Earl Krugel
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Earl Leslie Krugel (November 24, 1942 – November 4, 2005) was the West Coast coordinator of the Jewish Defense League (JDL).
At one time, Krugel was a dental assistant in the San Fernando Valley.
While the Jewish Defense League was founded by Rabbi Meir Kahane in New York City in 1968, West Coast activities were spearheaded by Irv Rubin and his followers, Earl and Barry Krugel. The FBI contends that Irv Rubin planned the 1985 bombing-murder of Orange County Arab-American activist, Alex Odeh. No one was ever charged in that case.
Krugel and Rubin were arrested in 2001 and charged with conspiring to bomb the office of Representative Darrell Issa (R-CA), an Arab-American of Lebanese descent, and the King Fahd mosque in Culver City, California.
Krugel pled guilty in February 2003 to one count of carrying an explosive device in connection with a conspiracy to impede or injure an office of the United States and one count of conspiracy to violate the civil rights of worshippers at the mosque.
In November 2003, Rubin died while in the federal Metropolitan Detention Center in Los Angeles. Authorities say Rubin slashed his neck with a prison-issued razor blade and tumbled over a railing; some JDL supporters insist that Rubin was murdered.
In September 2005, U.S. District Court Judge Ronald S.W. Lew sentenced Krugel to 20 years in prison. Part of the plea agreement for his sentence demanded that he reveal the names of all JDL activists involved in the 1985 bombing.
On November 4, 2005, at the Federal Correctional Institution in Phoenix, Arizona, Krugel was murdered by another inmate, who used a concrete block to strike his head. Krugel had been at the prison for three days. As the case against Earl Krugel was on appeal at the time of his death, Judge Lew dismissed conviction.