June 7, 1996

2 Held in Plot to Kill Black Disney Tourists

IAMI -- Two youths identified as members of an all-white gang in Fort Myers, Fla., have been charged with planning to disguise themselves as Disney characters and then kill black visitors to Walt Disney World.

The youths, Kevin Foster and Christopher Black, both 18, were indicted in Fort Myers on Wednesday by a Lee County grand jury, which accused them of plotting to mug Disney employees at the popular theme park, in Orlando; don the employees' costumes to conceal guns equipped with silencers, and then shoot black tourists.

The charges have received enormous attention around the state, where attacks on tourists in recent years have damaged Florida's reputation as a leading vacation spot.

Under questioning, the authorities say, Foster and Black have both acknowledged being members of the Fort Myers gang, which calls itself the Lords of Chaos.

They and four other members of the gang were arrested on May 3 after what the police have described as a crime rampage that peaked on April 30 with the fatal shooting of a band teacher at the high school that some of them attended. The teacher was killed, the police say, because he had interrupted gang members' efforts to deface the school auditorium and threatened them with discipline.

"I think they were very serious" about the Disney World plans, said the Lee County sheriff, John McDougall. "Just look at what they did before they were arrested. They were on a real crime spree."

More than a month after their arrest, Foster, Black and two others remain jailed. The additional two youths arrested last month were freed on bond earlier this week and are expected to testify against those four.

Only Foster and Black have been charged with the Disney World plot, which was disclosed, the authorities say, by yet a seventh member of the gang. That youth, the police say, was on his initiation trip with the Lords of Chaos -- a late-night drive to a local restaurant to kidnap the manager, rob the cash registers and so finance the visit to Orlando -- when officers, alerted by a girlfriend of one gang member, made the arrests.

Investigators say that Foster was the gang's leader and that he apparently exerted so much dominance over the others that although they had no prior criminal records, they not only took to calling him God but also obeyed his every order.

"It's not every day that we have these cases, thankfully," said Steve Russell, an assistant state attorney handling the prosecution.