By BRIAN FARKAS, Associated Press Writer

CHARLESTON, W.Va. (AP) - A German neo-Nazi fugitive wanted for violating the terms of his parole was arrested over the weekend after leaving white separatist William Pierce's Pocahontas County compound. Convicted murderer Hendrick Albert Viktor Moebus, 24, was arrested Saturday as he stepped out of a car at a Lewisburg restaurant, Mike Claxton, with the U.S. Marshal's Service in the Northern District of West Virginia, said Tuesday. Moebus was being held in the Central Regional Jail in Flatwoods pending a Sept. 7 hearing in U.S. Magistrate Court in Clarksburg. Marshals believe Moebus may have been living at Pierce's 200-acre compound for several months after arriving in West Virginia from Washington state. Pierce is the founder of the National Alliance and is the author of the ``Turner Diaries,'' a racist novel about the overthrow of the U.S. government that has influenced many right-wing groups. Authorities have said the book was a blueprint for Timothy McVeigh in plotting the Oklahoma City bombing. The German government requested Moebus' arrest saying he had violated the terms of his 1998 parole by making extremist comments about his murder victim and by giving a Nazi salute during right-wing gatherings in Germany. Moebus was convicted in 1994 of luring a ``non-Ayran'' teen-ager into an apartment and strangling him. He later issued a statement to the German media saying he wold avoid arrest and fled to the United States last December. The Marshals Service said Moebus entered the country through Seattle under his own name, but later assumed an alias and received help from various people as he traveled through parts of Ohio and Virginia, before arriving at Pierce's compound. Marshals watched the compound, located in a remote area about 120 miles from Charleston, for about two weeks. ``We did not want to go onto the compound. ... It is private property and involves a third party,'' Claxton said from his Wheeling office. ``We wanted to wait for an opportunity.'' Moebus was arrested without incident after he left the compound as a passenger in a vehicle and drove about 20 miles to Lewisburg. He was arrested on a warrant issued in July in Spokane, Wash., Claxton said. ``I don't have any comment at this time,'' Pierce said Tuesday. ``Check back next week and I may have a comment then.''

Fugitive Neo-Nazi From Germany Is Captured in W.Va.

By David A. Vise 08/29/00

After secretly trailing a German neo-Nazi fugitive on his journey from Washington state to West Virginia, the U.S. Marshals Service arrested the convicted murderer near the 200-acre property of white separatist William Pierce, author of "The Turner Diaries," authorities announced yesterday. Hendrik Albert Viktor Moebus was convicted in Germany in 1994 with two accomplices of murder and kidnapping. He was apprehended Saturday near Lewisburg, W.Va., about 20 miles from Pierce's property, where he had been living for several weeks, officials said. Moebus, 24, was convicted as a minor of luring another teenager, described as "non-Aryan," into an apartment and strangling him. Paroled in 1998 after serving two-thirds of his sentence, Moebus violated the terms of his release by making extremist comments about the murder victim and giving a Nazi salute during right-wing gatherings in Germany. He publicly declared his intent to avoid arrest and questioned whether the killing he committed was a crime, officials said. Last December, Moebus entered the United States while a warrant for his arrest was pending in Germany. The German Federal Ministry of Justice soon asked the U.S. Marshals Service for help in locating and arresting him. The marshals determined that Moebus had entered the United States through Seattle without using an alias and had gone to Spokane, Wash. At some point he began using an alias and had help from various people, federal officials said. "He left a trail," said Chris Dudley, the senior inspector who headed the investigation for the Marshals Service. Moebus traveled from Spokane to Richmond, parts of Ohio and ultimately to West Virginia, where he lived in one of the buildings on Pierce's 200-acre compound. Pierce, founder of the National Alliance, wrote "The Turner Diaries," a novel that received national attention after it was revealed that Oklahoma City bomber Timothy McVeigh avidly read and promoted the book's white supremacist message. There are similarities between the 1995 bombing of the Murrah federal building and a scene in "The Turner Diaries" describing the preparation of a bomb to destroy FBI headquarters. The novel includes the violent overthrow of the U.S. government and the systematic killing of Jews and nonwhites to establish an "Aryan" world. Last Saturday, as a group of deputy marshals watched, Moebus left the Pierce property as a passenger in a car. He got out of the vehicle about 20 miles away and was arrested immediately near Lewisburg. Moebus did not resist arrest and no weapons were found in the vehicle, Dudley said. An arrest warrant was issued in federal court in Spokane in early July after marshals located a man they believed to be Moebus living in Loon Lake, Wash. "We had corroboration from a couple of sources he was up there," Dudley said. The marshals kept him under surveillance and followed him to Pierce's property, where they waited about two weeks before making the arrest to ensure they had the right man, Dudley noted. "Patience paid off," Dudley said, adding that he was pleased the Marshals Service cracked a case that the German government regarded as "important." "The U.S. marshals did a great job," a spokesman for the German Embassy said yesterday. "We have very close cooperation with U.S. authorities regarding fighting right-wing extremism."