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Missouri mayor quits after anti-Semitic remarks

KANSAS CITY, Mo. - The mayor of a southwestern Missouri town has resigned in the wake of community anger over anti-Semitic comments he made in reference to recent killings at two Jewish community facilities in Kansas.

FILE - In this April 13, 2014 file image taken from video provided by KCTV-5, Frazier Glenn Cross is escorted by police in an elementary school parking lot in Overland Park, Kan. Authorities said Tuesday, April 15, that Cross has been charged with one count of capital murder for the deaths of a 14-year-old boy and his grandfather outside the Jewish Community Center of Greater Kansas City on Sunday. Cross also faces one count of first-degree, premeditated murder for the death of a woman who was gunned down while visiting her mother at a nearby retirement complex. (AP Photo/KCTV-5, File) MANDATORY CREDIT
FILE - In this April 13, 2014 file image taken from video provided by KCTV-5, Frazier Glenn Cross is escorted by police in an elementary school parking lot in Overland Park, Kan. Authorities said Tuesday, April 15, that Cross has been charged with one count of capital murder for the deaths of a 14-year-old boy and his grandfather outside the Jewish Community Center of Greater Kansas City on Sunday. Cross also faces one count of first-degree, premeditated murder for the death of a woman who was gunned down while visiting her mother at a nearby retirement complex. (AP Photo/KCTV-5, File) MANDATORY CREDITRead more
    by By Kevin Murphy, Reuters, Inquirer
    Published 

KANSAS CITY, Mo. - The mayor of a southwestern Missouri town has resigned in the wake of community anger over anti-Semitic comments he made in reference to recent killings at two Jewish community facilities in Kansas.

Dan Clevenger submitted a handwritten, one-sentence letter of resignation Tuesday as mayor of Marionville, a town of 2,225 about 240 miles southwest of St. Louis.

Clevenger had enraged the community when he said in a televised interview last week that he "kind of agreed with" the views of Frazier Glenn Cross, who has been charged with murdering three people outside a Jewish community center and a retirement home in Overland Park, Kan., on April 13.

Cross was an avowed white supremacist and Hitler admirer, according to writings on his website.

Clevenger, who earlier this month became mayor of Marionville, said in an interview last week with KSPR television in Springfield that he had known Cross, who lived nearby, for years.

"I kind of agreed with him on some things, but I don't like to express that too much," Clevenger said in the interview.

"There's some things going on in this country that are destroying us," Clevenger said. "We've got a false economy and some of those corporations are run by Jews. The names are there."

At a meeting Monday of the Marionville Board of Aldermen, a number of residents criticized Clevenger for his remarks. The board voted 4-1 to begin impeachment proceedings against him, said City Clerk Debbie Bateman.

In his resignation letter to the board Tuesday, Clevenger did not explain why he was stepping down, writing only: "I, Daniel R. Clevenger, do hereby resign as mayor of Marionville."