Recent stories in the news got me thinking about this case again, and wondering if it could possibly be the work of the same individual(s) who torched two dozen fires in the south in the 90s.

I'm not sure how many of you remember the UM segment, but in 1996 UM ran a piece on black churches in the south that were being torched. Football player Reggie White appeared on the segment and died some years later. I don't recall anything else from the segment. I didn't see any other threads on this case. I had found one for the Florida church arsonist, and was surprised and delighted to see they had captured the guy, though he has since been released.

Recent stories in the news got me thinking about this case again, and wondering if it could possibly be the work of the same individual(s) who torched two dozen fires in the south in the 90s.

I'm not sure how many of you remember the UM segment, but in 1996 UM ran a piece on black churches in the south that were being torched. Football player Reggie White appeared on the segment and died some years later. I don't recall anything else from the segment. I didn't see any other threads on this case. I had found one for the Florida church arsonist, and was surprised and delighted to see they had captured the guy, though he has since been released.

Reggie White's church was in Knoxville. I always had the feeling that one wasn't a racially motivated crime myself. That part of town is not generally safe, and it wasn't in the mid-90s, either. Lots of crime happens there. I wouldn't discount the notion that it was a hate crime completely, but my own feeling is that there were probably other reasons why it happened given the area in which it was located.

Reggie White's church was in Knoxville. I always had the feeling that one wasn't a racially motivated crime myself. That part of town is not generally safe, and it wasn't in the mid-90s, either. Lots of crime happens there. I wouldn't discount the notion that it was a hate crime completely, but my own feeling is that there were probably other reasons why it happened given the area in which it was located.

Wasn't there some graffiti found in the aftermath of the fire that indicated it may have been racially motivated, yet the police speculated the graffiti itself may have been a ruse, or am I thinking of another case?

Wasn't there some graffiti found in the aftermath of the fire that indicated it may have been racially motivated, yet the police speculated the graffiti itself may have been a ruse, or am I thinking of another case?

No, you've got the right one. There was graffiti, and speculation that said graffiti was designed to throw off authorities. For what it's worth, the church continued to meet at Austin-East High School (a public school whose student population is predominately black) and eventually did rebuild without incident. Something about it never completely set right with me--mainly because there's a lot of activity in that area at night, it is patrolled constantly, and non-black individuals (especially those acting suspiciously) would definitely stand out to both residents and authorities.

No, you've got the right one. There was graffiti, and speculation that said graffiti was designed to throw off authorities. For what it's worth, the church continued to meet at Austin-East High School (a public school whose student population is predominately black) and eventually did rebuild without incident. Something about it never completely set right with me--mainly because there's a lot of activity in that area at night, it is patrolled constantly, and non-black individuals (especially those acting suspiciously) would definitely stand out to both residents and authorities.

Interesting. Do you have any theories about who might have done it, or what the real motive may have been?

Interesting. Do you have any theories about who might have done it, or what the real motive may have been?

I've always wondered if it wasn't an attempt to collect on an insurance payout.

If so, I believe Jerry Upton--the former head pastor of the Inner City Church--is probably the responsible party. He's still around the greater Knoxville area, and in fact today preaches at a church in the small town outside the city that I grew up in.

http://chippewa.com/church-s-pastor-sentenced-for-drugs-funds-gone/article_1488078e-55d3-534c-9fc0-5d24784f328f.html

Upton met White while he was playing football at the University of Tennessee in the early '80s and became something of a mentor to him. White never publicly doubted Upton's innocence.

I've always wondered if it wasn't an attempt to collect on an insurance payout.

If so, I believe Jerry Upton--the former head pastor of the Inner City Church--is probably the responsible party. He's still around the greater Knoxville area, and in fact today preaches at a church in the small town outside the city that I grew up in.

http://chippewa.com/church-s-pastor-sentenced-for-drugs-funds-gone/article_1488078e-55d3-534c-9fc0-5d24784f328f.html

Upton met White while he was playing football at the University of Tennessee in the early '80s and became something of a mentor to him. White never publicly doubted Upton's innocence.

I forgot this segment existed until I saw it last night, and on Prime they included an update about Reggie White dying 8 years after the fire from heart failure, and how the arson investigation was still open and unsolved. My gut feeling after seeing this update (skin head white supremacists are notoriously hateful & stupid and would have talked to someone or would have been found by now, IMO) was that this was staged for some sort of insurance fraud. The biggest indicator was that the segment update included the tidbit that the church was never rebuilt. That was the biggest red flag, IMO. I found this (https://www.wbir.com/article/news/20-years-unsolved-inner-city-church-arson-case/12008771) article from 2016, which also seemed to hint at an inside job.

Let's rethink our assumptions. The burning of a church whose congregation is overwhelmingly black is racially motivated. When we aver that the church is a part of town where "lots of crime happens" this phrase suggest the part of town is...overwhelmingly black.

It's just a thought, to quote John Fogerty.

Let's rethink our assumptions. The burning of a church whose congregation is overwhelmingly black is racially motivated.

Not always.

https://www.stltoday.com/news/local/crime-and-courts/suspect-charged-with-setting-two-in-the-string-of-seven/article_98672cca-39ad-54d9-9ab5-67905b4ff4ad.html

When we aver that the church is a part of town where "lots of crime happens" this phrase suggest the part of town is...overwhelmingly black.

Or...maybe someone is from that area and is familiar with lots of crime being committed. The segment showed both white and black church goers, and that was the specific goal that Reggie White referred to in the segment.