$25,000 bail set for alleged Klan chief

Chicago Sun Times/December 19, 2000
By Lucio Guerrero

An alleged grand dragon of the Ku Klux Klan from Tennessee was being held in Cook County Jail after police said he brought a semiautomatic handgun and 16 rounds of ammunition to a KKK rally in Skokie this past weekend.

William Moore, 29, was held Monday on $25,000 bail after he was booked on a felony charge of unlawful use of a weapon. Moore, dressed in camouflage pants and a white T-shirt, fidgeted while prosecutors said he told police he was carrying the weapon because "he did not who he'd meet up with at the rally."

Police said Moore, a bail bondsman in Tennessee, was stopped at a checkpoint near the Skokie courthouse a few minutes before a group of KKK members from Wisconsin were scheduled to speak on the steps of the county building. As a police officer pulled up next to the car, Moore threw a pouch out the window that contained a .380 caliber semiautomatic gun and ammunition, prosecutors said.

About 20 people were arrested Saturday during a melee that broke out after the KKK left. Three of those protesters were charged with felony counts--mostly for destroying state property--while the rest were charged with misdemeanors.