Weird Little Guys

In 2010, conspiracy theorists around the country were convinced that Barack Obama was not the rightful president. Some of them filed lawsuits. Some of them tried to have the President indicted. And when none of that worked, some of them took matters into their own hands and tried to arrest the county court employees they thought were standing in their way. In the first half of this story, Walter Fitzpatrick unsuccessfully storms the courtroom in Madisonville, Tennessee. The outcry over his arrest would motivate Oath Keeper Darren Huff to rally supporters for a second attempt.

Sources:

Jardina A, Traugott M. The Genesis of the Birther Rumor: Partisanship, Racial Attitudes, and Political Knowledge. The Journal of Race, Ethnicity, and Politics. 2019;4(1):60-80. doi:10.1017/rep.2018.25

Josh Pasek, Tobias H. Stark, Jon A. Krosnick, Trevor Tompson, What motivates a conspiracy theory? Birther beliefs, partisanship, liberal-conservative ideology, and anti-Black attitudes, Electoral Studies, Volume 40, 2015

Hughey, M.W. Show Me Your Papers! Obama’s Birth and the Whiteness of Belonging. Qual Sociol 35, 163–181 (2012).

https://www.politico.com/story/2016/09/birther-movement-founder-trump-clinton-228304

https://www.nbcnews.com/id/wbna33388485

https://www.nytimes.com/2009/03/12/us/12alabama.html

https://www.newsherald.com/story/news/crime/2018/10/19/vigilante-group-oath-keepers-arrested-in-mexico-beach-following-hurricane-michael/9509280007/

https://www.huffpost.com/entry/oath-keepers-poll-watching_n_58122566e4b0990edc2f8178

https://www.splcenter.org/fighting-hate/intelligence-report/1998/hate-group-expert-daniel-levitas-discusses-posse-comitatus-christian-identity-movement-and

https://cases.justia.com/federal/district-courts/district-of-columbia/dcdce/1:2009mc00346/137380/2/0.pdf

https://www.politico.com/news/2024/01/25/judge-lamberth-jan-6-trump-00137960

https://www.tncourts.gov/rules/rules-criminal-procedure/6 

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

In 2022, Ethan Melzer pleaded guilty to plotting to help al Qaeda ambush and kill his entire unit while on a sensitive mission in Turkey. But Melzer's co-conspirators turned out to be a Canadian teenager and a government informant, not members of al Qaeda. And the satanic cult that drew him down this nazi rabbit hole turned out to have been run by a man on the FBI payroll.

Sources

https://www.courtlistener.com/docket/17286246/united-states-v-melzer

https://www.courtlistener.com/docket/69307006/united-states-of-america-v-melzer/

https://www.rollingstone.com/culture/culture-features/the-satanist-neo-nazi-plot-to-murder-u-s-soldiers-1352629/

https://www.rollingstone.com/culture/culture-news/neo-nazi-1378280

https://www.rollingstone.com/politics/politics-features/jack-teixiera-case-military-extremism-1234724461

https://www.wired.com/story/the-dangerous-exploits-of-an-extremist-fbi-informant/

https://thequietus.com/opinion-and-essays/black-sky-thinking/ona-fascism-nazis-folk-horror-underground-occult/ 

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

In June of 2020, US Army Private Ethan Melzer was arrested for leaking information about his unit's deployment to Turkey with the intention of causing a mass casualty incident. The plot was hatched in a Telegram chat room for a group calling itself Rapewaffen, an Atomwaffen splinter cell that was committed to the beliefs of a neonazi satanic cult called the Order of Nine Angles. This episode follows the rise of satanism within Atomwaffen and the chaos that influence caused.

Sources:

https://unicornriot.ninja/2020/national-guard-soldier-who-deployed-to-dc-identified-as-neo-nazi/

https://www.peoplefor.org/rightwingwatch/post/ohio-national-guard-member-sent-home-for-white-supremacist-views-is-likely-a-fascist-youtuber

https://www.peoplefor.org/rightwingwatch/post/ohio-national-guard-soldier-pulled-from-mission-in-d-c-appears-on-neo-fascist-podcast-says-hes-being-discharged

https://www.politico.com/news/2020/06/05/fbi-national-guardsman-expressed-white-supremacist-ideology-303924

https://www.rollingstone.com/culture/culture-features/the-satanist-neo-nazi-plot-to-murder-u-s-soldiers-1352629/

https://www.rollingstone.com/culture/culture-news/neo-nazi-1378280

https://www.usnews.com/news/national-news/articles/2020-06-02/military-begins-staging-around-washington-to-quell-george-floyd-protests

https://hopenothate.org.uk/2020/06/23/the-rapewaffen-telegram-channel/

https://www.washingtonpost.com/national-security/soldiers-cases-highlight-reach-of-white-extremism-into-us-military/2020/06/25/0203532e-b582-11ea-9b0f-c797548c1154_story.html

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

There's no new weird little guy this week, but I wanted to check in with you about how the show is going so far and squeeze in a few weird little facts that got left on the cutting room floor of past episodes.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Tyler Bradley Dykes entered a guilty plea last year on the charge of burning an object with the intent to intimidate for his participation in the 2017 Nazi torch march in Charlottesville, Virginia. He was sentenced to just six months and was probably expecting to see his parents waiting for him outside the jail on his scheduled release date... but it was the FBI who picked him up.

Sources:

https://atlantaantifa.org/2023/04/19/inside-southern-sons-active-club-part-i/ https://atlantaantifa.org/2023/04/19/inside-southern-sons-active-club-part-ii/ https://sunlight161.noblogs.org/technology-king-lowcountry-ceo-tyler-dykes-bluffton-sc-marine-nazi/

https://www.courtlistener.com/docket/67681795/united-states-v-dykes/

https://the-devils-advocates.ghost.io/burning-hate-bond-review/

https://the-devils-advocates.ghost.io/unite-the-right-marcher-pleads-guilty-to-j6-charges/

https://www.rollingstone.com/politics/politics-features/white-nationalist-active-clubs-1234835015/

https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/justice-department/charlottesville-tiki-torch-rioter-endorses-donald-trump-jan-6-sentenci-rcna162209 

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

In part two of the story of Barry Black, we finally get to the landmark supreme court case that won the klansman the right to burn crosses. Barry's Keystone Knights faded into relative obscurity after the high profile case and Virginia passed a new law aimed to prevent men like Barry from using fire as a tool of intimidation.

Sources:

https://law.duke.edu/voices/virginia https://www.oyez.org/cases/2002/01-1107 https://unprecedented.substack.com/p/transcript-bodily-harm-is-coming https://time.com/archive/6615465/south-carolina-backfire/ https://www.cnn.com/2016/07/05/us/georgia-kkk-adopt-a-highway-lawsuit/index.html https://www.nbcnews.com/news/nbcblk/former-kkk-headquarters-terrorized-town-years-now-will-become-diversit-rcna20865

https://www.kait8.com/story/3384156/prison-officer-fired-for-kkk-membership-sues-arkansas-correction-department/

Unite the Right audio from videos by photojournalist Zach D Roberts & publicly available video recorded by the marchers themselves

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

In 2003, the Supreme Court ruled that the mere act of burning a cross, absent evidence of specific intent to intimidate, is protected by the first amendment. But who was the klansman who got his case all the way to the highest court in the land? This is the first half of the story of Barry Black, a Pennsylvania Ku Klux Klan leader who won two write-in campaigns for constable, waged war on a rural gay bar, and spent decades fighting for his right to intimidate.

Sources:

https://www.salon.com/2009/07/24/liddy/

https://www.fec.gov/resources/legal-resources/litigation/berg_ac_berg_emerg_mot_proh_cert.pdf https://www.wethepeoplefoundation.org/PROJECTS/Obama/Evidence/AFFIDAVIT-Bishop.pdf

https://barthsnotes.com/2009/08/25/meet-ron-mcrae-the-birther-bishop/ https://washingtoncitypaper.com/article/278475/dykudrama/ https://digdc.dclibrary.org/islandora/object/dcplislandora%3A266739/datastream/OCR/view https://archives.rainbowhistory.org/files/original/367cf04d6456e9b3c311296a806863cd.pdf https://youtu.be/o4o0tZPETAc

https://archive.org/details/BarryE.Black/mode/2up

Heibel, Todd (2004). Blame It on the Casa Nova?: “Good Scenery and Sodomy” in Rural Southwestern Pennsylvania. In Spaces of Hate: Geographies of Discrimination and Intolerance in the U.S.A. Routledge.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

In 2019, the FBI arrested a coast guard lieutenant who'd been buying pain pills online, but it wasn't just Tramadol they found in his apartment: he'd spent years stockpiling weapons and studying mass shooter manifestos. The investigation revealed an obsession with sniper rifles, a kill list, and his secret skinhead past.

Sources:

https://www.justice.gov/usao-md/pr/christopher-hasson-sentenced-more-13-years-federal-prison-federal-charges-illegal

https://www.navytimes.com/news/your-navy/2022/02/22/sentence-upheld-for-former-coast-guard-officer-tied-to-terror-plot/ https://www.splcenter.org/hatewatch/2019/02/21/coast-guard-lt-christopher-hasson-wrote-notorious-neo-nazi-harold-covington https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/politics/1980/05/14/nazis-showing-in-nc-race-embarrasses-gop/84295cd5-37c3-449c-b8b6-cea599978b14/ https://www.splcenter.org/fighting-hate/extremist-files/group/base https://www.splcenter.org/hatewatch/2018/07/25/harold-covington-founder-white-separatist-group-dies-64 https://archives.lib.ku.edu/repositories/3/resources/5422 https://www.wbay.com/2024/08/12/uncle-fester-aka-stephen-preisler-returns-court-new-drug-charge/

https://www.courtlistener.com/docket/14581072/united-states-v-hasson/

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

A teenager who murdered two people outside of a gay bar in Slovakia, a teenager who stabbed five men at a mosque in Turkey, and a teenager who planned to destroy infrastructure in New Jersey had one thing in common: they'd all been reading terrorism manuals produced by a group of neonazi propagandists. A new indictment alleges two Americans are responsible for inciting acts of white supremacist terror all over the world.

Sources:

https://leftcoastrightwatch.org/articles/heres-the-gore-artist-turning-terrorgram-manuals-manifestos-into-audiobooks

https://leftcoastrightwatch.org/articles/terrorgram-collective-leader-was-a-tucker-carlson-fanboy-and-failed-youtuber/

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2024/jan/21/slovakian-gay-bar-attack-great-replacement-conspiracy-theoryfast-spreading-racist-ideology

https://www.wired.com/story/terrorgram-collective-indictments/

https://www.antihate.ca/uk_first_add_terrorgram_collective_proscribed_groups

https://vsquare.org/bratislava-terrorist-radicalized-on-terrorgram-its-members-take-credit/

https://www.nytimes.com/2023/12/08/canada-terrorism-far-right.html

https://www.antihate.ca/terrorgram_neo_nazi_collective_heart_international_arrests

https://www.gov.uk/government/news/terrorgram-collective-now-proscribed-as-terrorist-organisation

https://www.postoj.sk/145241/pachatelom-bol-definitivne-juraj-k-jeho-primarnym-cielom-bol-eduard-heger

https://static1.squarespace.com/static/6193e52959704a0c3b5b4b0c/t/6421ecf5721fc579c2799737/1679944949837/ARC_Terrorgrams+First+Saint_Bratislava.pdf 

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

A soldier was arrested last month on charges that included lying about his membership in a hate group on his application for a security clearance. But with so many white supremacists in the military, why is it so rare to see this particular charge brought against service members? Molly explores some of the possible reasons the charge isn't used more often and talks about a handful of cases where it's been successful.

Sources:

https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2024/08/26/infiltrating-the-far-right

https://www.splcenter.org/hatewatch/2024/08/19/we-will-fight-soldier-waging-war-against-america-fort-liberty

https://www.rawstory.com/kai-liam-nix-arrested-extremism/

https://jweekly.com/2020/10/23/judge-rules-that-nazi-obsessed-east-bay-man-must-face-trial/

https://www.algemeiner.com/2019/06/30/california-man-who-threatened-antisemitic-mass-shooting-attack-seeks-to-get-his-gun-back/

https://unicornriot.ninja/2018/leaked-violent-racists-use-facebook-chat-to-plan-unite-the-right-2/

https://www.rollingstone.com/politics/politics-news/military-extremism-nazi-arrest-justice-department-1234586141/

https://www.nytimes.com/2024/08/20/us/north-carolina-soldier-arrested-guns-trafficking.html

https://www.rawstory.com/hunted-by-nazis-how-extremists-stalked-me-while-i-reported-on-their-violence/ 

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

In part two of the life of the Forrest Gump of fascism, Frank Sweeney leads the CIA on an international goose chase, befriends and then betrays a serial killer, and just can't stop committing crimes by mail.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Frank Abbott Sweeney Jr may be the Forrest Gump of American white supremacy in the 20th century. Starting with a failed bank robbery for the American Nazi Party in the 60s, Frank stumbled his way into being an inconsequential side character in major historical events for decades.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

An investigation into illegal gun sales at Camp Lejeune uncovers a neonazi paramilitary group plotting to cause a blackout in the Pacific Northwest, assassinate the governor of Oregon, terrorize Black Lives Matter activists, and start a race war. 

Sources:

https://www.military.com/daily-news/2023/10/25/marine-kicked-out-of-corps-and-indicted-alleged-neo-nazi-infrastructure-attack-plot-pleads-guilty.html https://www.newsweek.com/active-duty-marine-neo-nazi-website-white-supremacist-identified-1470487

https://www.vice.com/en/article/d3aq8a/exclusive-a-us-marine-used-the-neo-nazi-site-iron-march-to-recruit-for-a-race-war https://storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.uscourts.nced.183119/gov.uscourts.nced.183119.1.0_2.pdf https://storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.uscourts.nced.183119/gov.uscourts.nced.183119.16.0.pdf https://storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.uscourts.nced.183119/gov.uscourts.nced.183119.119.0.pdf https://storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.uscourts.nced.188149/gov.uscourts.nced.188149.149.0_2.pdf

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

When someone left a bomb at a Civil War reenactment event in 2017, it looked like antifascist activists were out for revenge after the Unite the Right rally in Charlottesville. A mysterious letter writer claiming to be an antifascist collective took credit for the bomb and threatened even more violence to come if Civil War reenactments weren't called off. But the bomber wasn't antifa - it was a spurned Confederate re-enactor.

Sources:

https://qz.com/1800988/antifa-falsely-accused-of-threatening-civil-war-group https://www.washingtonpost.com/dc-md-va/2020/02/12/civil-war-reenactor-antifa-threats/ https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/virginia-politics/civil-war-reenactment-in-virginia-canceled-amid-worries-over-violence/2017/08/18/633b71d8-844a-11e7-b359-15a3617c767b_story.html

https://www.nbcwashington.com/news/local/virginia-civil-war-reenactors-receive-threat-of-bodily-harm/29951/

https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/we-wanted-to-send-a-message-reenactors-stage-civil-war-battle-despite-threat/2017/10/15/77dd0348-b1c4-11e7-a908-a3470754bbb9_story.html https://www.winchesterstar.com/news/frederick_county/increased-security-planned-for-battle-of-cedar-creek-event/article_aec48f2e-c708-5b7d-8679-1ca677e96f3d.html https://www.courtlistener.com/docket/65406287/united-states-v-drake/

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

This week marks seven years since the deadly Unite the Right rally in Charlottesville, Virginia. This is a brief minisode to mark the anniversary and remind myself why I can't stop looking for these weird little guys.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Why do people keep posting that fake Voltaire quote and who is the pedophile who actually said it? Molly takes you back to the 90s, inside the Nazi compound where Kevin Strom started broadcasting a weekly antisemitic radio show. 

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Join host Molly Conger each week for a story about one of the aspiring little Führers of the suburbs, men whose actions altered the course of the lives of their victims, their families, and their communities… but whose stories are ultimately lost in the shuffle of too many middle American Hitlers.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Weird Little Guys is a weekly show that gives you an uncomfortably close look at the worst people you’ve never heard of. Molly Conger takes a closer look at the far right extremists trying to unravel the fabric of our society. It turns out, they’re all just some weird guy. 

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.