(l-r) Matt Parrott, Steve Smith, and Matthew Heimbach at the neo-Nazi Leif Erikson Day celebration 2013 (photo: One People’s Project)
In a recent blog, we highlighted Matthew Heimbach’s recent iteration that “Anyone who supports the [white supremacist terror slogan of] 14 Words is an ally of mine in this common struggle.” Outside of Phildelphia on Saturday October 19, 2013, Heimbach made good on that promise by attending the annual Leif Erikson Day, which is hosted by the mostly Pennsylvania-rooted neo-Nazi skinhead crew Keystone United (KU).
There, Heimbach and his fellow Traditionalist Youth Network comrade, Matt Parrott, were photographed with Steve Smith, one of the founders and present chairman of KU, formerly known as the Keystone State Skinheads. In March 2003, accompanied by two other KU members, Smith was involved in a vicious assault on an African-American man. Later convicted for his crimes, here’s what the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC), a stalwart civil rights organization, has written about the incident:
“Also in March 2003, another three KSS [Keystone State Skinheads] members — Keith Carney, Steve Monteforte and Steven Smith — were arrested in Scranton for beating up Antoni Williams, a black man, using stones and chunks of pavement. Smith, a co-founder of the KSS, is a former Aryan Nations member and former leader of the Philadelphia chapter of National Association for the Advancement of White People, which was created by former Klan leader David Duke but is no longer associated with him. Smith was recruited into the neo-Nazi movement when he was a soldier at Fort Bragg, N.C. Carney is a former member of the neo-Nazi National Alliance who was arrested in December 2001 for placing National Alliance stickers on the Korean War and Vietnam Veterans memorials in Philadelphia. In the 2003 case, Smith and Monteforte pleaded guilty to terrorist threats and ethnic intimidation, with Monteforte getting a suspended sentence of a year’s probation; Smith received a 60-day sentence and probation. Carney was charged with violating the terms of his probation from a previous criminal conviction and sentenced to a year in prison.”
Finding himself short on friends within mainstream Conservatism after his exploits with the white nationalist student group Youth for Western Civilization and the rankly juvenile White Student Union, a group he tried-and-failed to establish legitimately while attending Towson University, and after being photographed attending numerous white nationalist (and lately white supremacist) events, Heimbach has continued his public drift towards the only circles that find his diatribes on white pride and preservation “intellectually” stimulating-the neo-Nazi skinhead movement.
As was reported on one blog, Heimbach allegedly traveled to the event from Indiana with members of the infamous Vinlanders Social Club (VSC), a neo-Nazi terror outfit from the mid-west, including its leader, Brien James. VSC has long prided itself on being a welcoming home to the ultra-belligerent within a broader subculture that inherently fosters violence and resentment-fueled rivalries (read more on VSC’s sociopathic pedigree here and here, and here’s a video of theirs). As Bryon Widner, a co-founder and one of VCS’s most feared members, attests to interviews with SPLC after leaving and renouncing the movement, the Vinlanders were made up of some of the worst-of-the-worst.
In 2011, SPLC contributed to an inspiring documentary produced by MSNBC, “Erasing Hate,” which tells Widner’s story, chronicling the dozens of laser-removal procedures he endured so the racist tattoos covering most of his face could be eviscerated.
While Matthew Heimbach boasts no visible racist tattoos, here’s to hoping that the stink of his present allying with racist terrorists be less easily removed than Widner’s were. Widner’s face still bears the faint scars of his years immersed in organized racism, and while hardly a veteran, Heimbach is clearly determined to inflict similar damage on his life and character.