Alleged Museum Shooter: 'The Holocaust Is a Lie'

Police investigators work in front of a red Toyota car parked in front of the United States...

Police investigators work in front of a red Toyota car parked in front of the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum after James van Brunn allegedly opened fire inside the museum in Washington, today. A security guard wounded during the shootout has died as the result of his injuries, the museum's director said today.

(Charles Dharapak/AP Photo)

The Escalation of Von Brunn's Rhetoric

Both de Nugent and the Southern Poverty Law Center, which tracks hate groups and their activity across the country, noticed an escalation in von Brunn's rhetoric.

"He was advocating direct action. That the time for talk was over," de Nugent said. "And I think he was pushed over the edge by current events and his own personality."

"His rhetoric really has been heating up. We've seen some evidence of that ourselves," Potok said, referring to a 2007 posting on a white supremacist site attributed to von Brunn that seemed to call for action.

The center said Wednesday that von Brunn had long been associated with neo-Nazis and Holocaust deniers. The group had also flagged his Web site because of its content.

The "politically incorrect opinions" on the site include excerpts of von Brunn's book, "Tob Shebbe Goyim Harog," or "Kill the Best Gentiles."

The book is described on the site as "the culmination of his life's work" and "a new, hard-hitting expose of the 'Jew Conspiracy' to destroy the White gene-pool."

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The site also touted von Brunn's military and intellectual accomplishments. The U.S. Navy confirmed today that von Brunn served from 1943 to 1946. A Navy official said he earned several awards and decorations, including recognition for his WWII service.

On his Web site, von Brunn also claimed membership in high-I.Q. society Mensa. The organization confirmed that he was a member 20 years ago, but for less than a year.

The biography also highlights a 1981 incident, described as his attempt "to place the treasonous Federal Reserve Board of Governors under legal, nonviolent, citizens arrest."

Archive media reports from the time of the incident and von Brunn's trial say he armed himself with a revolver, sawed-off shotgun and a hunting knife before he entered the Federal Reserve Board's headquarters.

The incident was reportedly an attempt to focus media attention on the nation's economic woes and high interest rates set by the Fed.

Potok said it's "remarkable that there is a subculture in this country, of literally thousands and thousands of people who believe things like the Federal Reserve Board is really an entity secretly controlled for the benefit of Jewish bankers, etc., etc., etc."

A jury convicted von Brunn on a litany of charges, from attempted kidnapping to assault and possession of a prohibited weapon.

On the site, he claims he was "tried in a Washington, D.C., Superior Court; convicted by a Negro jury, Jew/Negro attorneys, and sentenced to prison for 11 years by a Jew judge." According to Bureau of Prisons records, von Brunn left prison in September 1989.

The criminal complaint said Missouri native von Brunn has for the past two years rented a room in the Annapolis, Md. apartment his son shares with his fiance.