Supremacist Jailed in Racist Arson Case

A Joliet white supremacist and disciple of incarcerated hate-monger Matt Hale was arrested Wednesday on federal charges he torched the home of eight black children in June 2007.

Brian Moudry, 35, is being held in the Metropolitan Correctional Center in Chicago and will appear in U.S. District Court today.

He was indicted last week on charges of arson, using fire to interfere with housing rights on the basis of race and using fire to commit another felony.

Moudry, who has organized white power demonstrations in and around Joliet over the years, set fire to a house down the street from his own, according to authorities.

Eight children and an adult were home at the time of the early morning fire, said Randall Samborn, a spokesman for the U.S. Attorney's Office. No one was injured in the blaze.

The federal case is not Moudry's first brush with the law, nor is it his first contact with the FBI. He was arrested in July 2010 after he allegedly menaced his mailman and threatened to plant a bomb in the letter carrier's truck. The postal worker was a black man, police said at the time.

In May 2004, Moudry's home in 's sleepy Reedswood neighborhood was shot up in a gun attack, which occurred after one of Moudry's white power rallies.

Federal agents hauled Moudry and some of his associates in for questioning in March 2005 after Hale—the national leader of a racist group to which Moudry belonged—was suspected of ordering the execution-style slayings of Michael Lefkow and Donna Humphrey, husband and mother of U.S. District Judge Joan Humphrey Lefkow.

The killings turned out to be unrelated to Hale, Moudry or their group.

Hale is in prison for plotting to kill Judge Lefkow prior to the murder of her husband and mother. Lefkow had ordered Hale to change the name of his white power organization after he lost a trademark lawsuit.