White Supremacist Craig Cobb Buying Property in North Dakota – Again
White supremacist Craig Cobb hasn’t stopped buying property in North Dakota, where last year he unsuccessfully tried to build an all-white racist enclave by quietly purchasing more than a dozen lots in the town of Leith. Hatewatch exposed the effort last August.
According to news reports, Renville County Auditor LeAnn Pollman said Cobb paid two years’ worth of property, totally $1,084, for an empty two-story house in Sherwood, population 242, about 180 miles north of Leith. The seller is Floyd Randall of Elk Grove, Calif.
While there is no indication that Cobb, who is on probation after pleading guilty to one count of felony terrorizing and five counts of misdemeanor menacing, intends to replicate his plans for Leith, there already appear to be efforts to roll up the welcome mat.
Renville County Sheriff Barry Vannatta said he was notified that Cobb was moving to Sherwood after Missouri denied Cobb’s request to move there, ostensibly to care for his ailing mother. Vannatta said he wasn’t sure of Cobb’s plans “for a little town up north in the middle of nowhere,” and he fears Cobb’s followers may be the next to move to Sherwood.
Sherwood Police Chief Ross Carter –– who is the town’s only police officer –– told The Bismarck Tribune that the house Cobb bought has been a blight for some time. Its residents have been mostly stray dogs and cats, and the last time Carter visited the house, he said it smelled overwhelmingly of dog and cat urine and feces.
North Dakota Parole and Probation spokesman Tim Tausend, who in May confirmed that Cobb was under investigation for his Internet activities on the white supremacist website WhiteNations.com, also told the paper that the Federal Bureau of Investigation had recently confiscated Cobb’s laptop computer because of complaints about his Internet activities.