Blast From The Past — Edgar Steele

During my nine years of covering the Kootenai County Task Force on Human Relations, I met more than my share of supremacists. Edgar Steele and former fugitive Vincent Bertollini were among those who occasionally e-mailed. Steele, who, moments ago, was found guilty of a murder-for-hire plot to kill his wife and mother-in-law, e-mail a two-page screed that complained about a Huckleberries column in which I referred to him as a “far-right propagandist.” In part, he said: “You have done your best, bully that you are, to shut me up and silence others that feel as I do. You, of course, have a forum that we are denied. Don’t you ever wonder how you might do in a fair fight? Aren’t you ever ashamed of the deception that you foist upon the public? Don’t you ever wonder what it would be like to be deserving of the title ‘journalist’?” Sweet fella. (SR file photo of Steele talking to skinheads after 2004 Sherman Avenue parade)

Question: Have you ever encountered one of the region’s supremacists, past or present?