As the nation reels from another stunning act of terror delivered by one of our own, I wonder-- what is behind this senseless violence perpetuated by primarily young white males?
Twelve people are now dead, 59 injured among them a 3 month old baby--all because they attended the premiere of a movie based on a comic? The latest release of the Batman series, The Dark Knight Rises had a midnight showing in Aurora, Colorado, when 24-year-old James Eagan Holmes decided to walk into the theater and open fire like he was part of the fictional story on screen and the movie goers merely fictional themselves.
There is something utterly maniacal about this kind of violence, completely beyond the realm of sane and logical interpretation. What fuels this madness, this evil?
Reports say Holmes, who is now in police custody and due in court on Monday, was dressed in bullet proof vests, gas mask, dark clothing, ballistic helmet, ballistic leggings and throat protector. He allegedly opened fire commando style after throwing one smoke and tear gas bombs into the viewing crowd.
He reportedly used up to 4 guns, at least one AK style rifle, an AR15 assault rifle and 2 Glock handguns. Bullets penetrated an adjoining theater, wounding one.
Holmes apartment is currently booby-trapped and authorities said in a press conference Friday afternoon that this is a difficult situation which may take days to neuralize. Strangely, after his bloody rampage inside the theater, the alleged killer was apprenhended outside quietly without resisting and then told police about his bomb-rigged apartment.
Seems odd for one hell-bent on killing to warn law enforcement of what lay ahead at his place of residence.
One witness, Jennifer Seeger told CNN news that she ducked when the gunman pointed his gun directly at her and felt the sting of gun powder on her forehead as he sprayed bullets into people around her. She said she folded herself in a fetal position, then crawled out when he moved up some stairs.
We all remember that other senseless tragedy where 22 year old Jared Lee Loughner opened fired in Tucson, Arizona on January 8, 2011, killing 6 including a sitting judge and a nine year old young girl and seriously wounding Congresswoman Gabrielle Gifford and 11 others.
Then there was Timothy McVeigh, since executed for the terror he unleased in Oklahoma City on April 19, 1995, killing 168 people and wounding over 800.
Again, what is behind the young male home ground terrorists? Speaking at a press conference one Colorado official said something interesting: "It doesn't look like an incident of terrorism at this time." If it's not terrorism, what is it? If the difinition of terrorism is unleasing acts of senseless mass violence on innocent folks here and around the globe, then this is it. Or is it only when it is ochestrated by 'foreigners'--those people from 'over there?'
When Norway happened in July of 2011, the media immediately thought Islamist terrorists were behind the atrocities. Many stopped calling the mass murderer Anders Behring Breivik a terrorist, when the dust settled and they saw it was a white male. But isn't he a terrorist for murdering 76 people and injuring many more?
We are forever hunting those 'others' considered our biggest threat--namely Islamic terrorists but there is this madness right in our backyard and beyond.
In fact, according to host of CNN's Global Public Square host Fareed Zakaria of the 294 terror attacks committed in Europe in 2009, only one was conducted by Islamists. That's a third of one percent. There were 249 terror attacks in Europe in 2010.
Only three of those attacks were carried out by Islamist terrorists. Again, that's about one percent. Most of the attacks were by separatist groups or anarchists."
Then there are the troubled teens who have committed mass violence in their schools. Again, there were young, white males who walked into schools, heavily armed and shot anyone in sight, some killing themselves after. There was the memorable massacre at Columbine, followed by several more.
This young man's only run-in with the law according to Colorado police, was a speeding violation. He was also intellegient and college educated, reportedly enrolled in a PhD program in neuroscience at the local university but at the point of dropping out. What turns someone like that--a simple speeding ticket holder into a mass murderer?
Was dropping out from the university, a trigger to a psychopathic personality lurking beneath the quiet, smiling eduated exterior? or is there much more to this sinister plot than meets the eyes? Where did he get his ammo, arsenal of weapons and military gear?
Incidentally, we had our resident incendiary loud mouth Rush Limbaugh, whose sole purpose to fame is spewing venomous rhetoric daily from the safe perch behind his radio microphone--say that this latest Batman movie was aimed at hurting the presumptive Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney because one of the vallainous character was named Bain.
Bain is suppose to be taken from Bain Capital, the venture capitalist company Romney headed and is now causing a mounting of trouble for him on the campaign trail.
Is there a connection? There is daily conservative poison irresponsibly pandered for million dollar contracts and partisan politics on talk radio and television shows with unstable anarchists, white supremacists and other crazies listening-- and this can be a dangerous, explosive mix.
Another controversy re-ignited from this tragedy is the control of assault weapons flooding our communities. Any amendment to the Second Amendment is vehemently opposed by pro-NRA, 2nd Amendment supporters who say they rights are not to be tampered with.
Those in favor of some gun control say the madness and violence needs immediate attention from Washington legislators and a degree of change at the federal level.
Philadelphia mayor Michael Nutter and New York City mayor Michael Bloomberg speaking on Friday, both called for immediate action in curbing the onslaught of weapons they say were meant for combat only. Any gun capable of firing numerous rounds in rapid succession, is a danger to society.
Holmes acquired those assault rifles legally which begs the question: would some form of gun control, prevent these kinds of mass massacre from happening?
Please stay with me and you will understand why I am mentioning John Allen Muhammad in this post.
What a Coincidence that on the First day of Ramadan 2012, this Coward, James Eagan Holmes a WHITE, PhD. Student in Aurora, Colorado, Sparks a Massacre?
But is this really a Coincidence?
Listen I don't care what anyone says, I strongly believe this Dude who by Natural Standards is an Academic Genius, Carefully Planned this Tragic Event to take place on the First Day of Ramadan 2012.
NO Vigils! No Flags being flown at Half-Mast! NOTHING!
After all they are just Poor, BLACK People right? So Who Cares???
James Eagan Holmes was Angry but he was NOT Insane!
Holmes frequently used the Internet but erased his Web 2.0 Footprints so he could not be traced.
He was NOT Crazy! He was NOT Lonely! He was NOT Sad! He was NOT Stupid! He was NOT Poor!
James Eagan Holmes Majored in Neuro Science (Doctoral Degree Student) thus he knew exactly what he was doing.
He also knew that Friday, July 20, was the First day of Ramadan 2012.
Now due to Colorado's Lax Gun Laws & very Lenient Criminal Justice System, watch James Holmes WALK.
WALK as in he'll will play CRAZY & be sent to the Psych Ward versus receiving Life in Prison or the Death Penalty.
Has anyone noticed how in States with Large Populations of WHITE, Wealthy People like Colorado, Vermont, Maine, the Criminal Justice System Laws are very Lenient?
However in States with Large Populations of BLACK, Low Income People like North Carolina, South Carolina, Louisiana, Illinois, the Criminal Justice System Laws are very Harsh??
Just a thought.
John Allen Muhammad i.e., the “DC Sniper” Shot & Killed at least 10 People in Cold-Blood and was Executed on November 10, 2009 in Virginia.
John Allen Muhammad was a BLACK Man!
By all accounts John Allen Muhammad was Truly CRAZY!
Since the tragedy in Colorado, authorities, news organizations, and people around the country have been trying to find out all they could about the suspected shooter, James Holmes.
A logical place to look was online. However, it appeared, at least early on, that Holmes had very few digital footprints.
No Facebook account. No Twitter account. Not even a mention of him in an article or Google search. No physical address listing. So far ABC News has only been able to find his email address at the University of Colorado Denver. TMZ reported it was also able to dig up an old MySpace photo, though it said he apparently had no real MySpace friends.
Holmes may be different from other alleged shooters. The man arrested in the Gabrielle Giffords shooting, Jared Loughner, had a MySpace page and a YouTube account. Anders Breivik, accused of killing 77 people in Norway, published a manifesto online. Holmes, in contrast, appears to be what some call "Web dead."
While it is possible that Holmes simply didn't have much of an online identity, it seems unlikely that he had no online fingerprints at all. Some experts suggest an online identity under a pseudonym may emerge, or that Holmes, as a tech-savvy graduate student, limited himself university communications that were password-protected.
"It could be that he is using a different name online or some variation of his name or another name entirely," Eva Galperin, International Freedom of Expression Coordinator at the Electronic Frontier Foundation, told ABC News. "He could have a significant online presence and we would not know about it."
Other sources, who asked not to be quoted by name, made the same point.
Many sites and social media services, like Facebook and Google Plus, have policies requiring users to go by their real names. However, if the name you use looks real and isn't flagged, you can easily get away without giving away your true identity.
There is also the possibility that Holmes worked hard to erase his identity online, but experts think that's unlikely.
"It is very hard to have no digital footprint right now," Michael Fertik, the CEO and founder of Reputation.com, told ABC News. "What my company stands for is creating the digital footprint you want."
Fertik said it would be very hard for Holmes to have left no online or digital traces over recent years. "It would be very unusual for a 24-year-old to have nothing on the Internet. My guess is that we don't know what name he was using online."
A service like Reputation.com or Removeyourname.com would help clear some of the history, but not all of it, Fertik said.
James Holmes is a common name, which complicates things. In the hours after Holmes was named as the suspect, people flocked to Facebook and Twitter to learn more about Holmes. Another James Holmes living in Littleton, Colorado had his Facebook page flooded with comments.
"I appreciate the fact that you are trying to become better-informed about the occurrences last night in Aurora, but you have been somewhat mislead, in that I am not the man who did it," the other James Holmes wrote on his Facebook wall. "I am not a 24-year-old gun-slinging killer from Aurora, I am a 22-year old book-slinging mass eater from Littleton." He signed the message "Regards, A different guy named James Holmes."
Whether he has a common name or not, James Holmes does have a background. It may just not be one easily found through a computer.
"Generally the way intelligence surfaces is by looking at the person's social networks -- not Facebook or Google Plus -- but looking at their friends or real-life contacts," Eva Galperin said.
Born John Allen Williams on December 31, 1960, in Louisiana, John Allen Muhammad became an infamous figure in American culture as part of a sniper team, with Lee Boyd Malvo, that terrorized the Washington, DC, area for several weeks in October 2002. Making a sniper nest out of the trunk of his car, he and Malvo killed 10 people and injured 3. Muhammad was executed in November 2009.
Mass murderer. Born John Allen Williams on December 31, 1960, in Louisiana. John Allen Muhammad became an infamous figure American culture as part of a sniper team that terrorized the Washington, D.C. area for several weeks in October 2002. He was raised by an aunt in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, after his mother died when he was 4.
After high school, Muhammad got married to Carol Kaglear and joined the Louisiana Army National Guard. They had a son named Lindbergh. At first, his military career seemed promising. He was described as personable and outgoing by one of his commanders, but by the early 1980s cracks were beginning to show in his faade. He got into trouble twice—once for failing to report for duty and another time for hitting an officer.
Muhammad changed his life around in 1985. He separated from his wife, converted to Islam, and joined the U.S. Army. He was stationed in Washington State and later married Mildred Green. The couple had three children. The army seemed to be a good fit for Muhammad, at least for a time. He became a skilled marksman and served in Germany and the Middle East during the Gulf War.
Becoming restless, Muhammad left the military in 1994. He tried to start his own business twice, first with an auto mechanic shop and then a karate school, but both ventures failed. In 1999, his second wife Mildred filed for divorce, and the next year she got a restraining order against Muhammad because the threats he made against her.
Shortly after the order was issued, Muhammad fled with the couple's three children. He took them to Antigua. It believed that this is also where met his future accomplice Lee Boyd Malvo. Muhammad later returned to the United States settling in Bellingham, Washington, with his children. Soon, however, police officers found him and returned the children to their mother's custody. She moved with them to Maryland.
Enraged over the loss of his children, Muhammad began to fixate on Malvo who had moved to Bellingham with his mother, Una James, that October. They together lived in a homeless shelter and developed a disturbing father-son dynamic. Muhammad seemed to control every aspect of Malvo's life, imposing an exercise program and a special diet, one that reportedly consisted of honey and crackers at one point.
Malvo and James were taken into custody by immigration officials in December 2001 for being in the country illegally. But they were released while waiting for a hearing, and Muhammad was soon reunited with Malvo.
He began to teach Malvo how to use a gun, and they used a tree stump
in a friend's yard for target practice.
By the fall of 2002, Muhammad and Malvo had moved on from tree stumps to real-life victims. They were involved in a liquor store shooting in Alabama before beginning their assault on the Washington, D.C. area in October. Muhammad's ex-wife Mildred and his three children lived in nearby Maryland and there were reports that Muhammad stalked the family around the time of sniper attacks.
A skilled mechanic, Muhammad put his talents to evil use,
making a sniper nest out of the trunk of his car. He and Malvo worked as team in the shooting with one man firing the rifle while the other watched the victims. They often targeted people doing simple, everyday tasks, such as pumping their gas or leaving a store. In total, they killed 10 people and injured three others in the D.C. area.
After several killings, Muhammad and Malvo began to taunt the police. They left a note on a tarot card that read: "Mister policeman, I am God" after one shooting. The police were stumped as there seemed to be no motive or pattern to the attacks. Then the snipers demanded $10 million to stop shooting. But the real break in the case came from phone calls to a tip line and to two priests from someone claiming to be the sniper. He pointed them in the direction of an earlier Alabama shooting. At the scene of that crime, Malvo had dropped a brochure, which had one of his fingerprints on it. That fingerprint was matched on file with the immigration records, giving the authorities their first suspect.
On October 24, more than 20 days after the rampage began, the authorities surrounded the vehicle in which Muhammad and Malvo. They were taken into custody and arrested. Since they committed their crimes in several states, the authorities had to decide where the pair should be tried first. Muhammad and Malvo had separate trials.
In his defense, his lawyers pointed to Malvo as the sole triggerman. Still a 2003 jury for the murder of Dean Harold Meyers recommended that he be sentenced to death. And he was convicted on six counts of murder in another trial in Maryland in 2006. Malvo testified against Muhammad during this trial, saying that Muhammad had pulled the trigger on the first six shootings.
Muhammad served his sentence at Sussex I State Prison in Virginia, until his death by lethal injection on November 10, 2009.
Sources: AP, AOL, ABC News, All Voices, Biography.com, CBS News, Christian Post, CNN, Daily Beast, Denver Channel, Gawker, Huffington Post, Newsone, TIME, TMZ, Washington Post, Wikipedia, Youtube, Google Maps
Based on a scene from Tuesday night's episode of the Fox series "Glee," it's probably safe to assume one of the writers is a "Tar Heels" fan.
When Mike O'Malley's character Burt Hummel begins dating the mother of the school jock Finn, the boy flips out at the idea of someone trying to take the place of his deceased father. Burt eventually gets Finn to warm up to him, sitting down to watch a basketball game with him and punctuating the bonding experience with the line "I hate Duke like I hate the Nazis."
As ESPN college football analyst Lou Holtz can attest, it's seldom in good taste to compare something as trivial as sports to Hitler's regime. Still, the intent here was to amuse, not to offend, and surely the Duke-hating segment of our population got a pretty good chuckle out of that scene.
Reaction to the scene on the Web on Wednesday predictably has been split largely by school affiliation thus far.
An angry Duke fan commented on Fox's Web site that the Nazi reference was "not funny" and "over the line," adding that the writers could have made the same point while using a less offensive comparison.
Meanwhile, when a Maryland fan posted the quote on a message board, fellow Terps supporters took more offense that one of their peers was watching a TV musical comedy than they did the Nazi reference.
Sandra Bullock is finally saying bye-bye to her marriage with Jesse James and embracing a surprise role: Single Mother.
"Yes, I have filed for divorce," the actress, 45, told People magazine, in an interview that will appear on newsstands Friday. "I am sad and I am scared."
The Oscar-winning "Blind Side" actress has been married to motorcycle mogul James, 41, for five years. They separated last month after reports that he cheated on her with multiple women.
Bullock also revealed that she has adopted a son, 3½-month-old Louis, born in New Orleans. She and James began the adoption process four years ago but decided to keep the details under wraps until after the Oscars. Now, she plans to raise him as a single mom.
"It's like he's always been a part of our lives," Bullock told People.
"She has been hiding with the baby since the scandal broke," People magazine senior editor David Caplan said. "She said that when she found out about Jesse's affairs, she grabbed Louis, she grabbed their stuff, and she left."
Jesse James' mistress did a sexy Nazi photo shoot and reportedly has White Power mementos on her skin and in her home. His ex-wife is married to a reported skinhead. How many neo-Nazis can you date without being one?
Michelle 'Bombshell' McGee denies being a white supremacist: Her sexy Nazi photo shoot was for fetishists, she says, and the W P tattooed on the backs of her thighs stands not for "white power" but the revolting-in-a-different-way.
She says, "Jesse and I had a conversation about it and he says a lot of his friends have the tattoo." (Is that an inside joke? That statement could use context, including an updated assessment on McGee's believability.
She has said she's Amish, as well as a third-generation French Canadian.
Is that even possible?) Suing for custody of their children, her ex-husband said she had "child block magnets on the refrigerator that spell out 'White Power'," and that her older son from a different relationship "is Jewish and she think it's funny that she makes the Nazi salute."
Then we have Jesse's ex-wife Janine Lindemulder, porn star and mother of his children. Her new husband is Jeremy Aikman, a multiple-time felon and reportedly "an admitted skinhead." Jesse and Sandra fought to revoke Lindemulder's custody, citing her marriage to Aikman as evidence of a negative environment for children. (Or, um, anyone.) So Jesse James has a degree of separation from these people—but why are there so many of them in the first place? How naive could he have been to his friends' racist and antisemitic ties and leanings?
Finally, Crushable notes concern over Jesse's West Coast Choppers logo resembling Germany's Iron Cross, which appears in Nazi memorabilia. (Albeit elsewhere, too.) Are we whipping ourselves into a paranoid frenzy, or is this guy uncomfortably close to the white supremacy movement? Way to harsh our racially harmonious Blind Side mellow, Jesse.
Jesse James' mistress did a sexy Nazi photo shoot and reportedly has White Power mementos on her skin and in her home. His ex-wife is married to a reported skinhead. How many neo-Nazis can you date without being one?
Michelle 'Bombshell' McGee denies being a white supremacist: Her sexy Nazi photo shoot was for fetishists, she says, and the W P tattooed on the backs of her thighs stands not for "white power" but the revolting-in-a-different-way.
She says, "Jesse and I had a conversation about it and he says a lot of his friends have the tattoo." (Is that an inside joke? That statement could use context, including an updated assessment on McGee's believability.
She has said she's Amish, as well as a third-generation French Canadian.
Is that even possible?) Suing for custody of their children, her ex-husband said she had "child block magnets on the refrigerator that spell out 'White Power'," and that her older son from a different relationship "is Jewish and she think it's funny that she makes the Nazi salute."
Then we have Jesse's ex-wife Janine Lindemulder, porn star and mother of his children. Her new husband is Jeremy Aikman, a multiple-time felon and reportedly "an admitted skinhead." Jesse and Sandra fought to revoke Lindemulder's custody, citing her marriage to Aikman as evidence of a negative environment for children. (Or, um, anyone.) So Jesse James has a degree of separation from these people—but why are there so many of them in the first place? How naive could he have been to his friends' racist and antisemitic ties and leanings?
Finally, Crushable notes concern over Jesse's West Coast Choppers logo resembling Germany's Iron Cross, which appears in Nazi memorabilia. (Albeit elsewhere, too.) Are we whipping ourselves into a paranoid frenzy, or is this guy uncomfortably close to the white supremacy movement? Way to harsh our racially harmonious Blind Side mellow, Jesse.
Jesse James' mistress did a sexy Nazi photo shoot and reportedly has White Power mementos on her skin and in her home. His ex-wife is married to a reported skinhead. How many neo-Nazis can you date without being one?
Michelle 'Bombshell' McGee denies being a white supremacist: Her sexy Nazi photo shoot was for fetishists, she says, and the W P tattooed on the backs of her thighs stands not for "white power" but the revolting-in-a-different-way.
She says, "Jesse and I had a conversation about it and he says a lot of his friends have the tattoo." (Is that an inside joke? That statement could use context, including an updated assessment on McGee's believability.
She has said she's Amish, as well as a third-generation French Canadian.
Is that even possible?) Suing for custody of their children, her ex-husband said she had "child block magnets on the refrigerator that spell out 'White Power'," and that her older son from a different relationship "is Jewish and she think it's funny that she makes the Nazi salute."
Then we have Jesse's ex-wife Janine Lindemulder, porn star and mother of his children. Her new husband is Jeremy Aikman, a multiple-time felon and reportedly "an admitted skinhead." Jesse and Sandra fought to revoke Lindemulder's custody, citing her marriage to Aikman as evidence of a negative environment for children. (Or, um, anyone.) So Jesse James has a degree of separation from these people—but why are there so many of them in the first place? How naive could he have been to his friends' racist and antisemitic ties and leanings?
Finally, Crushable notes concern over Jesse's West Coast Choppers logo resembling Germany's Iron Cross, which appears in Nazi memorabilia. (Albeit elsewhere, too.) Are we whipping ourselves into a paranoid frenzy, or is this guy uncomfortably close to the white supremacy movement? Way to harsh our racially harmonious Blind Side mellow, Jesse.
An Indian Trail man who pleaded guilty earlier this year to threatening President Obama has lost his CPA license, according to a state board.
The N.C. State Board of Certified Public Accountant Examiners has announced that Jerry Blanchard, 49, has had his license permanently revoked because his felony conviction violates state CPA regulations.
Blanchard was charged in August 2008 on two felony counts of “knowingly and willfully … threatening to kill, kidnap, and inflict bodily harm upon U.S. Senator Barack Obama,” then a Democratic candidate for President, according to a federal complaint.
He entered a guilty plea in February and was sentenced June 8 in federal court to one year and one day in jail, plus a $3,100 fine and three years of supervised probation. Government officials said there was never any proof that Blanchard actually planned to harm Obama.
According to federal authorities, Blanchard told diners on July 5, 2008, at a Waffle House on Pineville-Matthews Road that he planned to kill Obama with a rifle he would buy from Hyatt's Gun Shop on Wilkinson Boulevard in west Charlotte. On July 28, 2008, a witness said Blanchard made similar threats at an uptown Charlotte hotel.
WASHINGTON — An 88-year-old white supremacist was charged with murder Thursday, a day after he left a signed anti-Semitic screed in his car outside the U.S. Holocaust Memorial and Museum, then gunned down a security guard who opened the door to let him in, officials said.
Guard Stephen T. Johns was shot to death Wednesday by Holocaust denier James von Brunn, who left his car outside an entrance to the museum and walked in holding a rifle at his side, District Police Chief Cathy Lanier said at a news conference.
Von Brunn started shooting immediately, exchanging fire with two other guards who shot and critically injured him, Lanier said.
In his car, officers found a notebook with a handwritten note that read, "You want my weapons _ this is how you'll get them. The Holocaust is a lie. Obama was created by Jews," according to a court affidavit.
Von Brunn's .22-caliber rifle held 10 more bullets and investigators found more in his car and at an apartment in Annapolis, Md., that he shared with son and his son's fiancee. Security guards fired at von Brunn at least eight times, hitting him in the face.
The museum remained closed Thursday and flags flew at half-staff in honor of Johns, 39, who had worked at the museum for six years. Bouquets of roses, lilies and other flowers were left outside the museum walls. The entrance where the shooting occurred was still cordoned off by police tape.
Von Brunn, who tried to kidnap members of the Federal Reserve decades ago, remained in critical condition Thursday at a Washington hospital. A self-described artist, advertising man and author, he wrote an anti-Semitic treatise, "Kill the Best Gentiles," decried "the browning of America" and claimed to expose a Jewish conspiracy "to destroy the White gene-pool." He also wrote of a lifetime of seething anger.
"It's better to be strong than right," he said in one of his dark online postings, "unless you like dying. Crowds hate good guys."
Von Brunn was charged with murder and killing in the course of possessing a firearm at a federal facility, both capital offenses under federal law, and authorities said Thursday hate crime charges were also possible. Johns was black.
"We know what Mr. von Brunn did yesterday at the Holocaust museum. Now it's our responsibility to determine why he did it," said Joseph Persichini, assistant director of the Washington FBI field office.
The Homeland Security Department said the shooting does not appear to have a connection to terrorism, according to a joint Homeland Security and FBI assessment, though Persichini characterized it as "domestic terrorism."
He said authorities have contacted or visited any people or places named in documents found in von Brunn's car. Authorities searched the red 2002 Hyundai for explosives, but found none.
The attack unfolded in a public space filled with records, photographs and exhibits about the Nazis' killing of more than 6 million Jews in the Holocaust more than a half-century ago.
The museum was crowded with schoolchildren and other tourists, but all escaped injury.
Ashley Camp, 14, of Forsyth, Ill., on a field trip with more than 40 other students, said she heard two or three gunshots and a security guard ordered the group to run to the exit.
"We had to sprint as fast as we could out the door," she said.
Von Brunn was sentenced in 1983 for attempted armed kidnapping and other charges in his 1981 bid to seize Fed board members. A guard captured him outside the room where the board was meeting. He had a revolver, sawed-off shotgun and knife in a bag with him. He served more than six years in prison.
"The subject resides in my memory like old road-kill," he wrote of the capture. "What could have been a slam-bang victory turned into ignoble failure."
Von Brunn is a native of St. Louis, a World War II veteran who served in the Navy, worked in advertising in New York City and moved to Maryland's Eastern Shore in the late 1960s, where he stayed in advertising and tried to make a mark as an artist.
Public records show that in 2004 and 2005 he lived briefly in Hayden, Idaho, for years home to the Aryan Nations, a racist group run by neo-Nazi Richard Butler.
Civil rights groups were familiar with his history.
"We've been tracking this guy for decades," said Heidi Beirich, director of research for the Southern Poverty Law Center's Intelligence Project, which tracks hate crimes. "He thinks the Jews control the Federal Reserve, the banking system, that basically all Jews are evil."
His Internet writings say the Holocaust was a hoax. "At Auschwitz the 'Holocaust' myth became Reality, and Germany, cultural gem of the West, became a pariah among world nations," he wrote.
The attack was the third unsettling shooting that appeared to have political underpinnings.
A 23-year-old Army private, William Andrew Long, was shot and killed outside a recruiting office this month in Arkansas and a fellow soldier wounded. The suspect, a Muslim convert, has said he considers the killing justified because of the U.S. military presence in the Middle East.
Late last month, abortion provider Dr. George Tiller was shot to death in his church. The man accused of killing him is a longtime vocal opponent of abortion.
WASHINGTON - An elderly gunman opened fire with a rifle inside the crowded U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum on Wednesday, fatally wounding a security guard before being shot. Authorities said they were investigating a white supremacist as the suspect.
The assailant and his victim were both hospitalized, said Washington, D.C., Mayor Adrian Fenty, who added that the gunman was in critical condition. The guard, identified by the museum as Officer Stephen Tyrone Johns, died later in the hospital. Johns had worked at the museum for six years.
"There are no words to express our grief and shock over today's events," the museum said in statement.
D.C. Police Chief Cathy Lanier said the gunman appeared to have acted alone. He was "engaged by security guards immediately after entering the door" with a rifle, she said. "The second he stepped into the building he began firing."
One law enforcement official said James Von Brunn, 89, a white supremacist, was under investigation in the shooting, and a second official said the elderly man's car was found near the museum and tested for explosives. They spoke on condition of anonymity, saying they were not authorized to discuss the investigation.
Racist Web site:
Von Brunn has a racist, anti-Semitic Web site and wrote a book titled "Kill the Best Gentile."
In 1983, he was convicted of attempting to kidnap members of the Federal Reserve Board. He was arrested two years earlier outside the room where the board was meeting, carrying a revolver, knife and sawed-off shotgun. At the time, police said Von Brunn wanted to take the members hostage because of high interest rates and the nation's economic difficulties.
The museum houses exhibits and records relating to the Holocaust more than a half century ago in which more than six million Jews were killed by the Nazis.
It is located across the street from the National Mall, and within sight of the Washington Monument. The museum, which draws about 1.7 million visitors each year, was closed for the day after the shooting, and nearby streets were cordoned off by police. Surrounding roads were closed at least temporarily and blocked off with yellow tape. Police cars and officers on horses surrounded the area.
The attack was the third in a recent wave of unsettling shootings that appeared to have political underpinnings.
A 23-year-old Army private, William Andrew Long, was shot and killed outside a recruiting office this month in Arkansas and a fellow soldier was wounded. The suspect, a Muslim convert, has said he considers the killing justified because of the U.S. military presence in the Middle East.
Late last month, abortion provider Dr. George Tiller was shot to death in his church.
White House reacts:
At the White House, just a few blocks away, press secretary Robert Gibbs said he informed President Barack Obama of the events and the chief executive was "obviously saddened by what has happened."
Only last week, Obama visited the site of a German concentration camp at Buchenwald in Germany where he noted, "There are those who insist the Holocaust never happened." He added, "This place is the ultimate rebuke to such thoughts, a reminder of our duty to confront those who would tell lies about our history."
The museum normally has a heavy security presence with guards positioned both inside and outside. All visitors are required to pass through metal detectors at the entrance, and bags are screened.
Linda Elston, who was visiting the museum from Nevada City, Calif., said she was on the lower level of the museum watching a film when she and others were told to evacuate.
"It was totally full of people," Elston said. "It took us a while to get out."
She said she didn't hear any shots and didn't immediately know why there was an evacuation. The experience left her feeling "a little anxious," she said.
Thousands inside museum:
A museum official said a couple of thousand people were inside the facility when the shooting broke out, just before 1 p.m. ET.
The Embassy of Israel in Washington said it was "shocked and saddened" by the shooting in a statement.
The Council on American-Islamic Relations also released a statement: "We condemn this apparent bias-motivated attack and stand with the Jewish community and with Americans of all faiths in repudiating the kind of hatred and intolerance that can lead to such disturbing incidents."
The museum, the largest U.S. memorial to the Holocaust, opened in 1993 and has been a target of at least one domestic terrorism threat in the past. In 2002, prosecutors said two members of white supremacist groups had plotted to build a fertilizer bomb — like the one used to destroy an Oklahoma City federal building — to blow up the Holocaust museum. Authorities said the two had plotted to incite a race war.
Welcome to the BLACK POLITICAL BUZZ Blog. (Established 2008)
My name is Laurel. (Author & Publisher)
I Blog with a focus on POLITICS, Business, and occasionally Entertainment.
FACTS ABOUT LAUREL:
Wife,
Mother of a U.S. Soldier,
Sister,
Woman of GOD,
Loyal Friend,
Creative,
Blood-related to a nationally known Charlotte Politician.
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Married,
Love to Travel,
Credentialed by the RNC and DNC.
Political Blogger/ Commentator
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PROFESSIONAL STATUS:
Credential Political Blogger/ Commentator,
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Currently reside in CHARLOTTE, NC
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Laurel @BLACK POLITICAL BUZZ
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