Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SUNDAY, August 27, 1995 TAG: 9508280081
SECTION: NATL/INTL PAGE: A8 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: THE NEW YORK TIMES
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
It was the first mention most people had ever heard of the Good Ol' Boys Roundup, an annual three-day campout for law-enforcement officers and federal agents, but the reports were disturbing enough to prompt hearings by the Senate Judiciary Committee, and an investigation by the Justice Department and expressions of alarm by President Clinton.
But now, it turns out, the most damning accounts of the Good Ol' Boys Roundup - including a 90-second videotape showing the banner and tales of agents selling ``nigger-hunting licenses'' - were made to the National Rifle Association by a former Fort Lauderdale police officer after he was prevented by the Roundups' organizer from distributing David Duke campaign literature and from expressing ``white power'' sentiments at the gatherings.
The tape - now considered widely suspect - and stories, in turn, apparently were fed to The Washington Times newspaper by an official of the rifle association, which has characterized agents of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms as ``jack-booted thugs.''
The source of the videotape and stories was identified as Richard Hayward, a former Fort Lauderdale, Fla., police officer by Justice Department officials, by a former president of the rifle association and by the organizer of the Roundups.
Through the years, Hayward has supported David Duke, the one-time head of the Ku Klux Klan who campaigned unsuccessfully for the U.S. Senate, governorship of Louisiana and the 1992 Republican presidential nomination.
The Roundups' organizer, Gene Rightmyer, a former ATF agent, said he had had several run-ins with Hayward in recent years over Hayward's attempts to display ``white power'' insignias and distribute Duke campaign literature at the Roundups.
Hayward has since had a falling-out with the rifle association, which he characterized in a recent interview as ``totally unethical, a bunch of liars.''
On the other hand, Hayward insists that his videotape is genuine and his stories are true, although Justice Department investigators and civil rights leaders have said they have doubts about both.
Hayward said that last spring he offered the rifle association his allegations of racism at the Roundups - at the very time the rifle association was undertaking a new membership drive with mailings that once again attacked ATF agents.
In return, Hayward said, the rifle association was to provide him a plane ticket from Birmingham, Ala., to Phoenix to meet with officials of the association shortly before its annual convention in May, a free hotel room and cab fare, and a security fence for his home.
He now says the NRA betrayed him by leaking his identity to the news media and by being slow to make good on its part of the agreement, particularly on the construction of the fence.
by CNB