FAYETTEVILLE — March 11, 1996 - 9:45 p.m. EDT

Esquire magazine's new issue reports the Army knew about a secret group of neo-nazi skinheads at Fort Bragg.

In the April issue, Esquire says the Army was aware that James Burmeister was a potential threat. Burmeister and two other soldiers are currently in the Fayetteville jail on charges they killed a man and a woman because they were black.

The magazine claims Burmeister made public threats against a Pennsylvania police chief before the shootings took place. Army officials claim the article and the pictures in it were staged. Daniel Voll, a writer for Esquire, says the neo-nazi skinheads are quite real.

"These guys described themselves as racist skinheads who loved Hitler and who believe in, at the very least, the separation of the races and who were part of a secret regiment of soldiers operating with impunity within the barracks at Fort Bragg".

In the article, Voll goes on to say that the F-B-I told the army about the threats against the police chief. Esquire claims that's when the army transferred Burmeister to the Armory. It was in the Armory where Burmeister bragged to fellow soldiers that he could smuggle the weapons needed to fulfill his threats.