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George Lincoln Rockwell, American Nazi, gunned down doing the laundry fifty years ago today
I had this in the DU Lounge at first, but it is turning into something inappropriate (way too political) for the Lounge.
George Lincoln Rockwell (March 9, 1918 – August 25, 1967) was the founder of the American Nazi Party.
On August 25, 1967, Rockwell was murdered by a former member of his own group while leaving a laundromat in Arlington, Virginia.
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Assassination
On August 25, 1967, Rockwell was shot and killed while leaving a laundromat in Arlington, Virginia. John Patler, a former member of Rockwell's group, was convicted of the murder and served eight years in prison. Hearing of his son's death, Rockwell's 78-year-old father said: "I am not surprised at all. I've expected it for quite some time."
Matt Koehl, the second in command at NSWPP, moved to establish control over Rockwell's body and the assets of the NSWPP, which at the time had some 300 active members and 3,000 financial supporters. Rockwell's parents wanted a private burial in Maine, but declined to fight with the Nazis over the question. On August 27, an NSWPP spokesman reported that Federal officials had approved a military burial at Culpeper National Cemetery, Rockwell being an honorably discharged veteran. The cemetery specified that no Nazi insignia could be displayed, and when the fifty mourners violated these conditions the entrance to the cemetery was blocked in a five-hour standoff, during which the hearse (which had been stopped on railroad tracks near the cemetery) was nearly struck by an approaching train. The next day Rockwell's body was cremated.
The Powhatan Springs Skatepark is across the street from where the laundromat stood.
The shadow of an assassinated American Nazi commander hangs over Charlottesville
By Michael E. Miller August 21
George Lincoln Rockwell, leader of the American Nazi Party, holds a news conference in Arlington on Nov. 3, 1965. (Harvey Georges/AP)
Shortly before noon on Aug. 25, 1967, a pale ’58 Chevy pulled into a shopping center in Arlington. Out stepped one of the most hated men in America.
As the founder of the American Nazi Party, George Lincoln Rockwell had hung swastikas on the Mall and picketed the marches of Martin Luther King Jr. He had called for shipping blacks to Africa and sending millions of “Communist Jews” to the gas chambers — all at a time when memories of World War II were still fresh.
Now, dressed not in his Nazi uniform but a simple white shirt and dark slacks, Rockwell grabbed his dirty laundry and headed into the Econ-o-wash, only to realize he had forgotten the bleach. As he climbed back into his car to return to Nazi headquarters — a large house a block away dubbed “Hatemongers Hill” — two shots rang out. ... Rockwell died amid a flurry of Ivory Snow soap flakes.
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The Arlington parking lot where George Lincoln Rockwell was killed on August 25, 1967. Rockwell’s car is the white sedan at center. (AP)
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John Patsalos, as he is again called, served a decade in prison before being released in the early 1980s. He is now 79 and lives in New York City. The man who once illustrated hate magazines for Rockwell now ekes out a living as a freelance cartoonist. ... Patsalos refused multiple interview requests, including one left on his door, which is covered in Dr. Seuss-like cartoons and an “I voted” sticker. He is a staunch online defender of Donald Trump.
....
Michael E. Miller is a reporter on the local enterprise team. Follow @MikeMillerDC
By Michael E. Miller August 21
George Lincoln Rockwell, leader of the American Nazi Party, holds a news conference in Arlington on Nov. 3, 1965. (Harvey Georges/AP)
Shortly before noon on Aug. 25, 1967, a pale ’58 Chevy pulled into a shopping center in Arlington. Out stepped one of the most hated men in America.
As the founder of the American Nazi Party, George Lincoln Rockwell had hung swastikas on the Mall and picketed the marches of Martin Luther King Jr. He had called for shipping blacks to Africa and sending millions of “Communist Jews” to the gas chambers — all at a time when memories of World War II were still fresh.
Now, dressed not in his Nazi uniform but a simple white shirt and dark slacks, Rockwell grabbed his dirty laundry and headed into the Econ-o-wash, only to realize he had forgotten the bleach. As he climbed back into his car to return to Nazi headquarters — a large house a block away dubbed “Hatemongers Hill” — two shots rang out. ... Rockwell died amid a flurry of Ivory Snow soap flakes.
....
The Arlington parking lot where George Lincoln Rockwell was killed on August 25, 1967. Rockwell’s car is the white sedan at center. (AP)
....
John Patsalos, as he is again called, served a decade in prison before being released in the early 1980s. He is now 79 and lives in New York City. The man who once illustrated hate magazines for Rockwell now ekes out a living as a freelance cartoonist. ... Patsalos refused multiple interview requests, including one left on his door, which is covered in Dr. Seuss-like cartoons and an “I voted” sticker. He is a staunch online defender of Donald Trump.
....
Michael E. Miller is a reporter on the local enterprise team. Follow @MikeMillerDC
There was these comments:
Bill Getchell
8/21/2017 10:34 AM EDT
Long forgotten now, but back in the early '60's, the University of Virginia sponsored a joint appearance by Earl Browder, former head of the U.S. Communist Party, and Rockwell. They both shared the same stage, took questions from the audience, and discussed deeply contrasting views. This was back in the day when academia was not afraid of being an open marketplace of ideas.
jbartelloni
8/21/2017 10:21 AM EDT
Dominion Hills Shopping Center, 6000 Wilson Blvd., Arlington VA where George Lincoln Rockwell was shot today:
https://www.google.com/maps/place/6000+Wilson+Blvd,+Arlington,+VA+22205/@38.8740675,-77.1418221,431m/data=!3m2!1e3!4b1!4m5!3m4!1s0x89b7b46626663971:0x99c34d579d86d1c!8m2!3d38.8740675!4d-77.139628
3 replies
= new reply since forum marked as read
= new reply since forum marked as read
Neo-Nazis fly swastika, salute at Virginia shopping center where leader was killed
‘Shocking’: Neo-Nazis fly swastika, salute at Virginia shopping center where leader was killed
By Michael E. Miller August 26 at 8:50 AM
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Michael E. Miller is a reporter on the local enterprise team.
Follow @MikeMillerDC
By Michael E. Miller August 26 at 8:50 AM
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Michael E. Miller is a reporter on the local enterprise team.
Follow @MikeMillerDC
Nazis in Arlington: George Rockwell and the ANP
1/2/2013 in Virginia by Mark Jones
Now a coffee shop, this brick duplex near the Arlington County courthouse was the headquarters of the American Nazi Party for almost 20 years. (Photo source: Mark Jones)
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As it turned out, the crippling blow to the organization would come from within. On August 25, 1967, Rockwell was assassinated by one of his former deputies in the parking lot of the Dominion Hills strip mall on Wilson Blvd. John Patler – who had left the group a few months earlier after a dispute – took a rifle up to the shopping center roof and shot Rockwell through the front windshield of his car, which was parked outside the Econowash laundromat.
1/2/2013 in Virginia by Mark Jones
Now a coffee shop, this brick duplex near the Arlington County courthouse was the headquarters of the American Nazi Party for almost 20 years. (Photo source: Mark Jones)
....
As it turned out, the crippling blow to the organization would come from within. On August 25, 1967, Rockwell was assassinated by one of his former deputies in the parking lot of the Dominion Hills strip mall on Wilson Blvd. John Patler – who had left the group a few months earlier after a dispute – took a rifle up to the shopping center roof and shot Rockwell through the front windshield of his car, which was parked outside the Econowash laundromat.
Close-Up of an American Nazi
November 28, 2010 by The Editorial Desk
Newly unearthed photos from the 1960s document hatred and banality on display in Northern Virginia.
By Charles S. Clark / Photos by Jack Hiller
In the spring of 1960, a mere 15 years after the defeat of Nazi Germany, an American version of the Nazi Party was operating openly in middle-class suburban Arlington. ... The Nazis’ hypnotic commander, etched into public consciousness by his full name of George Lincoln Rockwell, set up headquarters in a ramshackle home at 928 N. Randolph St. (today the site of the Richmond Square high-rise apartments in Ballston). The façade of the wood-frame house bore a large sign reading: “White Man … Fight! Smash the Black Revolution Now.”
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Why Arlington?
Rockwell, born in Bloomington, Ill., in 1918, grew up with performing skills as the son of vaudeville comedians. His upper-crust status would afford him prep school in Maine and philosophy studies at Brown University in Rhode Island. Later he attended the Pratt Institute of Art in Brooklyn, where he developed the drawing talents he would use in the advertising field and later to create Nazi fliers. He served as a Navy pilot during World War II.
When the Korean War broke out, Rockwell left his first wife and three children and was assigned to a U.S. naval air facility in Iceland. There he read Hitler’s “Mein Kampf” and became obsessed with Aryanism. He married an Icelandic woman and honeymooned in Germany (in Hitler’s retreat town of Berchtesgaden.)
In the mid-1950s, in a move that would estrange him from his wives and family, Rockwell returned to the United States and conceived the American Nazi Party. In 1958, he moved to the suburbs of the nation’s capital, where it would be easier to win publicity and funding in a primarily white jurisdiction.
November 28, 2010 by The Editorial Desk
Newly unearthed photos from the 1960s document hatred and banality on display in Northern Virginia.
By Charles S. Clark / Photos by Jack Hiller
In the spring of 1960, a mere 15 years after the defeat of Nazi Germany, an American version of the Nazi Party was operating openly in middle-class suburban Arlington. ... The Nazis’ hypnotic commander, etched into public consciousness by his full name of George Lincoln Rockwell, set up headquarters in a ramshackle home at 928 N. Randolph St. (today the site of the Richmond Square high-rise apartments in Ballston). The façade of the wood-frame house bore a large sign reading: “White Man … Fight! Smash the Black Revolution Now.”
....
Why Arlington?
Rockwell, born in Bloomington, Ill., in 1918, grew up with performing skills as the son of vaudeville comedians. His upper-crust status would afford him prep school in Maine and philosophy studies at Brown University in Rhode Island. Later he attended the Pratt Institute of Art in Brooklyn, where he developed the drawing talents he would use in the advertising field and later to create Nazi fliers. He served as a Navy pilot during World War II.
When the Korean War broke out, Rockwell left his first wife and three children and was assigned to a U.S. naval air facility in Iceland. There he read Hitler’s “Mein Kampf” and became obsessed with Aryanism. He married an Icelandic woman and honeymooned in Germany (in Hitler’s retreat town of Berchtesgaden.)
In the mid-1950s, in a move that would estrange him from his wives and family, Rockwell returned to the United States and conceived the American Nazi Party. In 1958, he moved to the suburbs of the nation’s capital, where it would be easier to win publicity and funding in a primarily white jurisdiction.
Death of an Arlington Nazi
December 30, 2010 by The Editorial Desk
George Lincoln Rockwell was an internationally famous hate-monger when he was gunned down in Arlington in August 1967.
By Charles S. Clark / Photos by Jack hiller
The political ringleader who had achieved international notoriety was seen doing his own wash at a coin-operated laundromat on Wilson Boulevard in Arlington. Just before noon on Friday, Aug. 25, 1967, George Lincoln Rockwell, the founder of the American Nazi Party whose presence for nearly a decade had been an embarrassment to many locals, told the proprietor at the Econowash in Dominion Hills Shopping Center that he had to return home to fetch some bleach.
As the 49-year-old Rockwell slid into the seat of his fading blue-and-white 1958 Chevrolet, gunshots rang out from the roof of the shopping center. Two bullets burst through the windshield, knocking his car into another vehicle as Rockwell fell and landed face-up in the parking lot, splayed beside his box of Ivory Snow and a copy of the New York Daily News. Bystanders called police, but in minutes, the flamboyant—and ordinarily well-guarded—leader of the modestly sized American Nazi movement had died of a shot through the heart.
An important witness to the killing was the owner of nearby Tom’s Barber Shop, Tom Blakeney, now 80 and retired in Fredericksburg. Blakeney knew Rockwell as a customer of his shop. He recalls, Rockwell behaved “as a gentleman, and had been a lieutenant commander, so if you didn’t know his politics, you’d never guess.” Blakeney also cut the hair of some Nazi troopers; he remembers them cursing at images of black Americans on the barber-shop television.
December 30, 2010 by The Editorial Desk
George Lincoln Rockwell was an internationally famous hate-monger when he was gunned down in Arlington in August 1967.
By Charles S. Clark / Photos by Jack hiller
The political ringleader who had achieved international notoriety was seen doing his own wash at a coin-operated laundromat on Wilson Boulevard in Arlington. Just before noon on Friday, Aug. 25, 1967, George Lincoln Rockwell, the founder of the American Nazi Party whose presence for nearly a decade had been an embarrassment to many locals, told the proprietor at the Econowash in Dominion Hills Shopping Center that he had to return home to fetch some bleach.
As the 49-year-old Rockwell slid into the seat of his fading blue-and-white 1958 Chevrolet, gunshots rang out from the roof of the shopping center. Two bullets burst through the windshield, knocking his car into another vehicle as Rockwell fell and landed face-up in the parking lot, splayed beside his box of Ivory Snow and a copy of the New York Daily News. Bystanders called police, but in minutes, the flamboyant—and ordinarily well-guarded—leader of the modestly sized American Nazi movement had died of a shot through the heart.
An important witness to the killing was the owner of nearby Tom’s Barber Shop, Tom Blakeney, now 80 and retired in Fredericksburg. Blakeney knew Rockwell as a customer of his shop. He recalls, Rockwell behaved “as a gentleman, and had been a lieutenant commander, so if you didn’t know his politics, you’d never guess.” Blakeney also cut the hair of some Nazi troopers; he remembers them cursing at images of black Americans on the barber-shop television.
American Nazi Party’s George Rockwell Assassinated 50 Years Ago Today in Arlington
by Chris Teale August 25, 2017 at 1:45 pm
....
However, today there was a reminder that Rockwell’s Nazi beliefs did not die with him. A group of at least five men and one woman arrived in the parking lot, set up a small swastika-adorned wreath and a Nazi flag, and gave the “Heil Hitler” salute in memory of Rockwell, according to a photo tweeted by NBC 4’s Mark Segraves.
by Chris Teale August 25, 2017 at 1:45 pm
....
However, today there was a reminder that Rockwell’s Nazi beliefs did not die with him. A group of at least five men and one woman arrived in the parking lot, set up a small swastika-adorned wreath and a Nazi flag, and gave the “Heil Hitler” salute in memory of Rockwell, according to a photo tweeted by NBC 4’s Mark Segraves.
A small group of Nazis just showed up in Arlington to honor George Lincoln Rockwell on 50th Anniv at site of his murder.
Link to tweet
