COEUR D'ALENE, Idaho — Aryan Nations leader Richard Butler has named an Ohio white supremacist and convicted felon as his successor.

        Ray Redfeairn, who led the organization's Ohio Chapter out New Vienna for three years until 1999, is the new director of the Aryan Nations, Mr. Butler said Monday.

        Mr. Redfeairn's connection with Ohio raises concern that the Aryan Nations headquarters could move there, said Ted Almay, superintendent of the Ohio Bureau of Criminal Identification and Investigation.

        But Mr. Redfeairn, reached at his mother's home in Dayton, Ohio, Tuesday, said the Aryan Nations “center of activity” will be in Ulysses, Pa.

        “My job is to strengthen the Aryan Nation again, making sure we are all working together and right on track for the goals that the Aryan Nations has,” he said.

        He said he plans to name a new leader for the Delaware-based Ohio chapter. The current state leader, Dan Kincaid, is under indictment in Columbus on federal weapons charges, including possessing a pipe bomb.

        Mr. Almay described Mr. Redfeairn as “an avid white supremacist with a violent past.”

        Mr. Redfeairn served six years in prison for the March 1979 shooting of a Dayton police officer who stopped him for not having any license plates on a vehicle he used to commit two robberies.

        He also spent six months in prison 1997 on a concealed-weapons charge.
        Enquirer reporter Sheila McLaughlin contributed to this story.

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