1 00:00:01,680 --> 00:00:08,319 Speaker 1: Cool Zone Media. Hey, welcome to Weird Little Guys, a 2 00:00:08,360 --> 00:00:10,799 Speaker 1: weekly show about the worst people you've never heard of. 3 00:00:11,240 --> 00:00:14,560 Speaker 1: I'm your host, Molly Conger. I spent years researching and 4 00:00:14,560 --> 00:00:17,040 Speaker 1: writing about far right extremism. I hang out in their 5 00:00:17,120 --> 00:00:19,960 Speaker 1: chat rooms, watch their live streams, follow their court cases. 6 00:00:20,600 --> 00:00:23,440 Speaker 1: I've stared deep into the abyss, pouring over court documents, 7 00:00:23,480 --> 00:00:27,000 Speaker 1: reading manifestos, and listening to some of the worst podcasts 8 00:00:27,000 --> 00:00:29,400 Speaker 1: ever made. And I've sat in the silence of a 9 00:00:29,440 --> 00:00:33,160 Speaker 1: mostly empty courtroom, feet away from men whose hateful ideology 10 00:00:33,280 --> 00:00:36,920 Speaker 1: spurred them on to acts of shocking violence. And you 11 00:00:36,960 --> 00:00:41,479 Speaker 1: know what, They're all just some guy, however heinous the act, 12 00:00:41,560 --> 00:00:44,880 Speaker 1: whoever hideous the rhetoric, no matter how dark their desires. 13 00:00:45,800 --> 00:00:47,520 Speaker 1: It's like the end of an episode of Scooby Doo. 14 00:00:48,200 --> 00:00:51,239 Speaker 1: There never was a ghost or a swamp creature. There 15 00:00:51,280 --> 00:00:56,920 Speaker 1: is no supernatural villain. It's some guy. Dick Gerald. For example, 16 00:00:58,080 --> 00:01:02,600 Speaker 1: back in twenty seventeen, Daryl Drake's started sending letters. His 17 00:01:02,680 --> 00:01:05,200 Speaker 1: first letter, sent just weeks after the deadly Nazi rally 18 00:01:05,200 --> 00:01:08,920 Speaker 1: in Charlesville, Virginia, demanded the cancelation of an annual Civil 19 00:01:08,959 --> 00:01:12,200 Speaker 1: War reenactment and threatened that the Unite the Right rally 20 00:01:12,200 --> 00:01:15,720 Speaker 1: would look like a Sunday picnic by comparison if they 21 00:01:15,720 --> 00:01:19,600 Speaker 1: didn't heed his demand. But they didn't cancel, so he 22 00:01:19,600 --> 00:01:23,080 Speaker 1: put a pipe bomb in a tent. The bomb didn't 23 00:01:23,120 --> 00:01:26,520 Speaker 1: go off, but the letters continued, and for over a year, 24 00:01:26,680 --> 00:01:29,120 Speaker 1: members of the board at the Cedar Creek Battlefield Foundation 25 00:01:29,200 --> 00:01:33,080 Speaker 1: received letters with increasingly frightening threats. The letter writer said 26 00:01:33,080 --> 00:01:35,360 Speaker 1: he'd kill one man's mother with a car bomb. He 27 00:01:35,480 --> 00:01:39,360 Speaker 1: made graphic sexual threats towards someone's doughs. He threatened to 28 00:01:39,400 --> 00:01:42,120 Speaker 1: feed ground up glass to the horses ridden by the 29 00:01:42,200 --> 00:01:46,280 Speaker 1: Cavalry reenactors and drive trucks through parades. And all the 30 00:01:46,360 --> 00:01:51,600 Speaker 1: letters were from Antifa, or so the envelope said. But 31 00:01:51,640 --> 00:01:54,320 Speaker 1: they weren't from Antifa. They were from a weird little 32 00:01:54,360 --> 00:01:56,960 Speaker 1: guy named Gerald. He'd been kicked out of his Civil 33 00:01:57,000 --> 00:01:59,560 Speaker 1: War reenactment unit a few years earlier, and like the 34 00:01:59,600 --> 00:02:02,920 Speaker 1: Confederate soldier he dressed up as he just couldn't let 35 00:02:02,960 --> 00:02:06,440 Speaker 1: go of losing. He capitalized on the political tensions of 36 00:02:06,440 --> 00:02:10,640 Speaker 1: twenty seventeen, exploiting the hysteria around anti fascist activism to 37 00:02:10,639 --> 00:02:14,760 Speaker 1: get a very personal kind of revenge. The race warriors 38 00:02:14,760 --> 00:02:17,560 Speaker 1: and ethno state enthusiasts who spend their day's brainstorming ways 39 00:02:17,560 --> 00:02:20,320 Speaker 1: to unravel the fabric of our society are a threat 40 00:02:20,320 --> 00:02:24,160 Speaker 1: to be taken seriously. That's why I've spent years researching them. 41 00:02:24,480 --> 00:02:27,040 Speaker 1: But this won't just be a parade of horrors. I mean, 42 00:02:27,040 --> 00:02:30,280 Speaker 1: it'll definitely kind of be that, but we're gonna laugh too. 43 00:02:30,919 --> 00:02:34,119 Speaker 1: I think we have to. Darrel dropped his first letter 44 00:02:34,120 --> 00:02:35,600 Speaker 1: in the mail on his way to the airport for 45 00:02:35,639 --> 00:02:38,920 Speaker 1: a solo European vacation. So the day somebody opened that 46 00:02:39,000 --> 00:02:41,960 Speaker 1: letter threatening to shoot up the fake Civil War, he 47 00:02:42,080 --> 00:02:44,320 Speaker 1: was writing a five star review of the Burger King 48 00:02:44,360 --> 00:02:47,520 Speaker 1: who went to in Madrid. In the day the FBI 49 00:02:47,600 --> 00:02:50,920 Speaker 1: raided his house, he was posting on a sex doll forum. 50 00:02:51,440 --> 00:02:54,080 Speaker 1: These are the weird little guys trying to ruin our lives, 51 00:02:54,600 --> 00:02:56,160 Speaker 1: and I hope you'll join me for a little peak 52 00:02:56,240 --> 00:02:59,480 Speaker 1: under their hoods. Listen to Weird Little Guys every Thursday 53 00:02:59,480 --> 00:03:02,080 Speaker 1: on the iHeart You app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you 54 00:03:02,160 --> 00:03:03,079 Speaker 1: get your podcasts.