Wickstrom gets national leadership role with Aryan Nations

Associated Press/October 14, 2004

Bay City, Mich. -- A white supremacist preacher has accepted a leadership position with an Aryan Nations group based in Pennsylvania.

James P. Wickstrom is the group's new world chaplain, according to a news release from the Aryan Nations' Web site.

Wickstrom teaches a doctrine that whites are God's chosen people, Jews are evil and blacks and other races are inferior, The Bay City Times reported Thursday.

He and his group held meetings for about three years at a furniture store in Bay County's Hampton Township. In June, a fire gutted the building that housed Marquiss Quality Furniture.

Investigators suspect arson but no arrests have been made. The fire remains under investigation.

Aryan Nations members have been linked to several hate crimes over the years, including a 1999 shooting at a Jewish day-care center in Los Angeles.