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John William King is a supremacist from Texas who murdered African-American James Byrd Jr. on June 7, 1998, along with Shawn Berry, and Lawrence Russell Brewer. King is supposedly the ringleader of the three men.
King in particular had a history of getting xenophobic and hateful tattoos, some of which included Nazi and Confederate related symbols. One in particular depicted the lynching of an African American man.
Murder
The three men offered Byrd a ride in their pickup trick. Byrd accepted, not knowing that three men were actually tricking him into being abused and tortured by them. They drove off to a barren remote land outside of Jasper, Texas, and beat him unconscious. While Byrd was unconscious, the three men took further pleasure in torturing him by urinating, defecating, and spray-painting his body. They later murdered Byrd by chaining his body to their pickup and dragging it for three miles straight, killing him. All three later dumped the remains of Byrd's body in front of an African-American church, then cowardly fled by driving off to a barbecue.
Aftermath
Eventually, all three men were convicted for the murder of Byrd. King was given capital punishment, being executed in 2011 and 2019.