Skinheads face more charges in Reno temple bombing

Scott Sonner

Friday, March 24, 2000 | 2:03 a.m.

RENO, Nev. - Five skinheads accused of an attempted fire-bombing at a Reno synagogue advocated white supremacy and the oppression of blacks and Jews in the months leading up to the attack, a new indictment says.

The federal grand jury's amended indictment filed in U.S. District Court this week adds two charges - conspiracy against the rights of citizens and damage to religious property - to a variety of bomb charges already filed against the five men.

The indictment includes new details about the Nov. 30 night they allegedly threw a Molotov cocktail at the Jewish temple's window - from the gasoline purchased at a nearby 7-Eleven to a slab of concrete used to try to break the window before tossing in the firebomb.

All five men, ages 18 to 25, are "self-avowed 'skinheads' who advocated white supremacy and the oppression of black, Jewish and other minority persons," the new indictment says.

Scott Hudson, Christopher Hampton, Carl DeAmicis, Daniel McIntosh and Joshua Kudlacek were arrested in December after the fire-bombing.

Hudson, Hampton and Kudlacek lived in the Reno area. Police described the other two as drifters who moved between Reno, Sacramento and Auburn, Calif.

They are scheduled to go to trial April 11.

From Sept. 1 to Nov. 30, the five men and other co-conspirators "met at various locations to advocate white supremacy and the oppression of black, Jewish and other minority persons," the indictment says.

On Nov. 30, they met at the Sundowner Hotel-Casino in downtown Reno "where the hatred of Jews was discussed and advocated."

At that meeting, they targeted Temple Emanu-El Jewish Synagogue and bought gasoline for the firebomb at a 7-Eleven on South Virginia Street.

McIntosh threw a concrete-filled container at the window in attempt to break it "to facilitate the firebombing" and DeAmicis threw the Molotov cocktail at the same window, which cracked but did not break, the indictment said.

The five men already faced charges of making an unlawful destructive device, possession of an unlawful destructive device, unlawful use of a destructive device during a crime of violence and bombing property in an activity affecting interstate commerce.