A Missouri mayor resigned Monday after nearly being impeached for making anti-Semitic comments following the arrest of Frazier Glenn Miller, the white supremacist who shot and killed three people at a Jewish center in Kansas City, Kan. last week.

Mayor Dan Clevenger, the mayor of Marionville, Mo., resigned after aldermen voted to start the impeachment process, USA Today reports.

Clevenger, 59, said he was "personally hurt" to hear residents say he was a local and national embarrassment to Marionville.

Clevenger claimed to have been friends with Miller, who was arrested after opening fire at two Jewish sites and killing three on April 13. Miller, who also used the name Frazier Glenn Cross, is a former "grand dragon" of the Ku Klux Klan and has a history of hate toward minorities as well as running illegal paramilitary organizations.

While Clevenger had supporters, most were in favor of his resignation or impeachment.

Clevenger was asked at a meeting Monday night if the words he heard hurts him, and he responded, "Yes, it does."

In the boisterous meeting, resident John Horner read a prepared statement:

"We must show our neighbors, state, our nation and a global community our true, kind, caring, loving and accepting community," he said. "We simply cannot tolerate a public official who makes anti-Semitic comments."

Horner said Clevenger made disparaging comments about Jews that are "almost verbatim" from a book that was written by Miller years ago.

"Please move to impeach the mayor and restore Marionville's reputation," Horner said.

Some supporters said he has the right to say anything he pleases according to the First Amendment, while others said he has a duty to speak for his constituents and not "embarrass them."

After the Kansas City murders, Clevenger told reporters that he shared some of Miller's views about Jewish people.

It was then discovered that, around 10 years ago, Clevenger wrote an anti-Semitic letter to a local newspaper.

He also made more blatantly anti-Semitic comments to the Springfield (Mo.) News-Leader on Wednesday.

"This country is dead," Clevenger told the News-Leader. "I hate to say that. We have a fake economy, high unemployment. Fuel prices are high. We don't have no industry. All the factories have left.

"The futures market, the Federal Reserve, the Food and Drug Administration and the National Institutes of Health -- every time I see that on the news, there are Jewish names and they run things."

Marionville resident Dan Noyes, 53, urged Clevenger to step down.

"I will say this, if you don't step down, I ask you from this point on to keep your mouth shut unless you know that everybody in this town agrees with you," Noyes said.

While most urged him to step down, a few residents, such as Gene Smith, spoke in support of the mayor.

"I have seen a lot more hatred from some of you people than I have seen out of Dan Clevenger," he said. "I thought we had free speech in America."

Smith said he blamed the media for "twisting" Clevenger's words. Later, when a News-Leader reporter asked if he could take his picture, Smith tried to hit the reporter with one of his crutches.

Former Mayor Bob Duda addressed Clevenger at the meeting, vehemently disagreeing with his statements and urging him to step down.

"The words that you spoke to the media, on numerous occasions, were vile and disgusting," Duda told Clevenger. "Mr. Clevenger, I am asking you to step down."