Mayor Who Was Pals With KKK Shooter Resigns

A small-town Missouri mayor lasted only a week in office after voicing support for the white supremacist accused of killing three outside a Jewish center in Kansas. Marionville Mayor Don Clevenger handed in his short resignation letter last night after scores of city residents made clear they wanted him to go and an alderman began impeachment procedures, reports the Springfield News-Leader. Clevenger got into hot water when he told KSPR-TV that he "kind of agreed" with the views of accused killer Frazier Glenn Cross.

"We simply cannot tolerate a public official who makes anti-Semitic comments," said one of the many speakers last night. Clevenger has said that he and Cross were friends years ago, and Clevenger wrote an extremely anti-Semitic letter a decade ago to a newspaper. (It complained of a "Jew-run government" and lots of other things.) Clevenger, who wrote the letter before becoming mayor, apologized for it last night after the meeting. (More antisemitism stories.)