Free Republic

An avowed white supremacist was sentenced on Friday to 19-1/2 years in prison after pleading guilty months ago to a federal hate-crimes case stemming from a botched plot to bomb a historic Colorado synagogue in 2019. Richard Holzer, 28, appeared in a federal courtroom in Denver for a sentencing that capped an undercover FBI investigation of a plan to blow up Temple Emanuel in Pueblo, Colorado, the second-oldest synagogue in the state. Although the plot was thwarted, U.S. District Judge Raymond Moore said Holzer had sought “to terrorize the Jewish community” of Pueblo, a city of 112,000 residents about 100...

Federal authorities arrested a 27-year-old accused white supremacist who allegedly planned to bomb a synagogue in Colorado over the weekend. Richard Holzer had brought a knife and a mask to a motel room and was examining inert pipe bombs prepared by undercover agents moments before he was arrested late Friday night, according to a criminal complaint. He also said he paid a "witch doctor" $70 to put arsenic in the water pipes of the synagogue and "hex" the place last year, according to the complaint.