Possible Break In Lefkow Case? Probably Not

By Sam Bakken in News on Mar 9, 2005 6:43PM

The New York Times reports today:

A lawyer for Matthew Hale, the white supremacist convicted last year of plotting to kill a federal judge whose husband and mother were slain last week, said on Tuesday that Mr. Hale's mother called him a few months ago and asked him to pass on an encoded message to one of Mr. Hale's supporters.

We saw the AP story and thought "Holy shit! They're close!" They buried Hale's mother's comment that the message was about someone Hale thought should testify at his sentencing on April 6 and coded to prevent the Feds from discovering his legal strategy. It's probably not the break we thought it was.

Evidently the message was two or three cryptic sentences. The lawyer couldn't remember the actual text of the message. Hale's mother told her son that she couldn't understand the message, but he said his lawyer would understand. The attorney said no one could understand it unless they'd been told previously what it was about. Prison officials where Hale is staying called his parents Monday night to tell them their weekly telephone call and bi-weekly visits with their son would be suspended indefinitely. Hale's mother released a statement from Hale denying any involvement in the killings last week, and his attorney said this may be the reason contact was cut.