A man charged with seven fires at Indiana churches may be responsible for up to 50 fires throughout the Midwest and South, according to probable cause affidavits.
The U.S. Justice Department said Jay Scott Ballinger, 36, of Yorktown, Ind., was arrested and charged with setting seven Indiana church fires dating to 1994.
Also charged with one count each of arson are Angela Wood, 24, of Atlanta, described as an exotic dancer and Ballinger’s girlfriend; and Donald A. Puckett, 37, of Lebanon, Ind. Wood is in federal custody in Macon, Ga., and Puckett is being held in Indianapolis.
The arrests stemmed from the work of the National Church Arson Task Force, established in 1996 after a series of fires at black churches in the South. Those arrested are white, and most of the Indiana churches burned were in mainly white rural areas.
An affidavit from a Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms agent said Ballinger, who was tracked to a hospital where he was treated for burns Feb. 7, admitted as many as 50 church fires.
