Police Don't Believe North Dakota Neo-Nazi Leader Tied To Anti-Semitic Shooting

APCraig Cobb

The former Ku Klux Klan leader who has been accused of a shooting that left three people dead Sunday at a Jewish community center and retirement home in Overland Park, Kan. had been in touch with a prominent neo-Nazi who's in a North Dakota jail days before the incident. However, local officials said they do not believe the North Dakota man was tied to the killings.

A federal prosecutor said Monday they intended to file hate crimes charges against the 73-year-old ex-KKK "grand dragon," Frazier Glenn Miller, aka Frazier Glenn Cross. Miller left behind an extensive history of white supremacist activities online, including a long record of postings on the site Vanguard News Network, where he used the name "Rounder."

Some of Miller's recent VNN posts describe him being in touch with Craig Cobb, a Leith, N.D. man who purchased property in the town with the intent of having members of the neo-Nazi National Socialist Movement come in and take over the local government. Cobb was arrested last November after multiple people in the town claimed he and another man intimidated and followed them while brandishing guns. He is currently in jail in North Dakota awaiting charges of terrorizing Leith residents. Cobb is due in court April 29.

On April 12, Miller wrote on VNN that he had just spoken on the phone with Cobb. Miller also encouraged his fellow "white nationalists," or WN for short, to send Cobb money.

"I made him promise to visit me IF and WHEN he can," Miller said of Cobb. "I asked if any VNNers had written or sent money in past few weeks. He said none, except for "Paul" who writes him and also sends him $100 bills. Thanks Paul - a WN with initiative and the will of his convictions."

On Monday, Cobb told North Dakota's Bismarck Tribune newspaper he was friends with Miller and that they last spoke April 10. Cobb said Miller gave him no sign he was planning and attack and declined to comment further because, as the Tribune put it, the accusations against Miller "have nothing to do with him."

Grant County North Dakota Deputy Sheriff John Foss told Business Insider authorities in Leith "don't have any belief in any ties" between Cobb and Miller. When pressed about the apparent communications between the two men indicated by Cobb's comments and Miller's postings, Foss explained that local law enforcement does not believe they communicated about the shooting.

"They just knew each other," Foss said, adding, "All jail communication is monitored."

Police in Overland Park, where Sunday's shooting occurred, did not respond to a request for comment from Business Insider Monday.