WISCONSIN (SPECTRUM NEWS) -- Nearly 30 years ago, Ken Petersen cut his biker hair and became a leader in a dangerous group.

"I was a Ku Klux Klan Imperial Wizard," he said without flinching from his front porch in southern Wisconsin. 

"I was angry at the government, and in turn, I went to the Ku Klux Klan, which was the worst mistake I could have ever made in my life," he recalled about what happened back in 1992, when he was Janesville's Klan spokesman and recruiter.  

"I seen the hate, I seen the anger. I don't think I truly understood It, but when when there was 150 white supremacist there [...] I felt that hate, I felt that anger," Petersen said.

Especially when Geraldo Rivera recorded the proceedings for a national audience. The scene he recalled ended with Rivera being punched by another member and Petersen having a change of heart.

"That day, I decided to leave the KKK,” he said. “And when I left the Ku Klux Klan, they put a $50,000 death warrant out for me.”

Petersen shortly afterwards said he became an FBI informant. He gave over all the membership records and changed his life.

These days, he rides into retirement with the motorcycle ministry, but worries for his country every day, and the KKK getting a stronger foothold.

"My fears are that the KKK and these other organizations are growing at a substantial rate because of them not understanding one another,” Petersen said. “The frustrations are just unbelievable. The economy's not as good as it should be. And that draws people to these hate organizations.”

Meanwhile, as tensions continue country wide following George Floyd’s death, Petersen said he knows how he would have reacted years ago.

"The old Ken probably would have thought that, oh yeah another one's dead, oh well, you know, but that's an old rationale of the, you know, growing up, you're taught racism you're taught hatred and it's a horrible, horrible world we live in, but the only person that could change that is you” he said.

This is why Petersen welcomes former inmates to a safe home and a second chance.

"Well, you know, if you show love to these people,” he said. “You can guide them for the rest of their lives. You can teach them the right things and show them love and understanding and caring. You can change somebody's life by just reaching out."

Petersen uses kindness as his vehicle for moving past the KKK.

"You might help that one person to understand and to know that there is a way out of all that hatred,” he said. “Of a way out all that anger and all the tension and turmoil."