Reputed racist arrested in Indiana for Oregon kidnapping

The Associated Press State & Local Wire/January 4, 2002

Portland, Ore. -- A man wanted in the kidnapping of an Oregon woman was arrested after police discovered he was living at the home of a Ku Klux Klan leader near Osceola, Ind.

Indiana police arrested James David Torkelson, 23, outside Richard Loy's home on Tuesday. Loy's home is a headquarters of the National Knights of the KKK, police said.

Officers had been surveilling Loy's home after receiving tips that Torkelson was in the area.

Torkelson is accused of the Nov. 1 beating and kidnapping of Lindsey Ulrich, 18, in Portland after she refused to participate in a planned attack on anti-racist skinheads.

A group of five people, including Torkelson, allegedly took Ulrich to her Clackamas County apartment, where they held her for four days before she escaped and called police, said Portland police Sgt. Neil Crannell.

The five are charged with assault, kidnapping, robbery and coercion, as well as various criminal conspiracies to commit those crimes, said Norm Frink, a chief deputy district attorney for Multnomah County.

Gary Carson Brown, 32, is being held in Multnomah County pending trial. Three other suspects remain at large, Frink said.

Torkelson was born in South Bend, Ind., and has relatives in a nearby town.