Two brothers, Benjamin Williams and James Williams, are suspects in the June 1999 arson attacks on three synagogues in Sacramento and in the murders of a gay couple in northern California. Benjamin Smith shot and killed himself a few weeks later after a high-speed chase with police who believed that he was responsible for a shooting spree in Indiana and Illinois that wounded seven and killed two, all minorities. In August 1999, Buford O. Furrow admitted to police that he walked into a Jewish community center in Los Angeles and opened fire, wounding four children and the center's receptionist. After fleeing the scene, he is also believed to have shot and killed a Filipino-American mail carrier.

Although these incidents in the summer of 1999 occurred in different parts of the United States, the men involved have one thing in common—they all belonged...