Mississippi Synagogue Arson Suspect Laughed During Chilling Confession

The suspect accused of setting Mississippi’s oldest synagogue on fire admitted to starting the blaze because of the building’s “Jewish ties,” and even laughed about the horrific crime, according to an FBI affidavit, saying, “he finally got them.”

The criminal complaint submitted by the FBI listed Stephen Spencer Pittman as the man who lit a fire inside Beth Israel Congregation and the Goldring/Woldenberg Institute of Southern Jewish Life in Jackson, Mississippi, over the weekend.

Security video shows a man pouring what appears to be gasoline inside the synagogue in the early hours of January 10, according to the affidavit.

Pittman’s father contacted the FBI, telling the agency his son admitted to the crime. Per the report, Pittman called the buildings he burned the “synagogue of Satan” and laughed as he described what he did. In his confession, he said he stopped at a gas station to get the fuel he used to start the fire, took his license plate off his car at the gas station, broke the windows of the synagogue with an axe, poured gas inside the building, then used a torch lighter to ignite the fire.

The confession was further verified by burns on Pittman’s body as well as text messages and map data that put Pittman at the center of the arson, per the affidavit.

Pittman texted his father before he started the fire. He sent a picture of the synagogue with the message “there’s a furnace in the back.” The suspect’s father “pleaded” with Pittman to come home, but his son was defiant and told his father he was due for a home run, and he “did his research.”

Pittman was quickly arrested and charged with maliciously damaging or destroying a building by means of fire or an explosive, per the report that was filed in the U.S. District Court in Mississippi on Monday.

The fire severely burned parts of the synagogue, including the library and administrative offices.

RELATED: Mississippi’s Largest Synagogue Set Ablaze In Arson Attack, Suspect In Custody

Two Torahs were destroyed in the fire, and five others were damaged. One of the Torahs that survived the fire over the weekend also survived the Holocaust and was stored in a glass case in the synagogue.

Jackson Fire Chief RaSean Thomas said the station’s hearts are with the Beth Israel congregation.

“We stand with this community and affirm that hate has no home here. Jackson is stronger when we stand together,” Thomas said.

Monday, yellow police tape still blocked off entrances to the synagogue building, which still had broken glass and soot everywhere, per the Associated Press. The outlet reported that people had laid flowers on the ground at the building’s entrance.

Beth Israel is Mississippi’s only synagogue in Jackson. It has a history of being the target of hate crimes dating back to the 1960s when the KKK bombed the synagogue.

Antisemitic attacks have risen dramatically in recent years, from the Tree of Life shooting in 2018 to the Bondi Beach terror attack just before Christmas. The Anti-Defamation League reported over 9,000 documented anti-semitic attacks in 2024 alone — the highest number on record since they began tracking such data in 1979.

Beth Israel is closed indefinitely as the synagogue is rebuilt.