>> NARRATOR: Tonight... 
>> You will not replace us...
>> NARRATOR: First 
Charlottesville, then 
Pittsburgh.
>> ...he's got an automatic
weapon...
>> ...multiple casualties inside
the synagogue...
>> Is your sense that there's
new energy, joining these
movements?
>> It's probably the most
active in my career.
>> NARRATOR: Frontline and
ProPublica Reporter, A.C.
Thompson investigate...
>> Wanted to talk to you
about what you
were doing in Charlottesville
last year?
>> NARRATOR: Who was
behind the violent rally?
>> There's video of you
launching yourself into that
crowd.
>> You could feel how angry they
were, but also how happy they
were to be intimidating people
like this, and it was just this
happy rage.
>> We're down to die
for this man.
>> NARRATOR: And uncover a
network of white supremicists 
across America.
>> Yeah we think he's serving in
the Marines now. 
>> ...the news orginization
ProPublica...
>> NARRATOR: Tonight on
Frontline, the film that led to
a wave of prosecutions━
"Documenting Hate:
Charlottesville".
♪ ♪
♪ ♪
>> You will not replace us!
You will not replace us!
You will not replace us!
You will not replace us!
>> A.C. THOMPSON:
Charlottesville, Virginia,
August 12, 2017.
I'd been tracking hate crimes
since the presidential
campaign, and I could see that
something was happening in this
country.
The Charlottesville rally was
supposed to be about a
Confederate monument, but anyone
who was paying attention could
see that it was about more than
a single statue.
(shouting)
It felt like a national
reckoning around race was
coming.
(shouting, chanting)
And being here would help me
understand it.
(shouting, repetitive banging)
I came here to ask questions,
but as the day unraveled into
chaos around me, one thing
became clear: this was not a
place to listen or understand.
Charlottesville was a crime
scene.
(shouting, screaming)
>> Medics!
>> Medics!
>> Medics!
♪ ♪
♪ ♪
>> THOMPSON: I arrived in
Charlottesville for what would
become the largest gathering of
white supremacists in a
generation.
They called it Unite the Right,
and it was drawing individuals
from at least 35 states.
>> Good afternoon.
I'm Chief Thomas,
Charlottesville Police
Department.
We will have a significant
police presence throughout the
weekend-- well over a hundred
officers from my agency,
several hundred officers from
the Virginia State Police.
We were informed that the
National Guard is monitoring the
situation.
>> THOMPSON: The day before the
rally, a few reporters gathered
for the police press conference.
But I'd begun to hear from other
sources in Charlottesville.
>> We have time for one more
question.
>> THOMPSON: Chief, we're
hearing rumors of there being
another torch-light march
tonight, an unpermitted march.
Do you have any information
about that?
>> I've heard the same rumors,
but I don't have a lot of
details.
What have you heard?
Where is it going to take place?
In the city or the county?
>> THOMPSON: We've been hearing
5:00 or 6:00.
>> Where at?
>> THOMPSON: Not far from here
is what we've been hearing.
The police had heard the same
rumors I had, but the university
grounds were quiet and it seemed
like the march might not be
happening after all.
Until suddenly, the torches
appeared.
>> You will not replace us!
You will not replace us!
You will not replace us!
You will not replace us!
You will not replace us!
>> THOMPSON: In a matter of
moments, hundreds of neo-Nazis
and white supremacists assembled
and marched on the university.
The police arrived on the scene,
but watched from the sidelines
as a small group of anti-racist
activists were quickly
surrounded.
One of them-- Emily Gorcenski--
was streaming it from her phone.
>> We are penned in.
We are surrounded on all sides
by hundreds of Nazis.
We have no way out.
>> White lives matter!
White lives matter!
>> White lives matter!
White lives matter!
(shouting)
>> (bleep)
>> I got punched.
I got kicked.
I remember getting hit in the
head.
I thought it was with a torch.
I stepped forward at one point
and I got shoved back.
I thought I was going to die.
The thing that I was thinking
as the melee was happening was,
"I just need to keep the camera
going.”
You know, that was the only
thing that I could do.
Yeah, it was like a hundred
people beating up like a small
group of us and a small group of
students.
>> THOMPSON: Ten or 15 people?
>> Yeah.
You could feel how angry they
were, but also how happy they
were, you know, to be doing
this, to be intimidating people
like this, and this happy rage.
>> THOMPSON: Had you ever seen
that displayed before?
>> No, never in my life.
They were cheering, they were
running through the streets,
yelling at people.
And they walked away and they
got away with it.
They're coming in here the next
day ready to do more.
I thought like, "Here we go.
Yeah, here we go."
(police radio chatter)
>> THOMPSON: The morning after
the torchlight march I walked
into town with a group of
clergy.
(chanting)
The white supremacists who'd
beaten people the night before
were returning.
And anti-fascist
counter-protesters were arriving
to challenge them.
>> ♪ No hate, no fear
White supremacists not welcome
here. ♪
>> ♪ No hate, no fear ♪
(shouting)
>> No KKK, no fascists!
>> THOMPSON: At 10:15 a melee
erupted.
(shouting, screaming)
A group of white supremacists--
some with their hands taped up
like boxers-- punched, kicked,
and choked people who tried to
block their path, leaving them
bloodied on the pavement.
>> THOMPSON: Just want to let
you know there's been all kinds
of crazy violence over here.
Pepper spray, people beating
each other with sticks.
We're trying to figure out if
the police are going to
intervene to stop that or if
it's just going to keep going
on.
>> Well, we've all got different
assignments to try to maintain
some sort of order here, so
that's what we're focusing on
right now.
>> THOMPSON: Hundreds of people
had shown up to protest the
white supremacists.
Most were non-violent, but
some-- black-clad militant
anti-fascists-- had come to
fight.
And while police looked on, the
crowd grew more aggressive.
(shouting)
>> Go ahead (bleep), I'm tellin'
you, I'll shoot you!
(shouting)
Go ahead, you want to play that
way, I'll play it.
>> (bleep)
(shouting)
>> THOMPSON: A group of white
supremacists formed up with
shields and clubs and pushed
straight into the protesters.
(shouting)
Some of them fought back, but no
one was arrested, and the
violence continued to escalate.
At about noon, a group of white
supremacists cornered protestor
Deandre Harris in a parking
garage next to a police station.
They beat him with poles, metal
pipes, and wooden boards.
>> THOMPSON: Police did not
intervene to break it up.
Then at 1:45 the brawling turned
into something else-- an act of
terror.
(screaming, shouting)
A grey Dodge slammed
into a crowd of protesters.
20 people were rushed to the
hospital.
32-year-old Heather Heyer was
pronounced dead.
>> I always wondered, "Was she
afraid?
(exhales)
Did she see him coming?"
She was deaf in one ear, so,
um...
Damn it, I wasn't going to cry.
(sighs)
She had planned on not going.
But when she saw videos from
Friday night, she said, "I have
to go."
And...
When you drive through
Charlottesville now and see that
peaceful little downtown it's
really, really hard to imagine.
Even seeing the videos it's
surreal.
I get cold chills every time I'm
in the parking garage and have
to walk past where Dre was beat
up.
That's just insane, right there
by the police station, the
police standing right there.
>> THOMPSON: For you, what is
justice for Heather look like?
>> I don't know.
I don't know that you could ever
call it justice for Heather.
Nothing's gonna bring Heather
back.
Those of us who miss her, miss
her... forever.
Her best friend said, "You know,
it's kinda weird.
I'll get to be an old man and
she'll always have been 32."
You know, life goes on.
I'm getting older...
It's just weird.
Life is very different.
(soft chuckle)
>> THOMPSON: James Alex Fields
is the person who's been
prosecuted for Heather's murder.
In your mind, is he the only
person who should be held
accountable?
>> No.
For people from 35 states to
come in to fight, that's
absolutely absurd.
>> You had a group on one side
that was bad, and you had a
group on the other side that was
also very violent.
Nobody wants to say that, but
I'll say it right now.
We condemn in the strongest
possible terms this egregious
display of hatred, bigotry, and
violence on many sides, on many
sides.
>> It was really something else
to see.
This news conference, Bill,
encapsulated the president's
thinking, his reasoning and
frankly his frustration over
the events that took place over
the weekend in Charlottesville.
>> He defended his initial
comments and says there is
plenty of blame to go around on
both sides.
Specifically he mentioned what
he called the "alt-left."
>> Excuse me, what about the
alt-left that came charging at
the, as you say, the alt-right?
Do they have any semblance of
guilt?
>> Today David Duke, the former
Grand Wizard of the KKK, tweeted
this.
>> Grateful to the president for
his words today.
>> "Thank you President Trump
for your honesty and courage to
tell the truth about
Charlottesville and condemn the
leftist terrorists in Black
Lives Matter/Antifa."
>> Here in Charlottesville one
white nationalist told us the
president has helped them.
>> He's opened up a door, his
movement has opened up a door,
but it's up to us to take the
initiative.
>> THOMPSON: President Trump's
comments sparked national
outrage.
While white supremacist leaders
praised the president's words,
they angered many here in
Charlottesville, including the
city's mayor at the time,
Democrat Mike Signer.
>> Groups that previously had
been stuck in the shadows and at
the margins and at the extremes
are brought into the mainstream
and that's why they felt welcome
to try and "Unite the Right" in
Charlottesville.
And at the end of the day it's a
city of, you know, just under
50,000 people and we were, we
were in this, we were this
target for forces much bigger
than us.
>> THOMPSON: You are the Jewish
mayor of small Southern town.
I imagine you've gotten a lot of
trolling and a lot of
harassment.
>> Oh, yeah, hundreds of
messages on Twitter, mail at my
house.
A cartoon of Robert E. Lee
pressing the green button on a
gas chamber where my face had
been photoshopped into it with
a star of David on my lapel in
reference to the Confederate
statue issue here in
Charlottesville.
>> THOMPSON: I saw you that
night over at the county
government headquarters and you
looked stricken.
>> Stricken is not a bad word
for it.
I wish that we had known more.
I wish that we had been given
more information by the, by the
state intelligence apparatus.
>> THOMPSON: Did they say
anything like, "Hey, these guys
are going to come with clubs,
they're going to come with
pepper spray, they're going to
come with, you know, implements
of violence"?
>> No.
We had one briefing with three
members of the Virginia State
Police who came and talked to us
on city council.
They did not present us with any
evidence of a credible threat.
>> THOMPSON: As I understand it,
about ten people altogether have
been prosecuted from those days,
does that sound accurate to you?
>> It sounds like it should be a
lot higher.
♪ ♪
>> THOMPSON: Unite the Right was
a watershed moment for the white
supremacist movement.
Groups that had been isolated on
the margins for years suddenly
converged out in the open.
♪ ♪
An independent report
commissioned by the city said
the many failures of state and
local police had produced
disastrous results that day.
I just want to see if there's
anything the Charlottesville
Police can say about what
happened that day, and what
changes might have been made
going forward.
Charlottesville police won't
talk.
And the state police won't
either.
I got your message saying that
basically we should look at the
Facebook and Twitter posts you
put out, but we have questions
that go beyond that.
They've charged one man for the
killing of Heather Heyer and
four for the beating of DeAndre
Harris, but if Charlottesville
was a crime scene, then most of
the criminals had gotten away.
Like I said, I'm just trying to
figure out how many folks have
been prosecuted and how many
cases might still be in the
pipeline.
I wasn't getting any answers in
Charlottesville so I set off on
my own.
♪ ♪
Who were these white
supremacists who had descended
on Charlottesville?
And why did the authorities seem
so unprepared?
♪ ♪
I arrive in New York to meet
with a retired FBI agent, a man
who infiltrated neo-Nazi groups
during the 1990s.
This is from Charlottesville.
>> Mike German tracked the
violence in Charlottesville as
it unfolded.
>> This is when the police
should be there and they aren't.
And not even in view.
I mean you can't even see
somebody close by.
I mean it's one thing to, okay,
watch these guys trade some
punches and then follow them as
they separate and grab them.
>> THOMPSON: Right.
>> They weren't even doing that
or let them go home but then
pick them up.
Because you can identify them
pretty easily.
And what's interesting about
Charlottesville is that it was
that it was after almost two
years of increasing violence at
these protests.
(shouting)
There was Anaheim...
♪ ♪
Sacramento...
(shouting)
The first Berkeley protest in
2017.
The Huntington Beach protest.
(crowd chanting "U.S.A.")
The second Berkeley protest was
even more violent.
The fifth, sixth, seventh in a
series.
I could see from my office here
in New York City how this was
building.
This was not just predictable
but predicted.
I couldn't believe that there
wasn't better intelligence being
provided by the federal
government, by the FBI and
Department of Homeland Security,
particularly when people are
coming in from out of state,
they should be warning them.
These are people who engaged in
violence in Berkeley.
These are people who engaged in
violence in Huntington Beach.
Where was the FBI?
Unless the FBI too has just
abandoned this ground, which I
would find even more shocking.
>> THOMPSON: And your sort of
sense is like if you allow folks
to go out and act very violently
over and over and over again in
these political spaces then they
basically start to think, "Hey,
the cops are okay with us."
>> Right, "They're going to
protect me coming in, let me do
it and then protect me going
out."
Now that these groups feel that
they have some state sanction
for that, they are going to be a
lot more dangerous in the coming
years.
♪ ♪
>> THOMPSON: "Where was the
FBI?" Mike German wondered.
They had issued warnings about
white supremacy violence before
Charlottesville, but those
warnings have failed to stop the
bloodshed.
No one from the bureau will sit
down with me, but they send me
a statement.
The FBI said while it doesn't
police ideology, it has long
investigated white supremacy
extremists and it will enforce
the rule of law.
(keyboard clicking)
♪ ♪
Stabbings, shootings, beatings--
at rally after rally leading
up to Charlottesville, I see the
same faces again and again.
One face stands out to me.
I first notice him at a
pro-Trump rally in Huntington
Beach, and he surfaces again at
other rallies where he's treated
like a leader.
After he's briefly detained by
police, I'm finally able to
identify him.
Robert Rundo is based in
California now, but his rap
sheet begins back east.
That's where he led a small
street gang in Queens, New York,
called The Original Flushing
Crew.
The Queens D.A. shares Rundo's
file with me.
Rundo's Flushing crew wasn't
racist and included a few Latino
members.
They got into a bloody feud with
the infamous street gang MS-13.
(engine revving)
Within MS-13 Rundo was known as
"El Diablo Blanco."
In 2009, he was filmed by
surveillance cameras in front of
this corner store.
Rundo's crew can be seen chasing
members of MS-13.
Rundo stabs one of them.
His victim falls as he tries to
escape, and Rundo stabs him six
more times.
Rundo's graffiti remains on
sidewalks here, but he's gone.
He was sentenced to two years in
prison for gang assault and sent
upstate.
After his release, he moved to
Orange County, California.
The neat rows of sun-bleached
homes here look like a vision of
suburban utopia.
But Orange County has always had
a darker side.
>> This is actually a Klan robe.
The guy was the Grand Dragon of
the Imperial Klans of America.
The rank structure here.
>> THOMPSON: So kind of like
sergeant's stripes or something?
>> Yeah, like that, but he's
like in charge.
He ran this whole chapter in the
whole region.
>> THOMPSON: Lowell Smith was an
Orange County probation officer
for 26 years.
For much of his career, he
worked exclusively with white
supremacists.
So the guy we're looking at, Rob
Rundo, he has this tattooed on
his back.
Can you explain the
significance?
>> Well the Totenkopf is
primarily found what we see with
neo-Nazi organizations.
Back in the day started off
with Adolf Hitler, with the
Gestapo and some of the Nazi
secret police.
>> THOMPSON: Wow.
So this is a thing that, that
I've been trying to understand.
Rob Rundo, he grows up in
Queens, New York.
He's a member of kind of a
multi-cultural gang.
He goes upstate to New York
state prison.
And by the time he gets out of
New York state prison, he is
definitely on the path to being
a neo-Nazi or a white
supremacist.
>> There is a lot of hate within
the prison system.
There's a lot of assaults,
fights, racial fights.
So they go in there and they
separate by race for protection.
So for these guys to be
protected, they got to be allied
for protection with hardcore
violent skinheads.
Then they go out to the streets,
they're ideologically motivated.
>> THOMPSON: So it's not
surprising to you?
>> It doesn't surprise me at
all, no.
Over time, especially within the
last year or so couple of years,
I've seen this whole white
supremacy becoming more
emboldened.
>> THOMPSON: Just in the last
couple of years?
>> Yeah.
It's probably most active in my
history, in my career.
>> THOMPSON: So in almost 30
years?
>> Yeah, and a little bit
different too because you're
seeing mainstream that you
wouldn't suspect.
You're seeing college kids
becoming emboldened in this
movement.
>> THOMPSON: So moving out of
the subculture and moving into
the mainstream of American life.
>> Right.
It worries me a lot.
Yeah, I'm, I'm really concerned.
I am afraid Charlottesville
could happen again and be a lot
worse.
♪ ♪
>> THOMPSON: Smith says a new
generation of white supremacists
are pushing their politics into
the mainstream.
Rob Rundo seems to be part of
that trend.
His group's first public
appearance wasn't at a torch
march, it was in Huntington
Beach at a pro-Trump rally
behind a banner that read
"Defend America."
(crowd chanting)
When anti-fascists showed up,
Rundo and his crew attacked
them.
He pinned one of them on the
ground and pummeled him.
(people shouting)
One member of his crew also
attacked Frank Tristan, a
journalist with Orange County's
alternative weekly paper.
At the time did you know that
this was a group, or who did
this, or what was going on?
>> No.
I definitely saw they were
organized.
They stuck as a group, you know,
also the banner.
When we got back to the office
and I started talking to Gustavo
about everything, he started
having me go out and look for
everybody there who was
attacking people.
(keys clicking)
I started going through
hashtags.
So like #MAGAMARCH.
>> THOMPSON: That's you!
>> Yeah, right there.
So I started finding pictures
like this.
>> THOMPSON: So is this him
hitting you or is that later?
>> So this is right after he had
just hit me.
When I clicked on his name, it
took me to his profile.
>> THOMPSON: And you look at his
pictures there and you say, "Oh,
that's the dude who attacked
me."
>> There you go.
>> I said, "Okay, if we're going
to tell this story that actually
there were White Supremacists
there, we need to get everything
right.
So start digging."
♪ ♪
Then I started seeing pictures
that photographers took of that
MAGA march and I see a guy with
a shaved head and a jacket and
immediately I'm like, "That's
a Hammerskins logo."
Walking around openly with a
Hammerskins jacket.
And so then he starts digging,
he finds out that this guy had
actually been just recently
released from jail from prison
for a hate crime.
And that's when you know, "Okay,
this more than just a couple of
random people.
There's something much more
organized."
>> THOMPSON: Frank and Gustavo
followed a trail of social media
posts and court records.
Their research put a name to Rob
Rundo's group: the Rise Above
Movement, or RAM.
They portray themselves as
patriotic nationalists.
But the members' Facebook posts
are full of anti-Semitic and
racist imagery.
They also appear in photos and
videos training with the largest
Nazi skinhead gang in America--
the Hammerskins.
>> So you got a Hammerskin here.
Hanging out, they're doing their
fight training with the Rise
Above Movement.
>> So they're, they're, they're
training and they're not
identifying separately, it's all
under the same moniker.
>> THOMPSON: So basically, you
have like a new white
supremacist group kind of
absorbing the old guard.
>> Yes.
>> THOMPSON: And the old guard
being known as being
hyper-violent.
>> Oh yeah.
>> THOMPSON: So what happened
with these guys in the weeks and
months after the march and the
attack at Huntington Beach?
Where did they go?
>> They started getting more
prominent.
They started getting more
well-known and more celebrated.
>> And they started becoming
friends with other alt-righters.
They were becoming heroes.
>> Oh, check it out, if anyone
wants to know, this is what
we're about, it's Rise Above
Movement.
We were at Berkeley, at
Huntington, now we're here.
>> That's right.
>> THOMPSON: In the months after
their emergence at the
Huntington Beach Trump rally,
the Rise Above Movement's social
media following swelled.
By the time of the
Charlottesville rally, they'd
gained a national reputation as
white supremacist street
fighters.
♪ ♪
>> There were a couple of guys
in these few shots that we
weren't able to identify.
I wonder who he is.
'Cause he looks like he's part
of RAM.
>> THOMPSON: Oh yeah, he's
definitely a RAM person.
>> He's definitely dressed in
the whole thing.
>> THOMPSON: But I don't think
we know his name, no.
I know Rob Rundo is the leader
of RAM.
And by examining online videos
and court documents, I'm able to
identify several more RAM
members.
>> So there's this guy who I
don't... I don't know if you
guys know who he is now.
>> THOMPSON: Okay, so leave that
on him.
And then come over to this video
to the Charlottesville.
>> Oh yeah.
>> THOMPSON: One face looks
familiar, and I quickly realize
where I've seen him before.
He marched in Charlottesville on
August 12, his hands taped up
for a fight.
Oh look, he's got his right hand
taped up.
>> Right hand.
>> THOMPSON: I wonder if his
left hand is as well.
>> Sure we can see...
Oh yeah, he has both here.
So this is him.
>> THOMPSON: They're the same
person.
>> Yeah.
>> THOMPSON: The RAM member can
clearly be seen attacking people
at the California rallies.
And in Charlottesville he
participates in one of the
morning's first fights,
beginning the escalating spiral
of violence.
But whoever he, is I can't
identify him.
Using clues from RAM's
propaganda videos, I manage to
locate one of their training
spots.
Just off the 405 outside of
Irvine, we find RAM's graffiti
tags hidden inside drainage
tunnels.
>> Traditionally when you looked
at white supremacist graffiti,
it tended to be the opposite of
this.
So not the flowery large letters
that's associated more with the
hip hop culture.
White supremacist graffiti
traditionally tended to be more
just like narrow letters just
like the lettering there.
>> THOMPSON: I'm guessing this
is like the New York City
influence, like Rob Rundo
bringing this from Queens and
his upbringing here is my guess.
>> I mean it looks that way.
>> THOMPSON: Sociologist Pete
Simi has studied white
supremacists for decades.
His field research takes him
inside dozens of racist groups
across the country.
>> I'd describe them as a hybrid
of sorts because they're kind
of a collage in a way.
You know, where they're pulling
together these different ideas
and symbols and associations and
kind of making their own thing.
>> THOMPSON: This is the...
>> That's the life rune.
>> THOMPSON: How does it get
appropriated by the white power
movement?
>> It's all about white
survival.
>> THOMPSON: So this is one
that's been in circulation for a
long time?
>> Yeah National Alliance used
it back in the '70s.
>> THOMPSON: So what do you make
of this?
>> Got the Celtic cross, it's
one of the most widely utilized
tattoos among white
supremacists.
And then it's interesting
because you get then this phrase
here, "Kill your local drug
dealer."
Which taps into what's right
above-- the straight edge, the
three X, the triple Xs.
This notion of living a clean
life and being very kind of
puritanical almost.
>> THOMPSON: Right.
>> It felt like they were doing
like a vigilante type work.
They're cleaning up the streets.
>> THOMPSON: Like the white
supremacists who came before
them, Simi says that RAM members
present themselves as defenders
of traditional white culture.
We visit Marblehead Park in San
Clemente, where they film
training videos that celebrate
personal fitness, the warrior
spirit and political street
fighting.
♪ ♪
>> What they're trying to sell
is this idea that we need to go
back to a more traditional time,
you know, traditional
masculinity.
When they blend in these fight
scenes, that's also this idea of
being not only just fit and
living a pure life but also
being a warrior of sorts.
So you could imagine a, you
know, 16-, 17-year-old white
male watching these videos and
being somewhat moved by them or
attracted to them in some case.
>> THOMPSON: It looks like it's
a small group, it's a fringe
group.
Why are they important?
And what do you think?
>> Well, first, you know, the
first thing is we just want to
strictly talk about violence.
Small groups can do as much if
not more destruction than large
groups.
You have, for instance, the
Oklahoma City bombing.
A relatively small group there
that, you know, ultimately
pulled off, at the time, the
largest act of domestic
terrorism prior to 9/11.
So you know an act of violence
can certainly be committed by a
small fringe group.
>> THOMPSON: By a small group.
>> And then I think, yeah, they
might be kind of a small fringe
group, but the best, most
sophisticated white supremacist
is the one who appears the least
visible.
They're not out there wearing
uniforms that are going to be
really visible.
They're not getting tattoos all
over their face.
You know, they're blending in,
in a lot of different ways,
including the issues they're
concerned about.
The issue of immigration, which
has been a real hot button
issue.
White supremacists can seize on
that issue and say, "Look,
there's an invasion and that
America is under siege."
Then they have the potential to
recruit among a much broader
swath of the population than we
often are willing to admit or
recognize.
♪ ♪
>> THOMPSON: A couple months
after Charlottesville, I had
enough to publish a story and
video about the group, naming
Rob Rundo and several other
members.
I later hear from several law
enforcement agencies, including
the FBI.
They won't talk on the record,
but they say they've opened an
investigation into Rundo's
group.
I want to talk to Rundo.
I go looking for him, and learn
that he's in Europe networking
with extremists there.
And I still can't identify that
RAM member in the
Charlottesville photos-- the one
wearing the "Make America Great
Again" hat and punching people
in the face.
Then I get a tip from a local
cop.
The man's name is Michael
Miselis.
Miselis doesn't have a criminal
record.
He's a PHD candidate at UCLA
and holds a government-issued
security clearance for his job
at the massive defense
contractor Northrop Grumman.
Hey Mike, how you doing?
A.C. Thompson, "ProPublica" and
"Frontline."
Wanted to talk about what you
were doing in Charlottesville
last year.
>> Uh, sorry, I don't know
anything about that, man.
>> THOMPSON: But you were there,
you're on camera, you're on
photos.
>> No, I, I think you got the
wrong guy.
>> THOMPSON: Hey, do Northrop
and UCLA know you're
involved with the Rise Above
Movement?
>> Gotta go, man.
>> THOMPSON: We identify Michael
Miselis in a follow-up story.
And the next day, Northrop
Grumman announces its taken
action, and Miselis is no longer
an employee.
♪ ♪
>> In New York City, an Army
veteran, who police say is an
admitted white supremacist, has
been charged with murder as a
hate crime.
>> Portland police say late
yesterday afternoon three men
were stabbed by a man yelling
ethnic and religious slurs.
>> THOMPSON: Over the course of
my reporting, I've seen a wave
of white supremacist violence
hit the country.
>> The brutal killing was
motivated by prejudice after
police found Urbanski belongs to
Facebook group "Alt-Reich
Nation."
(keys clacking)
>> THOMPSON: Police departments
across the country have reported
a steep rise in hate crimes.
The FBI says that hate crimes
have hit a five-year high.
One case draws my attention.
>> Prosecutors say Samuel
Woodward took Bernstein to a
park and killed him with a
knife.
>> Bernstein was found with more
than 20 stab wounds.
>> Twenty-year-old Woodward was
the last person to have seen the
pre-med student while he was
home for winter break.
>> Do you think your son could
have been targeted because he
was Jewish?
>> Absolutely.
He was also a gay man.
>> THOMPSON: Samuel Woodward
hasn't been charged with a hate
crime, but the case seems worth
investigating.
And it took place back in Orange
County, California.
I've been looking at this guy
Samuel Woodward, the man accused
of killing Blaze Bernstein in
this park.
At first I thought you have a
gay Jewish college student
stabbed to death.
Maybe this is a hate crime.
What do you know about Woodward?
>> Woodward was a teenager, grew
up in luxury Newport Beach, so
that's the old money of Orange
County.
His family were very devout
Catholics.
They went to one of the
wealthiest parishes in Orange
County, Our Lady Queen of
Angels.
Conservative Catholic parish
right there.
>> THOMPSON: You've been
tracking white supremacist
groups for many years now.
Was Woodward a guy who was on
your radar?
Do you know of him to have been
involved with any long-term O.C.
groups?
>> Nothing.
You have Volksfront here, you
have Hammerskins.
I knew the traditional neo-Nazi
groups.
I had no idea of who this guy
was.
>> THOMPSON: Woodward didn't
seem to be on anybody's radar
here and he didn't appear to be
part of any local white
supremacist group.
His alleged crime was vicious,
but it wasn't clear to me that
he was even part of my story.
>> Anything else the court needs
to address on behalf of the
people?
>> No.
>> THOMPSON: Sam Woodward
betrays no emotion at his
court hearing.
He pleads not guilty.
(cameras clicking)
Defendant is "Woodward."
>> Okay, go ahead and write
that.
I pull Woodward's court file,
but there are precious few
details in it.
There's also not much to be
learned from his schoolmates.
They describe him as an
introvert, and it seems like
most of his life took place
online.
Orange County is starting to
feel like a dead end.
Then I hear from a journalist,
Jake Hanrahan, who gives me
photos of an anonymous Twitter
account showing Sam Woodward
doing paramilitary training with
a neo-Nazi group called
Atomwaffen Division.
My colleague Ali Winston manages
to make contact with the person
who posted the photos.
He's a former Atomwaffen member,
and he points me to another
member who uses the online
handle "Ted Bundy."
We trace him back to his
parents' house in a D.C. suburb,
a neighborhood favored by
members of the intelligence
community.
He uses Nazi imagery on his
Facebook page, posts selfies
with guns, and I've obtained
photos placing him in
Charlottesville.
(dog barking)
So I'm a reporter with
"ProPublica" and PBS
"Frontline," and we're working
on a documentary about the new
neo-Nazis.
This is a Nazi emblem, the black
sun, this is a t-shirt put out
by the group Atomwaffen.
His father will
neither confirm
nor deny that the
pictures on his son's Facebook
page are real.
But the next day I get a call
from his family.
They say he left the group.
That it was too extreme for him
and he hasn't had anything to do
with it for months.
I think you should be aware that
one of the people in the group
that he was involved with is
currently facing charges for
killing a gay Jewish college
student in Southern California.
Their story is difficult to
verify.
Atomwaffen is obsessed with
secrecy, communicating through
encrypted text messages, and
private chats using a service
called Discord.
The former Atomwaffen member
sends us logs of 250,000
messages shared amongst the
group.
Ted Bundy is in the logs, and so
is Sam Woodward.
But something unexpected catches
my eye and I have to go back to
Charlottesville.
At the torch march last August,
Emily Gorcenski had been
assaulted while she livestreamed
the confrontation.
We'd traded information, but
there were new details in the
Atomwaffen Discord logs.
You were sending me messages
when I was in California.
And I think you and I were both
wondering if it was the Rise
Above Movement that came after
you on the night of the 11th.
Then my colleagues and I got
the chat logs for Atomwaffen,
this like much more extreme
neo-Nazi group.
And this guy is talking about
Unite the Right and he's
reporting back to his fellow
Nazis and he says, "Just got in
a fight.
If you see a guy in a tracksuit,
that's me.
I dropkicked Emily Gorcenski."
>> THOMPSON: This guy describes
kicking you by name with your
full name.
We think this guy in the track
suit, it's this guy, Vasilli
Pistolis.
He's a private first class in
the U.S. Marine Corps.
>> I mean that's, that's
unbelievable.
So there is somebody with a
tracksuit.
We have a photo of him.
And if we look, we can see him
back here.
The guy in the Adidas tracksuit.
>> THOMPSON: That's the guy.
>> This is the guy.
And then he comes running in
from the back.
Does a flying dropkick.
Yeah, and he doesn't hit me
because the person he hits is a
few feet over to my right.
But he definitely does come in
and launch himself at people.
And that's kind of what kicked
off the whole group.
>> THOMPSON: And that's where
things got crazy.
>> Yeah, the melee, yeah.
>> THOMPSON: If you look at this
picture I think it's got to be
the same guy.
>> Oh, that's him.
Yeah.
I mean look at the haircut; that
hairline is super distinctive.
>> THOMPSON: Yeah he's got like
the total widow's peak.
So at the same time he would
have been attacking people, he
would have been working for the
U.S. government, serving in the
Marines.
♪ ♪
The military bans membership in
racist groups, and the Pentagon
publicly condemned the violence
in Charlottesville.
But while reporting on Pistolis,
I get an email from a Marine
veteran.
>> Shortly after Unite the
Right, a friend of mine came
across a comment by Pistolis on
Facebook and immediately clicked
through to his profile and
realized this kid's an active
duty Marine and you can't be a
Nazi in the military.
She sent the screenshot my way
because she knew I had served
and she thought maybe I would be
able to get in contact with his
command.
>> THOMPSON: Ed Beck served a
tour in Iraq where he'd been
assigned to the 2nd Marine
Logistics Group-- the same
command Pistolis serves in at
Camp Lejeune.
>> After I was first alerted to
Pistolis I started searching and
just came across other websites
that he had been posting on for
years-- white supremacist
content, racist content,
anti-Semitic content.
>> THOMPSON: Beck had seen the
same footage I had of Pistolis
at the torch march.
And he collected video from
Charlottesville I'd never seen.
>> He had posted a photo of his
costume that he was preparing
for Unite the Right.
>> THOMPSON: So it's the
Punisher baseball cap.
>> The Punisher cap, the flag,
the mask which he ended up not
using.
I started digging into photos
and videos.
You can see Pistolis on the
side.
>> THOMPSON: Right.
>> He turns and starts
advancing.
And he gets ready... to swing.
>> THOMPSON: He was...
everywhere in these images.
>> Right in the middle of it.
And here's one shot of him
attacking.
>> THOMPSON: Oh wow!
I had not seen this.
This is insane.
>> There are multiple videos
showing Pistolis attacking.
>> THOMPSON: Wow.
He's hitting the guy on the
ground, right?
>> Right.
>> THOMPSON: It's vicious.
>> But there were at least a
half dozen videos that captured
his attack on Saturday.
>> THOMPSON: What made you
finally decide, like, "I have
enough information here to call
law enforcement"?
>> Pistolis popped up at the
White Lives Matter rally in
Shelbyville, Tennessee.
That night a neo-Nazi group
assaulted an interracial couple.
>> THOMPSON: There's Pistolis.
>> There's Pistolis.
The Nashville police were
looking for witnesses.
At this point I realized I had
to report him.
I called the military police at
Camp Lejeune.
I told them I had evidence that
he had been a Nazi for years and
that he had assaulted multiple
people at Unite the Right in
Charlottesville.
>> THOMPSON: And you said this
all on the phone call.
>> I said this all on the phone
call.
>> THOMPSON: And what happened?
>> He said he'd send it up the
chain and they might be in
touch.
And I never heard back.
♪ ♪
>> THOMPSON: I speak to the
Marine Corps several times.
They told me they'd opened an
investigation into Pistolis but
it came to nothing.
I made contact with Pistolis
over email, but he denied even
being in Charlottesville.
He tells me to call him.
Hey, it's A.C.
Is this Vasilios?
>> THOMPSON: I know that you
told me that you weren't in
Charlottesville, but I have
found photos of you there, and
messages in different Discord
chats where you're talking about
assaulting people and assaulting
Emily Gorcenski.
>> THOMPSON: Yeah, but there's
photos of you there.
>> THOMPSON: I guess that's it.
You know, you say you weren't in
Charlottesville.
You're starting new.
You don't want to talk.
>> THOMPSON: There's video, man,
of you there.
You know, there's video of you
launching yourself into that
crowd.
It doesn't seem like a joke.
It doesn't seem like (bleep)
posting.
It seems like something else
entirely.
>> THOMPSON: Okay.
All right, man.
♪ ♪
We published stories
on Pistolis that reveal his
identity and his activities
in Charlottesville.
♪ ♪
In response to our reporting,
Congressman Keith Ellison issues
a formal letter to Secretary of
Defense, James Mattis.
Ellison asks him to look into
the case and the presence of
white supremacists in the
military.
Have you heard anything from the
Marine Corps or from Naval
Criminal Investigative Services
sbout this?
>> No, we heard about it from
"ProPublica."
We wrote in about it because
we're concerned about it.
>> THOMPSON: What are you hoping
to get out of that letter?
>> Well, you know, look, we've
seen people, military leaders in
the past actually change policy
and we've seen them make some
strong statements.
I think this is a critical...
because I think what Trump has
actually done is given the
opposite message.
The reality is is that any time
you get a whole bunch of these
young white extremists carrying
tiki torches with no masks
on, through a public street,
they're telling you, "We're
not worried."
>> THOMPSON: "We're not afraid."
>> "We're not afraid, we're
going to just do this."
That is why it's critically
important to be very clear
about the unacceptability of
any extremists, including
these white supremacist
extremists acquiring the best
military training in the world.
Because if somebody like
Pistolis gets the training and
uses it, who's he gonna use it
on?
Maybe his fellow soldiers, maybe
his fellow Americans.
One thing we can do is to shine
a light on this.
Because when we get some light
on it, then somebody somewhere
is gonna say, "Okay, this needs
to become a priority."
And so that's what we're going
to do.
>> THOMPSON: A year after the
Charlottesville rally,
the U.S. attorney's office
in Virginia indicted
eight RAM members or associates.
Michael Miselis and Rob Rundo
are amoung those charged.
In Orange County, the secret
life of Sam Woodward that we
discovered has caught up with
him.
Prosecutors have now charged
him with a hate crime.
For their part, the Marines
court martialed Vasilios
Pistolis and ousted him from
the Corps.
But the movement that violently
erupted in the streets of
Charlottesville hasn't gone
away.
Our source inside Atomwaffen
says the group has been adding
members, and that Pistolis is
not the only soldier in its
ranks.
This story is far from over.
>> The stock market is down 21
percent.
>> NARRATOR: 10 years after the
great recession.
>> That took a piece of our
soul.
>> NARRATOR: Cities like Dayton
are still struggling to come
back.
>> I actually worked in this
same exact plant for GM.
I'd say it probably averaged out
around $35 an hour.
At Fuyao you started out at $12
an hour.
>> Dayton is not unique in the
problems that we are facing.
But, what is unique is that
Dayton is still small enough to
fix this.
Captioned by
Media Access Group at WGBH
access.wgbh.org
>> Go to pbs.org/Frontline for
our latest reporting with
ProPublica about hate crimes.
>> Then coming November 29th...
>> I'm Raney Aronson,
Executive Producer of
Frontline.
Our podcast, "The Frontline
Dispatch", is back for 
season two.
>> It's so risky.
I don't want to be walking
around like this...
>> I think it's gut-wrenching
that he knew that he could 
go out there...
>> You start hearing
bullets fly over your head,
“Phewing!”
>> Subscribe now on
our website, or wherever you
listen to podcasts.
To order Frontline's
"Documenting Hate:
Charlottesville" on DVD
visit shop PBS,
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