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Tom Metzger

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Tom Metzger
Metzger in 1980
Born
Thomas Byron Linton

(1938-04-09)April 9, 1938
Warsaw, Indiana, U.S.
DiedNovember 4, 2020(2020-11-04) (aged 82)
Hemet, California, U.S.
Known forHead of the White Aryan Resistance
Grand Dragon of the Ku Klux Klan in the 1970s
Spouse
Kathleen Murphy
​
​
(m. 1963; died 1992)​
Children6

Thomas Linton Metzger (born Thomas Byron Linton; April 9, 1938 – November 4, 2020) was an American white supremacist, neo-Nazi leader and Klansman. He founded White Aryan Resistance (WAR), a neo-Nazi organization, in 1983. He was a Grand Dragon of the Ku Klux Klan in the 1970s. Metzger voiced strong opposition to immigration to the United States, and was an advocate of the Third Position. He was incarcerated in Los Angeles County, California, and Toronto, Ontario, and was the subject of several lawsuits and government inquiries. He, his son, and WAR were found liable for a total of $12.5 million in damages as a result of the murder of Mulugeta Seraw, 28, an Ethiopian student, by skinheads in Portland, Oregon who were affiliated with WAR.

Early life

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Thomas Byron Linton was born in Warsaw, Indiana, the son of Thomas Linton and Willodean Rickel.[1] His mother was a waitress, while his father was a draftsman working at an engineering company. They married in Chicago, but Linton Sr. moved away to California soon after, leaving Willodean alone. She returned to her hometown of Warsaw and gave birth to Linton Jr. shortly thereafter.[2]

In his early life, he was primarily raised by his mother; Linton Sr. did not financially assist in his son's upbringing, and after an attempt to visit him was jailed for his failure to pay child support.[2] When Linton Jr. was 4, his mother married Cloice Metzger, a man 20 years her senior; Cloice Metzger had at least two other families in the area, worked a variety of odd jobs, and was at times violent. Linton Jr. was afterwards enrolled in school as Thomas Linton Metzger, though his stepfather only formally adopted him in 1963. Metzger attended a variety of schools as his family moved place to place.[3] At the same time, his biological father (by then with his own family in California and a prominent engineer) repeatedly attempted to contact Metzger against the wishes of Willodean, leading to verbal abuse from Willodean.[4]

He served in the U.S. Army from 1961 until 1964, when he moved to Southern California to work in the electronics industry.[5] For a short time, he was a member of the right-wing group the John Birch Society, and attended anti-communist luncheon meetings sponsored by the Douglas Aircraft Corporation.[5] However, he eventually left the group when it rejected his antisemitic views.

White supremacy

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By 1968, Metzger had moved to Fallbrook, California, and he supported independent George C. Wallace for president.[5] Metzger stopped paying taxes in the 1970s, and by 1972 his tax protest over the Vietnam War had destroyed his thriving television business but introduced him to other tax protesters who, he said, were "atheist racists, Christian Identity racists, Nazis, all kinds of people."[5]

From 1971 to 1980, Metzger was the pastor of a Christian Identity church.[6] He later became disillusioned with Christian Identity and became an atheist.[7]

Ku Klux Klan

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During the 1970s, Metzger joined the Knights of the Ku Klux Klan, which was led by David Duke, and he eventually became the Grand Dragon of the State of California.[8] Metzger's Klan organization also had a security force which was involved in confrontations with communists and anti-Klan protesters.[9][10]

Metzger's branch of the Klan split from Duke's organization in 1980 to form the California Knights of the Ku Klux Klan.[11] Also in 1979, he took Greg Withrow of the White Student Union "under his wing", which later became the Aryan Youth Movement (AYM), for youth associated with White Aryan Resistance.[12]

In 1985, Metzger attended a Nation of Islam rally in San Diego, led by Louis Farrakhan.[13] During the rally, he compared America to a "rotting carcass" and praised Farrakhan for "understanding" that Jews are "living off the carcass" and called them "parasites."[14]

White Aryan Resistance

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In 1982 Metzger left the Klan to found a new group, the White American Political Association (WAPA), a group dedicated to promoting "prowhite" candidates for office. After losing the 1982 California Senate Democratic primary, Metzger abandoned the electoral route and reorganized WAPA as White American Resistance in 1983, and then reorganized it as White Aryan Resistance, to reflect a more "revolutionary" stance.[15][16] In this period, Metzger became influenced by James Mason's newsletter Siege. While Siege would several decades later have substantial influence when collected into book form, Metzger was one of the very few people to have read it in its original periodical form; he wrote that it had had a strong influence on him.[17]

In 1983, he established the newspaper WAR as the official publication of the White American Political Association.[18][7][19]

In 1985 Metzger attended a rally of the Nation of Islam. Despite Metzger's open racism towards blacks, he alleged the two groups had common ground based on their desire for racial separation and their hatred of Jewish people. Metzger and an NOI representative claim Metzger provided information on the alleged violent plans of the Jewish Defense League, a far-right extremist organization. Metzger donated $100 to the Nation of Islam, to which a Nation of Islam representative said, "I don't think that when you give $100 you form an alliance."[13][20][21]

Metzger made numerous television appearances in addition to hosting his own cable TV public-access television show, Race and Reason.[22] In one of his first cable episodes, Metzger invited the gothic rock band Radio Werewolf onto the show, during which a confused Metzger was given an honorary membership in the band.[22] In November 1988, his son John appeared on an episode of the Geraldo show in which a brawl broke out and Geraldo Rivera's nose was broken.[23] Metzger also appeared on Wally George's Hot Seat show with Irv Rubin, the chairman of the Jewish Defense League, in what was a very contentious debate. The debate ended when Rubin threw water in the face of Metzger. Security intervened and the Anaheim police were called.[24] Art Bell interviewed Metzger on his overnight call-in radio show, and mentioned his Filipino wife, asking: "'I am married to a brown-skinned Asian woman. What does that make me?' To which Metzger replied, 'A traitor to your race.'"[25]

Oregon civil trial

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The group was eventually bankrupted as the result of a civil lawsuit centered on its involvement in the 1988 murder of Mulugeta Seraw, an Ethiopian man who had moved to the United States to attend a community college. In 1988, white power skinheads affiliated with WAR were convicted of killing Seraw and sent to prison. Kenneth Mieske said he and the two others killed Mulugeta "because of his race."[26] Metzger declared that they did a "civic duty" by killing Mulugeta.[27] Morris Dees and the Southern Poverty Law Center filed a civil suit against him, arguing that WAR influenced Seraw's killers by encouraging their group East Side White Pride to commit violence.[28][29]

Metzger's trial was held in October 1990. His decision to represent himself became the source of considerable civic derision through the legal incompetence which he displayed—never more so than when he accepted an option for a new trial judge during the initial stages of the trial in place of the interim appointed judge who he thought was Jewish; only after he had made his decision did he discover that the new judge, Ancer L. Haggerty, was African American.[30][31]

At the trial, WAR national vice president Dave Mazzella testified about how the Metzgers instructed WAR members to commit violence against minorities. Tom and his son John Metzger were found civilly liable under the doctrine of vicarious liability, in which one can be liable for a tort committed by a subordinate or another person who is taking instructions. The jury returned the largest civil verdict in Oregon history at the time—$12.5 million—against Metzger and WAR.[32][33] The Metzgers' house was seized, and most of WAR's profits went to paying off the judgment.[34]

Post-Oregon trial

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After the trial, Metzger's home was transferred to Seraw's estate for $121,500, while Metzger was allowed to keep $45,000 under California's Homestead Act.[35] The Southern Poverty Law Center and the Anti-Defamation League came up with the $45,000 needed to pay Metzger for the home.[35] Metzger was warned that any damages left in the house would result in a lawsuit, and while he left it in "a mess" with cracked windows, there was no serious damage.[35] As a result of the sale of his home, he was forced to move into an apartment.[35]

In May 1991, Metzger agreed to stop selling T-shirts of Bart Simpson in a Nazi uniform with the words "Pure Nazi Dude" and "Total Nazi Dude".[36] In 1991, he was convicted of burning a cross in 1983, and sentenced to six months in prison and 300 hours of community service by working with minorities. Also convicted were Stanley Witek, the leader of a small local Neo-Nazi party, and Brad Kelly.[37] Metzger was released from prison after 45 days so he could be with his critically ill wife.[8][38] His wife died on March 6, 1992, from lung cancer.[39]

In 1992, Metzger and his son John violated a court order not to leave the country and entered Canada to speak to the Heritage Front. Soon afterwards, he was arrested for violating Canadian immigration laws by entering the country to "promote racial hatred".[40] With his son John, Metzger was jailed for five days for breaking Canadian immigration laws, as he had done so "to promote race hatred".[8]

From the early 1990s, Metzger advocated the "lone wolf" method of action.[41] Metzger and white supremacist activist Alex Curtis, an acolyte of Metzger, are commonly credited with coining the term of "lone wolf terrorism", which they both advocated.[41][42][43] At the time, extremist right-wing groups were being heavily infiltrated by outsiders, hampering their activities. Any groups that suggested violent action were regularly the target of lawsuits for vicarious liability in the event that any occurred for inciting the violent acts.[44] Metzger later appeared in support of Curtis in court.[45]

In 2003, Metzger appeared in Louis and the Nazis, a documentary made by Louis Theroux.[46][47]

Metzger moved to Warsaw, Indiana at some point in the mid-2000s.[48][49] In 2004, he was the subject in an online article from a San Diego-based alt weekly San Diego CityBeat that outlined his love of karaoke, sparse white activist action, and bemused feelings over the state of his hoped-for white revolution. He stated that he had picked up karaoke after losing his wife and the trial, to keep himself occupied; he said that "Otherwise, I’d be an alcoholic."[49] The story was a finalist for the Association of Alternative Newsmedia's annual award for best feature story.[50]

On June 2, 2009, agents of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms raided Metzger's home. No arrests were made and no information was released on what was found inside his house. Metzger was allowed to leave the premises during the search and stated that address books, compact discs, tapes and computers were seized in the raid.[51][52] This was connected with two arrested brothers accused of a mail bomb attack that injured a diversity director in Arizona.[8]

Metzger was mandated to make payments to Mulugeta's family for the remainder of his life.[53] Metzger hosted an Internet radio talk show and by 2018 no longer resided in Indiana, having moved back to California.[54]

Mainstream party politics

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Metzger changed political parties several times and sometimes created his own. In 1980, he won the Democratic Party nomination for the U.S. House of Representatives with over 40,000 votes in a San Diego area district.[55] This led the Democratic Party to disavow his candidacy and take the unusual step of endorsing his opponent, Republican Clair Burgener.[56] Metzger lost to Burgener by over 200,000 votes in a heavily Republican district.

In 1982 he sought the Democratic Party's senatorial nomination, running against then-Governor Jerry Brown and author Gore Vidal, winning only 76,000 votes (2.8% of the vote) in the primary.[57]

In 2010, Metzger took out an advertisement in the Warsaw Times-Union to announce his intention to challenge, as an independent, U.S. Representative Mark Souder, a Republican from Indiana's 3rd congressional district. "I'd go to Washington and get into Congress, and have a fistfight every day," Metzger told a local news station.[58] Metzger did not make it onto the ballot for the election, which was ultimately won by Republican Marlin Stutzman.

Views

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According to Stephen Atkins, author of The Encyclopedia of Right-Wing Extremism in Modern American History, Metzger's ideology "differs from other white supremacists by rejecting the basic tenets of the Christian Identity movement because he considers himself to be the champion of the Third Position. The Third Position is a form of racism that is oriented towards attracting the white working class and it is also anti-capitalist in orientation. Metzger believed that the United States should be divided into designated areas for different racial groups except Asian Americans, who should be expelled from the United States."[59] In 1988, Metzger recorded this message on his WAR Hotline:[59]

"You have reached WAR Hotline. White Aryan Resistance. You ask: What is WAR? We are an openly white-racist movement—Skinheads, we welcome you into our ranks. The federal government is the number one enemy of our race. When was the last time you heard a politician speaking out in favor of white people? [...] You say the government is too big; we can’t organize. Well, by God, the SS did it in Germany, and if they did it in Germany in the thirties, we can do it right here in the streets of America. We need to cleanse this nation of all nonwhite mud-races for the survival of our own people and the generations of our children."

Death

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He died on November 4, 2020, of Parkinson's disease.[60][61]

Electoral history

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California's 43rd Congressional District Democratic Primary election, June 3, 1980[62]
Party Candidate Votes %
Democratic Tom Metzger 33,071 37.1
Democratic Ed Skagen 32,679 36.6
Democratic Hubert Higgins 23,462 26.3
Total votes 89,212 100.0
Turnout  
1980 United States House of Representatives elections[63]
Party Candidate Votes %
Republican Clair W. Burgener (incumbent) 298,815 86.6
Democratic Tom Metzger 46,361 13.4
Total votes 345,176 100.0
Turnout  
Republican hold
United States Senatorial Democratic Primary election, June 8, 1982[57]
Party Candidate Votes %
Democratic Jerry Brown 1,392,660 50.7
Democratic Gore Vidal 415,366 15.1
Democratic Paul B. Carpenter 415,198 15.1
Democratic Daniel K. Whitehurst 167,574 6.1
Democratic Richard Morgan 94,908 3.4
Democratic Tom Metzger 76,502 2.8
Democratic Walter R. Buchanan 55,727 2.0
Democratic Bob Hampton 37,427 1.4
Democratic Raymond "RayJ" Caplette 31,865 1.2
Democratic William F. Wertz 30,795 1.1
Democratic May Chote 30,743 1.1
Total votes 2,748,765 100.0
Turnout  

References

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  1. ↑ Langer 2003, pp. 100–101.
  2. 1 2 Langer 2003, p. 101.
  3. ↑ Langer 2003, p. 102.
  4. ↑ Langer 2003, p. 103.
  5. 1 2 3 4 Turner, Wallace (October 7, 1986). "Extremist Finds Cable TV is Forum for Right-wing Views". The New York Times. Retrieved October 7, 2022.
  6. ↑ Atkins 2011, p. 56.
  7. 1 2 Sunshine 2024, p. 122.
  8. 1 2 3 4 "Tom Metzger". Southern Poverty Law Center. Montgomery. Retrieved April 24, 2020.
  9. ↑ "Anti-Immigration Groups". Southern Poverty Law Center. Montgomery. May 2001. Retrieved February 2, 2010.
  10. ↑ Berkowitz, Bill; Dobbs, Lou (July 1, 2006). "Dubious Guest List". Rome: Inter-Press Service. Archived from the original on October 4, 2009. Retrieved February 2, 2010.
  11. ↑ "The Real David Duke". Newsweek. November 18, 1991. p. 24.
  12. ↑ "The Godfathers". Southern Poverty Law Center. Fall 2006. Archived from the original on June 8, 2011. Retrieved November 15, 2007.
  13. 1 2 Cummings, Judith (October 3, 1985). "Klan Figure Met with Farrakhan". The New York Times. Retrieved November 12, 2020.
  14. ↑ King, Wayne (October 12, 1985). "White Supremacists Voice Support of Farrakhan". The New York Times. Retrieved November 12, 2020.
  15. ↑ Newton 2014, p. 78.
  16. ↑ Anti-Defamation League (1996). Danger: Extremism; the major voices and vehicles on America far right fringe (Report). New York: Anti-Defamation League. pp. 77–78.
  17. ↑ Sunshine 2024, p. 121.
  18. ↑ "The Annals of Hate: An Introduction to Leading Racist Periodicals". Intelligence Report. No. 93. Montgomery: Southern Poverty Law Center. 1999. pp. 48–49. ISSN 1084-0028.
  19. ↑ Atkins 2002, p. 95.
  20. ↑ "White Racists Aid Farrakhan's Group". Chicago Tribune. The Boston Globe. October 3, 1985. Retrieved March 8, 2026.
  21. ↑ Macdonald, Katharine (October 5, 1985). "Farrakhan Connection To Ex-Klan Chief Alleged". The Washington Post. ISSN 0190-8286.
  22. 1 2 Sunshine 2024, p. 25.
  23. ↑ "Racist Violence". geraldo.com. 2007. Archived from the original on July 29, 2007. Retrieved July 14, 2007.
  24. ↑ Hamby, Taylor (October 3, 2013). "Here Lies Wally George". OC Weekly.
  25. ↑ Robertson, Jesse (November 22, 2022). "The Truth Was Out There: On the Legacy of Art Bell". Los Angeles Review of Books. Retrieved October 13, 2024.
  26. ↑ "Guilt Admitted in Racial Killing". The New York Times. Associated Press. May 3, 1989. Retrieved November 18, 2007.
  27. ↑ Willwerth, James (October 22, 1990). "Making War on WAR". Time. Archived from the original on July 17, 2014. Retrieved September 18, 2007.
  28. ↑ London, Robb (October 26, 1990). "Sending a $12.5 Million Message to a Hate Group". The New York Times. Retrieved September 18, 2007.
  29. ↑ "Lawyer makes racists pay". USA Today. October 24, 1990. p. 2A. Retrieved September 18, 2007 – via Newspapers.com.
  30. ↑ Berry, Jason (March 21, 1993). "The High Price of Hate". The New York Times. Retrieved January 17, 2013.
  31. ↑ Denson, Bryan (December 31, 2014). "Ancer Haggerty, presiding judge in two notorious neo-Nazi cases in Portland, hangs up robes". The Oregonian. Retrieved November 23, 2018.
  32. ↑ Goodman, Walter (May 13, 1991). "Review/Television; Behind the Hate, With Bill Moyers". The New York Times. Retrieved August 26, 2007.
  33. ↑ Atkins 2011, p. 57.
  34. ↑ "Assets of White Supremacist Are Target of Legal Maneuver". The New York Times. Associated Press. December 25, 1990. Retrieved September 18, 2007.
  35. 1 2 3 4 "Metzger Leaves Former Home a Mess, but it's undamaged". The Oregonian. September 19, 1991. p. F3.
  36. ↑ "Bart Used by Extremists". The Washington Times. May 13, 1993.
  37. ↑ "Supremacist Gets 6 Months in Cross Burning". The New York Times. December 4, 1991. Retrieved September 18, 2007.
  38. ↑ "Klan leader let out of jail to be with critically ill wife". The Gazette. Montreal. Los Angeles Daily News. February 22, 1992 – via Newspapers.com.
  39. ↑ Ray, Nancy (March 6, 1992). "Wife of White Supremacist Tom Metzger Is Dead at 49". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved March 16, 2016.
  40. ↑ Kapica, Jack (July 3, 1992). "White Aryan leaders deported - Jewish groups applaud decision". The Globe and Mail. p. A13 – via Newspapers.com.
  41. 1 2 Hamm & Spaaij 2017, p. 15.
  42. ↑ Pitcavage 2015, p. 1644.
  43. ↑ Striegher 2013, p. 38.
  44. ↑ Michael 2012, p. 46.
  45. ↑ Anti-Defamation League 2002, p. 21.
  46. ↑ "Those ugly Americans". New Zealand Listener. Retrieved October 4, 2010.
  47. ↑ Smith, Rupert (December 22, 2003). "Reich and wrong". The Guardian. London. Retrieved October 10, 2010.
  48. ↑ Fleming, Lorell (March 15, 2006). "White supremacist Metzger no longer living in Fallbrook, he says". San Diego Union-Tribune. Retrieved March 16, 2016.
  49. 1 2 Diels, Didier (November 3, 2004). "Tom Metzger sings karaoke: Crooning with San Diego County's most notorious racist". San Diego CityBeat. Archived from the original on November 6, 2004. Retrieved July 31, 2026.
  50. ↑ Hammond, Ruth (May 10, 2005). "2005 AltWeekly Awards Finalists Announced". AAN Publishers. Retrieved August 1, 2026.
  51. ↑ "ATF raids home of White Aryan Resistance founder". Wane.com. Archived from the original on June 28, 2009.
  52. ↑ "White supremacist reacts to ATF raid". Wane.com. Archived from the original on June 28, 2009.
  53. ↑ "Hate-crime case award will be hard to collect, experts say". The Press-Enterprise. August 24, 2007. Archived from the original on September 26, 2007. Retrieved August 25, 2007.
  54. ↑ Leighton, Ken (July 12, 2018). "Tom Metzger has moved to San Jacinto". San Diego Reader. Retrieved November 12, 2020.
  55. ↑ "Clair Burgener dies at 84". North County Times. September 10, 2006. Archived from the original on September 29, 2007.
  56. ↑ "Democrats Disavow Nominee From Klan". The New York Times. Associated Press. June 6, 1980. Retrieved July 31, 2026.
  57. 1 2 Our Campaigns California U.S. Senate – Democratic Primary Race – June 8, 1982," (retrieved on August 15th, 2009).
  58. ↑ Sheridan, Michael (March 9, 2010). "Ex-Klu (sic) Klux Klan leader and white supremacist uses ad to run for Congress". New York Daily News. Archived from the original on March 12, 2010. Retrieved March 10, 2010.
  59. 1 2 Atkins 2011, p. 55.
  60. ↑ Stone, Ken (November 10, 2020). "Tom Metzger Dies at 82; Notorious KKK Boss, Supremacist Who Ran for Congress". Times of San Diego. Retrieved November 12, 2020.
  61. ↑ de León, Concepción (November 12, 2020). "Tom Metzger, Notorious White Supremacist, Dies at 82". The New York Times. Retrieved November 13, 2020.
  62. ↑ Our Campaigns "California District 43 – Democratic Primary Race – June 3, 1980", (retrieved on August 15, 2009).
  63. ↑ Office of the Clerk of the United States House of Representatives "Statistics of the Congressional Election of November 4, 1980," (retrieved on August 15th, 2009).

Works cited

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Further reading

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