After DNA test, white supremacist charged with terrorizing town

The Los Angeles Times/November 19, 2013

By Matt Pearce

It's been a tough month for Craig Cobb. After the North Dakota white supremacist went on a TV show and got back the results of a DNA test that showed he was 14% black, he has since been arrested after allegedly running around Leith, N.D., with a gun.

And Cobb's standing plot to take over the tiny town of Leith and create a white-supremacist enclave, is now threatened by charges that he used a gun to terrorize several of the town's residents along with another supremacist over the weekend.

Cobb, 62, and Kynan Dutton, 29, were ordered held without bond after a court appearance Monday, according to the Grant County Sheriff's Office.

The Bismarck Tribune reported that the pair had been charged with seven counts of terrorizing the town's residents; five of the counts reportedly involve the men's use of the guns and carry mandatory minimum sentences of two years in jail.

Grant County State’s Atty. Todd Schwarz and Grant County Sheriff Steve Bay couldn't immediately be reached for comment Tuesday.

Cobb told a judge that he planned to represent himself in court, according to the Tribune, which has closely covered Cobb's travails in Leith.

On Saturday, Cobb had texted the Tribune about his plans: "Because of the many violences and harassments against we and the children, we have commenced armed patrols of Leith."

A photo posted online showed Cobb walking through the town's streets with another man holding a rifle, with Cobb wearing a jacket and flip-flops while holding a long gun up in the air against his hip. A swastika can be seen spray painted on a door in the background.

Cobb and Dutton were arrested a short while later after one resident said the men had followed her to her house and a city council member reported that the pair had lingered at the edge of his property with the weapons, the Tribune reported.

Cobb moved to town more than a year ago, making an announcement in May 2012 on a message board about his plans for a "White Nationalist intentional community in North Dakota."

He said he hoped for a town in which supremacist speakers would come visit and new residents would "always (24 hrs a day) fly at least one racialist banner," such as a Nazi flag.

After he bought several properties in the town, which has a reported population of 16, his plan gained national media attention and a couple of followers have also moved to Leith. Local officials and residents have since been resisting his plans.

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