So what went amiss on that lonely Louisiana sandbar the fateful night that killed Tulsa woman Cynthia Lynch?
According to the several reports, Lynch, 43, traveled by bus to Slidell, La., after seeking to join a chapter of the Ku Klux Klan there, called the Sons of Dixie Knights. There, the group transported her to a camp on a remote sandbar of the Pearl River for her initiation, an article in The Oklahoman states.
There, things get hazy. She was shot and her body was found dumped. Someone had taken a knife to the body in order to dig out the .40-caliber bullet with which she had been dispatched, the story said. What happened?
"We gather this was the first time she had been down here," reported St. Tammany Parish Sheriff's Sgt. George Cox to the Tulsa World. Cox said Lynch's only known previous contact with the white-supremacist group was over the Internet.
That MySpace group, called "White Pride," was moderated by Raymond "Chuck" Foster, a "Grand Wizard" who has been arrested and held on a complaint of second-degree murder in connection with Lynch's death, The Oke story states. Here's a sample of Chuck's style that so enticed Ms. Lynch, replete with original spelling and punctuation:
"There is a lot of (beep) going on today in this world mainly in america. our white people are getting pushed around by the jews, (beep) and the miedia and i'm sick of it! we need to stand up and stop this before it gets out of control its happening everywhere in our schools, streets, store's even our homes and our white children are being taught (beep) beside's what their sopposed to learn."
Authorities told The Oke that the Klan group is based out of Bogalusa, La. Lynch's Klan application, found at the scene of the initiation, shows Lynch was being given the title "Grand Kleagle."
The application asked for "recommendations," to which Lynch replied, "a couple of misdemeanors on record "¦ expunged felony for attemt. murder on ex husband (probation) was over 2 years ago."
The application shows she was recruited by two people named Random "Herm" Hines, 27, and Danielle Jones, 23, both of whom were arrested on obstruction of justice, along with Shane Foster, 20, Frank Stafford, 21, Timothy Michael Watkins, 30, Alicia M. Watkins, 23, and Andrew Yates, 20, according to The Oke.
The application shows Hines generously waived the $25 application fee "as incentive."
What led to the shooting? That's not clear, officials said. The cover got blown on the killing after two people, Frank Stafford and Raymond Foster's son, Shane Foster, visited a Circle K in Bogalusa early in the morning after the killing and asked how to get bloodstains removed from clothing, according to the World.
"What was odd about this was the extent they went to cover it up," the World quoted St. Tammany Parish Sheriff Jack Strain as saying. "To the degree they scrubbed the area was pretty impressive for a group with such a small IQ."
