Nations member Buford Furrow's murder of a Filipino postman and attack on a Los Angeles Jewish community center.
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