Inside the violence and radicalization of America’s neo-Nazi youth
This article was reported in collaboration with Type of investigation with support from the nonpartisan nonprofit Fund for Constitutional Government.
BRandon Russell’s letters very detailed: first is a diagram of how to make a functional explosive device. Then instructed to drop propaganda leaflets by air. In another, an ominous warning: “As soon as I get out, I will be right back fighting for the White Race and my America!”
He was imprisoned when he wrote those things alphabet from the Pinellas County Jail in Clearwater, Florida, hoping they would fall into the hands of a neo-Nazi. His 2018 conviction for possession of explosives has not deterred him. neo-acceleration dreams: He wanted the social order to collapse, giving way to ethnic cleansing and eventually the rise of a movement National Socialist Order. But the letters were intercepted and turned over to the Federal Bureau of Investigation. Prosecutors cited Russell’s prison correspondence as the basis for the harsher five-year sentence he ultimately received.
“Russell is not someone whose arrest and imprisonment have caused him to reflect on his behavior or feel remorse. His conduct in this case seriously endangers human life and he has demonstrated that he will continue to be dangerous once released from prison,” the feds wrote in a motion on January 2018. And throughout Russell’s five years in prison, he continued to radicalize.
the Atomwaffen Division (the German word for atomic weapon), which Russell founded with his friend Devon Arthurs in 2015, was still in its infancy in mid-2017, with a handful of cells across the US. At that time, the neo-Nazi youth revival known colloquially as the right was on the rise, spew hatred freely online And clashed with fascist protesters at protests across the country. The arrest and imprisonment of the founders of Atomwaffen Division did not hinder the group’s growth. On the contrary, it helps promote its growth.
Russell rented an apartment in Tampa, where he lived with three other AWD members: Arthurs, Andrew Oneschuk and Jeremy Himmelman – two young Nazis who later moved south from Massachusetts to an apartment filled with guns, Nazi flags and memorabilia. , such as a framed photograph of Timothy McVeigh. During their free time, the young men would go hiking, perform airsoft shooting missions, and do recruitment drives. Russell had the group’s insignia engraved on his right shoulder.
On May 19, 2017, Arthurs murdered Himmelman and Oneschuk with an assault rifle in a fit of rage. When police searched the apartment, they discovered Russell’s cache of weapons, propaganda brochures and a barrel full of high-strength homemade explosives. Arthurs was immediately arrested; Russell was arrested two days later. Local law enforcement allowed Russell to leave the scene of the Arthurs massacre despite the presence of homemade explosives. (In 2023, Arthurs pleaded guilty to two counts of murder and three counts of kidnapping and was sentenced to 45 years in state prison.)
When Russell was first charged with explosives in 2017, a federal judge released him, declaring that there was no “clear and convincing evidence” that he posed a danger. dangerous to the public. Russell was in possession of a rifle, ammunition, homemade body armor, binoculars and a skull mask when captured. During the interrogation, Arthurs told police that Russell wanted to attack a nuclear plant south of Miami, prompting the judge to revoke Russell’s bail before his trial.
