Federal authorities tied white supremacist Kevin Harpham to the bomb planted at a Martin Luther King, Jr. Day parade in Washington state after noticing unusually high sales of quarter-ounce fishing weights at a Walmart in Colville, Washington.
The retail giant provided information about sales of fishing weights — like those used in the backpack bomb Harpham planted along the parade route in January — from 72 of their stores in the months leading up to the attempted bombing. The Walmart location in Colville sold an unusually high number of the fishing weights during a week in November, according to a newly released plea agreement between Harpham and federal prosecutors.
Harpham admitted to using cash to purchase a total of 130 weights on three separate occasions: Nov. 1, Nov. 3 and Nov. 7. Two times, he bought the weights along with Kraft brand Jet Puffed Marshmallow Creme and vitamin D milk, also purchasing a Farberware-brand food chopper on the first occasion. The other time he simply bought the weights.
FBI agents also found a Panasonic digital camera at Harpham’s residence, on which they were able to recover several dozen deleted photographs of the Jan. 17 parade. He was also caught at the event by security cameras and in footage shot by a local news station.
Harpham also admitted in the plea agreement that he had used the online moniker “Joe Snuffy” on a white supremacist website Vanguard News Network Forum, posting racist comments starting around 2005.
The plea agreement is embedded below.
Ryan J. Reilly
Ryan J. Reilly is a D.C.-based reporter for TPM. Prior to joining TPM, he worked for a news website covering the Justice Department and was a researcher for Bloomberg News. His email address is ryan(at)talkingpointsmemo.com.