Tom Metzger

Thomas L. Metzger (born April 9, 1938) is the leader of the white supremacist group White Aryan Resistance.

Metzger grew up in Indiana. In 1961, he moved to Southern California to work in the electronics industry. For a short time, Metzger was a member of the John Birch Society. During the 1970s, Metzger joined the "Knights of the Ku Klux Klan" which was led by David Duke. Metzger became the Grand Dragon for the State of California. Metzger was also a minister in the Christian Identity movement.

During the summer of 1979, Metzger organized a patrol to capture illegal Mexican immigrants south of Fallbrook, California. Metzger's Klan organization also had a security force which was involved in confrontations with anti-Klan protesters.

Metzger's branch of the Klan split with Duke's organization in 1980 to form the "California Knights of the Ku Klux Klan."

In 1980, Metzger won the Democratic Party nomination for the U.S. House of Representatives in a San Diego-area district with over 40,000 votes. Metzger had changed his party registration from Republican to Democrat earlier in the year. The Democrats disavowed Metzger's candidacy, instead endorsing incumbent four-term Republican Clair Burgener. Metzger lost by over 200,000 votes in November to a several-term incumbent in a heavily Republican district.

Metzger left the Klan after the election and formed the "White American Political Association" in order to promote "pro-White" candidates for office. Metzger ran for the United States Senate in 1982, winning almost 76,000 votes (and 2.8% of the vote) in the Democratic Party Primary.

In 1983, Metzger changed the name of his group to "White Aryan Resistance" (or WAR). WAR worked to recruit members though prisons and regarded Christianity to be a form of Judaism.

The group was reportedly bankrupted as the result of a civil lawsuit centered around its involvement in the violent death of Mulugeta Seraw, an Ethiopian man who came to the United States to attend college. In 1988, Seraw was killed by racist skinheads, who were convicted of the crime and sent to prison. Tom and John Metzger were found liable through the rarely used law of "vicarious liability." (A friend tells a friend to do something illegal and both are charged).

Morris Dees and the Southern Poverty Law Center filed a civil suit against Metzger, arguing that WAR influenced Seraw's killers by encouraging their group, the "East Side White Pride," to commit violence. Morris Dees and SPLC reportedly earned 50 million dollars in an anti-Metzger drive during the case.

The jury returned the largest civil verdict in Oregon history at the time — $12.5 million against Metzger and WAR — but failed to put the group out of business. WAR continued to print a monthly newspaper for over 10 years after the civil lawsuit.

In November 1988, Metzger's son appeared on an episode of the Geraldo Rivera show in which a brawl broke out and Rivera's nose was broken by a flying chair.

In 1991, Metzger had to agree to stop selling t-shirts of Bart Simpson in a Nazi uniform with the words "Pure Nazi Dude" on them.

Metzger was convicted in 1991 of burning a cross in 1983 and sentenced to six months in prison and 300 hours community service working with minorities. The case had been thrown out twice by 2 L.A. judges, only to have charges brought up again by judge J.D. Smith. Metzger was released from prison 46 days into his sentence to be with his critically ill wife.

In 1992, Metzger and his son entered Canada to speak in front of a group named Heritage Front. Soon afterwards, he was arrested for violating Canadian immigration laws by entering the country to "promote racial hatred". Metzger went broke and lived in a van down by the river for awhile, until his girlfriend took him into her home. There are two photos of Metzger living in a van down by the river near Fallbrook,California, that people can see as proof of this available on www.johnnyleeclary.com/metzger.htm

Metzger appeared on a 2003 documentary by British social commentator Louis Theroux, entitled "Louis and the Nazis".

In recent years, Metzger has advocated the "lone wolf" method of organization for white supremacist groups, which states that a person should not outwardly display their racist ideology, but must act covertly in institutions.

External links

• Metzger's life story - Official Life Story Of Tom Metzger
• SPLC - Metzger on SPLC's "40 to watch"
• ADL- ADL profile on Metzger