- Benjamin Nathaniel Smith
Benjamin Nathaniel Smith (
1978 -July 4 ,1999 ) was aspree killer who targeted members of racial and ethnic minorities in randomdrive-by shooting s inIllinois andIndiana , USA during the weekend ofJuly 4 ,1999 .Early life
Smith was born and raised in Illinois. He grew up in the Chicago suburb of Wilmette and attended
New Trier High School in Winnetka. He didn't pose for a photograph in his senior yearbook, but in his class statement he wrote, "Sic semper tyrannis " (Thus always to tyrants). This phrase was allegedly shouted byJohn Wilkes Booth after he assassinated PresidentAbraham Lincoln . After graduating, Smith attended theUniversity of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign . Smith dropped out of the university in 1998 after several conflicts with campus authorities. After dropping out, he transferred toIndiana University (Bloomington) , where he studied criminal justice. Police reported that Smith was known for passing out hate-filled fliers against Jews, blacks and Asians on university campuses. In October 1998, Smith was the subject of a story on his university's public broadcasting station. [(July 6, 1999). [http://www.cnn.com/US/9907/06/smith.profile.01/ Suspected shooter said his hate-filled leaflets spoke 'the truth'] . "CNN ".]hooting spree
Smith was a follower of the
white supremacist organization now known as theCreativity Movement , and was a devoted disciple of the group's founder Matthew Hale. Two days after Hale was denied a license to practice law in Illinois, Smith loaded his light blueFord Taurus with guns and ammunition and ventured on a three-day, two-state shooting spree that killed two people and wounded nine others. [Scharnberg, Kirsten (April 27, 2004). [http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/nationworld/chi-0404270132apr27,1,3362981.story?coll=chi-newsnationworld-utl&ctrack=1&cset=true Double talk disguises call to arms] . "Chicago Tribune ".]Beginning on the evening of Friday,
July 2 , Smith wounded sixOrthodox Jew s in drive-by shootings in theWest Rogers Park neighborhood ofChicago . Smith then shot and killed formerNorthwestern University basketball coachRicky Byrdsong , anAfrican-American , in front of two of his three children while they were walking outside Byrdsong'sSkokie ,Illinois home. On Saturday, Smith traveled toUrbana , Springfield and later Decatur, where he shot and wounded an African-American minister. On Sunday,July 4 , Smith traveled toBloomington, Indiana , where he killed Won-Joon Yoon, a 26-year-old Korean doctoral student in computer science at Indiana University, who was on his way to the Korean United Methodist Church.Smith also shot at but missed another nine people. On Sunday,
July 4 , while fleeing the police in a high-speed chase on a southern Illinoishighway , Smith shot himself twice in the head and crashed hisautomobile into a metal post. He then shot himself again, in theheart , this time fatally. He was later pronounced dead at the hospital.It is widely believed that Smith's
crime s were related to his affiliation with theWorld Church of the Creator , which views him as amartyr . The group argued that Smith believed himself to be asoldier of theRacial Holy War movement.A whole chapter of "Lone Wolf" (a study of
spree killers ), byPan Pantziarka , is devoted to Smith and his crimes.ee also
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Buford O. Furrow, Jr. Notes
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