James W. von Brunn was a convicted felon who once tried to kidnap the Federal Reserve chairman and a prolific writer of white supremacist literature.

But to most of the surprised Annapolis-area residents who lived near the prime suspect in Wednesday's fatal shooting at the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington D.C., the 88-year-old man was just a neighbor they knew little about.

"I probably couldn't pick him out of a lineup," said one man who lived in von Brunn's building at the Harbour Gates apartments on Admiral Drive.

"He was a hermit," said another man who lived in the adjoining...