White Arsonist Pleads Guilty To Setting 26 Church Fires During '90s

Jet, July 31, 2000

A White Indiana man who called himself a missionary of Lucifer recently pleaded guilty to setting 26 churches on fire over a five-year period that ended in 1999, the Justice Department said.

Jay Scott Ballinger entered his plea in federal court in Indianapolis. The department recommended that the 38-year-old man be sentenced to more than 42 years in prison.

The plea follows a nationwide probe by the FBI, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms, the Indiana State Fire Marshal's Office, state and local fire investigators around the country and the National Church Arson Task Force.

Ballinger "frequently expressed his hostility toward organized Christianity, signed individuals he met to contracts with the devil and termed himself a missionary of Lucifer," according to the Justice Department's release, which cited information contained in the plea agreement.

Ballinger pleaded guilty to setting church fires in Alabama, California, Indiana, Ohio, Kentucky, Missouri, South Carolina and Tennessee.