Weird Little Guys

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-nort...

In 2016, Nicholas Young became the first American police officer to be arrested and charged with a federal terrorism offense. At trial, jurors were shown mountains of evidence about his collection of nazi memorabilia. But what does that have to do with the gift cards he texted to an FBI informant he thought was a member of ISIS?

Sources:

https://www.courtlistener.com/docket/4559133/united-states-v-young

Helen T...

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/exa...

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.

Orign...

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....

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/26...

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.integr...

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-su...

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 infor...

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-r...

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, ...

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 F...

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_2002...

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. Th...

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...

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: 10.1080/0023208...

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 Conserv...