Denver Official Discusses Wisconsin Shooter's Hate Group Ties
DENVER (CBS4) - Investigators say the suspect in the Wisconsin Sikh temple killings left no writings and no reason for showing up at the temple with a 9 millimeter handgun.
The FBI is looking at possible ties to white supremacist groups, and so is 4 On Your Side Investigator Rick Sallinger.
Sallinger found that Wade Michael Page was part of a band that used music as a message that was clearly racist -- white power. At least two years ago Page turned up on the radar of anti-hate organizations. They found him by tracking concerts of white supremacy groups.
Page was part of a group called "End Apathy." It was being tracked by the Anti-Defamation League. Scott Levin, the Denver regional director, says the group played at white power festivals in Florida and North Carolina.
"They want to preserve this country for the white males," Levin said. "They were tied to The Hammerskins. The Hammerskins are a particularly violent group of white supremacists operating in the United States."
A website devoted to The Hammerskins calls them a "leaderless group of men and women devoted to the white power lifestyle."
Page told a white power website he had played with a group called "Definite Hate."
"My sense is that we are not talking about someone who is on the fringes of the scene, but really someone who is in thick of the white supremacist world, and especially the music world," Mark Potok with the Southern Poverty Law Center said.
Anti-hate groups are also exploring possible links between Page and a group called Volksfront. But it says it does not tolerate illegal activities, calling any connection lies.
"The white supremacists believe that the United States has been somehow bastardized by the presence of the others; those are people who are not like them," Levin said.
A video called "Hammerskin Nation" is dedicated to those who died in its cause. Now investigators want to know if Page wanted to be added to the list.
The white supremacy movement has strong ties to Colorado. A onetime University of Colorado professor founded the National Alliance. There was also the 1984 murder of KOA Jewish talk show host Alan Berg, and the Oklahoma City bombing trial of Timothy McVeigh in Denver.
