The Nation: Arson for Hate and Profit

A crime that has spread like wildfire

In the chill, predawn darkness one day last week, 80 Massachusetts state policemen fanned out through Boston and its suburbs, ringing doorbells, rousing residents and hauling off to jail 22 surprised and discomfited citizens. Among those indicted: six attorneys, eleven real estate operators, four public insurance adjusters, one police officer and a retired fire chief. By week's end a total of 26 men had been arraigned in Suffolk County superior court on charges as varied as fraud, bribery and murder. But all of them were alleged to...

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