A judge has given a death sentence to a white supremacist convicted of shooting to death three people at two Jewish centers in Kansas.



Johnson county District Court Judge Thomas Kelly Ryan sentenced Frazier Glenn Cross, 74, to die by lethal injection.

A jury in early September convicted Cross, a former senior member of the Ku Klux Klan, of the murders and recommended that he be put to death. Cross also was convicted of three counts of attempted murder for shooting at three other people.

The jury found Cross guilty of killing Reat Underwood, 14, and his grandfather, William Corporon, 69, outside the Jewish Community Center of Greater Kansas City, and Terri LaManno, 53, outside a Jewish retirement home, both in Overland Park, Kansas.

After the judge announced his decision, Cross gave the “Heil Hitler” salute and was forcibly removed from the courtroom.

On the way out Cross said: “One day my spirit will rise from the grave and you’ll know I was right. I’m a happy man.”

Cross said in court on Tuesday, as he did during the trial, that he wanted to kill Jews because he believed they controlled the media, financial institutions and the government.

But none of those he killed were actually Jewish.

Representing himself in court, Cross said: “I wanted to kill Jews, not Christians and I do regret it,” though during the trial he faulted the victims for going to Jewish centers.

In court statements before the sentencing, several relatives of victims denounced Cross for his views and spoke of their painful losses. Cross, a military veteran, sat at a court table in a wheelchair, sometimes glancing up at those who spoke at the podium.

Will Corporon, son of William Corporon, glared at Cross as he talked. “You are a coward,” he said. “You are not a patriot. You are a disgrace to the uniform you wore.”

Melinda Corporon, wife of William Corporon, told Cross he had never known love. “We are here today to make sure this voice of evil is silenced permanently,” she said.



Though Kansas restored the death penalty in 1994, no one has been executed in the state since 1965.