Vandal has Nazi ties: police find dope on him

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A man suspected of spray painting swastikas and racist slogans on a Messianic Jewish house of worship was doing more than making idle threats, Mobile police said Tuesday.


Thomas Hayward Lewis, 22, who was first arrested Thursday, has affiliations with neo-Nazi groups, police said, and a search of his house turned up a cache of "explosive materials," which investigators believe he was ready to use.


Police charged Lewis with third-degree criminal mischief, criminal possession of explosives and possession of a controlled substance.


He lives with his parents on South Jefferson Street near downtown, police said.
Police Chief Phillip Garrett said investigators believe that Lewis also painted hate graffiti at Cooper Riverside Park, and they are looking for possible associates of Lewis.


There's no indication that his parents had any idea what their son was up to, Garrett said.
On the morning of Jan. 5, members of the Congregation Tree of Life found their west Mobile building defaced with spray-painted swastikas and racist slogans, such as "Hitler was right" and "Juden raus," which is German for "Jews get out."


The names Waffen SS and Combat 18, a neo-Nazi group, were also painted on the building, according to police photos.


The members were upset, said Barbara Morgan, the congregation's administrator, but many brushed it off as a cruel prank because of the sloppiness of the work and some mistakes in the writing.


Tree of Life members consider themselves to be Jewish, but believe Jesus Christ is the Messiah.
Laborers with the Mobile Public Works Department found racist graffiti in Cooper Riverside Park the same day as the Tree of Life vandalism, Garrett said, and investigators comparing photos from the two sites felt they were made by same person.


The park graffiti targeted other minorities, said the chief, who declined to say exactly what was written, because of its offensive nature.


Detectives, using leads from an informant, linked Lewis to the vandalism and searched his home, where they found what police believe to be explosive materials, Garrett said.
Pending analysis of the materials, Garrett declined to identify them.