los angeles (ap) | A Jewish Defense League activist who was killed in a federal prison had received death threats because of his militancy and needed more protection from authorities, his former attorney said.
Earl Krugel, 62, was killed last week at the Federal Correctional Institution in Phoenix, where he was imprisoned for his role in a bomb plot against a Southern California mosque and the office of a Lebanese American congressman.
Attorney Mark Werksman questioned why Krugel was transferred to the medium-security prison last week. He had been in protective custody at Los Angeles’ federal Metropolitan Detention Center recently, Werksman said.
“There were death threats against him precisely because he was a militant Jewish activist,” he said. “So he always had to be watched and be guarded in federal custody in L.A.”
FBI Special Agent Richard Murray said a homicide probe was under way. Family members said Krugel had been at the Arizona prison for three days and died after an inmate struck him in the head with a concrete block.
Krugel, a former dental assistant from Los Angeles, was arrested in 2001 and charged with conspiring with JDL leader Irv Rubin, whose prison.death was ruled a suicide.