US: Parishioners in Alabama will now be able to 'rest a little easier', writes Denis Staunton in Washington
Three college students have been arrested for a string of church fires in Alabama after admitting that the attacks started as a joke that got out of control.
Benjamin Nathan Moseley and Russell Lee Debusk jnr, both 19-year old students at Alabama's Birmingham-Southern College, and Matthew Lee Cloyd, a 20-year-old student at the University of Alabama, are expected to appear in court today.
After setting fire to five Baptist churches south of Birmingham last month, they burned four more in remote areas in the hope of diverting investigators.
The church fires shocked Alabama, leading many religious communities to put their churches under 24-hour guard. Some of the churches attacked were mostly frequented by white worshippers and others by African-Americans.
Alabama's governor Bill Riley said the arrests meant that parishioners could rest a little easier. "We believe this is an isolated incident. We don't think there is any kind of organised conspiracy against religion or against the Baptists," he said.
Investigators admitted to being surprised at the class background of the suspects, who came from well-off families in Birmingham.
Birmingham-Southern president David Pollick promised that the college would help to rebuild the churches that had been destroyed.
"Students, faculty and staff of our college are at once shocked and outraged. We share the sorrow of our neighbours whose churches represented the heart and soul of their communities," he told staff and students.
The fires broke out at five Baptist churches in Bibb County, south of Birmingham, on February 3rd, and four Baptist churches in west Alabama four days later.
An affidavit said that Moseley admitted on Wednesday that he, Cloyd and Debusk went to Bibb County in Cloyd's sport utility vehicle and set fire to five churches. A witness quoted Cloyd as saying that Moseley did it "as a joke and it got out of hand" while they were out deer-hunting. "Moseley stated that after they set fire to the first two churches, they saw fire trucks driving by. Moseley said that, after that, burning the other three churches became too spontaneous," the affidavit said.
The three suspects were identified after investigators analysed unusual tyre tracks near the burnt churches and discovered that Cloyd's mother had ordered such tyres. Moseley and Debusk were known in college as aspiring actors who took part in a number of student productions and were working on an independent film.
The three suspects had their own pages on Facebook.com, a popular student networking website, and Moseley's page included this guest book message posted by Cloyd on January 9th:
"To my dearest friend Moseley: The nights have grown long and the interstates of Alabama drunk driverless, the state troopers bored, the county sheriffs less weary, and the deer of Bibb County fearless. 2006 is here, it is time to reconvene the season of evil! Only one problem stands in our way. I got a new cellphone for Christmas and I no longer have your number, so send it to me and evil shall once again come to pass! May our girlfriends be concerned about our safety, may our parents be clueless, may our beers be frosty, may our love lives be fruitful, may our weed be green as the freshly-mowed grass!"