A former Ku Klux Klan grand wizard has lashed out at white supremacist leader Craig Cobb for aligning with "Hollywood-style Nazis" after residents in North Dakota defeated his plans to take over a small town there.

Cobb had begun buying up land in Leith early last year with plans to create a white supremacist enclave that he called Cobbsville.

Facing a nightmare of Nazis, skinheads and other racists migrating to Leith, the town enacted zoning regulations and cited Cobb for having no running sewer or water. The home was declared legally unfit for habitation.

In November, Cobb and one of his pals were arrested for walking through town carrying guns and shouting obscenities. They are now facing seven charges of terrorism each. At least four public defenders have quit Cobb's case so far.

The residents of Leith are prepared to continue the fight against Cobb, but former Ku Klux Klan Grand Wizard Tom Metzger, who was given property in Cobbsville, told BBC that plans for the white supremacist enclave had failed.

"I warned him not to bring in the Hollywood-style Nazis, or everyone would go crazy," Metzger said. "And that's exactly what's happened."

And even Cobb's former roommates' girlfriend, 33-year-old Deborah Henderson, expressed her unhappiness as she packed up to leave town.

"Now, we are just right back where we started from, but in a colder climate with no support," Henderson said, crying. "Mr. Cobb had promised to get the house up to code by the time we came out and he didn't do anything. And now we're all paying for it."

[Ed. note: An earlier version of this report wrongly identified Deborah Henderson as Cobb's girlfriend. She is the girlfriend of his white supremacist former roommate Kynan Dutton.]