Student says rep confessed to her

Alabama statesman faces controversy over online romance

By Dave Flomberg
The Metropolitan

Metro student Beth Pilcher, 19, went to the FBI earlier this month with copies of instant message transmissions she says she shared with Alabama state Rep. Nelson Papucci, R-Madison.

In those transmissions, someone using Papucciâs screen name, ãNPapucci,ä said he witnessed 41 Ku Klux Klan murders of black men as a Klan member.

Papucci has not returned phone calls to The Metropolitan. However, in a story that ran Feb. 7 in The Huntsville  (Ala.) Times, he acknowledged his relationship with Pilcher while denying her allegations. When confronted with the messages, he said he remembered parts of them, but the parts about his and his stepfatherâs involvement with the KKK, including the murders, were fabricated.

ãI never said I was in the KKK,ä Papucci said in the story. ãThatâs absurd. Iâm Italian. Thatâs ridiculous.ä
But not to Pilcher.

ãI didnât fabricate any of this,ä Pilcher said. ãI mean itâs incredibly bizarre stuff, but itâs really scary, too.ä
Which is why she took the information directly to the FBI.

Lee Leggett, supervisor of the Huntsville FBI offices, confirmed that Pilcher had been in contact with the FBI, but refused to comment any further.

Which puts to end a relationship that was almost a year old.

It all began last May when Pilcher met Papucci online.

 ãA friend and I were in an AOL (America Online) chat room blasting Alabamans,ä Pilcher says. ãI met him there, and we talked on and off for several months afterward.ä

In December, she says, she had an online conversation with ãNPapucci.ä

They discussed the movie Titanic, and ãNPapucciä said he couldnât take his stepfather to see the movie because there are too many black people working at the local theater. He said he once shared certain racist points of view with his stepfather.

ãNPapucciä then claimed he had ãchanged ... (because) a black doctor saved my life last month when I had the heart attack.ä

Papucci was treated earlier that month for a blocked artery, and his father died at a young age from a heart attack, according to the article printed in the Times.

The story said Papucci was treated again a week before for a blocked artery.

ãNPapucciä said his stepfather was head of the local Ku Klux Klan and that he was also once a member.
And then it got frightening, Pilcher says.

ã(NPapucci) said he was a Îpassive participantâ in 41 KKK- and Aryan Nation-related murders of blacks,ä she says. Papucci is 29 years old.

ãForty-one is a huge number for such a young age,ä Pilcher said. ãItâs just sickening.
ãBut I rolled with it. I was laying it on really thick toward the end. I wanted to get as many details out of him as I could, but he was just too slippery.

ãI donât know if he was just trying to impress me,ä Pilcher said. ãHe asked me to come to a conference he was having in New Orleans. I think he just wanted some sort of a trophy on his arm. But why would you claim to having seen 41 murders? Thatâs not the greatest pick-up line.ä