Known Leader of White Supremacists From Warsaw Dies
November 11, 2020 at 11:41 p.m.
By Staff Report-
The Times of San Diego reported on its website Tuesday that Tom Metzger, 82, born April 9, 1938, in Warsaw, died in Hemet, Calif., on Nov. 4. He is survived by Mary Arnold, six children, nine grandchildren and one great-grandchild. He had served in the U.S. Army as a PFC-E1 from 1956 to 1959 and then moved to Southern California to work in the electronics industry. He lived in Fallbrook, Calif., for over 40 years until he retired and returned to Warsaw before returning to California.
Cause of death “wasn’t immediately known,” according to the Times of San Diego.
Nick Martin, editor of The Informant, which covers hate and extremism in America, tweeted: “If David Duke is America’s best-known white supremacist in the past 40 or so years, then Tom Metzger was arguably No. 2. His influence on organized racism in the U.S. was large, and he even had sway with a number of young neo-Nazis in recent years.”
An Oregon jury in 1990 ordered Metzger to pay $5 million in punitive damages after skinheads he incited pleaded guilty in 1989 to criminal charges in the racially motivated killing of Mulugeta Seraw, a 27-year-old Ethiopian.
Metzger’s son, John, was told to pay $1 million, which was part of a $12.5 million judgement, according to the Times of San Diego.
The New York Times is quoted as saying the jury also awarded $3 million in punitive damages against the white supremacist group WAR and $2.5 million in compensatory damages.
In 1980, Metzger won a three-man Democratic Party primary for Congress in San Diego’s 43rd District, but the party disavowed his candidacy and endorsed his Republican opponent. Metzger lost by 87% to 13%.
In June 1982, Metzger ran for the U.S. Senate out of California and for a seat in Congress from Indiana in November 2010. Metzger lost the 2010 race to Republican Marlin A. Stutzman, receiving only 10 votes as an Independent.
Metzger, leader of the WAR movement, moved back to Warsaw in 2005, according to a Nov. 29, 2007, Times-Union article. He was featured in November 2007 on the National Geographic channel in a documentary titled “American Skinhead.”
The Southern Poverty Law Center labeled Metzger’s ideology as neo-Nazi.
According to a Los Angeles Times article, “Even though Metzger had largely faded from the spotlight in recent years, he continued until a few months ago to spread his messaging online, through social media and radio shows on his website.”
The Anti-Defamation League told the L.A. Times Tuesday, “A dark chapter of hate closes with the passing of Tom Metzger — a notorious figure who helped to poison the hearts and minds of others with his xenophobia, racism, anti-Semitism and bigotry. We can now relegate him to the dustbin of history and take a collective breath.”
To view the extensive Times of San Diego story on Metzger’s life and death, visit https://timesofsandiego.com/life/2020/11/10/tom-metzger-dies-at-82-notorious-kkk-boss-supremacist-who-ran-for-congress/
The L.A. Times article is at www.latimes.com/obituaries/story/2020-11-10/racist-leader-tom-metzger-dies
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The Times of San Diego reported on its website Tuesday that Tom Metzger, 82, born April 9, 1938, in Warsaw, died in Hemet, Calif., on Nov. 4. He is survived by Mary Arnold, six children, nine grandchildren and one great-grandchild. He had served in the U.S. Army as a PFC-E1 from 1956 to 1959 and then moved to Southern California to work in the electronics industry. He lived in Fallbrook, Calif., for over 40 years until he retired and returned to Warsaw before returning to California.
Cause of death “wasn’t immediately known,” according to the Times of San Diego.
Nick Martin, editor of The Informant, which covers hate and extremism in America, tweeted: “If David Duke is America’s best-known white supremacist in the past 40 or so years, then Tom Metzger was arguably No. 2. His influence on organized racism in the U.S. was large, and he even had sway with a number of young neo-Nazis in recent years.”
An Oregon jury in 1990 ordered Metzger to pay $5 million in punitive damages after skinheads he incited pleaded guilty in 1989 to criminal charges in the racially motivated killing of Mulugeta Seraw, a 27-year-old Ethiopian.
Metzger’s son, John, was told to pay $1 million, which was part of a $12.5 million judgement, according to the Times of San Diego.
The New York Times is quoted as saying the jury also awarded $3 million in punitive damages against the white supremacist group WAR and $2.5 million in compensatory damages.
In 1980, Metzger won a three-man Democratic Party primary for Congress in San Diego’s 43rd District, but the party disavowed his candidacy and endorsed his Republican opponent. Metzger lost by 87% to 13%.
In June 1982, Metzger ran for the U.S. Senate out of California and for a seat in Congress from Indiana in November 2010. Metzger lost the 2010 race to Republican Marlin A. Stutzman, receiving only 10 votes as an Independent.
Metzger, leader of the WAR movement, moved back to Warsaw in 2005, according to a Nov. 29, 2007, Times-Union article. He was featured in November 2007 on the National Geographic channel in a documentary titled “American Skinhead.”
The Southern Poverty Law Center labeled Metzger’s ideology as neo-Nazi.
According to a Los Angeles Times article, “Even though Metzger had largely faded from the spotlight in recent years, he continued until a few months ago to spread his messaging online, through social media and radio shows on his website.”
The Anti-Defamation League told the L.A. Times Tuesday, “A dark chapter of hate closes with the passing of Tom Metzger — a notorious figure who helped to poison the hearts and minds of others with his xenophobia, racism, anti-Semitism and bigotry. We can now relegate him to the dustbin of history and take a collective breath.”
To view the extensive Times of San Diego story on Metzger’s life and death, visit https://timesofsandiego.com/life/2020/11/10/tom-metzger-dies-at-82-notorious-kkk-boss-supremacist-who-ran-for-congress/
The L.A. Times article is at www.latimes.com/obituaries/story/2020-11-10/racist-leader-tom-metzger-dies
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