James von Brunn
 

A real winner...

A Suspect's Long History of Hate, and Signs of Strain

By Darryl Fears and Marc Fisher
Washington Post Staff Writers
Thursday, June 11, 2009


James W. von Brunn was growing despondent.

John de Nugent, an acquaintance who describes himself as a white
separatist, noticed the change when they last spoke two weeks ago.

"He said his Social Security had been cut and that he was barely
making it," de Nugent said. "He felt it was the direct result of
someone in Washington looking at his Web site."

In one of his e-mail blasts expressing his white supremacist views,
the man police sources say shot and killed a security guard yesterday
at the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum told readers that they shouldn't
expect to hear from him again. Von Brunn was shot and critically
wounded by museum guards.

He was about to give away his computer, his primary connection to the
fringe world of radical racists. He was living hand to mouth.

The e-mails were getting violent in tone: "It's time to kill all the
Jews."

Von Brunn, who lives in Annapolis, was known for decades to fellow
white supremacists who read his elaborate conspiracy theories on his
Web site and met him through a network of radical racist groups. He
was smart enough to join Mensa, but even admirers considered him a
loner, a hothead and a man consumed with hatred.

As an avowed white supremacist and anti-Semite, von Brunn was tracked
by civil rights groups.

The Southern Poverty Law Center, which monitors hate groups, has kept
an eye on him since 1981. Lately, it has focused on his Web site,
www.holywesternempire.org. Von Brunn, 88, worked at Noontide Press, a
California-based distributor of books on the "Jewish Question."

His book, "Kill the Best Gentiles," is a screed against the Talmud and
is dedicated to Revilo Oliver, a well-known denier of the Holocaust.
Von Brunn's writings condemning "Negroes" and Jews were prolific.

"We had multiple entries on this guy," said Heidi Beirich, the
center's director of research.

Von Brunn's neighbors said yesterday that they invited him to their
home for a drink recently. Apropos of nothing, they said, he raised
his belief that the Holocaust did not occur.

Todd Blodgett, a former Reagan White House aide who later worked with
several extremist groups, met regularly with von Brunn in the 1990s
and early 2000s.

"Von Brunn is obsessed with Jewish people," Blodgett said. "He had
equal contempt for both Jews and blacks, but if he had to pick one
group to wipe out, he'd always say it would be Jews."

Blodgett was part-owner of Resistance Records, which distributed music
by white racist groups, and worked for Willis Carto, the founder of
Liberty Lobby, a radical right group.

According to Blodgett and a Washington lawyer who met with FBI and IRS
agents who used Blodgett as an informant on white supremacist groups,
Blodgett worked as a paid informer for federal investigators early
this decade.

Von Brunn apparently supported himself through much of the 1980s and
'90s by distributing copies of the Spotlight, the Liberty Lobby's
racist newspaper. "A lot of people like Von Brunn made some good money
taking those around to senior homes, restaurants, gun shows and places
like that," Blodgett said.

Blodgett said that he never filed reports to the FBI specifically
about Von Brunn but that "he was probably around when I was wired."

In his conversations with Von Brunn, "you'd get the impression that he
was intelligent and a bit off. . . . He was much more adept at
understanding the Internet than any other white supremacist of that
generation," Blodgett said. "He was very, very interested in the
potential for Resistance Records to bring in a new generation of
supremacists who were a cut above the knuckle-dragger types."

Von Brunn sometimes spoke of having fought for the wrong side in World
War II, Blodgett said, and the two men sometimes attended meetings in
Arlington County of the American Friends of the British National
Party, which raised funds for the British white supremacist group.

Blodgett said that von Brunn never spoke of violent action in their
conversations but that "a lot of these people, when they get toward
the end of life, they say they've wasted all these years hating, and
they want to make a statement somehow."

Von Brunn's ex-wife said she divorced him about 30 years ago when she
could no longer take his racist beliefs.

"When he talked about [race], he would get verbally abusive because I
didn't really want to talk about it," said the 69-year-old woman, who
lives in Florida and said she would speak to reporters if they would
agree not to name her. "It was always against the Jews and the
blacks."

The woman said she had not talked to authorities about the man she was
married to for a decade.

"We absolutely detested his beliefs," she said. "I am disheartened the
young guard was killed."

She said von Brunn once predicted that he would "go out with his boots
on."

On Dec. 7, 1981, he walked into the Federal Reserve headquarters on
Constitution Avenue NW with a handgun and threatened to take members
of the Board of Governors, including then-Chairman Paul A. Volcker,
hostage.

Police said he had an 11-page document, which he characterized as an
exposé of an "international bankers' conspiracy to rule all nations
from one central seat of government." Court records said he intended
to place them under citizens arrest and charge them with treason.

At his trial, von Brunn said that his goal was to "deport all Jews and
blacks from the white nations" and that statistics on IQs of black and
white Americans "proved that there is one race that is better than
another." He also testified that "Jews were the greatest liars that
have ever afflicted mankind."

He was convicted of armed kidnapping, among other charges, and
sentenced to a minimum of nearly four years up to a maximum of 11
years and three months at the Ray Brook federal prison in Upstate New
York. The court also requested a psychological evaluation for Brunn
while in prison.

After his release, von Brunn joined Mensa, the society for top scorers
on intelligence tests. A Mensa official said von Brunn was dropped
from membership for failure to pay dues.

De Nugent called von Brunn a genius but described the shooting as the
act of "a loner and a hothead."

"The responsible white separatist community condemns this," he said.
"It makes us look bad."

James von Brunn
 

On Wed, 10 Jun 2009 21:38:19 -0700, jps wrote:



De Nugent called von Brunn a genius but described the shooting as the
act of "a loner and a hothead."

"The responsible white separatist community condemns this," he said.
"It makes us look bad."

Is that right. Hilarious.
Like Hamburger Helper, it don't need no help at all.

--Vic

James von Brunn
 

On Thu, 11 Jun 2009 00:04:05 -0500, Vic Smith
wrote:

On Wed, 10 Jun 2009 21:38:19 -0700, jps wrote:



De Nugent called von Brunn a genius but described the shooting as the
act of "a loner and a hothead."

"The responsible white separatist community condemns this," he said.
"It makes us look bad."

Is that right. Hilarious.
Like Hamburger Helper, it don't need no help at all.

--Vic

That one got me too. As if they look respectable otherwise.

I also enjoyed the nuance of "supremacists" and "separatists." Maybe
being the superior race offers special rights, like killin' anybody
you dang well please 'cause they're inferior or the enemy.

Separatists just don't want nothin' to do with you. I'm guessing
there's not a whole lotta distinguishing between the two if they're
gettin' together for a barbeque.

James von Brunn
 

jps wrote:
A real winner...

A Suspect's Long History of Hate, and Signs of Strain

By Darryl Fears and Marc Fisher
Washington Post Staff Writers
Thursday, June 11, 2009


James W. von Brunn was growing despondent.

John de Nugent, an acquaintance who describes himself as a white
separatist, noticed the change when they last spoke two weeks ago.

"He said his Social Security had been cut and that he was barely
making it," de Nugent said. "He felt it was the direct result of
someone in Washington looking at his Web site."

In one of his e-mail blasts expressing his white supremacist views,
the man police sources say shot and killed a security guard yesterday
at the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum told readers that they shouldn't
expect to hear from him again. Von Brunn was shot and critically
wounded by museum guards.

He was about to give away his computer, his primary connection to the
fringe world of radical racists. He was living hand to mouth.

The e-mails were getting violent in tone: "It's time to kill all the
Jews."

Von Brunn, who lives in Annapolis, was known for decades to fellow
white supremacists who read his elaborate conspiracy theories on his
Web site and met him through a network of radical racist groups. He
was smart enough to join Mensa, but even admirers considered him a
loner, a hothead and a man consumed with hatred.

As an avowed white supremacist and anti-Semite, von Brunn was tracked
by civil rights groups.

The Southern Poverty Law Center, which monitors hate groups, has kept
an eye on him since 1981. Lately, it has focused on his Web site,
www.holywesternempire.org. Von Brunn, 88, worked at Noontide Press, a
California-based distributor of books on the "Jewish Question."

His book, "Kill the Best Gentiles," is a screed against the Talmud and
is dedicated to Revilo Oliver, a well-known denier of the Holocaust.
Von Brunn's writings condemning "Negroes" and Jews were prolific.

"We had multiple entries on this guy," said Heidi Beirich, the
center's director of research.

Von Brunn's neighbors said yesterday that they invited him to their
home for a drink recently. Apropos of nothing, they said, he raised
his belief that the Holocaust did not occur.

Todd Blodgett, a former Reagan White House aide who later worked with
several extremist groups, met regularly with von Brunn in the 1990s
and early 2000s.

"Von Brunn is obsessed with Jewish people," Blodgett said. "He had
equal contempt for both Jews and blacks, but if he had to pick one
group to wipe out, he'd always say it would be Jews."

Blodgett was part-owner of Resistance Records, which distributed music
by white racist groups, and worked for Willis Carto, the founder of
Liberty Lobby, a radical right group.

According to Blodgett and a Washington lawyer who met with FBI and IRS
agents who used Blodgett as an informant on white supremacist groups,
Blodgett worked as a paid informer for federal investigators early
this decade.

Von Brunn apparently supported himself through much of the 1980s and
'90s by distributing copies of the Spotlight, the Liberty Lobby's
racist newspaper. "A lot of people like Von Brunn made some good money
taking those around to senior homes, restaurants, gun shows and places
like that," Blodgett said.

Blodgett said that he never filed reports to the FBI specifically
about Von Brunn but that "he was probably around when I was wired."

In his conversations with Von Brunn, "you'd get the impression that he
was intelligent and a bit off. . . . He was much more adept at
understanding the Internet than any other white supremacist of that
generation," Blodgett said. "He was very, very interested in the
potential for Resistance Records to bring in a new generation of
supremacists who were a cut above the knuckle-dragger types."

Von Brunn sometimes spoke of having fought for the wrong side in World
War II, Blodgett said, and the two men sometimes attended meetings in
Arlington County of the American Friends of the British National
Party, which raised funds for the British white supremacist group.

Blodgett said that von Brunn never spoke of violent action in their
conversations but that "a lot of these people, when they get toward
the end of life, they say they've wasted all these years hating, and
they want to make a statement somehow."

Von Brunn's ex-wife said she divorced him about 30 years ago when she
could no longer take his racist beliefs.

"When he talked about [race], he would get verbally abusive because I
didn't really want to talk about it," said the 69-year-old woman, who
lives in Florida and said she would speak to reporters if they would
agree not to name her. "It was always against the Jews and the
blacks."

The woman said she had not talked to authorities about the man she was
married to for a decade.

"We absolutely detested his beliefs," she said. "I am disheartened the
young guard was killed."

She said von Brunn once predicted that he would "go out with his boots
on."

On Dec. 7, 1981, he walked into the Federal Reserve headquarters on
Constitution Avenue NW with a handgun and threatened to take members
of the Board of Governors, including then-Chairman Paul A. Volcker,
hostage.

Police said he had an 11-page document, which he characterized as an
exposé of an "international bankers' conspiracy to rule all nations
from one central seat of government." Court records said he intended
to place them under citizens arrest and charge them with treason.

At his trial, von Brunn said that his goal was to "deport all Jews and
blacks from the white nations" and that statistics on IQs of black and
white Americans "proved that there is one race that is better than
another." He also testified that "Jews were the greatest liars that
have ever afflicted mankind."

He was convicted of armed kidnapping, among other charges, and
sentenced to a minimum of nearly four years up to a maximum of 11
years and three months at the Ray Brook federal prison in Upstate New
York. The court also requested a psychological evaluation for Brunn
while in prison.

After his release, von Brunn joined Mensa, the society for top scorers
on intelligence tests. A Mensa official said von Brunn was dropped
from membership for failure to pay dues.

De Nugent called von Brunn a genius but described the shooting as the
act of "a loner and a hothead."

"The responsible white separatist community condemns this," he said.
"It makes us look bad."




The *responsible* white separatist community?

Now *that* is funny.

Von Brunn is just another of the many right-wing terrorists who plague
this country, the same sort of crap as the right-wing Muslim terrorists
who attacked on 9-11.










--
The modern GOP is little more than an army of moral absolutists led by a
gang of moral nihilists.