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Posted: November 1, 2001
Railton Loy, an Indiana-based leader of the National Knights of the Ku Klux Klan, was sentenced on October 31 to six months' probation and fined $150 for harassing a newspaper reporter from the South Bend Tribune. Loy was convicted in September on a misdemeanor charge of telephone harassment.
According to trial testimony, the 63-year-old racist had left a message on the reporter's voicemail, telling her that he and his family were being harassed because his name was used in a news account of a Klan rally in May. In the voicemail message, Loy told Tribune reporter Carol Draeger, "I sure wanna find out where you live."
Loy testified that he received threatening phone calls and e-mails as a result of news coverage following the Klan rally. He also claimed that someone fired gunshots at his house window and van.
Loy, who uses the alias Ray Larsen, has been a subject of controversy in St. Joseph County, Ind., since he inherited a five-acre property in Osceola that allegedly has since been used as a Klan base and shooting range.
A lawsuit brought by the St. Joseph County Building Commissioner against the National Knights of the KKK contested the illegal use of firearms at the site and claimed that Loy and his son, Rick, were using the property as a base for Klan activities. The lawsuit was settled out of court in September 2001.
Railton Loy has described the Osceola property as the new national Klan headquarters. The elder Loy identifies himself as the International Imperial Wizard of the National Knights of the KKK.
Rick Loy, the grand dragon of the group's Indiana chapter, is currently facing a felony charge of intimidation for allegedly threatening a neighbor with a gun.
ADL, along with law enforcement and community leaders, has met with residents of Osceola who have expressed concerns about several incidents involving encounters with Klansmen and skinheads. Neighbors have reported seeing burning crosses and swastikas on the property, hearing gunshots and racial slurs over a public address system.
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