Weird Little Guys is a weekly show about the worst people you’ve never heard of, taking you beyond the headlines to get to know the race warriors and aspiring terrorists trying to unravel the fabric of our society. Weaving together the origin stories of modern American white supremacist groups and the crimes that land their members in court, independent journalist Molly Conger exposes the monsters for what they really are - some weird guy. Whether they’re conspiring to build bombs or serving swastika shaped cookies at a dinner party, the weird little guys trying to destroy America are a little less scary with their masks off.
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After Devon Arthurs murdered his roommates, he claimed he'd only done it to prevent the loss of innocent lives. The man he said was planning a terrorist attack was arrested with a car full of guns, but not charged with any of the things Arthurs claimed their nazi terror cell had been working on. Sources: https://www.propublica.org/article/an-atomwaffen-member-sketched-a-map-to-take-the-neo-nazis-down-what-path-officials-took-is-a-mystery https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/frontline/article/three-murder-su...
In 2017, police investigating a double homicide found more than just bodies in a Tampa condo. The founder of a neonazi group was making bombs in the garage. Sources: https://ctc.westpoint.edu/the-threat-is-the-network-the-multi-node-structure-of-neo-fascist-accelerationism/ https://www.splcenter.org/resources/hatewatch/visions-chaos-weighing-violent-legacy-iron-march/ https://ironmarch.noblogs.org/post/2019/11/15/meet-lauren-paul-mit-alumni-and-neo-nazi-atomwaffen-division-propagandist/ https://...
In 2017, a man showed up at the emergency room and confessed that he'd accidentally poisoned himself with homemade ricin. He was federally charged with possessing a biological agent, but his case was dismissed on almost unbelievable technicality. But he's not the only man who thinks he can create the perfect weapon from nothing but a handful of beans. Sources: https://www.ajc.com/news/state--regional/ajc-watchdog-north-man-arrested-for-ricin-radicalized-online/wdxws9G7zMmaUDmm22njYK/ https://www...
This episode delves into the unusual case of Nicholas Young, the first US police officer charged with a federal terrorism offense, focusing on his arrest for allegedly supporting ISIS by sending gift cards to an FBI informant. Despite a house full of Nazi memorabilia, the episode argues this evidence was improperly used to counter an entrapment defense, highlighting the blurred lines in counterterrorism stings and the legal double standards applied to different forms of extremism in the US.
When FBI agents started combing through the digital footprint of a dead school shooter, they found more than the usual missed warning signs. Sources: https://www.maargentino.com/narrative-examination-of-the-antioch-high-school-shooters-manifesto-and-diary/ https://www.maargentino.com/digital-dystopia-the-dark-nexus-of-violent-extremism-and-sexual-exploitation-a-case-study/ https://www.maargentino.com/examining-the-soyjak-attacker-video-fandom-part-i/ https://www.propublica.org/article/madison-na...
When someone left a bomb at a Civil War reenactment event in 2017, it looked like antifascist activists were out for revenge after the Unite the Right rally in Charlottesville. A mysterious letter writer claiming to be an antifascist collective took credit for the bomb and threatened even more violence to come if Civil War reenactments weren't called off. But the bomber wasn't antifa - it was a spurned Confederate re-enactor. Orignal Air Date: 8.15.24 Sources: https://qz.com/1800988/antifa-false...
The right wing media is buzzing with accusations that the Democratic nominee for mayor of New York City is a communist. They're calling for his removal from not only the ballot... but the also the country. This anticommunist panic isn't new. Sources: Drabble, John. “To Ensure Domestic Tranquility: The FBI, Cointelpro-White Hate and Political Discourse, 1964-1971.” Journal of American Studies, vol. 38, no. 2, 2004, pp. 297–328. JSTOR, http://www.jstor.org/stable/27557518 . Horowitz, David Alan. “...
Last week, we talked about one particular incident of vehicular violence on protesters. But where does the tactic come from? Who is doing it? And why? Sources: Miller, Vincent, and Keith J. Hayward. “‘I DID MY BIT’: TERRORISM, TARDE AND THE VEHICLE RAMMING ATTACK AS AN IMITATIVE EVENT.” The British Journal of Criminology, vol. 59, no. 1, 2019, pp. 1–23. JSTOR, https://www.jstor.org/stable/26780645 . Accessed 16 June 2025. Brian Michael Jenkins and Bruce R. Butterworth, Smashing into Crowds: An A...
With vehicular attacks on protests on the rise and elected officials encouraging the tactic, old conspiracy theories about one vehicular attack in particular are circulating once again. This is the story of what actually happened on Fourth Street in downtown Charlottesville on August 12, 2017. Sources: https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2025/06/08/us/la-immigration-protests-photos-map.html https://files.integrityfirstforamerica.org/14228/1641845853-dillon-hopper-deposition-as-played-at-trial.pd...
Last week, five Proud Boys announced a $100 million lawsuit against the government over their treatment during the January 6th prosecutions. Sources: https://www.courtlistener.com/docket/70474277/tarrio-v-united-states-of-america/ https://www.reuters.com/legal/litigation/ex-soldiers-acceptance-trump-pardon-didnt-constitute-confession-guilt-court-2021-09-23/ https://www.wsj.com/us-news/law/proud-boys-leaders-sue-u-s-over-jan-6-prosecutions-90f9f4ce https://www.justice.gov/archives/opa/pr/jury-con...
After losing his job, an ex-Disney employee tried to get his former employer's attention by hacking in and making strange updates to company files. Sources: https://www.courtlistener.com/docket/69534211/united-states-v-scheuer/ https://www.eeoc.gov/what-you-can-expect-after-you-file-charge https://www.nytimes.com/2025/04/26/us/disney-worker-prison-hacking.html See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information....
In April 2025, the Supreme Court declined to hear a case filed by a pair of white supremacists who felt the police had violated their civil rights by refusing to help them put on a rally in Charlottesville in August of 2017. Their lawsuit was a joke, but unfortunately for all of us, the punchline is that the police don't actually have to help anyone. Sources: https://www.splcenter.org/resources/hatewatch/neo-nazi-lawyer-represents-baltimore-suit-over-wrongful-arrest-and-19-year-imprisonment/ htt...
In 1992, a small business owner in Oregon had to shut down his gun store. But he had to do something with all his remaining inventory…. Sources: https://www.dailymaverick.co.za/article/2014-01-21-ariel-sharon-apartheid-south-africa-and-mutual-military-interests/#.Vc4WVige5lk: Moore, Matthew. “Arming the Embargoed: A Supply-Side Understanding of Arms Embargo Violations.” The Journal of Conflict Resolution, vol. 54, no. 4, 2010, pp. 593–615. United Nations General Assembly. Special Report Of The S...
Arrested Democracy, Part 1 In 2010, conspiracy theorists around the country were convinced that Barack Obama was not the rightful president. Some of them filed lawsuits. Some of them tried to have the President indicted. And when none of that worked, some of them took matters into their own hands and tried to arrest the county court employees they thought were standing in their way. In the first half of this story, Walter Fitzpatrick unsuccessfully storms the courtroom in Madisonville, Tennessee...
A bite-sized look at the NYPD officer who sued the city for firing him over anonymously mailing racist pamphlets to charitable organizations Sources: https://www.nytimes.com/1998/06/17/nyregion/officer-admits-to-racist-mail-and-is-offered-deal-to-retire.html https://www.huffpost.com/entry/sotomayors-defense-of-whi_n_210795 https://www.criminallawlibraryblog.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/335/2016/09/Sotomayor_2002Opinion_Pappas.pdf https://www.courtlistener.com/opinion/2358084/pappas-v-giuliani/...
The Devil's Chat Room: Ethan Melzer, Part 1 In June of 2020, US Army Private Ethan Melzer was arrested for leaking information about his unit's deployment to Turkey with the intention of causing a mass casualty incident. The plot was hatched in a Telegram chat room for a group calling itself Rapewaffen, an Atomwaffen splinter cell that was committed to the beliefs of a neonazi satanic cult called the Order of Nine Angles. This episode follows the rise of satanism within Atomwaffen and the chaos ...
The guy who took a shot at Trump last summer wasn't the first person to shoot a presidential candidate without a clear political motive. In 1972, Arthur Bremer failed to assassinate Richard Nixon and settled on one of Nixon's opponents instead. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
At the end of this miniseries about white supremacist terrorism in the final years of apartheid in South Africa, this episode returns to the present day as white South Africans are lining up outside the embassy in Pretoria to claim refugee status under Trump's executive order. Sources: https://www.reuters.com/world/us-focuses-persecution-claims-white-south-africans-seek-resettlement-2025-04-24/ https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2025/apr/06/white-afrikaner-donald-trump-america-us-administ...
In 2002, a terrorist group failed to assassinate Nelson Mandela. In 2012, a plot to assassinate Jacob Zuma was foiled. Both plots were attempts to fulfill a prophecy and renew a bloody covenant with God. Sources: Thompson, Leonard L. The Political Mythology of Apartheid. Yale University Press, 1986. FA Mouton (1995) F A van Jaarsveld (1922–1995) — a flawed genius?, , 27:1, 5-11, DOI: 10.1080/00232089585310011 https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/pdf/10.1080/00232089585310011 Stephney, Inez Mary. “Rac...
This is the very strange story of the time Dolph Lundgren starred in a piece of apartheid propaganda. Sources: Bellant, Russ. Old Nazis, the New Right, and the Republican Party. South End Press, 1991. Abramoff, Jack. Capitol Punishment: The Hard Truth about Washington Corruption from America’s Most Notorious Lobbyist. WND Books, 2011. Easton, Nina. Gang of Five: Leaders at the Center of the Conservative Crusade. Simon & Schuster, 2000. Ivon, David. “Touting for South Africa: International Fr...
In the final days of apartheid, white extremists were getting desperate. That desperation contributed to one of the strangest political crises of the late 20th century: Sources: https://dcist.com/story/12/09/24/aryan-nations/ https://archive.idavox.com/index.php/2012/09/24/the-aryan-nations-show-of-farce-in-dc/ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=naRGivc7Ong Guelke, Adrian. “Political Violence and the South African Transition.” Irish Studies in International Affairs, vol. 4, 1993, pp. 59–68. JSTOR, ...
In 1994, a second group of mercenaries arrived at the airport in Johannesburg... but no one was there to pick them up. Their host had been arrested days earlier, after the last group of mercenaries she'd hosted got into a deadly shootout with the South African police. But how did all these Germans end up in South Africa in the first place? https://www.propublica.org/article/vasilios-pistolis-imprisoned-marine-hate-groups Sources: Simonelli, F. J. (1999). American Führer: George Lincoln Rockwell ...
In 1989, four Afrikaner nationalists and one German mercenary killed a security guard at a United Nations outpost in Namibia. After escaping from custody, they fled home to South Africa. A possibly non-existent group called The White Wolves took credit for the wave of bombings that followed. Sources: Du Preez, M. (2010). Pale native: Memories of a Renegade reporter. Zebra Press. Rotberg, Robert (1988). The Founder: Cecil Rhodes and the Enigma of Power. Oxford University Press. Falkof, Nicky. The...
In the last episode, we looked at a strange series of rallies held in cities across the United States in 2012 - American neo-nazis were rallying in support of white South African Farmers. But how did they get that idea in their heads? The rallies were put on by a group called The South Africa Project, run by a woman I'd never heard of. Digging into this mysterious South African, I found a lot more than I bargained for - bombings and mercenaries and an international network of fascist terror. Sou...
This is a rerun of the episode that originally ran on February 6, 2025 with a newly recorded introduction with new information about the traffic stop that led to Matthew Huttle's death. Sources: https://www.indystar.com/story/news/crime/2025/02/27/body-cam-footage-jan-6-defendants-traffic-stop-shooting-death-released-matthew-huttle-jasper-county/80731312007/ https://www.in.gov/sheriffs/jasper/files/Jasper-County-OIS-Final-Report.pdf See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information....
In February of 2012, racist skinheads in California rallied at the capitol building in Sacramento. They were trying to raise awareness for an imaginary problem - an ongoing genocide against white South African farmers. In February of 2025, the President of the United States signed an executive order stripping foreign aid from South Africa as punishment for that same imaginary problem. Sources: Falkof, Nicky. (2022). Worrier state: Risk, anxiety and moral panic in South Africa. Manchester Univers...
"They got what they wanted." Those were the words of Don Logan after a February 11, 2025 meeting of the Scottsdale, Arizona city council. Twenty-one years after Dennis Mahon tried to murder Logan with a package bomb, the city of Scottsdale finished what the klansman started: they closed the city's diversity office. Sources: https://www.phoenixnewtimes.com/news/scottsdale-to-gut-diversity-office-trump-anti-dei-fervor-21197066 https://www.phoenixnewtimes.com/news/arizona-strip-club-owners-troubles...
In 2017, an anti-Muslim nonprofit crowd-sourced the organization of a nationwide series of rallies. Many of the people who stepped up to help turned out to be well known white supremacists. Sources: https://www.oregonlive.com/portland/2017/05/portland_suspect_in_2_slayings.html https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2017/may/27/portland-double-murder-white-supremacist-muslim-hate-speech https://islamophobia.org/special-reports/the-hate-that-act-for-america-wrought/ https://islamophobia.org/islamoph...
Molly talks to Spencer Sunshine about his book, Neo-Nazi Terrorism and Countercultural Fascism: The Origins and Afterlife of James Mason’s Siege. Sunshine's book explores the history of Siege, the book that is today's nazi terrorist's bible. https://www.routledge.com/Neo-Nazi-Terrorism-and-Countercultural-Fascism-The-Origins-and-Afterlife-of-James-Masons-Siege/Sunshine/p/book/9780367190606 See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information....
