Wife Admits Killing KKK Leader

"I fired both shots that killed my husband," Malissa Ancona told a Missouri judge in pleading guilty to second-degree murder in the 2017 death of a KKK leader. Her son, who's also charged, helped her clean the crime scene and dispose of the body but wasn't involved in the killing, Ancona said, per the Post-Dispatch. Police said Ancona first told them that her son, Paul Jinkerson Jr., shot her husband, Frank Ancona Jr., in the couple's bedroom. Ancona now maintains she was “under the influence” when her husband was killed and has changed her account. The victim's father testified that his son was killed because he planned to leave his wife. Ancona was sentenced to life in prison in her plea deal. It's not clear what will happen with her son's prosecution.

Frank Ancona was imperial wizard of the Traditionalist American Knights of the Ku Klux Klan, which the Southern Poverty Law Center lists as a hate group. It says it bases itself on "the Ku Klux Klan of the early 20th Century," per the BBC. The SPLC estimates the group has about 40 members in Missouri, Idaho, and Pennsylvania. His ex-wife said Ancona was "very, very kind-hearted," per the Post-Dispatch. "He didn’t deserve this," his daughter, Carolyna, said. "No one deserves this." (More Ku Klux Klan stories.)