Three young men were arrested Wednesday in an investigation of serial arsons targeting rural Alabama churches last month. Federal agents say the suspects claim the initial fires were set as “a joke” that “got out of hand” and the latter burnings were a deliberate diversion, designed to “throw investigators off.” The FBI has identified the three suspects as 19-year-olds Benjamin Moseley and Russell Debusk and 20-year-old Matthew Cloyd. According to a FreeInternetPress.com report, Moseley confessed after his arrest, and Cloyd has admitted his involvement as well. Moseley and Debusk, students at Birmingham-Southern College, appeared in federal court Wednesday and were ordered held on church arson charges pending a Friday hearing. Cloyd, a junior at the University of Alabama at Birmingham, was arrested later on Wednesday. In a statement released yesterday, Alabama Attorney General Troy King said the arrest of the three college students means “a reign of terror that had gripped rural Alabama and riveted the attention of the nation has ended.” Now that “law enforcement has, once again, done what they do,” King stated, “arrests have been made, communities have been secured,” and justice is forthcoming. “As I have said all along,” the Attorney General observed, “a man’s evil deeds will always find him out.” In an Associated Press report, Volunteer Fire Chief Lesslie Edwards, who battled a blaze at his own church, was quoted as commenting, “We’ll be praying for the boys. Maybe they’ll figure out what they’ve done wrong.”

- Jenni Parker