A jilted black husband burned a cross on his driveway to try and scare his wife into getting back with him, police has revealed.
LB Williams, 50, started the apparent hate campaign after his partner of seven years Donna said she wanted a divorce.
Williams left the Ku Klux Klan style flaming cross outside their home in Panama City, Florida, and alongside intimidating notes for Mrs Williams.
But he was arrested when Mrs Williams, who is white, recognised her husband's handwriting and called police.
'When I saw that cross burning, I was scared to death,' Mrs Williams told the News Herald. 'I was terrified…we all were.'
Mrs Williams said that her granddaughter had been with her when they returned home to find the cross. The child still has frightening visions of the flames and there is a scar burned into the driveway, she added.
Two days after finding the cross, Mrs Williams found a note taped to the front door and the side entrance of the house.
She said: 'The note said ''They were watching us''. I assumed me and the kids, and it said that I better not leave that n*****,' Mrs Williams said.
The note was then signed 'KKK', a reference to the white extremist lynch mobs that targeted black people in the deep south and set alight crucifixes.
But it soon became clear to Mrs Williams that the note was not from the hate group.
'When did the KKK start supporting black and white, interracial marriages?' said Mrs Williams, who has a mixed-race daughter with her husband.
Williams initially denied being responsible but he was arrested a couple of days later and admitted burning the cross and writing the messages.
According to the arrest affidavit, he was charged with two felonies - domestic violence stalking and exhibits that intimidate.
Williams told police that he committed the offences because he didn't want his wife to file for divorce. He said that they were the 'desperate acts of a desperate man'.
He was released from the Bay County Jail on Tuesday this week with no bond. This suggests that police do not believe he is a risk to other people, or that he could flee.
However, he has been banned from returning to the family home, where his daughter lives.
Mrs Williams added: 'He truly is a good man. He doesn’t drink, he doesn’t do drugs and he works like a dog,' Donna Williams said. 'We just can’t be together.'
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