By MAGGIE HABERMAN
Last updated: 9:21 pm
October 27, 2008
Posted: 4:50 pm
October 27, 2008
Two young neo-Nazi skinheads plotted to don white tuxes and top hats as they slaughtered Barack Obama - an attack they hoped would cap their killing of 88 black people around the country, including the beheading of 14, officials said today.
"They said that would be their last, final act - that they would attempt to kill Sen. Obama," said Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives agent Jim Cavanaugh. "They didn't believe they would be able to do it, but that they would get killed trying."
Daniel Cowart, 20, and Paul Schlesselman, 18, "planned to drive their vehicle as fast as they could toward Obama, shooting at him from the windows," according a criminal complaint filed in Jackson, Tenn., federal court.
"Both individuals stated they would dress in all-white tuxedos and wear top hats during the assassination attempt," the court complaint says. "Both individuals further stated they knew they would and were willing to die during this attempt."
Officials said they were treating the threats seriously - but ABC News quoted an Obama aide as saying the Democratic nominee's Secret Service detail hadn't been given a heads-up about the alleged plot.
In the criminal complaint, the feds said the two skinheads met online about a month ago through a mutual friend and found they had a shared interest in neo-Nazism.
They started plotting to knock over a gun shop and attack a heavily black high school somewhere in Tennessee, though they apparently didn't name one.
They also traded diagrams and photos of what appeared to be a gun shop in Tennessee, the complaint said.
And in numbers significant in the skinhead world, they planned to shoot 88 black people and behead 14 of them.
The number "88" is equated with "HH," initials for "Heil Hitler." "H" is the eighth letter of the alphabet.
Fourteen signifies the number of words in the white supremacist credo, "We must secure the existence of our people and a future for white children."
"They seemed determined to do it," Cavanaugh, an ATF agent in charge of the bureau's Nashville office, told The Associated Press. "Even if they were just to try it, it would be a trail of tears around the South."
After the Tennessee slayings, the two junior skinheads planned to go on a national murder spree and conclude with Obama's assassination, according to Cavanaugh.
The plot started to unravel on Oct. 21, when the pair went to a house they planned to rob - but balked because they saw two cars and a dog. Instead, they went to a Wal-Mart, where they stocked up on food, nylon rope and ski masks that they planned to use in their killing spree, the complaint said.
Early the next day, Oct. 22, they covered Cowart's car with swastikas and the number 88 using window chalk, the complaint said - which apparently attracted attention, since the Crockett County Sheriff's Office busted them later that night.
The Obama campaign declined to comment.
Cowart, 20, of Bells, Tenn., and Schlesselman 18, of West Helena, Ark., are being held without bond.
Officials took three pistols, a sawed-off shotgun and a rifle off the two men when they were busted. They were allegedly preparing to bust into a gun store and steal more ammo for the spree.
They have been charged with possessing an unregistered firearm, conspiring to steal firearms from a licensed gun seller, and threatening a presidential candidate.
On his MySpace page, Cowart listed his favorite books as "Swastika," "Hitman," "The God Delusion," "God's Debris," "The Other Bible," and favorite movies ranging from "Hitman" to "Office Space."
New York Postmaggie.haberman@nypost.com
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