Media-savvy Mississippi white supremacist found stabbed to death; Authorities make an arrest

By MARIA BURNHAM and HOLBROOK MOHR , Associated Press

Last update: April 22, 2010 - 7:48 PM

PEARL, Miss. - A white supremacist lawyer with a knack for publicity was found stabbed to death in a burning house on Thursday and Mississippi authorities later said a neighbor had been charged with murder.

Rankin County Sheriff Ronnie Pennington said Richard Barrett's body was found just after 8 a.m. after residents reported smoke coming from his house in a rural area outside a Jackson, Miss., suburb.

Pennington told The Associated Press that Vincent McGee, 22, has been charged with murder in the case. Additional charges could

Slain Miss. white supremacist was stabbed, beaten

One expert on hate groups said Barrett was well known for his news conferences and protests in places having racial strife, but that he had mustered little real clout in the white power movement.
"Richard Barrett was a guy who ran around the country essentially pulling off publicity stunts," said Mark Potok, who monitors hate groups for the Alabama-based Southern Poverty Law Center. "He really never amounted to any kind of leader in the white supremacist movement."
Barrett attracted about 50 supporters to his 2008 rally in protest of the Martin Luther King Jr. holiday in the Louisiana town of Jena, where six black teenagers were charged with beating a white classmate. Years earlier, he sued over a ban on Confederate flags at University of Mississippi football games.