Slain Neo-Nazi, Angry Over Obama Victory, Reportedly Prepared ‘Dirty Bomb’ Components

James G. Cummings, a neo-Nazi who was shot to death by his wife last December, possessed a cache of radioactive materials suitable for building a “dirty bomb,” according to a leaked FBI intelligence report. A dirty bomb uses conventional explosives to disperse radioactive and other harmful materials over a large area.

During a search of the Belfast, Maine, house where Cummings lived with his wife, Amber, investigators reportedly discovered instructions for making a dirty bomb, along with four 1-gallon containers filled with a mix of uranium and thorium, both of which are radioactive, along with highly toxic beryllium powder. The containers also held a hydrogen peroxide-based solution needed for making peroxide-based explosives, along with lithium metal, thermite, magnesium ribbon, black iron oxide and other substances that are used to amplify the effects of homemade explosives.

According to the FBI report, which was originally posted online by WikiLeaks, an organization that posts leaked documents, police also found a National Socialist Movement membership application filled out by Cummings. The NSM currently is the largest neo-Nazi organization in the country, with 69 chapters in 30 states.

Amber Cummings reportedly told police that her husband was “very upset” over Barack Obama being elected president, had been in contact with white supremacist groups, and that he’d been mixing chemicals in their kitchen sink while talking about dirty bombs. Authorities say she claimed that she killed her husband after years of mental, physical, and sexual abuse. Police are terming his death a “domestic violence homicide” but, at this point, no charges have been filed.

The Bangor Daily News reports that a tradesman who painted inside the house for about a month last summer said that Cummings verbally abused his wife, talked incessantly about guns and Adolf Hitler, and claimed to own pieces of Hitler’s personal silverware and place settings. The painter said that Cummings showed off a collection of Nazi memorabilia, including a swastika flag.

“Cummings grew up in California and lived in Texas before moving to Maine in August 2007,” the Bangor News reports. “Although [the painter] said Cummings told him he made his money in Texas real estate, it appears that the actual source of his wealth was a trust fund established by his father, a prominent landowner in the Northern California city of Fort Bragg.” Records on the Internet show the James B. Cummings Trust has an annual income of $10 million.

Cummings was not the only person to apparently have been enraged or even made assassination threats because of the ascent and eventual election of Obama (see here and here and here, for instance).