White separatist leader dies

The Associated Press/June 1, 2001

Muskogee, Okla. -- The Rev. Robert Millar, spiritual leader of Elohim City - a white separatist compound Timothy McVeigh telephoned shortly before the Oklahoma City bombing - has died.

Millar, 75, was pronounced dead at 8:16 p.m. Monday night at St. Edwards Mercy Medical Center in Fort Smith, Ark., his son John Millar told The Muskogee Daily Phoenix on Thursday.

The elder Millar suffered a massive heart attack Wednesday or Thursday of last week, but did not go to the hospital until Monday. "He had heart trouble all his life, since he was a little boy," John Millar said. "We're suffering a big loss. But I can truly say, the same one who led him will lead us."

The federal government has monitored the Christian Identity group at Elohim City since the 1980s because of its alliance with white supremacist groups and members of the Aryan Nation.

McVeigh called a German man who was living at Elohim City before the April 19, 1995, bombing of the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City. The man was not at the compound when McVeigh called. His attorney later said the pair had met at a gun show in Tulsa and exchanged items.

Millar denied any connection to the explosion that killed 168 people, or to McVeigh, whose scheduled execution has been delayed because of FBI documents that were not previously released to defense lawyers. In the weeks following the bombing, the normally media-shy Millar consented to interview to dispel rumors.

Robert Millar was born Aug. 16, 1925, in Ontario, Canada. He moved the group to Adair County, in the foothills of the Ozark Mountains, in 1973.

John Millar, who lived about 10 years near Baltimore, is expected to take over as spiritual leader.

Millar was preceded in death by his wife, Elsie, who died April 28, 1999. He was buried Tuesday next to her on the Elohim City grounds.

"He is, to me, the greatest man of God I have ever known in this life," said longtime Elohim City resident Jetta Kincaid. "It (his death) is hard to accept and almost impossible to believe."

A memorial service will be held June 9 in the church's compound for Millar, the grandfather or great-grandfather to 58 children.