Yankee James

What a lede. Scratch that. What a story. John Sullivan and Paul Brooks: West Hurley — In the end, the racist who hated blacks, immigrants and Jews died with a broken heart.

State police say they are investigating the death of James Leshkevich and his wife, Deborah, as a murder-suicide. Troopers found the couple at their 213 Morgan Hill Road home yesterday, after a friend of Deborah Leshkevich called 911 worried about her welfare.

Leshkevich headed the local chapter of the white supremacist group National Alliance, based in West Virginia. In 2005, he helped Hal Turner, the host of a now-defunct white supremacist radio talk show, organize a rally in Kingston, after a publicized attack by a black student on a white student.

State police said troopers entered the house at around 11 a.m. and found James, 52, dead in the garage and Deborah, 54, dead in a bedroom. No further details of the investigation, including cause of death, were released yesterday as police removed the bodies to be autopsied.

Leshkevich regularly vented his opinions on radio shows, as well on a blog site on which he called himself "Yankee James." In the most recent entries, he ranted about catching his wife cheating on him.