There is also here in Oak Creek a quiet, ongoing effort to, quote and “try to come to grips with what’s happened”. Some of it is taking place at a makeshift memorial not far from where we are tonight. People have been stopping there all day to leave a remembrance, say a prayer, or just silently pay their respects to the five men and one woman killed Sunday morning. 

 

 

 

There have been vigils as well and ceremonies. Both religious and secular. Not just to recognize the loss of six lives but to honor the lives of six people. We're here because that healing effort and those six lives, they deserve attention. 

 

 

 

But we also want to tell you tonight about what we've learned about their killer, Wade Page. A man motivated by hate. Who officials say took inspiration from the swastika(万十字章). Where precisely that hate came from, where it all came together and when, we don't yet know. We do know that one of his stops on the road to Sunday's massacre was the time he spent at the army's Fort Bragg in North Carolina, which of course has a long tradition of producing heroes. 

 

 

 

Drew Griffin has been investigating how and when Wade Page was at Fort Bragg, what his service entailed(要求做到). He joins us now. Drew, what have you found about Page's time in the military? 

 

 

 

Well, we, it was not stellar, we'll tell you that in a little bit. But we wanted to focus on Fort Bragg because Fort Bragg, as you said, produced a lot of heroes, thousands and thousands of heroes. But back in 1995, it had a mark on it, on that fort, because there was a murder of a black couple outside the base, Anderson. 

 

 

 

Three soldiers identified as neo-Nazi skinheads were caught and convicted of that crime. They basically just picked their victims for one reason. They wanted to kill blacks. The army came under fire because it was very obvious that these soldiers were neo-Nazis. One of them even had what was described as a Nazi shrine where he was living. That led to a crackdown by the army on trying to weed out racists in the ranks and about two dozen soldiers were kicked out. 

 

 

 

The army found there were threads of a subculture of hate in its ranks. And they've had to, you know, address that over the years. 

 

 

 

Did that subculture involve Wade Michael Page? And is that where his racist views began? Do we know at this point? 

 

 

 

You know, there's been a lot of ink written about this just over the last few days trying to put these dots together. It was about the same time frame that Wade Michael Page was at Fort Bragg. But we actually tracked down the original prosecutor of that crime, of the case today. He told us at the time they searched high and low for accomplices, even a bona fide hate group at the base. They found neither. He never came across Page. Even going back mentally in his notes today, he couldn't come up with that name. 

 

 

 

Organizations that monitor hate groups do say the military can attract people who have hate-filled, you know, feelings but there's no clear indication that Wade Michael Page had anything to do with any of these neo-Nazis that were at Fort Bragg at that time. 

 

 

 

He was kicked out of the army though? 

 

 

 

He was kicked out but not for hate. In 1998 he was kicked out of Fort Bragg. He was first demoted sergeant down to a specialist, and then kicked out because he was drunk. We know he tried to make it in the hate music scene, kept picking up odd jobs after getting fired. He worked in the parts department of this North Carolina motorcycle shop. This is near Fort Bragg, by the way. 2000, 2003, 2004, he worked at that shop. But his boss fired him. And I want you to listen to why. John Tew told us this guy just had no respect for women. 

 

 

 

“The thing I remembered mostly about him was the way he dressed. He dressed, in my opinion, just like the neo-Nazi-type person would dress. And he was very quiet. Kept to himself, was very efficient worker.” 

 

 

 

But then he changed a little bit. He could not interact with females. And he had a problem with female authority. And that's, he had such a problem that I started writing him up. Then eventual put him on probation. And then we eventually terminated him because he's, he just refused to take any orders from any female. 

 

 

 

And his supervisor was a female. John Tew says that when Page left, Anderson, he actually left behind an application to join the Ku Klux Klan. Page came back for it, too. They'd already thrown it into the trash. We also know that two years ago he was fired from a trucking company after he was cited for driving while impaired. Anderson.