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Alleged KKK leader indicted in death of Cynthia Lynch

by Karenke4 | February 18, 2009 at 03:40 pm

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A grand jury indicted 44 year old Raymond Foster, alleged Ku Klux Klan leader, with a charge of second degree murder for the shooting death of Cynthia Lynch of Tulsa, Oklahoma.

Lynch was recruited to join their group, also referred to as Sons of Dixie or the Dixie Brotherhood and was shot to death in the woods of Louisiana in November. Authorities cite a dispute during the initiation ceremony which resulted in her death. Foster's 20 year old son Shane and Franky Stafford, 21 were charged with obstruction of justice, facing up to 40 years in prison each. Danielle Jones was charged as an accessory and faces up to 5 years.

Investigators said they found weapons, Confederate flags and six Klan robes at the campsite where Lynch was killed.

All the suspects are from Washington Parish, where the Klan flourished in the 1960s. Now, however, the KKK is considered weak and loosely organized at the local and national levels.

There are still an estimated 6,000 active Klan members in the US today, though absolute numbers are not certain. Foster will face a mandatory sentence of life in prison if convicted of the second degree murder charge. Four others arrested were not yet charged in the crime.

An attorney for Yates has said his client arrived by boat, apparently after Lynch was shot. People were running out of the woods, and Yates alleges that Raymond Foster stole the boat at gunpoint and took the body away, attorney Ernest Barrow III said.