1 00:00:01,680 --> 00:00:10,080 Speaker 1: Cool Zone Media. Hey, I'm Molly Conger and this is 2 00:00:10,320 --> 00:00:12,760 Speaker 1: Weird Little Guys, the show where I tell you about 3 00:00:12,760 --> 00:00:15,159 Speaker 1: the weird little guys trying to unravel the fabric of 4 00:00:15,200 --> 00:00:19,760 Speaker 1: our society. I've spent years researching and writing about writing extremism, 5 00:00:20,120 --> 00:00:23,120 Speaker 1: and it's pretty scary out there. I won't lie to you, 6 00:00:24,440 --> 00:00:26,159 Speaker 1: but the guys trying to ruin life as we know 7 00:00:26,200 --> 00:00:33,400 Speaker 1: it are also kind of freaks and losers. So here's 8 00:00:33,440 --> 00:00:37,080 Speaker 1: one of them. Okay, we're going to start this off 9 00:00:37,080 --> 00:00:39,600 Speaker 1: at the pop quiz. I'm going to read you a quote, 10 00:00:40,400 --> 00:00:41,839 Speaker 1: and I want you to tell me who said it. 11 00:00:42,920 --> 00:00:44,920 Speaker 1: I'll give you a minute to think. It's multiple choice 12 00:00:45,760 --> 00:00:48,800 Speaker 1: to learn who rules over you. Simply find out who 13 00:00:48,840 --> 00:00:57,600 Speaker 1: you are not allowed to criticize. Was that A Benjamin Franklin, B. Voltaire, C. 14 00:00:58,640 --> 00:01:03,360 Speaker 1: Socrates or D A neo Nazi pedophile on a white 15 00:01:03,440 --> 00:01:07,160 Speaker 1: nationalist radio show in nineteen ninety three. Now, if you 16 00:01:07,160 --> 00:01:10,959 Speaker 1: guessed B, you're in good company. Well, no, it's not 17 00:01:11,080 --> 00:01:14,920 Speaker 1: good company. The company is pretty terrible. I can't say 18 00:01:15,000 --> 00:01:17,560 Speaker 1: bad company without getting lost in a tangent about Timoth 19 00:01:17,640 --> 00:01:20,399 Speaker 1: mcfay's obsession with the song bad Company by the band 20 00:01:20,440 --> 00:01:23,479 Speaker 1: Bad Company from their album Bad Company. So I won't 21 00:01:23,520 --> 00:01:27,240 Speaker 1: say the company is bad, but it's a crowd. No, 22 00:01:27,400 --> 00:01:33,280 Speaker 1: the answer is actually d neo Nazi pedophile Kevin alfred Strom, 23 00:01:33,560 --> 00:01:35,560 Speaker 1: and it's a slight paraphrase of something he said in 24 00:01:35,600 --> 00:01:39,000 Speaker 1: an August nineteen ninety three broadcast of American Dissident Voices, 25 00:01:39,120 --> 00:01:41,600 Speaker 1: the weekly radio program he hosted for the neo Nazi 26 00:01:41,600 --> 00:01:45,080 Speaker 1: group National Alliance. Strome was living on the group's West 27 00:01:45,120 --> 00:01:48,680 Speaker 1: Virginia compound, three hundred acres in the mountains near Hillsboro 28 00:01:48,800 --> 00:01:51,960 Speaker 1: that they just call the Lamb, and he was serving 29 00:01:51,960 --> 00:01:54,400 Speaker 1: as the right hand band of the group's leader, his mentor, 30 00:01:54,480 --> 00:01:59,160 Speaker 1: William Luther Pierce. The broadcast was entitled all of America 31 00:01:59,280 --> 00:02:02,400 Speaker 1: must know the error that is upon us, a name 32 00:02:02,440 --> 00:02:04,720 Speaker 1: he borrowed from a speech given in nineteen fifty nine 33 00:02:04,760 --> 00:02:08,080 Speaker 1: by another one of his great influences, Revilo p Oliver, 34 00:02:08,639 --> 00:02:10,520 Speaker 1: and the quote gets new life every now and again 35 00:02:10,639 --> 00:02:13,800 Speaker 1: when it's incorrectly attributed to Voltaire. In the era of 36 00:02:13,840 --> 00:02:16,680 Speaker 1: public discourse about whether wearing a mask was truly the 37 00:02:16,720 --> 00:02:19,560 Speaker 1: most vile form of tyranny, it made the rounds as 38 00:02:19,639 --> 00:02:23,200 Speaker 1: COVID deniers pushed back against public health guidelines, like in 39 00:02:23,280 --> 00:02:26,440 Speaker 1: January of twenty twenty two, when Kentucky Congressman Thomas Massey 40 00:02:26,480 --> 00:02:31,480 Speaker 1: posted you mustn't question Fauci for he is science, accompanied 41 00:02:31,480 --> 00:02:33,680 Speaker 1: by an image of the quote, and it was sort 42 00:02:33,680 --> 00:02:36,600 Speaker 1: of laid over an image. I guess that's just a 43 00:02:36,639 --> 00:02:39,360 Speaker 1: meme words on a picture. The picture was of a 44 00:02:39,480 --> 00:02:43,120 Speaker 1: large disembodied hand pushing down on tiny little people that 45 00:02:43,160 --> 00:02:46,400 Speaker 1: it was squishing. That original image is actually an anti 46 00:02:46,480 --> 00:02:50,160 Speaker 1: child labor political cartoon from nineteen twelve. If you look 47 00:02:50,200 --> 00:02:54,320 Speaker 1: at the uncropped version of the original picture, the sleeve 48 00:02:54,520 --> 00:02:57,480 Speaker 1: has child labor employer written on it. You know they 49 00:02:57,560 --> 00:03:00,760 Speaker 1: used to label everything in a political cartoon. Garrison didn't 50 00:03:00,800 --> 00:03:04,919 Speaker 1: invent that. Australian Senator Corey Bernardi tweeted the quote back 51 00:03:04,919 --> 00:03:08,640 Speaker 1: in twenty fifteen. Contemporaneous reporting doesn't give me any insight 52 00:03:08,680 --> 00:03:12,079 Speaker 1: into exactly who he felt he was being prevented from criticizing. 53 00:03:12,760 --> 00:03:14,640 Speaker 1: But there was an article in the Guardian that same 54 00:03:14,680 --> 00:03:17,440 Speaker 1: week about his belief that Australia should not admit any 55 00:03:17,480 --> 00:03:21,560 Speaker 1: Syrian refugees because they might be terrorists. So I guess 56 00:03:21,560 --> 00:03:25,440 Speaker 1: he felt he was being oppressed by refugees but whatever 57 00:03:25,440 --> 00:03:28,880 Speaker 1: it was about. He responded by not just deleting that tweet, 58 00:03:28,919 --> 00:03:31,480 Speaker 1: but all of his tweets, and he did not tweet 59 00:03:31,520 --> 00:03:36,760 Speaker 1: again for a while. Elon Musk has unsurprisingly done it 60 00:03:36,800 --> 00:03:40,240 Speaker 1: at least twice. In November of twenty twenty two, Musk 61 00:03:40,240 --> 00:03:42,640 Speaker 1: posted that he was so committed to free speech that 62 00:03:42,680 --> 00:03:44,800 Speaker 1: he would not ban the account that was posting information 63 00:03:44,800 --> 00:03:48,400 Speaker 1: about his private plane. He did actually ban the account 64 00:03:48,400 --> 00:03:51,320 Speaker 1: a month later, but a user with a doge meme 65 00:03:51,400 --> 00:03:54,600 Speaker 1: profile picture replied to that tweet, so you don't rule 66 00:03:54,640 --> 00:03:58,520 Speaker 1: over us, but for us much wow, accompanied by that 67 00:03:58,680 --> 00:04:01,320 Speaker 1: same image that Thomas Massey the big hands squishing the 68 00:04:01,360 --> 00:04:04,640 Speaker 1: little people with the text of the quote, and Musk 69 00:04:04,680 --> 00:04:07,800 Speaker 1: replied to the Doge meme guy, that is my goal. 70 00:04:08,440 --> 00:04:11,520 Speaker 1: After hundreds of commenters immediately pointed out that he was 71 00:04:11,560 --> 00:04:14,160 Speaker 1: agreeing with a quote from a neo Nazi, he deleted 72 00:04:14,160 --> 00:04:17,760 Speaker 1: the reply without addressing it. Six months later, he tweeted 73 00:04:17,800 --> 00:04:20,880 Speaker 1: the exact same picture. It was a screenshot from a 74 00:04:20,920 --> 00:04:22,919 Speaker 1: meme page, so it was the exact same image bearing 75 00:04:22,920 --> 00:04:25,400 Speaker 1: the quote, but the text underneath it showed someone had 76 00:04:25,400 --> 00:04:28,760 Speaker 1: written we need to rise up against children with leukemia. 77 00:04:29,440 --> 00:04:32,919 Speaker 1: I guess the joke there is that you aren't allowed 78 00:04:32,920 --> 00:04:36,640 Speaker 1: to criticize kids with cancer. That one's still up. I 79 00:04:36,640 --> 00:04:40,040 Speaker 1: guess he thought that was funny, and maybe it does 80 00:04:40,200 --> 00:04:42,760 Speaker 1: kind of sound like something Voltaire could have said. You know, 81 00:04:42,839 --> 00:04:46,080 Speaker 1: he's not a huge fan of the Jews either. But 82 00:04:46,160 --> 00:04:48,640 Speaker 1: we don't exactly know where the original misattribution to the 83 00:04:48,640 --> 00:04:52,839 Speaker 1: French philosopher comes from. American etomologist Barry Popek wrote on 84 00:04:52,839 --> 00:04:54,800 Speaker 1: his blog in twenty twelve that the quote seemed to 85 00:04:54,839 --> 00:04:57,599 Speaker 1: appear kind of out of nowhere, with multiple Quote of 86 00:04:57,600 --> 00:05:01,040 Speaker 1: the Day websites featuring it in twenty twelve, all attributing 87 00:05:01,040 --> 00:05:04,440 Speaker 1: it to Voltaire. The oldest attribution to Voltaire that Pope 88 00:05:04,520 --> 00:05:07,440 Speaker 1: could find super weird it was a two thousand and 89 00:05:07,520 --> 00:05:10,839 Speaker 1: seven post by a user named Suzanne on a forum 90 00:05:10,880 --> 00:05:14,560 Speaker 1: for miniature horse breeders. But I think that has more 91 00:05:14,560 --> 00:05:16,520 Speaker 1: to do with sort of the rickety architecture of the 92 00:05:16,520 --> 00:05:19,240 Speaker 1: early Internet than it is evidence that Suzanne and the 93 00:05:19,240 --> 00:05:21,520 Speaker 1: mini horse ladies are anti semites. Right, that we don't 94 00:05:21,880 --> 00:05:25,080 Speaker 1: really have the ability to Google. A lot of that 95 00:05:25,240 --> 00:05:29,760 Speaker 1: sort of early Internet posting, Usenet forums and things like 96 00:05:29,800 --> 00:05:32,320 Speaker 1: that weren't indexing to Google, So I don't think it 97 00:05:32,720 --> 00:05:36,240 Speaker 1: came from the mini horse ladies, but I will admit 98 00:05:36,279 --> 00:05:39,600 Speaker 1: I spent half an afternoon digging through twenty year old 99 00:05:39,600 --> 00:05:43,160 Speaker 1: forum posts about miniature horse pedigrees trying to sniff out 100 00:05:43,160 --> 00:05:47,040 Speaker 1: secret Nazis and didn't find any. Mostly I just discovered 101 00:05:47,040 --> 00:05:49,640 Speaker 1: that some people buy the little shoes at Build a 102 00:05:49,680 --> 00:05:53,680 Speaker 1: Bear Workshop for their miniature horses because they fit perfectly, 103 00:05:53,760 --> 00:05:56,919 Speaker 1: and they're cheaper than the little sneakers they make for horses. 104 00:05:57,360 --> 00:05:59,000 Speaker 1: So if you need a little extra traction, if you're 105 00:05:59,040 --> 00:06:01,880 Speaker 1: taking a miniature horse inside, you could put Teddy Bear 106 00:06:01,920 --> 00:06:06,640 Speaker 1: sneakers on him. But whoever started it, I find it 107 00:06:06,680 --> 00:06:10,200 Speaker 1: hard to believe that the original misattribution was innocent. It's 108 00:06:10,200 --> 00:06:12,880 Speaker 1: not a line you could really just come across anywhere 109 00:06:12,880 --> 00:06:15,120 Speaker 1: on the wider Internet if you were the first person 110 00:06:15,160 --> 00:06:18,679 Speaker 1: to do this, And the actual author of the quote 111 00:06:18,720 --> 00:06:22,479 Speaker 1: seems to agree. In twenty seventeen, Kevin Strom addressed the issue, 112 00:06:22,520 --> 00:06:24,279 Speaker 1: writing in a post on the website for the neo 113 00:06:24,320 --> 00:06:28,480 Speaker 1: Nazi organization National Alliance, whoever hijacked my quote and put 114 00:06:28,480 --> 00:06:31,919 Speaker 1: it over Voltaire's signature liked what I was saying. He 115 00:06:32,000 --> 00:06:35,720 Speaker 1: understood my point, He understood that our secret rulers brook 116 00:06:35,760 --> 00:06:38,960 Speaker 1: no criticism of themselves or their agenda without exacting punishment. 117 00:06:39,560 --> 00:06:41,960 Speaker 1: He wanted to use the quote, but he didn't dare 118 00:06:42,000 --> 00:06:45,000 Speaker 1: attribute it correctly. He didn't dare make his point with 119 00:06:45,040 --> 00:06:48,440 Speaker 1: a quote from a known racist or anti Semite. Those 120 00:06:48,440 --> 00:06:51,440 Speaker 1: are in scare quotes, no matter how good the quote was. 121 00:06:52,279 --> 00:06:54,920 Speaker 1: He didn't dare follow my thoughts with my name. If 122 00:06:54,920 --> 00:06:58,440 Speaker 1: he did, he'd be attacked as being racist himself. There 123 00:06:58,520 --> 00:07:01,000 Speaker 1: might be personal a professional comment sequences. So he took 124 00:07:01,040 --> 00:07:03,000 Speaker 1: my idea and put it in the mouth of Voltaire. 125 00:07:03,720 --> 00:07:06,919 Speaker 1: Funny thing, is Voltaire, freethinker and honest observer as he was, 126 00:07:07,400 --> 00:07:09,360 Speaker 1: is as much of a racist and anti semit as 127 00:07:09,360 --> 00:07:11,840 Speaker 1: I am. But Voltaire has been safely dead for well 128 00:07:11,840 --> 00:07:14,280 Speaker 1: over two hundred years, and his contribution to the artistic 129 00:07:14,320 --> 00:07:17,280 Speaker 1: and intellectual development of our civilization is so great that 130 00:07:17,320 --> 00:07:19,360 Speaker 1: it will take quite some time for his legacy to 131 00:07:19,360 --> 00:07:22,720 Speaker 1: be race denounced or censored, as I'm sure the enemies 132 00:07:22,720 --> 00:07:25,840 Speaker 1: of life are aching to do. So. It was relatively 133 00:07:25,920 --> 00:07:31,160 Speaker 1: safe to quote Voltaire, but unsafe to quote Kevin Alfred Strome. 134 00:07:32,200 --> 00:07:34,600 Speaker 1: Fair enough, I think Kevin's onto something there, you know. 135 00:07:34,600 --> 00:07:37,160 Speaker 1: I hate to agree with him. But it isn't just 136 00:07:37,280 --> 00:07:40,400 Speaker 1: racism and anti Semitism that makes Strome an unsavory source 137 00:07:40,440 --> 00:07:44,880 Speaker 1: to quote, he is also a pedophile. Now, I know 138 00:07:45,240 --> 00:07:48,280 Speaker 1: you might be saying, and I know the legal department 139 00:07:48,320 --> 00:07:51,200 Speaker 1: is saying, that's kind of a strong word. Are you 140 00:07:51,240 --> 00:07:55,240 Speaker 1: sure you can say that? Well, yeah, I can. I'm 141 00:07:55,320 --> 00:07:58,080 Speaker 1: very sure because despite the entire section of his website 142 00:07:58,120 --> 00:08:01,440 Speaker 1: devoted to debunking the accusation, one of the exhibits filed 143 00:08:01,440 --> 00:08:03,080 Speaker 1: in the case that led to his stint in federal 144 00:08:03,160 --> 00:08:06,560 Speaker 1: prison for a possession of child pornography is a copy 145 00:08:06,600 --> 00:08:09,440 Speaker 1: of a contract he signed in the presence of a notary. 146 00:08:10,400 --> 00:08:12,600 Speaker 1: In September two thousand and six, at the request of 147 00:08:12,600 --> 00:08:16,200 Speaker 1: his second wife, Kevin Strom signed a document stating that 148 00:08:16,240 --> 00:08:19,960 Speaker 1: he would attend counseling sessions quote until such time that 149 00:08:20,000 --> 00:08:23,240 Speaker 1: such a qualified counselor will be able to indicate, too redacted, 150 00:08:23,920 --> 00:08:26,040 Speaker 1: that I am free from being sexually drawn to children, 151 00:08:26,160 --> 00:08:29,080 Speaker 1: or drawn to sexually explicit material of any kind concerning children, 152 00:08:29,440 --> 00:08:33,960 Speaker 1: or any other characteristics of being a pedophile. There's just 153 00:08:34,000 --> 00:08:35,960 Speaker 1: a lot going on there. I mean, first of all, 154 00:08:35,960 --> 00:08:38,080 Speaker 1: I don't know if you've had anything notarized, right you 155 00:08:38,920 --> 00:08:41,040 Speaker 1: sign a document in the presence of someone who is 156 00:08:41,120 --> 00:08:44,000 Speaker 1: certified by the state to say they saw you sign it, 157 00:08:44,080 --> 00:08:47,320 Speaker 1: so it's you know, there's no argument later about whether 158 00:08:47,320 --> 00:08:49,160 Speaker 1: that's really you who signed it, because you show them 159 00:08:49,160 --> 00:08:51,080 Speaker 1: your idea and they put the little stamp on it. 160 00:08:51,640 --> 00:08:54,720 Speaker 1: I usually get stuff notarized at the library. It's free. 161 00:08:55,000 --> 00:08:56,560 Speaker 1: Your town probably has it too. You make a little 162 00:08:56,559 --> 00:08:59,160 Speaker 1: appointment and the librarian can do it for you. It's great. 163 00:08:59,200 --> 00:09:02,160 Speaker 1: I love public library. I don't know where Kevin got 164 00:09:02,160 --> 00:09:07,280 Speaker 1: his pedophile contract notarized. I just can't imagine, like normally 165 00:09:07,320 --> 00:09:10,320 Speaker 1: you're looking at I don't know, mortgage documents and wills 166 00:09:10,440 --> 00:09:13,600 Speaker 1: or I had to send a document to a court 167 00:09:13,640 --> 00:09:17,000 Speaker 1: clerk to get online access to court records. Did she 168 00:09:17,080 --> 00:09:21,400 Speaker 1: read this? What a bad day at work. There's nothing 169 00:09:21,440 --> 00:09:23,480 Speaker 1: I can tell you that will make any sense of 170 00:09:23,559 --> 00:09:27,319 Speaker 1: a man's sexual attraction to his stepdaughter's nine year old classmate. 171 00:09:27,760 --> 00:09:31,960 Speaker 1: That's I can't do that. But I think there's some 172 00:09:32,000 --> 00:09:34,280 Speaker 1: sense in telling you a little bit about Kevin's life 173 00:09:34,360 --> 00:09:37,320 Speaker 1: up to that point. If you don't have the kind 174 00:09:37,360 --> 00:09:40,760 Speaker 1: of familiarity with white supremacist movements that ends conversations at 175 00:09:40,800 --> 00:09:43,440 Speaker 1: parties you've probably never heard of him, but he spent 176 00:09:43,480 --> 00:09:45,839 Speaker 1: most of his adult life as the indispensable right hand 177 00:09:45,960 --> 00:09:47,920 Speaker 1: of the man who wrote the novel that still serves 178 00:09:47,960 --> 00:09:50,600 Speaker 1: as a blueprint and a bible for white supremacists terror. 179 00:09:51,160 --> 00:09:53,040 Speaker 1: By his own telling, it was his high school history 180 00:09:53,080 --> 00:09:54,960 Speaker 1: teacher who set Kevin's Strome on the path through right 181 00:09:54,960 --> 00:09:58,880 Speaker 1: wing extremism, introducing him to the ultra conservative anti communist 182 00:09:58,920 --> 00:10:01,560 Speaker 1: group the John Birch s Society in the early seventies. 183 00:10:02,240 --> 00:10:04,120 Speaker 1: And it's probably no coincidence that the two men who 184 00:10:04,120 --> 00:10:05,760 Speaker 1: would have the biggest impact on his views as an 185 00:10:05,800 --> 00:10:09,840 Speaker 1: adult also came up through the JBS. Strome would later 186 00:10:09,880 --> 00:10:12,560 Speaker 1: serve as the personal archivist of Vilo p Oliver, a 187 00:10:12,600 --> 00:10:15,400 Speaker 1: founding member of the John Birch Society, although he was 188 00:10:15,520 --> 00:10:18,040 Speaker 1: later forced to leave the group he helped found in 189 00:10:18,120 --> 00:10:22,000 Speaker 1: nineteen sixty six after saying all the world's problems could 190 00:10:22,000 --> 00:10:26,360 Speaker 1: be solved if every Jew were vaporized. So it's not 191 00:10:26,400 --> 00:10:29,760 Speaker 1: that the John Birch Society wasn't anti Semitic. They just 192 00:10:29,800 --> 00:10:32,360 Speaker 1: didn't want him to say out loud exactly how anti 193 00:10:32,360 --> 00:10:34,880 Speaker 1: semitic they all were. It was just very embarrassing for 194 00:10:34,960 --> 00:10:38,640 Speaker 1: everyone and William Luther Pierce, the man whose Nazi compound 195 00:10:38,640 --> 00:10:41,480 Speaker 1: Strome lived and worked on for years, joined the American 196 00:10:41,600 --> 00:10:44,840 Speaker 1: Nazi Party after deciding that John Birch Society just wasn't 197 00:10:44,920 --> 00:10:48,240 Speaker 1: racist enough for him. It was a place for people 198 00:10:48,240 --> 00:10:51,560 Speaker 1: who hated communism to share ideas, and a lot of 199 00:10:51,559 --> 00:10:54,439 Speaker 1: those ideas were about how black and Jewish people were 200 00:10:54,440 --> 00:10:57,360 Speaker 1: actually to blame, and it was said at John Birch 201 00:10:57,400 --> 00:11:00,720 Speaker 1: Society meeting sometime in the late seventies when first encountered 202 00:11:00,720 --> 00:11:04,760 Speaker 1: members of the newly formed National Alliance. William Luther Pierce 203 00:11:04,800 --> 00:11:08,960 Speaker 1: founded National Alliance in nineteen seventy four after American Nazi 204 00:11:08,960 --> 00:11:11,600 Speaker 1: Party leader George Lincoln Rockwell was shot in a laundromat 205 00:11:11,640 --> 00:11:14,880 Speaker 1: parking lot by a former follower. In sixty seven, Pierce 206 00:11:14,920 --> 00:11:17,240 Speaker 1: had a brief stint in the National Socialist White People's 207 00:11:17,240 --> 00:11:19,760 Speaker 1: Party That's kind of a mouthful, that's just a different 208 00:11:19,800 --> 00:11:22,719 Speaker 1: Nazi Party before joining up with Willis Cardo to lead 209 00:11:22,720 --> 00:11:26,560 Speaker 1: the National Youth Alliance. And National Youth Alliance was formed 210 00:11:26,600 --> 00:11:30,560 Speaker 1: by Cardo to focus on recruiting and radicalizing right wing 211 00:11:30,640 --> 00:11:33,880 Speaker 1: college students to sort of counter the influence of groups 212 00:11:33,920 --> 00:11:37,080 Speaker 1: like Students for a Democratic society, right, So it's it 213 00:11:37,160 --> 00:11:41,719 Speaker 1: was the TPUSA of the George Wallace campaign years in 214 00:11:41,880 --> 00:11:45,880 Speaker 1: the name of the greatest sigure that I've ever taught differ. 215 00:11:47,000 --> 00:11:50,080 Speaker 1: I've read a line in the dusk and passed the 216 00:11:50,160 --> 00:11:54,160 Speaker 1: garment before the theater at Turner and I say segregation. 217 00:11:54,480 --> 00:12:01,839 Speaker 1: Now segregation, the MA and segregation however, and it was 218 00:12:01,880 --> 00:12:05,040 Speaker 1: originally spun off of Cardo's Youth for Wallace organization. But 219 00:12:05,360 --> 00:12:08,679 Speaker 1: obviously George Wallace did not become president in nineteen sixty eight, 220 00:12:08,720 --> 00:12:12,680 Speaker 1: and they didn't bring back segregation. And in what is 221 00:12:12,720 --> 00:12:15,000 Speaker 1: going to become a theme in this story, Cardow and 222 00:12:15,000 --> 00:12:18,760 Speaker 1: Pierce pretty quickly stopped getting along and eventually split entirely. 223 00:12:19,800 --> 00:12:22,160 Speaker 1: The faction that left with Pierce became National Alliance in 224 00:12:22,240 --> 00:12:26,160 Speaker 1: nineteen seventy four, and in seventy five Pierce started writing 225 00:12:26,160 --> 00:12:32,040 Speaker 1: the novel that is, unfortunately, his enduring legacy, The Turner Diaries. 226 00:12:33,160 --> 00:12:35,439 Speaker 1: We don't have to get super deep into it today. 227 00:12:35,480 --> 00:12:38,440 Speaker 1: I'm sure it will come up in most episodes of 228 00:12:38,480 --> 00:12:41,360 Speaker 1: this show. Unfortunately, you know, over the last fifty years, 229 00:12:41,400 --> 00:12:45,240 Speaker 1: this book has inspired a lot of race warriors. It 230 00:12:45,360 --> 00:12:49,480 Speaker 1: is a fictional novel, but it's the handbook for the 231 00:12:49,559 --> 00:12:51,600 Speaker 1: race war. It is a race war handbook in a 232 00:12:51,640 --> 00:12:56,080 Speaker 1: fictional trench coat. And it's not very good. And I 233 00:12:56,080 --> 00:12:58,600 Speaker 1: don't I mean, obviously it's not good, right. It is 234 00:12:58,640 --> 00:13:04,040 Speaker 1: a terrorism. It is sort of describing how to instigate 235 00:13:04,120 --> 00:13:06,320 Speaker 1: the race war and you know, kill the race traders 236 00:13:06,360 --> 00:13:08,720 Speaker 1: and kill the journalists and kill black people and Jewish people. 237 00:13:08,760 --> 00:13:13,120 Speaker 1: It's it is not good ideologically, obviously, but it's also 238 00:13:13,200 --> 00:13:17,160 Speaker 1: just really bad. It's messy. It was originally written in 239 00:13:17,160 --> 00:13:20,840 Speaker 1: a serialized format and then collected into one book, and 240 00:13:20,880 --> 00:13:24,680 Speaker 1: it's just it's disjointed. He's not a great writer. He's 241 00:13:24,720 --> 00:13:28,520 Speaker 1: not a great thinker. And Kevin Strom's first wife, Kirsten, 242 00:13:28,559 --> 00:13:31,040 Speaker 1: told an interviewer years later that when she first met 243 00:13:31,080 --> 00:13:33,959 Speaker 1: Pierce in nineteen eighty seven, she told him she had 244 00:13:33,960 --> 00:13:37,120 Speaker 1: just finished reading the Turner Diaries. You know, she's at 245 00:13:37,120 --> 00:13:39,600 Speaker 1: dinner with her husband and doctor Pierce. And this is 246 00:13:39,679 --> 00:13:41,760 Speaker 1: I'm sure a very big deal for her husband, who 247 00:13:41,840 --> 00:13:45,079 Speaker 1: is a National Alliance member, and I'm sure he hoped 248 00:13:45,080 --> 00:13:47,720 Speaker 1: that his wife would just behave you know, keep sweet, 249 00:13:48,120 --> 00:13:50,880 Speaker 1: just be the wife. And she tells doctor Piers, oh, 250 00:13:50,880 --> 00:13:53,000 Speaker 1: he just finished reading your book. And I didn't think 251 00:13:53,040 --> 00:13:56,000 Speaker 1: he was very good. She told him it was poorly written, 252 00:13:56,720 --> 00:14:00,000 Speaker 1: and I mean point for Kirsten, She's right. I just 253 00:14:00,160 --> 00:14:03,240 Speaker 1: can't imagine saying that to him. And it was through 254 00:14:03,240 --> 00:14:06,679 Speaker 1: Pierce that Strom first met Kirsten. She was married at 255 00:14:06,679 --> 00:14:09,280 Speaker 1: the time to a National Alliance member named Joseph McLaughlin. 256 00:14:10,000 --> 00:14:12,280 Speaker 1: In nineteen eighty seven, the day that Rudolph hes died, 257 00:14:12,800 --> 00:14:17,120 Speaker 1: Jo suggested that she call Pierce. So I wish I 258 00:14:17,160 --> 00:14:19,240 Speaker 1: could be a fly on the wall on this afternoon, 259 00:14:19,280 --> 00:14:21,720 Speaker 1: you know, he says to his young wife, Oh, I've 260 00:14:21,840 --> 00:14:25,680 Speaker 1: just heard that the Deputy Furr died. We should call 261 00:14:25,760 --> 00:14:28,120 Speaker 1: the leader of the Nazi cult that I'm in and 262 00:14:28,640 --> 00:14:33,920 Speaker 1: offer our condolences, I guess. But that's what they did, 263 00:14:34,520 --> 00:14:37,320 Speaker 1: and Pierce was very happy to hear from them. And 264 00:14:37,320 --> 00:14:40,320 Speaker 1: as they're talking, he's thinking, you know, I think Kevin 265 00:14:40,360 --> 00:14:44,720 Speaker 1: would really like this girl. Again, she's married, she's on 266 00:14:44,800 --> 00:14:47,160 Speaker 1: the phone with her husband. Her husband is the one 267 00:14:47,160 --> 00:14:50,000 Speaker 1: that prompted her to make this phone call. But he hears 268 00:14:49,920 --> 00:14:53,880 Speaker 1: her and thinks, I've got something better for her, because 269 00:14:53,920 --> 00:14:55,840 Speaker 1: I think it's hard to meet women when you're living 270 00:14:55,880 --> 00:14:58,080 Speaker 1: in an off the grid Nazi compound in the Mountains 271 00:14:58,080 --> 00:15:01,480 Speaker 1: of West Virginia. Pierce himself was known for selecting his 272 00:15:01,560 --> 00:15:05,080 Speaker 1: brides from catalogs of Eastern European women, but I guess 273 00:15:05,080 --> 00:15:06,720 Speaker 1: he thought he could pick one out for his boy, 274 00:15:06,800 --> 00:15:09,120 Speaker 1: Kevin over in Arlington, you know, a little closer to home. 275 00:15:10,080 --> 00:15:12,000 Speaker 1: A few months after that dinner where she told Pierce 276 00:15:12,040 --> 00:15:15,920 Speaker 1: she didn't care for his novel, Kirsten left her second husband, Joe, 277 00:15:16,280 --> 00:15:19,240 Speaker 1: and moved in with Kevin, and the couple was married 278 00:15:19,280 --> 00:15:23,040 Speaker 1: on Chinkite Island in nineteen ninety in a ceremony officiated 279 00:15:23,080 --> 00:15:26,680 Speaker 1: by William Luther Pearce. She wrote later in her memoir, 280 00:15:26,800 --> 00:15:30,760 Speaker 1: I guess you know she wasn't fully sort of removed 281 00:15:30,760 --> 00:15:33,120 Speaker 1: from society at this point. She was still existing in 282 00:15:33,160 --> 00:15:35,400 Speaker 1: the world when she married Kevin, and so her family 283 00:15:35,520 --> 00:15:38,240 Speaker 1: was at the wedding, and she describes feeling a little 284 00:15:38,240 --> 00:15:41,640 Speaker 1: bit embarrassed at the way doctor Pierce talked about race 285 00:15:41,680 --> 00:15:57,480 Speaker 1: in front of her family. Strange vows, and the marriage 286 00:15:57,520 --> 00:16:00,680 Speaker 1: was not a happy one. That's probably not a surprise 287 00:16:00,760 --> 00:16:03,720 Speaker 1: to you. Soon after the marriage, they moved out to 288 00:16:04,000 --> 00:16:06,720 Speaker 1: the land again. That's the big compound in West Virginia, 289 00:16:06,800 --> 00:16:10,160 Speaker 1: and she didn't love it there. She wasn't allowed to 290 00:16:10,200 --> 00:16:12,680 Speaker 1: watch TV, or read newspapers or consume any of what 291 00:16:12,720 --> 00:16:18,160 Speaker 1: her husband considered Jewish controlled media. They stocked wild food 292 00:16:18,240 --> 00:16:20,800 Speaker 1: and weapons, and she mainly tended to her home and 293 00:16:20,840 --> 00:16:22,920 Speaker 1: her children, but she says that she also helped out 294 00:16:22,920 --> 00:16:25,840 Speaker 1: around the compound by stuffing envelopes to mail out copies 295 00:16:25,880 --> 00:16:29,000 Speaker 1: of the group's propaganda, help fulfill orders for books. They 296 00:16:29,040 --> 00:16:32,760 Speaker 1: sold Pierce's book obviously, the Turner Diaries, and a number 297 00:16:32,800 --> 00:16:36,960 Speaker 1: of other sort of white nationalists publications and books. And 298 00:16:37,040 --> 00:16:39,520 Speaker 1: another task that she would pitch in with was they 299 00:16:40,240 --> 00:16:44,240 Speaker 1: made these sort of special waterproof PVC tubes that they 300 00:16:44,240 --> 00:16:47,360 Speaker 1: would sell to members, and the purpose of the tube 301 00:16:48,040 --> 00:16:50,840 Speaker 1: is to bury your guns underground so the federal government 302 00:16:50,960 --> 00:16:55,200 Speaker 1: can't get them. Right. So she's raising her children, she's 303 00:16:55,240 --> 00:16:59,520 Speaker 1: a housewife, she's making gun tubes for preppers and mailing 304 00:16:59,520 --> 00:17:02,600 Speaker 1: out copies of the terrorism Manual, you know, just young 305 00:17:02,640 --> 00:17:06,880 Speaker 1: mother stuff. And the paranoia on the compound was always there. 306 00:17:07,119 --> 00:17:09,120 Speaker 1: Why else are you living on a compound if you're 307 00:17:09,119 --> 00:17:11,800 Speaker 1: not a little bit paranoid. But after Ruby Ridge in 308 00:17:11,840 --> 00:17:15,879 Speaker 1: ninety two and Waco in ninety three, it became unbearable. 309 00:17:16,400 --> 00:17:18,600 Speaker 1: As she describes that you know, Kevin telling her things 310 00:17:18,600 --> 00:17:20,320 Speaker 1: like and you keep the children away from the windows. 311 00:17:20,320 --> 00:17:22,199 Speaker 1: They're going to shoot the children through the windows. Just 312 00:17:22,600 --> 00:17:26,480 Speaker 1: not prompted by anything, right, just the sort of constant 313 00:17:26,520 --> 00:17:28,399 Speaker 1: tension that the Feds are going to show up on 314 00:17:28,520 --> 00:17:30,600 Speaker 1: any day now and they're going to shoot you. You're 315 00:17:30,600 --> 00:17:32,600 Speaker 1: not going to shoot you like Ruby Ridge. It's just 316 00:17:32,680 --> 00:17:36,720 Speaker 1: not a great environment for a family. And on April nineteenth, 317 00:17:36,760 --> 00:17:41,399 Speaker 1: nineteen ninety five, Kevin came home early from work, and 318 00:17:41,480 --> 00:17:43,359 Speaker 1: she said he never did that. He was never around. 319 00:17:43,359 --> 00:17:46,040 Speaker 1: He would go off to his little workroom to make 320 00:17:46,040 --> 00:17:49,080 Speaker 1: his little Nazi radio show for you know, dawn to 321 00:17:49,200 --> 00:17:51,040 Speaker 1: dusk every day. He never came home early, but on 322 00:17:51,040 --> 00:17:55,159 Speaker 1: April nineteenth, nineteen ninety five, he did. I don't know 323 00:17:55,160 --> 00:17:58,520 Speaker 1: if that date means anything to normal people. It was 324 00:17:58,560 --> 00:18:01,480 Speaker 1: the day of the Oklahoma City bombing. And when he 325 00:18:01,520 --> 00:18:04,119 Speaker 1: came home from work that day on April nineteenth, he 326 00:18:04,200 --> 00:18:08,000 Speaker 1: didn't know yet. It hadn't hit the news yet what 327 00:18:08,119 --> 00:18:10,880 Speaker 1: the police found with Timothy McVeigh in the car when 328 00:18:10,880 --> 00:18:13,399 Speaker 1: he was arrested. He had his favorite passages from the 329 00:18:13,440 --> 00:18:17,119 Speaker 1: Turner Diaries on the car seat next to him, But 330 00:18:17,200 --> 00:18:20,560 Speaker 1: he did know that the bomber had called the National 331 00:18:20,600 --> 00:18:24,239 Speaker 1: Alliance Office just before detonating the bomb that killed two 332 00:18:24,320 --> 00:18:27,600 Speaker 1: hundred people. Kirsten writes in her memoir that Kevin came 333 00:18:27,600 --> 00:18:30,600 Speaker 1: home early from work again the next day, April twentieth, 334 00:18:30,680 --> 00:18:34,439 Speaker 1: nineteen ninety five. Came home in a hurry, and he 335 00:18:34,480 --> 00:18:38,120 Speaker 1: started packing up boxes and boxes of documents and tapes 336 00:18:38,200 --> 00:18:40,639 Speaker 1: and papers and reel to reel recordings of his pirate 337 00:18:40,720 --> 00:18:45,240 Speaker 1: radio broadcast Voice of Tomorrow and all of his QSL cards. 338 00:18:45,920 --> 00:18:47,680 Speaker 1: If you're a Ham radio guy, don't come for me. 339 00:18:47,720 --> 00:18:50,520 Speaker 1: I'm going to do my best here. QSL cards are 340 00:18:50,520 --> 00:18:52,159 Speaker 1: mostly a thing of the past now that we have 341 00:18:52,200 --> 00:18:55,600 Speaker 1: the Internet, but they were these sort of postcards that 342 00:18:55,640 --> 00:18:58,199 Speaker 1: Ham radio enthusiast and people in the pirate radio community 343 00:18:58,200 --> 00:19:00,480 Speaker 1: would send through the mail to exchange in from about 344 00:19:00,520 --> 00:19:03,360 Speaker 1: signal quality and strength. You'd write, you know, I am 345 00:19:03,359 --> 00:19:05,720 Speaker 1: in this location, I was listening to this broadcast on 346 00:19:05,760 --> 00:19:08,359 Speaker 1: this date, and this was the signal quality and in 347 00:19:08,400 --> 00:19:11,640 Speaker 1: the pirate radio world, these QSL cards are real collector's items, 348 00:19:12,600 --> 00:19:15,320 Speaker 1: but they're also a paper trail that the FCC would 349 00:19:15,359 --> 00:19:17,320 Speaker 1: love to have. It's sort of a record of what 350 00:19:17,400 --> 00:19:20,760 Speaker 1: you're listening to who you're communicating with, and he's been, 351 00:19:21,119 --> 00:19:25,479 Speaker 1: you know, running an illegal anti Semitic radio show for years. Anyway, 352 00:19:25,520 --> 00:19:29,399 Speaker 1: those are QSL cards, I think, And Kirsten said he 353 00:19:29,480 --> 00:19:32,159 Speaker 1: burned the boxes of QSL cards. So he's packing up 354 00:19:32,200 --> 00:19:35,720 Speaker 1: all these documents. He's burning the cards, and then he 355 00:19:35,800 --> 00:19:37,919 Speaker 1: fills the car up with these boxes of documents and 356 00:19:37,960 --> 00:19:42,239 Speaker 1: tapes and he drives several hours away to Stanton, Virginia, 357 00:19:42,320 --> 00:19:46,080 Speaker 1: and drives all over town, leaving these boxes in different 358 00:19:46,160 --> 00:19:48,920 Speaker 1: dumpsters in businesses. Right, so I guess you know. In 359 00:19:49,000 --> 00:19:54,000 Speaker 1: April of nineteen ninety five, the Big Lots dumpster received 360 00:19:54,280 --> 00:19:58,320 Speaker 1: potential evidence in the Oklahoma City bombing. Who knows, And 361 00:19:58,359 --> 00:20:02,159 Speaker 1: the worst thing really was that it ruined Hitler's birthday, 362 00:20:02,440 --> 00:20:05,000 Speaker 1: which was usually a very lively occasion on the compound. 363 00:20:06,040 --> 00:20:08,120 Speaker 1: It wasn't long after the bombing that the couple moved 364 00:20:08,119 --> 00:20:11,919 Speaker 1: to Rochester, Minnesota. They chose it because it was ninety 365 00:20:11,960 --> 00:20:15,680 Speaker 1: six percent white. Of course, it was in Rochester where 366 00:20:15,760 --> 00:20:18,639 Speaker 1: Kirsten gave birth to their third child, and it was 367 00:20:19,119 --> 00:20:22,320 Speaker 1: pretty clear that she was suffering from what was probably 368 00:20:22,320 --> 00:20:26,320 Speaker 1: postpartum depression. She describes an incident just weeks after giving 369 00:20:26,359 --> 00:20:28,400 Speaker 1: birth when she was allowed to listen to a little 370 00:20:28,400 --> 00:20:30,719 Speaker 1: bit of the radio to hear a weather report, and 371 00:20:30,760 --> 00:20:32,520 Speaker 1: she caught the tail end of a news story about 372 00:20:32,520 --> 00:20:34,440 Speaker 1: a young couple that killed their baby in a hotel 373 00:20:34,520 --> 00:20:36,480 Speaker 1: room to cover up the fact that they'd gotten pregnant. 374 00:20:37,400 --> 00:20:39,600 Speaker 1: And that's upsetting for anyone to hear. But I think 375 00:20:39,640 --> 00:20:43,399 Speaker 1: if you're a brand new mother, that's overwhelming, right. So 376 00:20:43,560 --> 00:20:45,680 Speaker 1: she's a new mother, she's holding her baby. She hears 377 00:20:45,680 --> 00:20:48,560 Speaker 1: about a baby that died, and she starts crying. I 378 00:20:48,560 --> 00:20:50,560 Speaker 1: think there's nothing more normal in the world than to 379 00:20:50,600 --> 00:20:52,600 Speaker 1: cry when you hear about a dead baby. But Kevin 380 00:20:53,000 --> 00:20:55,240 Speaker 1: yelled at her. He rebuked her for this, saying it 381 00:20:55,280 --> 00:20:57,320 Speaker 1: was good that the baby was dead because its mother 382 00:20:57,520 --> 00:21:00,320 Speaker 1: was Jewish. And it wasn't long after that that she 383 00:21:00,400 --> 00:21:02,920 Speaker 1: finally got up the courage to read a magazine article 384 00:21:02,920 --> 00:21:06,320 Speaker 1: about the Oklahoma City bombing. She obviously had very little 385 00:21:06,320 --> 00:21:09,320 Speaker 1: access to media and was afraid to find out more 386 00:21:09,320 --> 00:21:12,320 Speaker 1: about this. Anyway, she picked up a magazine and she's 387 00:21:12,400 --> 00:21:16,240 Speaker 1: leaping through it and she sees pictures, and she told 388 00:21:16,240 --> 00:21:19,399 Speaker 1: an interviewer later, I was thinking about this child being 389 00:21:19,480 --> 00:21:22,320 Speaker 1: held by a fireman doesn't look any different than my 390 00:21:22,440 --> 00:21:26,320 Speaker 1: son and he's covered with blood, and that whole idea 391 00:21:26,359 --> 00:21:29,200 Speaker 1: that there really isn't any difference, that children are children 392 00:21:29,600 --> 00:21:32,440 Speaker 1: all came to me. It all came together on that date. 393 00:21:32,960 --> 00:21:34,960 Speaker 1: And it was around this time that Kirsten spent some 394 00:21:35,000 --> 00:21:38,399 Speaker 1: time in a psychiatric hospital. Can't really blame her. I 395 00:21:38,440 --> 00:21:43,199 Speaker 1: can't imagine trying to integrate that into my psyche. And 396 00:21:43,240 --> 00:21:45,480 Speaker 1: she'd been begging for help for years, but Kevin didn't 397 00:21:45,520 --> 00:21:48,440 Speaker 1: believe in that kind of thing. She'd been prescribed antidepressants 398 00:21:48,480 --> 00:21:50,480 Speaker 1: after the birth of their second child, but he hadn't 399 00:21:50,480 --> 00:21:53,440 Speaker 1: allowed her to take them while she was in the hospital. 400 00:21:54,040 --> 00:21:57,760 Speaker 1: He left her and took the children. A year's long 401 00:21:57,800 --> 00:22:00,560 Speaker 1: custody battle followed, and even though he is an out 402 00:22:00,560 --> 00:22:03,800 Speaker 1: and out neo Nazi, it's not a secret at this point. 403 00:22:04,000 --> 00:22:06,400 Speaker 1: His name is in the newspaper next to William Luther 404 00:22:06,480 --> 00:22:09,520 Speaker 1: Peers and Timothy mcfay. He's the protege of the man 405 00:22:09,560 --> 00:22:12,080 Speaker 1: who wrote the book that inspired the Oklahoma City bombing. 406 00:22:12,119 --> 00:22:14,720 Speaker 1: He has no real job outside of editing a Nazi 407 00:22:14,760 --> 00:22:18,320 Speaker 1: magazine and ghostwriting for David Duke. In spite of all 408 00:22:18,359 --> 00:22:22,800 Speaker 1: of that, the battle ended in a draw. Years in 409 00:22:22,880 --> 00:22:25,399 Speaker 1: court right. She was only able to keep fighting this 410 00:22:25,440 --> 00:22:28,639 Speaker 1: custody battle because the SPLC helped her get a lawyer. 411 00:22:29,720 --> 00:22:32,879 Speaker 1: And I think at some point she sold photographs that 412 00:22:32,920 --> 00:22:35,560 Speaker 1: she had taken of other National Alliance members on the compound. 413 00:22:35,640 --> 00:22:37,800 Speaker 1: She sold them to the SPLC for enough money to 414 00:22:37,840 --> 00:22:43,080 Speaker 1: just keep trying, but shared custody. And so at the 415 00:22:43,160 --> 00:22:45,879 Speaker 1: end of those three years in court, Kevin was already 416 00:22:45,920 --> 00:22:49,520 Speaker 1: married to his second wife, Alicia. And it was Alicia 417 00:22:49,560 --> 00:22:51,719 Speaker 1: who came home one day to find her husband, Kevin, 418 00:22:51,960 --> 00:22:55,639 Speaker 1: sitting in front of his computer. He was completely nude 419 00:22:56,880 --> 00:23:01,400 Speaker 1: and fully erect. And I'm so I don't love having 420 00:23:01,440 --> 00:23:03,520 Speaker 1: to say that. I mean, I guess I chose to 421 00:23:03,560 --> 00:23:06,080 Speaker 1: say it. I did write this, but I don't like 422 00:23:06,119 --> 00:23:10,040 Speaker 1: the way that feels. But he was at his computer, naked, 423 00:23:11,240 --> 00:23:17,520 Speaker 1: rock hard and looking at pictures of little girls, clothed girls. 424 00:23:17,560 --> 00:23:20,760 Speaker 1: The girls had clothes on. Right. He had access to 425 00:23:20,840 --> 00:23:25,440 Speaker 1: child pornography. We know that, But on that particular day, 426 00:23:25,520 --> 00:23:29,000 Speaker 1: she walked in on him looking at what, under other 427 00:23:29,119 --> 00:23:33,000 Speaker 1: circumstances would have been perfectly normal photographs of children. These 428 00:23:33,000 --> 00:23:37,119 Speaker 1: were children they knew, right, family friends, the children of 429 00:23:37,160 --> 00:23:40,399 Speaker 1: other National Alliance members. Photos he'd taken of children in 430 00:23:40,440 --> 00:23:44,320 Speaker 1: their lives, friends of her daughters. But it wasn't normal 431 00:23:44,760 --> 00:23:48,680 Speaker 1: because of the you know, the totality of the circumstances here, 432 00:23:49,119 --> 00:23:53,159 Speaker 1: and that's what prompted the pedophilia contract. Because she'd already 433 00:23:53,160 --> 00:23:56,200 Speaker 1: caught him looking at actual child pornography the year before, 434 00:23:56,240 --> 00:23:59,680 Speaker 1: so she already she already knew, but this was a 435 00:23:59,720 --> 00:24:03,760 Speaker 1: bridge too far. These were children that he had access 436 00:24:03,840 --> 00:24:07,600 Speaker 1: to right when she caught him the year before looking 437 00:24:07,640 --> 00:24:10,120 Speaker 1: at the child pornography. They'd started going to marriage counseling, 438 00:24:11,359 --> 00:24:14,679 Speaker 1: but this was this was too much. She decided he 439 00:24:14,720 --> 00:24:19,240 Speaker 1: needed individual counseling to address this specifically, and she later 440 00:24:19,280 --> 00:24:22,200 Speaker 1: testified that it was at this point that she started 441 00:24:22,240 --> 00:24:26,040 Speaker 1: sleeping on the floor outside her daughter's bedroom. And his 442 00:24:26,080 --> 00:24:27,919 Speaker 1: marriage was not the only thing in Kevin's life that 443 00:24:28,000 --> 00:24:31,040 Speaker 1: was falling apart in two thousand and six. After William 444 00:24:31,080 --> 00:24:33,359 Speaker 1: Luther Pierce died in two thousand and two, National Alliance 445 00:24:33,400 --> 00:24:36,879 Speaker 1: was thrown into chaos. His handpicked successor, Eric Gleeb, was 446 00:24:36,920 --> 00:24:39,800 Speaker 1: losing control of the organization. In two thousand and four, 447 00:24:39,880 --> 00:24:43,040 Speaker 1: National Alliances Membership Coordinator quit, leaving behind a public letter 448 00:24:43,080 --> 00:24:46,399 Speaker 1: demanding an audit of the organization's finances, accusing Glebe of 449 00:24:46,400 --> 00:24:49,600 Speaker 1: mismanaging member dues. In April of two thousand and five, 450 00:24:50,040 --> 00:24:53,600 Speaker 1: Strong attempted a coup of sorts, getting dozens of signatures 451 00:24:53,600 --> 00:24:58,320 Speaker 1: on a letter demanding Glebe's resignation. Gleb responded by firing 452 00:24:58,400 --> 00:25:04,000 Speaker 1: him Barnough, but then he did actually step down just 453 00:25:04,040 --> 00:25:06,960 Speaker 1: a few days after that, leaving Sean Walker in charge 454 00:25:06,960 --> 00:25:10,480 Speaker 1: of National Alliance. And you know another sort of tangent here. 455 00:25:10,560 --> 00:25:13,440 Speaker 1: Gleeb would actually return as chairman just a year later 456 00:25:13,520 --> 00:25:15,520 Speaker 1: because Shawn Walker, the guy that took over for him 457 00:25:15,520 --> 00:25:17,159 Speaker 1: when he quit, had to go to prison on a 458 00:25:17,200 --> 00:25:19,920 Speaker 1: gun thing. So it's really just kind of a revolving door. 459 00:25:20,040 --> 00:25:23,280 Speaker 1: Nobody really knows who's in charge here, but Kevin's out. 460 00:25:23,720 --> 00:25:25,760 Speaker 1: But if this one thing these guys love, it is 461 00:25:25,840 --> 00:25:29,479 Speaker 1: a splinter group. So Kevin responds to being fired from 462 00:25:29,480 --> 00:25:33,240 Speaker 1: the organization he'd devoted his entire adult life to by 463 00:25:33,240 --> 00:25:36,520 Speaker 1: founding his own and he called it National Vanguard, which 464 00:25:36,560 --> 00:25:38,560 Speaker 1: is the same as the publication he'd been editing for 465 00:25:38,760 --> 00:25:42,040 Speaker 1: National Alliance for years. So he already was using the 466 00:25:42,119 --> 00:25:45,639 Speaker 1: name National Vanguard because that was National Alliance's publication that 467 00:25:45,720 --> 00:25:47,320 Speaker 1: he was in charge of, so he already owned a 468 00:25:47,359 --> 00:25:52,360 Speaker 1: domain easy for him, and some National Alliance chapters followed him. 469 00:25:52,640 --> 00:25:55,160 Speaker 1: So he's pretty busy trying to helm his newly formed 470 00:25:55,160 --> 00:25:58,120 Speaker 1: splinter group. He's traveling to chapters in different states trying 471 00:25:58,119 --> 00:26:01,760 Speaker 1: to shore up support. He's speaking, he's recruiting, and he's 472 00:26:01,800 --> 00:26:04,720 Speaker 1: just trying to get this thing off the ground. But 473 00:26:04,800 --> 00:26:07,040 Speaker 1: he's not so busy that he can't make time to 474 00:26:07,040 --> 00:26:22,520 Speaker 1: see the new love of his life, a nine year old. 475 00:26:22,600 --> 00:26:24,879 Speaker 1: In September two thousand and five, Kevin met one of 476 00:26:24,880 --> 00:26:28,400 Speaker 1: his stepdaughter's elementary school classmates, a girl identified in court 477 00:26:28,400 --> 00:26:32,480 Speaker 1: documents only as AA, which thankfully are not her real initials. 478 00:26:33,640 --> 00:26:36,760 Speaker 1: She was nine at the time, and I'll set your 479 00:26:36,800 --> 00:26:41,280 Speaker 1: mind at ease up front. He never touched her. There's 480 00:26:41,359 --> 00:26:45,560 Speaker 1: no allegation that he ever touched a child, so that's 481 00:26:45,600 --> 00:26:48,560 Speaker 1: some consolation, I think. And none of the naked photos 482 00:26:48,560 --> 00:26:50,880 Speaker 1: of children they found on his hard drive were of her. 483 00:26:51,000 --> 00:26:54,920 Speaker 1: Right again, there's no allegation that he ever took photos 484 00:26:55,320 --> 00:26:58,639 Speaker 1: of children who were naked. He just was weird about 485 00:26:58,640 --> 00:27:02,280 Speaker 1: taking photos of clothes. But he showed up at her 486 00:27:02,320 --> 00:27:05,160 Speaker 1: school so many times that her parents pulled her out 487 00:27:05,160 --> 00:27:07,280 Speaker 1: of private school and sent her back to public school. 488 00:27:08,000 --> 00:27:11,400 Speaker 1: He drove by her house, he sent her flowers and gifts, 489 00:27:11,560 --> 00:27:16,960 Speaker 1: and he wrote poems and love songs, and ultimately the 490 00:27:17,520 --> 00:27:19,879 Speaker 1: charge of sexual enticement of a miner, which was one 491 00:27:19,880 --> 00:27:23,120 Speaker 1: of the things he was originally charged with, was dismissed 492 00:27:24,040 --> 00:27:27,159 Speaker 1: Judge Norman Moon, who is shockingly still on the bench. 493 00:27:27,280 --> 00:27:29,959 Speaker 1: I saw Judge Moon not too long ago said there 494 00:27:30,040 --> 00:27:33,760 Speaker 1: was overwhelming evidence that Strom was attracted to the girl, 495 00:27:34,359 --> 00:27:36,760 Speaker 1: but that there wasn't sufficient evidence that he'd actually tried 496 00:27:36,760 --> 00:27:41,760 Speaker 1: to sexually coerce her. Right, So he's trying to romance 497 00:27:41,920 --> 00:27:46,040 Speaker 1: this child, but he didn't sexually coerce her. Right, He's 498 00:27:46,080 --> 00:27:50,040 Speaker 1: buying her flowers and showing up at her house, but 499 00:27:50,119 --> 00:27:54,560 Speaker 1: he didn't physically coerce her. And I don't know. I 500 00:27:54,600 --> 00:27:57,440 Speaker 1: don't know where the line is there. I'm not comfortable 501 00:27:57,480 --> 00:27:59,760 Speaker 1: with that. If a grown man is hiding behind a 502 00:27:59,800 --> 00:28:02,400 Speaker 1: tree outside of an elementary school trying to get close 503 00:28:02,440 --> 00:28:06,040 Speaker 1: to the child, he's writing poems about marrying, there's gotta 504 00:28:06,080 --> 00:28:09,240 Speaker 1: be something we could do about that, right, I don't know. 505 00:28:09,800 --> 00:28:11,600 Speaker 1: If a guy is taking time out of his busy 506 00:28:11,600 --> 00:28:14,400 Speaker 1: schedule meeting with David Duke and writing blog posts about 507 00:28:14,440 --> 00:28:17,840 Speaker 1: racial purity to download a little girls school schedule. There's 508 00:28:17,880 --> 00:28:22,840 Speaker 1: gotta be some kind of intervention. But even though Judge 509 00:28:22,840 --> 00:28:25,439 Speaker 1: Moon said it wasn't illegal to send romantic gifts to 510 00:28:25,480 --> 00:28:30,199 Speaker 1: a fifth grader, the behavior did prompt an investigation. His 511 00:28:30,280 --> 00:28:33,800 Speaker 1: wife is rightly very concerned. They start going to counseling. 512 00:28:35,080 --> 00:28:37,320 Speaker 1: She catches him looking at child pornography and tries to 513 00:28:37,320 --> 00:28:39,720 Speaker 1: call the police. And so here this is a little 514 00:28:39,720 --> 00:28:42,400 Speaker 1: he said, she said, right, So they both agreed that 515 00:28:42,480 --> 00:28:48,200 Speaker 1: there was an altercation. She says that she hit him 516 00:28:48,240 --> 00:28:51,440 Speaker 1: because she was trying to call the police, and then 517 00:28:51,480 --> 00:28:53,880 Speaker 1: he tried to stop her by choking her. This is 518 00:28:53,920 --> 00:28:56,960 Speaker 1: where the witness intimidation charge comes in that was ultimately 519 00:28:57,080 --> 00:29:00,680 Speaker 1: dropped at trial. But regardless of how it started, she 520 00:29:00,760 --> 00:29:02,400 Speaker 1: hit him over the head with the phone so hard 521 00:29:02,440 --> 00:29:04,080 Speaker 1: that he had to go to the hospital. So they 522 00:29:04,080 --> 00:29:07,240 Speaker 1: go back to marriage counseling. In July two thousand and six, 523 00:29:07,320 --> 00:29:10,320 Speaker 1: he announces he's taking a step back from his new 524 00:29:10,400 --> 00:29:14,640 Speaker 1: Nazi splinter group, citing family issues. You know the classic line, 525 00:29:14,640 --> 00:29:16,120 Speaker 1: I've got to take a step back from the work 526 00:29:16,160 --> 00:29:18,760 Speaker 1: to spend more time with my family. In this case, 527 00:29:18,760 --> 00:29:20,760 Speaker 1: it doesn't seem like spending more time with his family 528 00:29:20,880 --> 00:29:26,480 Speaker 1: is really in anybody's best interest. But he abandons National Vanguard. 529 00:29:26,760 --> 00:29:30,160 Speaker 1: He just doesn't have time for it right now. And 530 00:29:30,240 --> 00:29:33,480 Speaker 1: a month after that, unbeknownst to him, his wife gives 531 00:29:33,520 --> 00:29:38,240 Speaker 1: his computer hard drive to the police. In an October, 532 00:29:38,240 --> 00:29:42,520 Speaker 1: federal agents search his home. Notably, the FBI agents that 533 00:29:42,560 --> 00:29:44,880 Speaker 1: come to search his house are from the Joint Terrorism 534 00:29:44,960 --> 00:29:48,520 Speaker 1: Task Force. I don't know that child sex abuse material 535 00:29:49,240 --> 00:29:52,920 Speaker 1: usually involves the JTTF, but in this case it did, 536 00:29:53,640 --> 00:29:56,040 Speaker 1: and specifically, the agent on the warrant was a Charlesville 537 00:29:56,080 --> 00:29:59,040 Speaker 1: police officer on loan to the task force. Did I 538 00:29:59,080 --> 00:30:03,400 Speaker 1: mention that this takes place in Charlottesville. It's just it 539 00:30:03,440 --> 00:30:06,240 Speaker 1: doesn't seem right, does it. But the agent on the 540 00:30:06,240 --> 00:30:08,640 Speaker 1: warrant is Charlesville police officer who is on loan to 541 00:30:08,680 --> 00:30:13,719 Speaker 1: the JTTF. Brian O'Donnell and Alicia, that's Kevin's wife at 542 00:30:13,720 --> 00:30:17,680 Speaker 1: the time, claimed very publicly and for years that she 543 00:30:17,880 --> 00:30:20,320 Speaker 1: was sleeping with O'Donnell at the time of the trial, 544 00:30:20,920 --> 00:30:23,160 Speaker 1: and she even produced audio that she claims as a 545 00:30:23,600 --> 00:30:25,560 Speaker 1: recording of a phone call between the two of them 546 00:30:25,640 --> 00:30:29,960 Speaker 1: where they're talking about the affair. I won't tell you 547 00:30:30,000 --> 00:30:32,320 Speaker 1: with certainty that she was sleeping with the cop in 548 00:30:32,400 --> 00:30:36,200 Speaker 1: charge of investigating her pedophile husband. He has not admitted that. 549 00:30:36,240 --> 00:30:38,720 Speaker 1: I think he has denied that, but that was her 550 00:30:38,720 --> 00:30:41,320 Speaker 1: claim for many years. For what it's worth, she was 551 00:30:41,400 --> 00:30:46,240 Speaker 1: later arrested several times for stalking and doxing cops. Here 552 00:30:46,240 --> 00:30:48,440 Speaker 1: in the Charlottesville area, we have what's called the Jefferson 553 00:30:48,480 --> 00:30:52,920 Speaker 1: Area Drug Enforcement Task Force. It's a multi jurisdictional drug 554 00:30:53,000 --> 00:30:57,080 Speaker 1: enforcement unit. And she ran a blog devoted to doxing 555 00:30:57,120 --> 00:31:01,080 Speaker 1: the undercover cops that did drug stings. So again, you know, 556 00:31:01,120 --> 00:31:03,600 Speaker 1: you don't got to hand it to her. She is 557 00:31:03,640 --> 00:31:05,560 Speaker 1: not innocent in all of this. She was a true believer, 558 00:31:05,760 --> 00:31:08,880 Speaker 1: just like Kevin. But I don't know, running the cop 559 00:31:08,880 --> 00:31:13,360 Speaker 1: doxing blog not bad. Eventually, the ACLU actually took up 560 00:31:13,360 --> 00:31:15,720 Speaker 1: her case, defending her right to run a blog dedicated 561 00:31:15,720 --> 00:31:19,400 Speaker 1: to identifying undercovered drug officers. She spent a little bit 562 00:31:19,440 --> 00:31:21,640 Speaker 1: of time in jail, but I think ultimately she was 563 00:31:22,800 --> 00:31:26,959 Speaker 1: vindicated in her cop doxing blog. It's just such a 564 00:31:27,000 --> 00:31:29,640 Speaker 1: weird rabbit hole here. It's just such a strange side 565 00:31:29,680 --> 00:31:31,600 Speaker 1: tangent that has nothing to do with Kevin because he's 566 00:31:31,600 --> 00:31:34,360 Speaker 1: out of her life at this point, right, But just 567 00:31:34,400 --> 00:31:36,480 Speaker 1: a weird crossover. I wish I could go back in 568 00:31:36,520 --> 00:31:39,640 Speaker 1: time and see Tim Longo's the Charlesville police chief. Back 569 00:31:39,720 --> 00:31:42,920 Speaker 1: then he met with Alicia and just bagging tarries like 570 00:31:43,440 --> 00:31:45,600 Speaker 1: I can't make you right. You're not breaking the law. 571 00:31:45,800 --> 00:31:49,280 Speaker 1: We settled that, but please please log off. Please stop 572 00:31:49,320 --> 00:31:52,719 Speaker 1: posting pictures of cops, houses and cars. It's upsetting the boys. 573 00:31:54,680 --> 00:31:59,360 Speaker 1: Just bizarre, another strange crossover, Just totally bizarre. I guess 574 00:31:59,400 --> 00:32:02,560 Speaker 1: it's just a quirk of small town life. But it's 575 00:32:02,600 --> 00:32:06,760 Speaker 1: one of her many trials. The prosecutor was Denise Lunsford. 576 00:32:07,000 --> 00:32:09,840 Speaker 1: She was back then in the Prosecutor's office in al 577 00:32:09,880 --> 00:32:13,600 Speaker 1: Marle County. After working as a prosecutor, she would go 578 00:32:13,680 --> 00:32:16,080 Speaker 1: back to defense work and she was actually the court 579 00:32:16,080 --> 00:32:20,480 Speaker 1: appointed defense attorney at the James Alexfield's murder trial. So 580 00:32:20,640 --> 00:32:24,160 Speaker 1: just everything comes full circle, I guess. And O'Donnell, the 581 00:32:24,200 --> 00:32:27,600 Speaker 1: officer working Strome's case for the JTTF. Again, he denied 582 00:32:27,640 --> 00:32:30,400 Speaker 1: the affair. He says he was not sleeping with Alicia, 583 00:32:31,160 --> 00:32:33,560 Speaker 1: but he actually stayed on at the Charlesville Police Department 584 00:32:33,600 --> 00:32:36,280 Speaker 1: for another decade or so, long enough to serve as 585 00:32:36,280 --> 00:32:38,480 Speaker 1: one of the zone commanders for the police presence in 586 00:32:38,520 --> 00:32:44,240 Speaker 1: downtown Charlottesville on August twelfth, twenty seventeen. I'm not saying 587 00:32:44,240 --> 00:32:46,760 Speaker 1: any of this to start a conspiracy there. There's really 588 00:32:46,800 --> 00:32:51,120 Speaker 1: no conspiracy here. It's just a quirk of a little 589 00:32:51,160 --> 00:32:57,720 Speaker 1: city characters getting recycled. But circling back, I digress that 590 00:32:57,840 --> 00:33:01,480 Speaker 1: JTTF involvement in this small town child pornography case is 591 00:33:01,480 --> 00:33:05,160 Speaker 1: what fuels Strom's personal conspiracy theory that he was set up. 592 00:33:05,760 --> 00:33:07,719 Speaker 1: He maintains to this day that he was targeted by 593 00:33:07,720 --> 00:33:10,680 Speaker 1: the JTTF because they were unhappy with him or his 594 00:33:10,760 --> 00:33:13,080 Speaker 1: coverage of the two thousand and four federal trial of 595 00:33:13,160 --> 00:33:16,520 Speaker 1: Chester Doles. Of all the things to think that this 596 00:33:16,600 --> 00:33:20,600 Speaker 1: is about, I think that's just so stupid. Doles was 597 00:33:20,640 --> 00:33:23,640 Speaker 1: a longtime clansman, but by the early two thousands was 598 00:33:24,240 --> 00:33:26,640 Speaker 1: in leadership at National Alliance and he was on trial 599 00:33:26,760 --> 00:33:29,760 Speaker 1: for some kind of federal gun charge. He did something silly. 600 00:33:29,760 --> 00:33:32,080 Speaker 1: He was a felon for some prior hate crimes. He 601 00:33:32,080 --> 00:33:34,600 Speaker 1: wasn't supposed to have a gun. He did go to 602 00:33:34,640 --> 00:33:37,600 Speaker 1: prison again, got back out. He tried to run for 603 00:33:37,640 --> 00:33:41,640 Speaker 1: office in Georgia two years ago. Anyway, Strome attended the 604 00:33:41,640 --> 00:33:44,680 Speaker 1: trial to support Doles, obviously as a National Alliance member, 605 00:33:45,320 --> 00:33:47,360 Speaker 1: and he was also writing about the case for National 606 00:33:47,360 --> 00:33:50,240 Speaker 1: Alliances website to sort of help boost awareness of the 607 00:33:50,240 --> 00:33:53,520 Speaker 1: case because they were raising money for Doles's family. But 608 00:33:53,560 --> 00:33:56,400 Speaker 1: Strome says that at the courthouse a JGTF agent looked 609 00:33:56,400 --> 00:34:01,000 Speaker 1: at him and said, Strome, you're next. So he thinks 610 00:34:01,040 --> 00:34:03,880 Speaker 1: that they hated his blog so much that they tried 611 00:34:03,920 --> 00:34:06,440 Speaker 1: to send him to prison. I know, I'm saying that, like, 612 00:34:06,480 --> 00:34:08,200 Speaker 1: it's so stupid when I just told you that, like 613 00:34:09,440 --> 00:34:11,120 Speaker 1: his wife wrote a blog bit was so bad the 614 00:34:11,120 --> 00:34:12,960 Speaker 1: cops tried to send her to jail. But I just 615 00:34:12,960 --> 00:34:15,720 Speaker 1: don't think the FBI cared that much about his blog. 616 00:34:15,840 --> 00:34:20,080 Speaker 1: I really don't, because I've got a different theory I 617 00:34:20,200 --> 00:34:23,560 Speaker 1: found buried in this mountain of documents produced pursued into 618 00:34:23,560 --> 00:34:27,239 Speaker 1: a FOI request by Didas Secrets founder Ema Best, an 619 00:34:27,360 --> 00:34:33,280 Speaker 1: FBI memo dated April eighteenth, two thousand and five. Remember 620 00:34:33,320 --> 00:34:36,359 Speaker 1: that's the week of Kevin's attempted coup. So he's trying 621 00:34:36,400 --> 00:34:39,480 Speaker 1: to seize control of National Alliance from Eric Glebe, but 622 00:34:39,560 --> 00:34:42,440 Speaker 1: instead he gets fired and he splinters off National Vanguard. 623 00:34:42,960 --> 00:34:45,480 Speaker 1: So in this FBI memo, which was written just days 624 00:34:45,520 --> 00:34:50,080 Speaker 1: before all of that happened, the agent writes National Alliance 625 00:34:50,120 --> 00:34:54,360 Speaker 1: fracturing continued and accelerated this weekend. And the agent speculates 626 00:34:54,360 --> 00:34:56,799 Speaker 1: that a splinter group led by a former staffer is 627 00:34:56,880 --> 00:34:59,640 Speaker 1: likely to form, And he actually writes a name, but 628 00:34:59,640 --> 00:35:05,560 Speaker 1: it's acted obviously, but based on the character wits, I 629 00:35:05,560 --> 00:35:08,439 Speaker 1: can't think of another guy whose name would fit. It's 630 00:35:08,480 --> 00:35:13,080 Speaker 1: a Kevin Strom length redaction, if you know what I'm saying. 631 00:35:14,480 --> 00:35:18,200 Speaker 1: The memos author advises agents to assess the potential of 632 00:35:18,239 --> 00:35:20,680 Speaker 1: a lone wolf acting out of frustration over the lack 633 00:35:20,719 --> 00:35:23,040 Speaker 1: of progress that organized groups have been able to make 634 00:35:23,080 --> 00:35:27,120 Speaker 1: in their goals, and the document concludes by saying, quote 635 00:35:27,440 --> 00:35:29,719 Speaker 1: to some degree, I believe that National Alliance had a 636 00:35:29,760 --> 00:35:33,440 Speaker 1: stabilizing effect on the majority of its members, and with 637 00:35:33,480 --> 00:35:37,600 Speaker 1: the growing instability of the organization, individual actions by these 638 00:35:37,640 --> 00:35:41,359 Speaker 1: people will become more difficult to anticipate and certainly more 639 00:35:41,400 --> 00:35:45,800 Speaker 1: difficult to cover with sources. So if you don't speak 640 00:35:45,840 --> 00:35:48,520 Speaker 1: cop right, what he's saying is that the collapse of 641 00:35:48,560 --> 00:35:51,719 Speaker 1: a group that size which had long relied on the 642 00:35:51,719 --> 00:35:55,239 Speaker 1: somewhat stabilizing effect of a charismatic leader, would make it 643 00:35:55,280 --> 00:35:59,680 Speaker 1: harder to infiltrate, harder to monitor, and harder to predict. 644 00:36:00,080 --> 00:36:04,520 Speaker 1: And some of these guys might do terrorism. Right that 645 00:36:04,600 --> 00:36:08,000 Speaker 1: if this group collapses, if they don't have the stability 646 00:36:08,040 --> 00:36:11,480 Speaker 1: and the framework of a leader keeping them in line, 647 00:36:11,560 --> 00:36:15,680 Speaker 1: they're gonna blow stuff up. And the FBI already had 648 00:36:15,960 --> 00:36:19,200 Speaker 1: an idea about strow right, It was sort of an 649 00:36:19,200 --> 00:36:22,560 Speaker 1: open secret for years that he was a little weird 650 00:36:23,160 --> 00:36:26,839 Speaker 1: about little girls. His ex wife Kirsten, spoke to the 651 00:36:26,880 --> 00:36:30,600 Speaker 1: FBI years earlier, though it's not clear what specific allegations 652 00:36:30,640 --> 00:36:34,400 Speaker 1: she made about his proclivities. In the nineties, he maintained 653 00:36:34,440 --> 00:36:37,080 Speaker 1: a personal website with an entire section dedicated to the 654 00:36:37,080 --> 00:36:41,080 Speaker 1: beauty of the White race, which, like, I mean, normal 655 00:36:41,280 --> 00:36:43,239 Speaker 1: enough for a Nazi, right, like the beauty of the 656 00:36:43,400 --> 00:36:47,920 Speaker 1: Aryan woman or whatever, like a Pinterest board for the 657 00:36:47,960 --> 00:36:52,040 Speaker 1: fourteen words. But it was weirder than that. Right, even 658 00:36:52,080 --> 00:36:54,640 Speaker 1: at the time and even within the movement. It raised 659 00:36:54,680 --> 00:36:59,279 Speaker 1: eyebrows because the pictures were not of adult women, right, 660 00:36:59,320 --> 00:37:03,480 Speaker 1: It was the beauty of Aryan little girls, again clothed 661 00:37:04,719 --> 00:37:08,719 Speaker 1: but weird, just kind of freak behavior. And Kirston wrote 662 00:37:08,719 --> 00:37:11,640 Speaker 1: in her memoir, which was published years before his arrest, 663 00:37:11,800 --> 00:37:14,120 Speaker 1: she's not writing this after she already knows she's writing 664 00:37:14,160 --> 00:37:17,959 Speaker 1: this prior to his arrest, that during their custody battle, 665 00:37:18,040 --> 00:37:20,319 Speaker 1: she actually went to the police about that section of 666 00:37:20,360 --> 00:37:25,120 Speaker 1: his website, and the police agreed that it was super unsettling, 667 00:37:25,920 --> 00:37:28,880 Speaker 1: but that ultimately it was not illegal because the girls 668 00:37:28,880 --> 00:37:32,880 Speaker 1: were clothed. She said in an interview later that Alicia, 669 00:37:33,040 --> 00:37:37,520 Speaker 1: the second wife, called her after Kevin got arrested. She 670 00:37:37,640 --> 00:37:39,400 Speaker 1: said that for the first two years of her marriage 671 00:37:39,440 --> 00:37:41,120 Speaker 1: she tried to figure out what was wrong with her, 672 00:37:42,000 --> 00:37:44,600 Speaker 1: and for the second two years she tried to figure 673 00:37:44,600 --> 00:37:47,560 Speaker 1: out what was wrong with him. The fact is he 674 00:37:47,640 --> 00:37:51,080 Speaker 1: wasn't interested in me either once we got married. You know, 675 00:37:51,200 --> 00:37:54,640 Speaker 1: often when someone gets arrested for something like this, people 676 00:37:54,640 --> 00:37:56,160 Speaker 1: come out of the word work and they say, oh, 677 00:37:56,200 --> 00:37:58,520 Speaker 1: I always knew something was kind of weird about that guy. 678 00:37:59,000 --> 00:38:02,320 Speaker 1: I always knew. Why didn't you say anything? First of all? 679 00:38:03,280 --> 00:38:06,640 Speaker 1: But in this case, we have sources that predate his arrest, 680 00:38:06,680 --> 00:38:09,080 Speaker 1: so this isn't a hindsight thing. People were saying this 681 00:38:09,719 --> 00:38:13,080 Speaker 1: for years. Some posts on a white nationalist message board 682 00:38:13,080 --> 00:38:16,200 Speaker 1: in two thousand and three discussed the photos. Even one 683 00:38:16,320 --> 00:38:18,920 Speaker 1: user writes, back some years ago, when Strom first came 684 00:38:18,960 --> 00:38:21,080 Speaker 1: on the internet, he ran a series of pictures of 685 00:38:21,120 --> 00:38:24,840 Speaker 1: young white girls which some people found objectionable, but I 686 00:38:24,920 --> 00:38:28,000 Speaker 1: did not. They weren't naked or in suggestive poses or 687 00:38:28,040 --> 00:38:30,279 Speaker 1: anything like that, And what the hell is wrong with 688 00:38:30,320 --> 00:38:34,080 Speaker 1: celebrating the beauty of the women of our race. Even 689 00:38:34,120 --> 00:38:36,960 Speaker 1: the other Nazis pushed back against that. They're like, I 690 00:38:36,960 --> 00:38:40,279 Speaker 1: don't know, man. The photos were of the children of 691 00:38:40,320 --> 00:38:44,000 Speaker 1: other National Alliance members. These aren't just random pictures of 692 00:38:44,080 --> 00:38:46,319 Speaker 1: kids he found online. These aren't stock photos. These are 693 00:38:46,680 --> 00:38:50,520 Speaker 1: photos he took of children in his life. Would photograph 694 00:38:50,560 --> 00:38:53,160 Speaker 1: children playing on the compound and post them online without 695 00:38:53,160 --> 00:38:57,400 Speaker 1: their parents' permission, which is weird enough. But the website 696 00:38:57,480 --> 00:39:00,000 Speaker 1: also had another section, so this is on a separate 697 00:39:00,200 --> 00:39:03,319 Speaker 1: page of the website, but it's on the website. There 698 00:39:03,320 --> 00:39:08,960 Speaker 1: were also photos of himself posing in what the users 699 00:39:08,960 --> 00:39:13,520 Speaker 1: on the message board call beefcake poses in underwear that 700 00:39:13,560 --> 00:39:18,799 Speaker 1: they describe as fruit of the looms. I'm so I'm 701 00:39:18,840 --> 00:39:24,319 Speaker 1: so sorry. Another exasperated user wrote, why why do these 702 00:39:24,360 --> 00:39:27,520 Speaker 1: things happen? Why even under the best of circumstances, the 703 00:39:27,560 --> 00:39:31,840 Speaker 1: movement always tainted with just a slight tinge of cadaverine smell. 704 00:39:32,440 --> 00:39:35,120 Speaker 1: Why are we constantly confronted with this kind of just 705 00:39:35,320 --> 00:39:39,759 Speaker 1: plain weird behavior, even among those who claim to be, and, 706 00:39:40,200 --> 00:39:44,200 Speaker 1: to our reluctant agreement, usually are the best people we've got. 707 00:39:45,040 --> 00:39:47,840 Speaker 1: Why can't we have so much as one single leader 708 00:39:47,840 --> 00:39:52,239 Speaker 1: who is just simply normal. Why must there always be 709 00:39:52,360 --> 00:39:55,799 Speaker 1: these little weird kibbles and bits, these little oddities, these 710 00:39:55,800 --> 00:39:58,560 Speaker 1: little bits of quirky behavior lurking in the background of 711 00:39:58,600 --> 00:40:01,439 Speaker 1: everything we do. Why must we always hold our breath 712 00:40:01,480 --> 00:40:04,560 Speaker 1: around our leaders, never knowing what horrible surprise lurks in 713 00:40:04,600 --> 00:40:06,879 Speaker 1: their past, waiting to spring out and piss all over 714 00:40:06,920 --> 00:40:10,640 Speaker 1: everything like a giggling, deranged baby. Why do we even bother? 715 00:40:11,080 --> 00:40:15,520 Speaker 1: Is this really truly the best we can do? And 716 00:40:15,600 --> 00:40:19,040 Speaker 1: to that, I say, I think so. Yeah, I think 717 00:40:19,120 --> 00:40:21,600 Speaker 1: it is the best they can do. The movement is 718 00:40:21,640 --> 00:40:27,200 Speaker 1: full of aspiring hitlers, but they're all just absolute fucking weirdohs, 719 00:40:27,280 --> 00:40:30,400 Speaker 1: even aside from the whole Nazi thing. So if the 720 00:40:30,440 --> 00:40:32,720 Speaker 1: FBI wanted to take out one head of this hydra 721 00:40:32,920 --> 00:40:35,080 Speaker 1: to cut off the potential for this splinter group to 722 00:40:35,120 --> 00:40:38,480 Speaker 1: further split one of the country's more powerful white supremacist organizations. 723 00:40:39,200 --> 00:40:43,920 Speaker 1: It wouldn't be hard, right, I'm saying that these two 724 00:40:44,000 --> 00:40:47,440 Speaker 1: things exist separately. He was already a pedophile. They had 725 00:40:47,440 --> 00:40:51,720 Speaker 1: an existing desire to prevent this splinter group from taking hold, 726 00:40:52,640 --> 00:40:54,680 Speaker 1: and they just kind of lucked out, right, Like, if 727 00:40:55,000 --> 00:40:57,920 Speaker 1: the cops might come after you, don't do them a 728 00:40:57,960 --> 00:41:03,040 Speaker 1: favor by doing other crimes, Like if you're a mob boss, 729 00:41:03,040 --> 00:41:08,040 Speaker 1: pay your taxes, right, Who knows? We do know Alicia 730 00:41:08,080 --> 00:41:10,040 Speaker 1: turned over that hard drive to the police, but it's 731 00:41:10,040 --> 00:41:12,359 Speaker 1: impossible to know if she did that of her own 732 00:41:12,400 --> 00:41:15,680 Speaker 1: volition or if she'd been approached by agents looking to 733 00:41:15,719 --> 00:41:18,920 Speaker 1: get him on something. Right, Both of those are very 734 00:41:18,960 --> 00:41:22,160 Speaker 1: easy to believe. He was horrible to her, you know, 735 00:41:22,200 --> 00:41:25,319 Speaker 1: by her account, he tried to choke her, he's looking 736 00:41:25,320 --> 00:41:28,640 Speaker 1: at child pornography. She's afraid for her daughter. I think that, 737 00:41:28,719 --> 00:41:31,600 Speaker 1: even on its own, is enough motivation for even a 738 00:41:31,600 --> 00:41:34,680 Speaker 1: true believer, a member of the movement, to say something 739 00:41:34,719 --> 00:41:37,960 Speaker 1: has to be done. This isn't acceptable. But it's also 740 00:41:38,440 --> 00:41:40,719 Speaker 1: very easy to believe that the FBI would approach her 741 00:41:40,760 --> 00:41:43,600 Speaker 1: and say, you know, we can help you if you 742 00:41:43,640 --> 00:41:49,040 Speaker 1: help us. Who knows. We'll never know. She would say 743 00:41:49,080 --> 00:41:53,000 Speaker 1: that she never did that, right. She says that she 744 00:41:53,040 --> 00:41:55,680 Speaker 1: didn't give any information to the police. But we know 745 00:41:55,800 --> 00:41:58,480 Speaker 1: that's not true because it's in court documents that she 746 00:41:58,600 --> 00:42:01,480 Speaker 1: voluntarily produced the hard trime. So we'll never really get 747 00:42:01,520 --> 00:42:04,920 Speaker 1: a straight answer. You know, he really just stepped on 748 00:42:04,960 --> 00:42:07,439 Speaker 1: a rake here. You know, maybe the Feds never would 749 00:42:07,440 --> 00:42:10,239 Speaker 1: have gotten involved at all if not for a little 750 00:42:10,239 --> 00:42:12,960 Speaker 1: girl's mother who called the police because some weird middle 751 00:42:13,000 --> 00:42:16,880 Speaker 1: aged man wouldn't stop showing up at her daughter's school. Ultimately, 752 00:42:16,920 --> 00:42:19,640 Speaker 1: Strome did plead guilty to one count of possessing child 753 00:42:19,640 --> 00:42:23,480 Speaker 1: pornography and was sentenced to twenty three months, with the 754 00:42:23,560 --> 00:42:26,240 Speaker 1: year he'd already served before pleading guilty. He was released 755 00:42:26,239 --> 00:42:28,640 Speaker 1: just a few months later in September of two thousand 756 00:42:28,680 --> 00:42:32,080 Speaker 1: and eight, and Strome was sort of in the wilderness 757 00:42:32,120 --> 00:42:35,480 Speaker 1: for a bit after his stint in prison. By twenty thirteen, though, 758 00:42:35,640 --> 00:42:38,640 Speaker 1: who is back in it with National Alliance. He registered 759 00:42:38,680 --> 00:42:41,200 Speaker 1: an account under his own name on the group's online forum, 760 00:42:41,719 --> 00:42:46,000 Speaker 1: and the following year Glebe steps down again, leaving William 761 00:42:46,040 --> 00:42:50,160 Speaker 1: White Williams the head of National Alliance, and he's still 762 00:42:50,160 --> 00:42:52,399 Speaker 1: in charge over there today of what's left of it. 763 00:42:52,920 --> 00:42:57,439 Speaker 1: And yes, that is William White. Williams, that is his name, 764 00:42:57,840 --> 00:43:02,040 Speaker 1: William W. Williams. Not to be confused with William White, 765 00:43:02,160 --> 00:43:04,400 Speaker 1: that is a Nazi for a different day, I promise, 766 00:43:04,480 --> 00:43:09,080 Speaker 1: though we'll get to William White anyway. Williams he was 767 00:43:09,120 --> 00:43:11,680 Speaker 1: a longtime Strome ally, so he brings him back into 768 00:43:11,680 --> 00:43:14,480 Speaker 1: the fold and reinstates him as the group's media director. 769 00:43:15,760 --> 00:43:18,680 Speaker 1: And he also introduced Strome to the woman who'd become 770 00:43:18,920 --> 00:43:23,680 Speaker 1: his third wife, Meredith Keller. And Keller started writing to 771 00:43:23,680 --> 00:43:26,200 Speaker 1: Williams in twenty twelve when she was still an undergraduate 772 00:43:26,200 --> 00:43:30,200 Speaker 1: in college, and Williams introduced her to Strome soon after. So, 773 00:43:30,400 --> 00:43:32,919 Speaker 1: just as William Luther Pierce had selected Kirsten for Kevin 774 00:43:33,000 --> 00:43:36,160 Speaker 1: back in nineteen eighty seven, the Alliance's new chairman's playing 775 00:43:36,160 --> 00:43:40,920 Speaker 1: matchmaker again again, Kevin's like fifty at this point and 776 00:43:41,000 --> 00:43:45,200 Speaker 1: she is just graduating college, so not illegal, but it 777 00:43:45,239 --> 00:43:50,239 Speaker 1: is weird. It is weird. And under the pseudonym Vanessa Neubauer, 778 00:43:50,280 --> 00:43:53,319 Speaker 1: Meredith served as the secretary for the Cosmotheist Church that's 779 00:43:53,360 --> 00:43:56,400 Speaker 1: the fake Nazi religion that William Luther Peers invented to 780 00:43:56,400 --> 00:43:58,920 Speaker 1: get tax exempt status after the IRS said no the 781 00:43:58,920 --> 00:44:03,680 Speaker 1: first time in nineteen seven eight. Strom's engagement to Meredith 782 00:44:03,719 --> 00:44:06,880 Speaker 1: was announced in an October twenty fifteen member newsletter, but 783 00:44:07,200 --> 00:44:10,279 Speaker 1: a police report two months later says she called the 784 00:44:10,280 --> 00:44:12,359 Speaker 1: police when he wouldn't let her leave the house when 785 00:44:12,400 --> 00:44:16,320 Speaker 1: she tried to end their relationship. No charges were filed, 786 00:44:16,320 --> 00:44:19,920 Speaker 1: and I guess the police having to come because you're 787 00:44:19,920 --> 00:44:24,120 Speaker 1: holding a woman hostage isn't a probation violation because there's 788 00:44:24,160 --> 00:44:27,279 Speaker 1: no documentation in his federal court file that he had 789 00:44:27,280 --> 00:44:31,719 Speaker 1: a police contact of this sort. Who knows. So he 790 00:44:31,719 --> 00:44:34,640 Speaker 1: didn't get in trouble and they didn't break up. The 791 00:44:34,680 --> 00:44:37,360 Speaker 1: couple attended one of the last Trump campaign rallies together 792 00:44:37,440 --> 00:44:40,440 Speaker 1: just two weeks before the twenty sixteen election. In a 793 00:44:40,440 --> 00:44:43,920 Speaker 1: broadcast of American Dissident Voices that week, Stroma pined that 794 00:44:44,040 --> 00:44:46,840 Speaker 1: Trump had opened the door for a full on Hitler 795 00:44:46,920 --> 00:44:50,040 Speaker 1: to emerge in the not too distant future, ending the 796 00:44:50,040 --> 00:44:52,560 Speaker 1: broadcast with optimism at the speed with which the Overton 797 00:44:52,640 --> 00:44:56,480 Speaker 1: window was shifting rightward, saying, never before has the window 798 00:44:56,480 --> 00:44:59,480 Speaker 1: of topics opened for public debate been moved so far 799 00:44:59,719 --> 00:45:04,200 Speaker 1: and so fast in our direction. Kevin and Meredith married 800 00:45:04,239 --> 00:45:07,960 Speaker 1: in twenty nineteen. There were some rumors of the weird 801 00:45:08,080 --> 00:45:11,040 Speaker 1: corners of the Internet that Strom had wanted to move 802 00:45:11,040 --> 00:45:13,360 Speaker 1: his new family back to the compound in West Virginia. 803 00:45:13,560 --> 00:45:18,000 Speaker 1: But everybody kind of said no to that, not because 804 00:45:18,040 --> 00:45:20,719 Speaker 1: they didn't want a convicted sex offender around the families 805 00:45:20,719 --> 00:45:23,040 Speaker 1: that live there. Now, that wasn't a big deal. They 806 00:45:23,840 --> 00:45:26,080 Speaker 1: don't think he was guilty, right, he was railroad and 807 00:45:26,120 --> 00:45:29,600 Speaker 1: it was fake whatever. But because of his mandatory sex 808 00:45:29,680 --> 00:45:33,319 Speaker 1: offender registration, that would mean that a photograph of the 809 00:45:33,360 --> 00:45:36,440 Speaker 1: compound would appear on the sex Offender Registry website, and 810 00:45:36,480 --> 00:45:39,920 Speaker 1: people weren't comfortable with that. I don't know if that's true. 811 00:45:40,360 --> 00:45:43,880 Speaker 1: I guess I shouldn't repeat Internet rumors, but take it 812 00:45:43,920 --> 00:45:47,920 Speaker 1: with a grainisal. The couple lived for several years in 813 00:45:47,960 --> 00:45:49,839 Speaker 1: a home provided to him by a supporter from New 814 00:45:49,920 --> 00:45:52,319 Speaker 1: Jersey before purchasing a house a few hours north of 815 00:45:52,320 --> 00:45:55,960 Speaker 1: the compound in a town outside of Pittsburgh. She gave 816 00:45:56,000 --> 00:45:59,720 Speaker 1: birth to their third child together, his sixth last summer. 817 00:46:00,680 --> 00:46:03,480 Speaker 1: As of last September, Strom is no longer under supervision 818 00:46:03,600 --> 00:46:07,120 Speaker 1: and no longer appears on the Sex Offender Registry. He 819 00:46:07,160 --> 00:46:09,640 Speaker 1: and his wife appear as signatories on documents filed with 820 00:46:09,640 --> 00:46:12,759 Speaker 1: the Pocahontas County Clerk in West Virginia approving the lease 821 00:46:12,760 --> 00:46:15,040 Speaker 1: of some land owned by the Cosmothius Church to a 822 00:46:15,080 --> 00:46:19,560 Speaker 1: third party in twenty eighteen. He still hosts American Dissonant Voices, 823 00:46:19,600 --> 00:46:22,839 Speaker 1: the weekly broadcast he started in nineteen ninety one, and 824 00:46:22,920 --> 00:46:25,799 Speaker 1: still posts regularly on the website of the foundering neo 825 00:46:25,880 --> 00:46:32,000 Speaker 1: Nazi organization that he's given his life to. So Voltaire 826 00:46:32,040 --> 00:46:35,360 Speaker 1: didn't say it. A life long adherent to the teachings 827 00:46:35,400 --> 00:46:38,840 Speaker 1: of one of America's most influential Nazi leaders, said it 828 00:46:38,840 --> 00:46:42,840 Speaker 1: from a little bunker in the mountains of West Virginia. 829 00:46:43,239 --> 00:46:46,760 Speaker 1: Just a weird little guy who, according to one ex wife, 830 00:46:47,200 --> 00:46:51,560 Speaker 1: was known to disappear for hours locked in the bathroom, 831 00:46:51,680 --> 00:46:59,880 Speaker 1: eating pickles in the bathtub. Weird little Guys to production 832 00:47:00,160 --> 00:47:03,200 Speaker 1: Cool Zone Media. For more from Cool Zone Media, visit 833 00:47:03,239 --> 00:47:06,480 Speaker 1: our website Coolzonmedia dot com, or check us out on 834 00:47:06,520 --> 00:47:09,799 Speaker 1: the iHeartRadio app or wherever you guy your podcasts