BISMARCK, N.D. (AP) - A white supremacist who failed in his efforts to turn a small North Dakota town into an all-white enclave blamed arson Thursday for a blaze that razed a former church he owned in another community where residents have voiced fears about his intentions.
It’s not clear if there is anything suspicious about the Wednesday afternoon fire at the century-old building that Craig Cobb bought in Nome last month. The Barnes County Sheriff’s Office referred calls to the state Fire Marshal’s Office, and spokeswoman Liz Brocker declined comment, citing an ongoing investigation. The deputy state fire marshal on the scene didn’t return a call seeking comment Thursday morning.
But Cobb, who lives across the state in Sherwood, believes the fire was deliberately set by his opponents.
“There was nothing flammable, no rags or anything like that inside, no flammables in cans, and the electricity wasn’t even turned on,” he said Thursday. “There’s no wood stove, no coal stove, nothing. It was arson.”
Jerome Jankowski, who lives in the former church parsonage nearby, said about a dozen investigators were on the scene Thursday.
“It’s kind of upsetting,” he said of the loss of a building considered a local landmark. “I look over there and don’t see a church, just the chimney standing there. It’s kind of sacrilegious.”
Jankowski said residents of the community of about 70 people and others from surrounding towns had voiced concern that Cobb might try to repeat in Nome what he attempted four years earlier in Leith, where Cobb bought property and invited others who shared his views to join him. But Cobb’s dream of an all-white community ended when he was jailed in November 2013 for terrorizing and menacing with a gun. He’s serving four years of probation, a sentence that ends in April 2018.
Cobb knows he’s not popular in North Dakota and joked that “they have so many suspects in this case, I really pity law enforcement.” More seriously, he said, he’s tiring of facing intolerance everywhere he tries to acquire property.
“I’m not in everybody’s face saying they can’t have their beliefs around me,” he said.
Cobb bought the old church from a private owner for $8,000 and estimates his total loss at more than double that amount because he had moved in some furniture so he could either live there, resell the property or rent it out.
___
Follow Blake Nicholson on Twitter at: https://twitter.com/NicholsonBlake
Please read our comment policy before commenting.