March 4, 2005

BY MICHAEL SNEED SUN-TIMES COLUMNIST

Sneed hears police investigating the murders of the husband and mother of federal Judge Joan Lefkow on Wednesday night questioned a man who in 2003 was identified as a confidant/follower of jailed white supremacist Matthew Hale.

Hale, who is awaiting sentencing at the Metropolitan Correctional Center for soliciting the murder of Lefkow two years ago, was accompanied by the man in 2000 when he was collecting petition signatures in an effort to get his white supremacist World Church of the Creator recognized by Northwestern University as an official campus religious organization.

A Sneed source claims the man, a former Deerfield High School student who was once charged with littering and violation of curfew while passing out racist pamphlets, reportedly gave police an alibi at the time of the murders, which occurred between 8:30 a.m. and 5:30 p.m. Monday at Lefkow's North Side home.

Meanwhile, Sneed has been told part of the police investigation's focus is on a New York Times photograph of Matthew Hale being accompanied by several followers, one of whom seems "strikingly similar" to one of the two police sketches released of possible murder suspects.