Meet Washington’s Neo-Nazis: Olympia Racist Protesters and Northwestern Hammerskins

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Recent skirmishes in Olympia, WA have drawn public attention to white supremacist organizing in the Pacific Northwest. We are glad that the problem of white power organizing is being exposed and are encouraged by the determined opposition of anti-racists in Olympia and beyond. Our intent is to strengthen efforts against white supremacist and neo-fascist organizing with the research presented here. We have three aims for this article:

  1. Document the key players involved in Olympia racist organizing;
  2. Comment on and contextualize the incidents in Olympia; and
  3. Provide an overview of the Washington-area white supremacist milieu, with a specific focus on one of its most organized sectors, and one with a reputation for violence–the Northwest Hammerskins (NWHS).

Some misinformation has been swirling since the May 21st confrontation in Olympia (more on this confrontation below). This article will help to clarify matters.

We are also releasing our information to coincide with the national “Hammerfest” Hammerskin gathering in San Bernardino, CA this weekend. Many of the local Hammerskins mentioned in this article will be attending this event. At the end of this article we provide information on several Hammerskin associates in Washington. We hope this information will prove useful in disrupting their organizing upon their return.

2015 Olympia Confrontations

On May 21st, 2015, Olympia police officer Ryan Donald shot two brothers, black and unarmed, while responding to an alleged shoplifting incident. Both survived, but the younger brother is now paralyzed from the waist down. As outcry over the shooting began to grow, protesters organized several demonstrations against police brutality. Meanwhile, a small contingent of counter-demonstrators started showing up at various events around Olympia to support the police. They were a mix of various unorganized right-wing racists that were part of the same loose social group, who may have become politically active due to Jascha Manny’s encouragement. (Manny first came to our attention as a white power activist due to his participation in several actions with the American Freedom Party.)

Also present in the pro-police crowd were members of the local rockabilly band Black Top Demon. Their lead singer, Joe Ty, is friends with many local neo-Nazis. Other counter-demonstration attendees included white supremacist James Kiesel from Marysville, Paige Barnes from Olympia, and neo-Nazi Michael Pearson from Littlerock, all of them from Washington state.

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As Jascha Manny’s enthusiasm and confidence grew, he posted on the online racist forum Stormfront (under the moniker of “1pariah”) calling for a white supremacist police solidarity march to be held on May 30th. Meanwhile, word spread among anti-racists of Manny’s plans. A rally against the dual forces of white supremacy–neo-Nazis and police–was planned for the same night. The anti-racist protestors were a mix of people from the Black Lives Matter movement, black-bloc, various antifa and allies, with hundreds in attendance. Only ten or so neo-Nazi boneheads showed up. This is a situation typical of explicit white supremacist public actions–a paltry amount of fascists met by throngs of opposition–and demonstrates Manny’s tactical inexperience as an organizer.
As the rival groups met, Jascha Manny and his “crew” assaulted an older protester and fighting  broke out. The neo-Nazis were quickly routed from the area, fleeing golf clubs, chairs, bricks, bottles, and even a fire extinguisher. Running for their lives, they made it to their vehicles, but not before having their windows smashed as they fled the city.

Many months later, Manny published a bizarre post on Stormfront, challenging anti-racists to a rematch. Manny was calling again for a white supremacist march in downtown Olympia for “SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 6TH”–a date that did not occur in 2015. In his delusional post, Manny boasted that he had hundreds of white nationalists at the ready to march at this event. He went on to list essentially every white power group he had ever heard of, including defunct groups as well as groups that would never work with each other. Again, this points to Manny’s inexperience and marginal status in the larger white supremacist scene, even if Manny did manage to catalyze the initial crowd responsible for the first Olympia pro-police protests. While our organization did not anticipate much of a turn out for the racist rally–given the poor response Manny had received on Stormfront following his first disaster, and given the levels of fantasy in his new call to action–we still felt that an anti-racist response was important. This time no neo-Nazis showed up at all.  ​

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(From top left: Michael Pearson, Zachary Thompson, Michael Osorio From bottom left: William Fleming, James Kiesel, Ronald Malone, Page Barnes)
​It has been erroneously reported that Volksfront was responsible for the Olympia racist protests. Our best guess as to the origin of this rumor involves an Algiz rune flag. The Germanic runes of course have no original racist connotation, but they have been appropriated by some in the white supremacist scene. The little bonehead crew that first started going to the pro-police demos sported the American flag, the Confederate flag, as well as a flag with the Algiz rune. The latter symbol was used by Volksfront International, a white supremacist organization which used to be heavily active in the Northwest US but is now defunct on this continent. None of the Olympia protesters photographed holding or surrounding the rune flag are Volksfront members, past or present. Jascha Manny mentioned Volksfront in his bizarre post on Stormfront after the first debacle, which may also have confused people. On the topic of the “Algiz” rune flag seen in Olympia: the person who owns the flag is William Fleming from Centralia. Fleming does not have any known ties to Volksfront but is close friends with several (non-Volksfront) neo-Nazis who attended the rally. Again: the rune is used widely by neo-Nazis, Third Reich fetishists, and even some non-racist pagans. It is not exclusive to Volksfront.
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(William Fleming with his Algiz rune flag)
None of the white supremacists at the Olympia confrontation were representing any particular group when they showed up on the streets, but some of them do have ties to fascist political parties and neo-Nazi gangs in the Pacific Northwest. For example, Zachary David Thompson of Vancouver, WA, despite having two young daughters with wife Breanne Leigh to care for, is reckless enough to be involved in smaller Nazi gatherings in the Washington area as well as ‘blots’ of the racist section of the Heathen/Asatru pagan scene. Thompson associates with members of Hammerskins, Golden State Skinheads, and former members of the American Front. In pictures Thompson can be seen throwing up a sieg heil with one arm while holding his baby daughter in the other. ​
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(Zachary Thompson)
The boneheads don’t just have problems on the streets, but in their private lives as well. One of the Nazis who was at the Olympia confrontation, Ronald Malone (aka Ronald Shea, Jimmy Rocha, James Shea Rocha, and “Orion Wotan” on Facebook), recently fell on some hard times. Both Ronald Malone–the name under which he is currently incarcerated–and fiancé Dezarae Teter lost their jobs last spring. In response to this Malone went online and appealed for donations so he and his fiancé could keep their house. A noteworthy donor on this GoFundMe.com fundraiser was Warriors Pride, a web shop that sells Third-Reich themed clothing and collects donations for incarcerated former members of The Order (a white supremacist terror group in the 1980s.)

While Malone didn’t raise a lot of money with his GoFundMe appeal, the fund-raiser does show that he is well enough connected to the white power scene for people to take up his personal cause. Malone was recently pictured with the Northwestern Hammerskins and “friends” taken during an annual memorial honoring neo-Nazi terrorist Robert J Matthews of The Order held at Whidbey Island in December of last year. To compound his personal problems, Malone was recently picked up on a warrant issued for failure to appear in court for a methamphetamine drug charge and making a false statement to the cops.

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(Northwestern Hammerskins and associates at a Robert Matthews memorial on Whidbey Island in December 2014)
Hammerskins

We have noted that Ronald Malone/’Orion Wotan’ from the Olympia racist protests is–when not in custody–keeping company with members of the Hammerskin Nation. Likewise, Michael Osorio who was part of the Olympia confrontation is also close to the Hammerskins. We believe that Osorio was one of the five boneheads associated with the Midland Hammerskins who in 2001 stabbed a black man at a Denny’s restaurant in Springfield, Missouri. We are concerned that the Hammerskin Nation may capitalize on the relative leadership and organizational vacuum among the new generation of Washington white supremacists who took part in the Olympia protests. If the Hammerskins–who have long had a presence in Washington State–are able to present themselves as a convincing alternative to Jascha Manny’s antics, the result could be dangerous. It is for this reason that we are discussing the Hammerskins at length here.

The Hammerskins grew out of the white power scene in Dallas, Texas in the late 1980s. The original group was called the Confederate Hammerskins, but regional chapters have since sprung up across the country and internationally, all bound together in the overarching “Hammerskin Nation.” One of their biggest contributions to the American hate scene was promoting music acts which reflect their radical racist politics:

“Music is number one. It’s the best way to reach people. Through music people can start getting into the scene, then you can start educating them. Politics through music.”

-Ed Wolback, former head of Northern Hammerskins.

The Hammerskin emphasis on white power can be observed through their labels and music retailer services, such as Antipathy Records in North America and 9% Productions in Australia. The Hammerskins also have a well-deserved reputation for violence. This has led to their notoriety as one of the foremost white supremacist groups in the US. Some may remember one of their former members, Wade Michael Page, who went on a shooting spree at a Sikh temple in Oak Creek, Wisconsin on August 5, 2012. Six people were killed and four were injured in the attack. Page was a full member of the Hammerskin Nation as well as several racist bands who regularly played Hammerskin gatherings. Hammerskin members have been found guilty of, and are suspected of, violence and hate crimes spanning the globe since their inception.

On October 3rd, their annual Nazi gathering, Hammerfest, will take place in San Bernardino, California. This is the major annual event for U.S. white supremacists close to the Hammerskins and their supporter organization Crew 38. The gathering will feature around seven white supremacist bands and will be a place for neo-Nazi boneheads and their supporters to come together and socialize, strategize, and build solidarity.

One of the bands that is playing its second Hammerfest is the band Ironwill with members from Vancouver, WA and southern California. The band gained popularity last year after playing Hammerfest in Georgia and putting out a record that same year. The band is relatively new but the members have been in the white power scene for many years. Frontman Edward “Skip” Mack was in American Front and has been a part of the California white power scene for almost 30 years–he just recently moved to Washington State. The drummer of Ironwill, Michael “Foot” Slayton, is a member of the neo-Nazi gang “California Skinhead” and is also playing drums in the white power band Bloodshed 88 with one of his friends from southern California.

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(Ironwill – Mike “Foot” Slayton, Chris, Edward “Skip” Mack)
The Northwestern Hammerskins (NWHS) were formed as a result of regional restructuring of the Hammerskin Nation. The most prominent member of the NWHS is Matthew Richard Schmoyer, 45, from Edmonds, WA who has been a Hammerskin since before the chapter was reorganized. Schmoyer has a large internet presence on Crew38 forums, and is very active in recruitment regionally. In 2003, five members of the Hammerskins, including Schmoyer, attacked a 17 year old black boy after a party at Schmoyer’s apartment when he lived in Vancouver, WA. Before the attack, the party was about to head to a Volksfront-sponsored “Rock Against Communism” concert in the Portland, OR area. Four out of the five boneheads were later sentenced for misdemeanor assault after a plea-deal.

The newest member of the NWHS gang is Bryan Flanagan from  Modesto, CA who just got “patched in,” or initiated, as a full member of NWHS in anticipation of his move to Idaho. (More on the Hammerskins in Idaho here.) Up until July 2015, Flanagan was a council member of Golden State Skinheads, but he has since been patched over to NWHS.

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Conclusion

The anti-racist rallies in Olympia were overwhelmingly successful in routing the neo-Nazis, yet white supremacist activity in the Pacific Northwest continues to be a threat. The skirmish in Olympia helped shut down a public neo-Nazi presence and should be lauded for this. However, it is important to note that the majority of boneheads in attendance were relative newcomers to the hardcore white power scene. Manny and his small group were easily ousted largely because there was no organizational infrastructure to support the large public display that they were aiming for. We are concerned by the potential of a group like NWHS attracting new recruits and, through its established infrastructure, presenting a more dangerous and entrenched threat. It is partly for this reason that we are now exposing key members of the Northwest Hammerskins through this article.

An eye should continue to be kept on Manny and he should not be underestimated. He is doubtlessly a true believer, and thus may continue to present problems. While he may not currently be tied in with any major organization, he has been tirelessly campaigning for white nationalist causes in the last few years. For all his other stupidities, Manny was rather cunning to latch on to more mainstream racist sentiments by framing his efforts as supporting the police. Recent uprisings against anti-black police brutality across the country have led to a racist, fear-based response in some quarters. Anti-black racism is pervasive in our society and insurgent white supremacists can leverage the backlash against Ferguson to their advantage to pull white people further into the racist right.

While Manny may bring the energy and hunger of a new devotee, the NW Hammerskins bring experience, organizational reach, and violent capacity. Events–such as Hammerfest currently taking place in California–could begin to occur in Oregon or Washington if there is further consolidation of bonehead forces regionally. In fact, our organization was formed eight years ago, in the wake of one such bonehead closed event–the Hammerskin “Hammerfest” planned for the Portland area in 2007. The anti-Hammerfest anti-racist committeesuccessfully found the Hammerfest location and shut down the gathering’s main venue. A group of us decided to commit to doing this work on an ongoing basis, which became Rose City Antifa. While that was a victory, it shows that HSN would like very much to be able to move into our region more aggressively. There’s a whole spectrum of far-Right organizing in the Pacific Northwest region, groups trying to form more mainstream political parties, subcultural crypto-fascists, antisemitic conspiracy theorists, eugenicist environmentalists, Nativists, “racialist” academics, tribalist “pan-anarchists”, and many more. Of the outright bonehead sector, Hammerskin Nation/NWHS are the most significant organized force right now. We are determined to shut down their organizing in any way we can, using a full range of tactics from meeting them in the streets when these boneheads surface, to disseminating information in their local communities. While the Northwest Hammerskins are a real threat, such threats have been defeated before with committed grassroots action… and they can be defeated again.

Information on Key Individuals

William Fleming  – 615 S Tower Ave. Centralia, WA 98531

License plate no. AUM8609

Worked at Devilfish Public House in Chehalis, WA (now closed)

Michael Osorio – 7819 32nd St NE, Marysville, WA 98270

Works for Best Tree Service

King & Snohomish County: 425-379-8460

Edward (AKA “Skip”) and Heather Mack – 15601 SE 12th st. Vancouver, WA 98683

Paige Barnes – 9510 Mullen Rd. SE, Olympia, WA 98513

Jascha Manny – 1401 Sw. 320th Pl., Federal Way, Washington

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