Steinbeck Family Outraged Texas Judge Cited \'Of Mice and Men\' in Execution Ruling

By ROBERT MACKEY

Marvin Wilson, a mentally retarded man with an I.Q. of 61, was executed by the state of Texas on Tuesday night, after the Supreme Court refused to accept the argument that the killing violated the constitutional ban on “cruel and unusual punishments.”

As the legal analyst Andrew Cohen explains on The Atlantic's Web site, the execution of a 54-year-old man “who could not handle money or navigate a phone book, a man who sucked his thumb and could not always tell the difference between left and right, a man who, as a child, could not match his socks, tie his shoes or button his clothes,” seemed to “directly contradict the spirit, if not the letter,” of a Supreme Court ruling in 2002 that appeared to bar the execution of mentally retarded inmates.

Mr. Wilson's lawyers argued that the court should intervene because Texas uses criteria to determine whether or not someone can be fairly classified as mentally retar ded that “lack any scientific foundation,” The Texas Tribune reported. As The Atlantic Wire notes, in a 2004 ruling that paved the way for Mr. Wilson's execution, a state court judge turned instead to literature, invoking John Steinbeck's “Of Mice and Men” to describe the difficulties of defining “that level and degree of mental retardation at which a consensus of Texas citizens would agree that a person should be exempted from the death penalty.”

Upholding the state's right to execute a mentally impaired man named Jose Garcia Briseno despite the Supreme Court's prior ruling, a Texas appeals court observed in 2004:

Most Texas citizens might agree that Steinbeck's Lennie should, by virtue of his lack of reasoning ability and adaptive skills, be exempt. But, does a consensus of Texas citizens agree that all persons who might legitimately qualify for assistance under the social services definition of mental reta rdation be exempt from an otherwise constitutional penalty?

(The complete Briseno opinion was posted online by The Texas Tribune.)

After Thomas Steinbeck, the writer's son, read a Guardian article on how his father's novel had been used in a Texas court to argue for the execution of the mentally retarded, he joined the effort to halt the killing of Mr. Wilson The Beaumont Enterprise reported. In an outraged statement released on Tuesday, just before Mr. Wilson was put to death for a fatal shooting in 1992, Mr. Steinbeck wrote:

On behalf of the family of John Steinbeck, I am deeply troubled by today's scheduled execution of Marvin Wilson, a Texas man with an I.Q. of 61. Prior to reading about Mr. Wilson's case, I had no idea that the great state of Texas would use a fictional character that my father created to make a point about human loyalty and dedication, i.e. Lennie Small from “Of Mice and Men,” as a benchmark to identify wh ether defendants with intellectual disability should live or die.

My father was a highly gifted writer who won the Nobel prize for his ability to create art about the depth of the human experience and condition. His work was certainly not meant to be scientific, and the character of Lennie was never intended to be used to diagnose a medical condition like intellectual disability. I find the whole premise to be insulting, outrageous, ridiculous, and profoundly tragic. I am certain that if my father, John Steinbeck, were here, he would be deeply angry and ashamed to see his work used in this way. And the last thing you ever wanted to do, was to make John Steinbeck angry.

In 1937, the novelist himself told The New York Times that the model for his character, a killer who did not comprehend his own actions, was shown leniency by the American legal system of the time. “Lennie was a real person,” Mr. Steinbeck said. “He's in an insane asylum in Calif ornia right now. I worked alongside him for many weeks. He didn't kill a girl. He killed a ranch foreman. Got sore because the boss had fired his pal and stuck a pitchfork right through his stomach. I hate to tell you how many times I saw him do it. We couldn't stop him until it was too late.”

In a Starving Nation, Luxury for a Few

By CHOE SANG-HUN

SEOUL, South Korea - The South Korean news media, which scrutinizes every photo of the North Korean leader, Kim Jong-un, zeroed in this week on one particular photo released by the North's state-run media on Tuesday. It showed Mr. Kim visiting a military unit, apparently last month around the time he fired the top military leader, Vice Marshal Ri Yong-ho, and was believed to have purged several other top generals.

But the photo also showed his wife, Ri Sol-ju, with something most North Korean women have never heard of, much less owned: a Christian Dior handbag.

South Korean journalists did not take long to identify Ms. Ri's handbag and its going price in Seoul: 1.8 million won, or $1,600. That is about 16 times the average monthly wage of a North Korean worker in the Gaeseong industrial park, a joint venture between North and South Korea that provides some of the best-paying jobs in the impoverished North.

The So uth Korean news media also noted the apparent “belly fat” - or is it a baby bump? - that Ms. Ri has developed. The South Korean spy agency believes that Ms. Ri and Mr. Kim already have a child.

Ms. Ri has drawn international attention since she began accompanying her husband in public early last month. Her expensive-looking designer suits stand out among the North Korean elites, who typically wear olive-colored military uniforms and drab Mao suits. Some outside analysts even consider her appearance as a sign of potential change in leadership and even lifestyle that Mr. Kim could bring about as a youthful leader who studied in Europe as a teenager. (Recent visitors to Pyongyang, the North Korean capital, reported seeing miniskirts, high heels, Nike hats and Hello Kitty cellphone accessories.)

But Ms. Ri's her fashionable style magnifies how disconnected the ruling Kim family remains from the public.

A famine in the 1990s killed numerous North Koreans and drove many others to flee to China and South Korea. The regime still cannot feed its own people and needs outside aid. But the Kim family has lived in style.

Konstantin Pulikovsky, a former Russian presidential envoy, wrote “The Orient Express,” a book about the train trip that Mr. Kim's father, Kim Jong-il, took through Russia in 2001. Mr. Pulikovsky, who accompanied the North Korean leader, said Mr. Kim's 16-car private train was stocked with crates of French wine. Live lobsters were delivered in advance to stations.

A Japanese cook who goes by the name Kenji Fujimoto and who worked as Kim Jong-il's personal sushi chef from 1988 to 2001 later wrote that Mr. Kim had a wine cellar stocked with 10,000 bottles, and that he ate shark fin soup weekly. His banquets often lasted until morning and could stretch for a few days, according to the chef. (When Mr. Fujimoto visited Pyongyang last month at Kim Jong-un's invitation, he went there with choice cuts of tuna - a delicacy that is Kim family favorite.)

In 2006, in reaction to North Korea's first nuclear test, Washington tightened its sanctions against the North. It banned 60 luxury items from entering the country, including yachts, Chanel perfumes, Cognac, large-screen television sets and Mercedes-Benz cars - items that the Kim family had doled out as gifts to the loyal military and party elite.

Ms. Ri's ever-changing appearance seems to contradict the public image that Kim Jong-un wanted to maintain for his family. He himself shows up in a Mao suit. Just a week ago, the North Korean news media released the text of a speech that Mr. Kim delivered to party leaders in July. In that speech, he lovingly remembered how his father insisted on wearing the same threadbare gray parka to remind himself of the famine of the 1990s.

The United Nations reported in June that two-thirds of North Koreans still faced grave food shortages. Last week, it began supplying urgent humani tarian aid after the North reported that nearly 200 people were killed and vast tracts of farmland damaged by flooding.

During his latest visit to a military unit, Mr. Kim was quoted as saying, “It is good to regularly provide every soldier with at least 200 grams of beans every day.” Watching an art performance by female soldiers together with his fashionable wife, he praised the soldiers for not allowing “any evil idea to come into their minds,” according to the North's state-run Korean Central News Agency.

Image of the Day: August 8

By THE NEW YORK TIMES

India\'s Boxing Hero Mary Kom, Settles for Bronze

By THE NEW YORK TIMES

Mary Kom's gold medal quest ended on Wednesday when she lost in the semifinals of the Olympic women's flyweight boxing competition to Britain's Nicola Adams, the second-ranked fighter in the world.

Kom had been India's top gold medal hope but settled for a bronze after she was outscored, 11 to 6, by a determined Adams.

Fighting in the 51-kilogram division, Kom rarely looked sharp, missing punches and appearing sluggish on defense. The bigger, stronger Adams was the aggressor, winning all four rounds as the British crowd cheered her own. Prime Minister David Cameron watched the fight from the stands.

“All I want to do is make my mum and my dad and my family proud,” Adams said after the fight, according to news reports. “I didn't want to take her lightly. I massively want that gold. Words can't express it. To get that for Great Britain would mean the world to me.”

Ko m wanted it equally badly for India. She has become a darling of Indian fans, and her bronze medal represents a major accomplishment for women's boxing in India, and for India's overall sports program.

Her story has inspired girls across India: the daughter of a poor family in Manipur, in India's often-forgotten Northeast, Kom is a wife and mother of twins who through tenacity and determination has made herself into a world champion boxer.

In 2010, Kom was named India's Sportswoman of the Year, one of her many honors. Kom's bronze medal brings India's tally in London to four medals â€" one silver and three bronzes â€" but she had wanted gold.

Yet in the opening round on Wednesday, Adams jumped out quickly, landing punches as Kom struggled to respond. At 5-feet-2, Kom is one of the smallest boxers in the division, and Adams used her superior size to control the fight. Kom rarely penetrated Adams's defenses or landed damaging punches.

Adams will meet th e Chinese boxer, Ren Cancan, in the gold medal match.

Feasting After Fasts in the Streets of Old Delhi

By RAKSHA KUMAR

During this holy month of Ramadan (or Ramzan, as it is called in India), when the sun sets, Old Delhi awakens to a slew of delectable aromas and crowded markets as excited Muslim families break their fast with a feast known as iftar. A majority of the families prepare traditional delicacies in their homes and head out to the Jama Masjid, the principal mosque of the area, to eat in its gigantic courtyard. Many others throng the narrow lanes to feast after their fast.

“We are open 24/7 during Ramzan,” said Waseem Ahmed, who makes an assortment of sweets at his tiny shop, Sweets, on the street opposite Jama Masjid's Gate No. 1. Mr. Ahmed, 38, said firni, or rice pudding, is the favorite of the season.

Old Delhi is famous for its ghee-rich Mughlai cuisine, and certain restaurants like Karim's are flooded with customers throughout the year. However, this lively neighborhood is also famous for lighter dishes that are spec ially made for Ramadan. Murmura (black bengal grams sauteed in masala, tomatoes, onions and coriander and served with puffed rice) and small fruit cups are sold at street corners. “These are easy to digest and quick to eat at the end of a day of fasting,” said Ramit Mitra, founder of Delhi By Foot, who takes groups on Iftar Walks around the old town.

Muslims eat before sunrise and fast the entire day until sunset. To keep them going throughout the day, they have a substantial early morning meal. The most popular early morning dish is called nihari (“nahar” means “day” in Arabic), a stew of goat meat or beef. The most famous nihari comes from Shahzad Dhaba, commonly known as Javed Nihari.

“I love Ramzans because of Javed Nihari,” Shameem Pasha, a regular at Shahzad Dhaba, exclaimed through a mouthful of nihari. A meal costs less than 100 rupees ($1.80) per plate. The eatery opens around 7 p.m, but it closes after runnin g out of food, usually around 8:30 p.m. It then reopens around 2 a.m. until dawn.

While areas like Old Delhi and Zakir Nagar hardly have a dull night during Ramadan, another neighborhood that specializes in Mughlai food sees a slump in sales. There is nothing wrong with the food in Nizamuddin Basti, but the food vendors here experience low sales because the nearby dargah, or shrine, doles out free food during Ramadan.

“There is a straight 25 percent dip,” said Mohammad Israr, who has been selling haleem biryani (made of wheat, barley, mutton or chicken, lentils and spices) from his cart for 38 years. People of the basti seemed to love his haleem biryani, although it is quite a stingy serving for 20 rupees.

Seviyan, thin vermicelli served with hot milk, and khajla, a deep-fried bread eaten with milk, are the sweet dishes Muslims crave the most during Ramadan. “When I begin to feast on khajla, I rarely stop,” said Iftekar, a resident of Zakir Nagar wh o goes by one name. He explained how his 11 brothers and sisters waited for this time of the year to stuff themselves with khajla and seviyan.

Many in Old Delhi believe that the charm of Ramadan culinary treats is greatest when they are enjoyed on street corners with old friends over a dose of noisy chatter. But for those who prefer quiet enjoyment, there are fine-dining restaurants like the time-tested Delhi Darbar in Connaught Place or the new Half Way House in Kailash Colony. Both these places have special iftar menus and are open till midnight. An average meal for two in these restaurants would cost around 1,500 rupees.

To top off the heavy food with some traditional drinks completes the nightlong feast. “I enjoyed the flavored milk with dry fruits, saffron, pistachios and cardamom,” said Mr. Mitra of Delhi By Foot, as well as cold sherbets, like milk with watermelon and Rooh Afza, a packaged drink made from herbs and fruits.

Recollections of the First Gurdwara in the U.S.

By THE NEW YORK TIMES

“The Stockton Gurdwara in California - the first Sikh temple in the United States - is celebrating its 100th anniversary this year,” Bhira Backhaus wrote in an op-ed in the New York Times. Immigrants from Punjab, “purchased the lot on Grant Street in early 1912.”

“Once in a while, I bring out a black and white photograph of the gurdwara taken a few decades later,” Ms. Backhaus wrote. “The members of the early families fan out on the steps leading up to its main entrance.”

Ms. Backhaus wrote of the people who built the Sikh temple, “They settled in a place that looked much like their beloved but impoverished homeland, planting the broad sun-drenched valleys with the same crops they had grown in Punjab.”

In Oak Creek, Wis., this past Sunday, a gunman with ties to the white power movement entered a gurdwara and shot to death six Sikh worshipers. We k now little about his motives, but presumably he saw the temple as a frightening symbol of otherness. But as I watched the images of the shooting on television, I saw the faces of my own brothers and sisters, aunties and uncles, contorted with terror. It was the children who first spread the word of the attack, running into the kitchen, where women were preparing langar - the communal vegetarian meal of dal, yogurt and roti that is a staple of Sikh services.

At the Stockton Gurdwara, services began in the morning and resumed after a break for langar. The meal always made us children groggy and impatient, and soon we'd head outside, down the steps to the small playground amid the chinaberry trees. When it was time to head home, it was the children who tugged at the kameezes of our mothers, who were reluctant to leave the lively company of friends.

Read the full article.

Mourning Victims, Sikhs Lament Being Mistaken for Radicals or Militants

By THE NEW YORK TIMES

Sikhs across the United States mourned the deaths in the Wisconsin shooting, and some said that the incident “revived bitter memories of the period just after the Sept. 11 attacks” when their “distinctive turbans and beards” seemed to trigger violence by people who mistook them for Muslims militants, Ethan Bronner wrote in The New York Times.

Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg went to a Sikh temple in Queens and “praised Sikhs for their contributions to the community” and “vowed to maintain security for New Yorkers of all faiths,” Mr. Bronner wrote.

In collecting data about “post-Sept. 11 hate crimes, the Justice Department does not draw a distinction between Sikhs and Muslims, an entirely separate religion,” he wrote. A report from October said, “In the first six years after 9/11, the department investigated more than 800 incidents involving violence, threats, vandalism and arson against persons perceived to be Muslim or Sikh, or of Arab, Middle Eastern or South Asian origin.”

Read the full article.

Wisconsin Attack Exposes the Angry Music of \'Hatecore\'

By THE NEW YORK TIMES

The shooting rampage by an “avowed white supremacist” that killed six people at a suburban Sikh Temple near Milwaukee “came at a time of both growth and disarray in the supremacist movement,” James Dao and Serge F. Kovaleski wrote in The New York Times.

The data collected by the Southern Poverty Law Center, which monitors hate groups, shows that “the number of ultra-right-wing militias and white power organizations has grown sharply since the election of President Obama in 2008,” Mr. Dao and Mr.Kovaleski wrote, adding that “the movement is more decentralized and in many ways more disorganized than ever, experts and movement leaders say.”

“There is plenty of frustration and defeatism in the white nationalist movement,” Don Black, director of Stormfront, the largest white nationalist online discussion forum in the world, said in an interview. Calling Mr. Obama “a symptom of the multiculturalism that has undermined our country,” Mr. Black added that “there is no preeminent organization today.”

Yet the shootings also shined a light on an obscure cultural scene that is helping keep the movement energized and providing it with a powerful tool for recruiting the young and disaffected: white power music, widely known as “hatecore.”

For more than a decade, Wade M. Page, a former soldier who the police say was the lone gunman - and who was himself killed by a police officer on Sunday - played guitar and bass with an array of heavy metal bands that trafficked in the lyrics of hate.

Read the full article.

A Conversation With: Former Lok Sabha Speaker Somnath Chatterjee

By SAMBUDDHA MITRA MUSTAFI

Somnath Chatterjee was the speaker of the Lok Sabha, India's lower house of Parliament, from 2004 to 2009. A widely admired parliamentarian from West Bengal, Mr. Chatterjee had joined the Communist Party of India (Marxist) in 1968. In 2008, he was expelled from the party for refusing to step down as speaker during a no-confidence vote against the government on the issue of the India-U.S. civilian nuclear deal.

He retired from politics in 2009, and now, along with his wife, Renu, he runs a women's college, a free clinic and computer training center in Shantiniketan, part of his former constituency. He spoke to India Ink at his Kolkata home.

India's new president, Pranab Mukherjee, is an old political rival of yours, and the two of you have been West Bengal's representatives in Delhi for several decades. Any recollections of Mr. Mukherjee that you would like to share with us as ste ps into his new role?

I entered Parliament in 1971, and he was in the Rajya Sabha [upper house of Parliament], though I knew him from a bit earlier. Gradually he held important posts in the government and I had to interact with him, as members of Parliament and also as an acquaintance. I always found him soft-spoken; he never showed much arrogance except sometimes when he lost his temper for a short while â€" but he would always adjust.

He is very knowledgeable about political affairs, has a great memory and prepares very well, which is a great quality. The president's role is largely ceremonial, and I don't give much emphasis to him being a Bengali, but there is of course a certain comfort zone that he speaks my language, hails from my region. So I'm happy that he has become the president of India.

Critics say that the president's post should go to an apolitical person, and that Mr. Mukherjee is too entrenched in the Congress Party to be an impartial presi dent.

There is very little occasion for the president to be concerned with a political tussle, except for imposing president's rule [when a state government is suspended and the federal government takes over] or when inviting a new government after elections. But the president has very limited discretion. He has to follow the democratic principles enshrined in the constitution. It would be a sad day for India if the president took politically motivated decisions. Like it was tragic when President Fakhruddin Ali Ahmed signed the proclamation of emergency [in 1975, at the behest of Prime Minister Indira Gandhi].

So there may be occasions… like if I was president, I would have dismissed the Narasimha Rao government the day the Babri mosque was demolished [in Ayodhya on Dec. 6, 1992, by fanatic Hindu mobs]. But the prime minister kept quiet and so did the president.

Both in 2007 and 2012 there was some talk of you being a possible presidential candidate.

< p>This year it is a complete media creation. I was approached in 2007 by several people, several leaders. But I was then in the party, so I told everybody that it was going to be the party's decision. Then Prakash Karat [Communist Party of India (Marxist) general secretary] came and told me that the party did not wish to propose any names for president.

The party that you served for 40 years seems to be in a crisis. Election results have been bad in West Bengal and Kerala, the iconic Jawaharlal Nehru University unit was recently scrapped after questioning the leadership, the Left movement in India seems to be in disarray. Do you think the problem starts right at the top? Is Prakash Karat the wrong man to lead the party?

The present leadership has brought about this situation, I have no doubt about it. They are unable to understand the political situation in the country. They have lost the pulse of the people â€" they are now groping in the dark. And the problem i n the Communist Party is the domination of the central leadership. The three state units that matter â€" Bengal, Kerala and Tripura - they are submissive to central diktats. The central committee meetings have just become rituals. Only a handful of people attend them and impose their decisions.

There is arrogance at the top level and signs of corruption and nepotism among lower functionaries. So the rural people and factory workers who were the backbone of the party felt the left leaders were no longer their friends - that is why they left the party. After all these election debacles, somebody should have lost his post.

You described your expulsion from the party in 2008 as one of the saddest days of your life. When you decided to go against the party line in the no-confidence vote, did you expect such a harsh reaction?

Yes, I did expect it. But I believed that it would be after a proper procedure; at least I would be asked to give an explanation why I had taken this step. Till then not a finger had ever been pointed at me. I had fought 11 elections for the party, I had enjoyed the affection and support of so many leaders over the years, the party had accepted me as the speaker. Yet no one ever asked me to explain my stand. This is the result of arrogance. Is there anybody to say no to Prakash Karat? So we must suffer. And if I may say so, everybody very naively accepted that decision without raising a point.

How do you rate Mamata Banerjee's one year in power as West Bengal chief minister?

This state has many problems. My only agony is that some problems are multiplying, and new problems are coming up. I hope that she is able to do something about it. Of course, all those problems cannot be wished away easily, but numerically she is in a position of great strength in the assembly. She is still quite popular in the state because there is no rival coming up.

Industrialization of West Bengal has been a difficul t challenge for successive governments. Some people credit Ms. Banerjee's victory to the protests in Singur against the proposed Tata Nano factory.

The Singur movement was wrong. It was dangerous. It has put back West Bengal by decades. But people were so unhappy with the Left government that even such an anti-West Bengal act has been forgotten. Thousands of jobs would have been created. Tremendous economic development would taken place. I know six banks had opened their branches there, which have now been shut down. It would have brought about a sea change in the situation.

I don't agree that Mamata Banerjee's victory in West Bengal was because of that movement. There may have been some local opposition, but that would not have been shared by the people of the whole state. The fact is the Left government had lost its touch with the people.

Kremlin Critic Debugs Office. Tweets About It.

By MICHAEL SCHWIRTZ

Video taken by Aleksei Navalny's colleague showing the wiretap device

On Monday, Aleksei Navalny, a blogger and anticorruption crusader who is perhaps Russia's most influential Kremlin critic, arrived at work and with the help of a wiretap detector provided by a colleague discovered that his office was bugged.

It was a scene out of the cloak and dagger days of the Soviet Union, except that Mr. Navalny proceeded to describe the entire affair in real time to his 274,271 followers on Twitter and then post a video about the discovery on his blog.

“Experts, what is this?” Mr. Navalny asked, posting a photograph of a device hidden behind the baseboard in his office.

Эксперты, это что? RT @alburov: Нашли с @ipasserby прослушку в кабинете Навального http://t.co/SukzOzl5

< p>- Alexey Navalny (@navalny) 6 Aug 12

Not content with his online experts, Mr. Navalny apparently summoned the authorities. Twelve police officers arrived along with wiretap experts who, Mr. Navalny reported, determined that the device was in fact equipped with a microphone. They also discovered a hidden video camera.

Ð'идеокамеру тоже нашли http://t.co/Jn6dTMaI

- Alexey Navalny (@navalny) 6 Aug 12

The police dusted for prints and wrote up a report.

Отпечатки ищут. Ща @alburov будет разоблачен http://t.co/GRmG8DZQ

- Alexey Navalny (@navalny) 6 Aug 12

Russian officials did not respond to the revelation, and the reaction among Mr. Navalny's supporters was hardly one of surprise.

“Shocker! Navalny's being listened to? I'd never have thought,” Ksenia Sobchak, a pop celebrit y turned government opponent, said in an apparently sarcastic remark on Twitter.

Шок!навального прослушивают!! Никогда бы не подумала..

- Ксения Собчак (@xenia_sobchak) 6 Aug 12

Last week, Mr. Navalny was charged with embezzlement and faces up to 10 years in prison if convicted. Such an outcome, as my colleague Ellen Barry reported, would signal a sharp escalation in President Vladimir V. Putin's efforts to defang Russia's opposition. Mr. Navalny was previously the target of an investigation into the same embezzlement case, but investigators dropped it in the spring saying they had found no evidence of wrongdoing.

So far, Mr. Navalny has tended to make light of his situation, taking frequent jabs at the authorities in the domain where he is strongest: social media.

Video of the police inspecting Mr. Naval ny's office

In a video later posted to his blog, Mr. Navalny said he and his colleagues, whom he described as “paranoid,” decided to check for bugs in his office “for the fun of it.”

“Honestly, I thought they'd hide them better,” he said.

After Shooting, Searching for Clues in the Music of Hate

By JENNIFER PRESTON and MICHAEL SCHWIRTZ

As a teenager, Wade M. Page, the 40-year-old gunman who killed six people and wounded three others at the Wisconsin Sikh Temple on Sunday, developed a passion for music. His stepmother, Laura Page, 67, recalled that he worshiped the guitarist Stevie Ray Vaughan.

It was his music, as our colleagues, James Dao and Serge F. Kovaleski report, that investigators turned to for clues to help understand why Mr. Page opened fire on Sunday before he was shot and killed by police.

Photos posted online on Myspace pages and BandMix show him performing in practice spaces with banners, flags and other Nazi paraphernalia.

In his own words on a Myspace page that has since been taken down, Mr. Page explained why he founded a white power band he called End Apathy in 2005.

“The music is a sad commentary on our sick society and the problems that prevent true progress,” he wrote.

On Bandmix, Mr. Page described his influences as “everything from AC/DC, COC, RKL, BFG, all RAC, DRI, Slayer, Sabbath, Maiden, GWAR, Dio, etc.”

A guitarist and singer, Mr. Page also performed with at least two other bands called 13 Knots and Definite Hate that appeal to members of the white supremacist movement, according to the Southern Poverty Law Center.

“This guy was in the thick of the white supremacist music scene and, in fact, played with some of the best known racist bands in the country,” said Mark Potok, a senior fellow at the center.

Among the titles of songs uploaded to the 13 Knots Myspace page are “Runnin from the Law,” “Buckshot” and “13 Knots.”

In “Buckshot,” the sound of gunshots is part of the music, and the lyrics include, “Buckshot, just for you. Buckshot, what are you going to do. Bang. Bang.” Other phrases include, “finger on the trigger” and “going to kill.”

The song “13 Knots” talks about murder and execution and notes that “only God can forgive.”

On Definite Hate's Myspace page, an album titled “Welcome to the South,” features an image of a Confederate flag and a noose. In one song uploaded to the site, the United States is then described as “overrun” by minorities, who are depicted using racist and ethnic slurs.

“What has happened to America, that was once so white and free?” asks the singer. The song culminates in a call for “all Aryans” to unite. It is unclear if Mr. Page contributed to the song.

On another Definite Hate album called “Violent Victory, the cover shows a drawing of a tattooed white fist punching a black man, who spits blood. The fist appears to have tattoos on its fingers with the letters “HFFH,” which may refer to a logo for the Hammerskins, a major white-supremacist organization: “Hammerskins Forever, Forever Hammerskins.”

“The Hammerskins dom inate much of the white power music scene in the United States, in terms of holding concerts, having Hammerskins-associated bands and associated record labels,” said Mark Pitcavage, director of research for the Anti-Defamation League.

He said Mr. Page became a “prospective member” of the Hammerskins in 2011, meaning he was in a probationary period of six months to a year. By the end of 2011, he had become a “fully patched member,” and gotten the Hammerskins tattoo on his right arm, Mr. Pitcavage said.

Mr. Page talked about attending his first Hammerskins gathering and described his musical development in an online interview with Label 56, a record label that earned a spot on the Southern Poverty Law Center's hate list for distributing “racist hate music.”

The label also released one of Mr. Page's albums. The interview has since been removed from Label.56.com, but a screenshot is on the law center's Web site.

Mr. Page does not discuss vio lence in the interview. He talks about why he started End Apathy and how he got involved in the white supremacist music scene.

End Apathy began in 2005 and the concept was based on trying to figure out what it would take to actually accomplish positive results in society and what is holding us back. A lot of what I realized at the time is if we could figure out how to end peoples apathetic ways it would be the start towards moving forward. Of course, after that it requires discipline, strict discipline to stay the course in our sick society. So, in a sense, it was a view of psychology and sociology. But I didn't want to just point the finger at what other people should do. But also I was willing to point out some of my faults on how I was holding myself back. And that is how I wrote the song, ‘Self Destruct.'

In that song, he wrote: “You betray your dignity for this miserable life.

He also describes how he got involved in the white supremacist music scene a few years after he left the Army in 1998.

I am originally from Colorado and had always been independent, but back in 2000 I set out to get involved and wanted to basically start over. So, I sold everything I owned except for my motorcycle and what I could fit into a backpack and went on cross country trip visiting friends and attending festivals and shows.

Since the shooting, Label 56 has deleted the interview and released a statement condemning the bloodshed:

Label 56 is very sorry to hear about the tragedy in Wisconsin and our thoughts are with the families and friends of those who are affected. We have worked hard over the years to promote a positive image and have posted many articles encouraging people to take a positive path in life, to abstain from drugs, alcohol, and just general behavior that can affect ones life negatively. Likewise we have never sought attention by using “sh ock value”/ symbols and ideology that are generally labeled as such. With that being said, all images and products related to End Apathy have been removed from our site. We do not wish to profit from this tragedy financially or with publicity.

In closing please do not take what Wade did as honorable or respectable and please do not think we are all like that.

Thank you, Label 56

It now appears that investigators are turning to some of Mr. Page's former bandmates for information. An NBC affiliate in North Carolina reported on Tuesday that FBI agents searched the home of Edward Brent Rackley, whom Mr. Page identifies as a member of his three bands in the Label 56 interview. According to the NBC report, Mr. Rackley launched into a racist tirade when two black deputies entered his property.

“I am a racist,” he said according to police reports cited by the station. At one point he seems to have threatened violence.

Reached by telep hone, Mr. Rackley declined to speak with a reporter. “I'm not interested. This is him. I don't care to be bothered anymore,” he said.

The NBC affiliate reached Mr. Rackley's answering machine, which said: “We favor a free, strong, proud, white America.”

In a telephone interview, Mona Rackley said that her son lived with Mr. Page for about six months last year at a relative's property in Nashville, N.C., and that Mr. Page seemed like a respectful man.

“We had meals with him and he was decent at the time,” Ms. Rackley said in an interview, noting that the family had rented a room to Mr. Page in a house on her daughter's property. “And then he just moved out. He didn't seem anything like the person who would do this. It makes me sick.”

The white power music business is a major source of revenue for American neo-Nazi groups, often outstripping other kinds of fund-raising, said Brian Levin, a criminal justice professor at California State University at San Bernardino who is an expert on hate groups. William Pierce, one of the founding fathers of the white supremacist movement in the United States and whose book, “The Turner Diaries,” was an inspiration to Timothy McVeigh, purchased a white supremacist label called Resistance Records in 2000, to further his message. Mr. Pierce, the founder of a white supremacist group called the National Alliance, was making more than $1 million a year from the label when he died in 2002. His movement and record label are still active.

But bands like End Apathy and Intimidation One, with which Mr. Page played, are also a powerful tool for persuading young people to join these groups at a time when they have had trouble recruiting new members through more traditional means. Not only does the music appeal to angry teenagers but it also provides a sense of community and a mission: to randomly assault members of various minorities in the name of self defense. “It g ives them a simple folklore,” Mr. Levin said. “It's a validation for young people who feel threatened, frustrated and isolated. This gives them a family, a sense of community and a belief system.”

Mr. Page was regarded in the world of hate music as an accomplished bassist who had wider musical tastes beyond neo-Nazi bands than many of the other players he worked with, Mr. Levin said. Known to be a drinker, Mr. Page also did not have a reputation for violence among people who closely monitor white supremacist bands; he was seen as someone who was more comfortable in the role of a musical recruiter than a storm-trooper, Mr. Levin said. “He wasn't a chest-thumper,” Mr. Levin said.

Aaron Flanagan, a research analyst at the Center for New Community in Chicago, who tracks white supremacist movements in the United States, said such music is an important propaganda tool within white supremacist movements. William Pierce, one of the founding fathers of the wh ite supremacist movement in the United States and whose book, “The Turner Diaries,” was an inspiration to Timothy McVeigh, purchased a white supremacist label called Resistance Records in 2000, to further his message. Mr. Pierce died in 2002, but his movement and record label are still active.

“White power skinhead music is by and large the main entrance point of people into this movement,” Mr. Flanagan said in an interview. “It gives the sound track, it gives the outlet for the aggression.”

Serge F. Kovaleski, Jack Begg, Ben Sisario and Jim McKinley contributed reporting