If these charges are proved, Baton Rouge might have escaped a horrific killing spree:

A 23-year-old white man arrested Tuesday was accused of killing two black men and firing on a black family in a string of attacks that police say may have been racially motivated.

A law enforcement official said they had found a copy of an Adolf Hitler speech at the home of Kenneth James Gleason, and investigators said DNA on shell casings and other evidence link him to the crimes.

Gleason was led away from the police department in handcuffs just before authorities there held a news conference to announce that he would be charged with first-degree murder in the shooting deaths last week of a homeless man and a dishwasher who was walking to work.

“I feel confident that this killer would have killed again,” interim Police Chief Jonny Dunnam said.

It’s too late for the men Gleason is alleged to have killed, but if he is, in fact, the murderer, then the city has quite literally dodged a bullet.

Note well that this Gleason is not some sort of redneck, but is an honors graduate of Baton Rouge High, a magnet school that is one of the most prestigious in the city. He lives in a good neighborhood. Cops searching his room also found pot and human growth hormone.

He also has been charged with stealing a copy of The Hitchhiker’s Guide To The Galaxy from a Books-a-Million last week.