Link To Racist Leader In Murder Of Judge’s Family

Initial speculation in the murder of the husband and mother of US District Court Judge Joan Humphrey Lefkow pointed to white supremacist Matthew Hale as the culprit. The question was, how did he get orders out to his followers? Well, it seems that he and his mother may have taken a page from the Lynne Stewart playbook.

An attorney for jailed white supremacist Matthew Hale said Hale's mother asked him to relay an encoded message from Hale to one of his supporters, The New York Times reported Wednesday.

Hale, who awaits sentencing for soliciting the murder of a federal judge, has been a focus of the investigation into last week's shooting deaths of the judge's husband and mother.

Lawyer Glenn Greenwald said Hale's mother, Evelyn Hutcheson, asked him a few months ago to pass the message to a Hale supporter.

"She said she didn't know what the message meant, but she was going to read it to me verbatim because Matt made her write it down when she visited him," Greenwald told the newspaper. "It was two or three sentences that were very cryptic and impossible to understand in terms of what they were intended to convey."

He said he declined to deliver it.

Hale’s visitation privileges were cut off last week, and he has been held under anti-terrorism provisions implemented during the Clinton administration -- the same ones that were in use with the blind sheik in the Lynne Stewart case.

Having met Hale during his days as a law student at Southern Illinois University -- Carbondale during the late 1980s, I can’t say that I’m surprised to hear he is involved. He was a malignant, hateful individual back then, and time apparently has not improved his character.