Inside the Shadows of Prison Life

The Devil's Chat Room: Ethan Melzer, Part 1

In June of 2020, US Army Private Ethan Melzer was arrested for leaking information about his unit's deployment to Turkey with the intention of causing a mass casualty incident. The plot was hatched in a Telegram chat room for a group calling itself Rapewaffen, an Atomwaffen splinter cell that was committed to the beliefs of a neonazi satanic cult called the Order of Nine Angles. This episode follows the rise of satanism within Atomwaffen and the chaos that influence caused.

Original air date: 10/31/24

A Deal With the Devil: Ethan Melzer, Part 2

In 2022, Ethan Melzer pleaded guilty to plotting to help al Qaeda ambush and kill his entire unit while on a sensitive mission in Turkey. But Melzer's co-conspirators turned out to be a Canadian teenager and a government informant, not members of al Qaeda. And the satanic cult that drew him down this nazi rabbit hole turned out to have been run by a man on the FBI payroll.

Original air date: 11/7/24

Part 1 Sources:

https://unicornriot.ninja/2020/national-guard-soldier-who-deployed-to-dc-identified-as-neo-nazi/

https://www.peoplefor.org/rightwingwatch/post/ohio-national-guard-member-sent-home-for-white-supremacist-views-is-likely-a-fascist-youtuber

https://www.peoplefor.org/rightwingwatch/post/ohio-national-guard-soldier-pulled-from-mission-in-d-c-appears-on-neo-fascist-podcast-says-hes-being-discharged

https://www.politico.com/news/2020/06/05/fbi-national-guardsman-expressed-white-supremacist-ideology-303924

https://www.rollingstone.com/culture/culture-features/the-satanist-neo-nazi-plot-to-murder-u-s-soldiers-1352629/

https://www.rollingstone.com/culture/culture-news/neo-nazi-1378280

https://www.usnews.com/news/national-news/articles/2020-06-02/military-begins-staging-around-washington-to-quell-george-floyd-protests

https://hopenothate.org.uk/2020/06/23/the-rapewaffen-telegram-channel/

https://www.washingtonpost.com/national-security/soldiers-cases-highlight-reach-of-white-extremism-into-us-military/2020/06/25/0203532e-b582-11ea-9b0f-c797548c1154_story.html

https://www.splcenter.org/fighting-hate/extremist-files/group/atomwaffen-division

https://www.middlebury.edu/institute/sites/default/files/2022-06/REDACTED%20CTEC__TAT%20Accelerationism%20Report%20.pdf

https://www.middlebury.edu/institute/academics/centers-initiatives/ctec/ctec-publications/dangerous-organizations-and-bad-actors

https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-leeds-56044179

https://gnet-research.org/2023/09/25/the-significance-of-dark-foreigners-arrest/

Ariel Koch (2024) The ONA Network and the Transnationalization of Neo-Nazi-Satanism, Studies in Conflict & Terrorism, 47:10, 1172-1199, DOI: 10.1080/1057610X.2021.2024944

Mathieu Colin (01 Jul 2024): “And the Devil Marches with Us”: Aesthetics and Accelerationism in the Order of Nine Angles, Terrorism and Political Violence, DOI: 10.1080/09546553.2024.2365749

Daveed Gartenstein-Ross & Emelie Chace-Donahue (07 Mar 2023): The Order of Nine Angles: Cosmology, Practice & Movement, Studies in Conflict & Terrorism, DOI: 10.1080/1057610X.2023.2186737

Shanon Shah, Jane Cooper & Suzanne Newcombe (19 Apr 2023): Occult Beliefs and the Far Right: The Case of the Order of Nine Angles, Studies in Conflict & Terrorism, DOI: 10.1080/1057610X.2023.2195065

Part 2 Sources:

https://www.courtlistener.com/docket/17286246/united-states-v-melzer

https://www.courtlistener.com/docket/69307006/united-states-of-america-v-melzer/

https://www.rollingstone.com/culture/culture-features/the-satanist-neo-nazi-plot-to-murder-u-s-soldiers-1352629/

https://www.rollingstone.com/culture/culture-news/neo-nazi-1378280

https://www.rollingstone.com/politics/politics-features/jack-teixiera-case-military-extremism-1234724461

https://www.wired.com/story/the-dangerous-exploits-of-an-extremist-fbi-informant/

https://thequietus.com/opinion-and-essays/black-sky-thinking/ona-fascism-nazis-folk-horror-underground-occult/

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