Benjamin Nathaniel Smith - Definition

Benjamin Nathaniel Smith was a spree killer who murdered Won-Joon Yoon and former Northwestern University basketball coach Ricky Byrdsong. Smith targeted Hispanics, Blacks, Asians, and Jews in a thirty-six hour spate of drive-by shootings during the weekend of July 4, 1999 in Illinois and Indiana, USA. He wounded eight others and shot at and missed another nine people. Finally, Smith tried to kill himself as officers pursued him down a southern Illinois highway. After shooting himself twice he crashed his automobile into a tree. He then shot himself again, in the heart.

It is generally held that Smith's crimes were related to his affiliation with the white supremacist organization called the World Church of the Creator, which views him as a martyr. The group argued that Smith believed himself to be a soldier of the Racial Holy War Movement and, as a student at Indiana University at Bloomington, he was known for promoting racism.