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- ‘ fs BA 9-2403 JPO: smw TK Maryl and: Ne aay? [hs ran oy a eed anal MES ® : The following article appeared on page A 3 in the March 5, 1977 issue of the News Ameria, By MICHAEL POWELL meta Stafl Reporier -f. + * . ” ¢ WESTMINSTER — A state fire "marshal has testified that the purport. ed leader of a Ku Klux Klan klavern Operating out ef Howard County was constructing pipe bomts: to pet ready “for a revolution. “* He said the leader, : a 22-year-old University of Maryland junior, was “dangcrous” and “unsiabiec.” :, The five magshal, Frank M. Raus- chenberg, s Spent two years as an under. cover agent in the Ku Klux Klan.. He testified a: a bond hearing for ‘William M, Ajtcheson, the “‘exalted ] cyclops” of a Hleward County Klavern. Aitcheson has been charged in three “countics with erimes rela 10 his “Klan activities. Rauschenberg said he has known . Altcheson for the past seven months, : t during which time Aitcheson showed : him how fo naake pipe bombs and dis- i cussed with him various klan- related”. i activities. Rauschenkerg’s testimony exposed many detail of Aitcheson's alleged ~ Klan work, including his involvement i in an elite “Klan Reret™ corps, his f sending threatening letters 10 Coretta vmnnmete ne Se oes meee k a “! Scott King, widow of the slain civil aE “et ex - Fights leader Mariin Luther King Jr., _and his involvement in cross burnings. ‘s Carroll County State's Atty. Thom- ‘as E. Hickman said Aitchesum was Janning a terorist campaign apainst ‘blacks, cormmyunisis .and secialists, ‘thal he (Aitcheson) was an expert in bombmaking and that he wanted to put * toxic chemiczds in Washiogton's water ‘Supply, “«, Prince Georges County authorities "fave charpedt Aitcheson in connection -, "with the King detters, During tue hearing on a possession s.charpe, evidence showed .« Take your choice,” * i said, “Africa or death by lynching: ' and was signed “Ky Kiux Klan.” The other said, “Stay off the University of Maryland campus or you will dic,” and was also signed “Ku Klux Khao” * Aitcheson, showing anger at times " during the’ praceedings, Whispered to - his attorney, “Tease letters were” a plant.” Hickman called the release of such information at a bond hearing “rare.’ But he said he wanted tu show Aitche- son “is a danger (o othe people.” Aitcheson's public defender, J. Robert Johnson, however, described Aitcheson as a “boy who talxs a loi and doen't do a great deal. He wants to luok big among his fellows." But District Court Judge Donald SM. Smith said Aitcheson is a risk, and continued the $590,0%) bond. Rauschenberg testified that Aitche- son, thinking Rauschefberg was a klan member, coniided to him that he would run “to the woods” if he thought he would be arrested. ' A: Wednesday morning raid on Aitcheson's parents’ Howard County home turned up explosive materials, weapons, camping gear and a year’s supply of Misuteman food tabiets. Rauschenberg also said Aitcheson da “pood knowledge” of manufac- turing bombs. He testified Aitcheson told him the , “dombs were for training for an antici- « pated revolution.” Rauschenberg sdid ‘he met with . Aitcheson ence-wsveck and sometimes more often during the past seven months. He said most of the meetings were on a farm near Gamber in Car- yolt County, during weekly Saturday - night klan rallies. He said he Jearned from Aitcheson the klan was directing itself to “‘at- tacks’? on «military reservation com- munication centers, abortion clinics two etters WEE SCOLIGMipehing-Oac—., and atfices of the NAACP.J,