Leo Felton

Last updated
LeoOladimu.JPG

Leo Vincelette Felton (born 1970, Silver Spring, Maryland) is an American white supremacist of African American descent [1] who was convicted of bank robbery and plotting to build a bomb in Boston to attack Jewish-Americans, colloquially referred to as the 2002 white supremacist terror plot. [2] Felton was released from prison in 2019 after serving 17 years [ citation needed ].

Contents

Early life

Leo Felton's father, Calvin Felton (b. 1930), was a black architect, while his mother, Corinne Vincelette (b. 1931), was a white voice and diction professor who became involved in the civil rights movement. [3] His parents divorced when he was two, and he was raised in Gaithersburg, Maryland. [4]

Criminal activities

Felton spent 11 years (1990–2001) in prison for the assault of a taxi driver [5] [6] during a road rage incident. His prison sentence was extended for attacking two black inmates. [7] In prison, he became an organizer for white supremacist groups, organizing book reviews and exercise while obscuring his ancestry. He found inspiration from the White Order of Thule and read Francis Parker Yockey's Imperium , which led him to believe that race was spiritual instead of biological. [2] [8]

Out of prison and married, Felton began an affair with Erica Chase, a 21-year-old white supremacist. [9] Felton robbed a bank with a friend from prison and forged money in order to buy materials to create a fertilizer bomb. It is unclear what the target was to be. An attendant at a donut shop spotted a counterfeit $20 Chase tried to pass her. She alerted an off-duty Boston police officer, who then arrested Felton and Chase. Felton was sentenced to 27 years in prison in 2002 for bank robbery, conspiracy to commit bank robbery and other crimes.[ citation needed ]

Felton was released from federal custody on December 12, 2020.[ citation needed ]

Personal life

Felton changed his last name from Felton to Oladimu in 2008.[ citation needed ] He is an Odinist. [10]

See also

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">The Order (white supremacist group)</span> American white supremacist terrorist group

The Order, also known as the Brüder Schweigen, Silent Brotherhood or less commonly known as the Aryan Resistance Movement, was a Neo-Nazi terrorist organization active in the United States between September 1983 and December 1984. The group raised funds via armed robbery. Ten members were tried and convicted for racketeering, and two for their role in the 1984 murder of radio talk show host Alan Berg.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">2000 millennium attack plots</span> Planned terrorist attacks linked to al-Qaeda in the year 2000

A series of Islamist terrorist attacks linked to al-Qaeda were planned to occur on or near January 1, 2000, in the context of millennium celebrations, including bombing plots against four tourist sites in Jordan, the Los Angeles International Airport (LAX), USS The Sullivans, and the hijacking of Indian Airlines Flight 814.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Aryan Republican Army</span> White nationalist terrorist gang

The Aryan Republican Army (ARA), also dubbed "The Midwest Bank bandits" by the FBI and law-enforcement, was a white nationalist terrorist gang which robbed 22 banks in the Midwest from 1994 to 1996. The bank robberies were spearheaded by Donna Langan. The gang, who had links to Neo-Nazism and white supremacism, were alleged to have conspired with convicted terrorist Timothy McVeigh in the months before the Oklahoma City bombing terrorist attack. Although it has never been proven, many theorists believe the ARA funneled robbery money to help fund the bombing as a direct response to the Waco and Ruby Ridge sieges.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Joseph Paul Franklin</span> American serial killer

Joseph Paul Franklin was an American neo-Nazi terrorist and serial killer who engaged in a murder spree spanning the late 1970s and early 1980s.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">J. B. Stoner</span> American terrorist and politician

Jesse Benjamin Stoner Jr. was an American lawyer, white supremacist, neo-Nazi, segregationist politician, and domestic terrorist who perpetrated the 1958 bombing of the Bethel Baptist Church in Birmingham, Alabama, but was not convicted for the bombing of the church until 1980.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">ADX Florence</span> Federal supermax prison located in Fremont County, Colorado, US

The United States Penitentiary, Administrative Maximum Facility, commonly known as ADX Florence or The Florence Supermax, is an American federal prison in Fremont County near Florence, Colorado, operated by the Federal Bureau of Prisons, a division of the United States Department of Justice. ADX Florence, constructed in 1994 and opened one year later, is classed as a supermax or "control unit" prison, that provides a higher, more controlled level of custody than a maximum security prison. ADX Florence forms part of the Federal Correctional Complex, Florence, which is situated on 49 acres of land and houses different facilities with varying degrees of security, including the adjacent United States Penitentiary, Florence High.

The White Order of Thule was a loosely organized American society formed in the mid-1990s by federal prisoner Peter Georgacarakos, art school graduate Michael Lujan and New Age occultist Joseph Kerrick. It described itself as an "esoteric brotherhood working toward the revitalization of the Culture-Soul of the European people". The Southern Poverty Law Center has described it as a racist hate group based in Deer Park, Washington. The group ceased publication of their newsletter Crossing the Abyss and announced that they were disbanding in 2000.

Chevie O'Brien Kehoe is an American convicted murderer. He is serving three consecutive life sentences for the kidnapping, torture, and murder of William Mueller and his family. His accomplice, Daniel Lewis Lee, was sentenced to death for the murders, and was executed on July 14, 2020.

Earl Leslie Krugel was the coordinator of the Jewish Defense League in the Western United States. In 2005, he was sentenced to prison on charges of terrorism after he confessed to plotting, with the group's leader Irv Rubin, to blow up the office of Arab-American congressman Darrell Issa and the King Fahd mosque in Culver City, California. He was kept in protective custody for three years for the 2001 bomb plot. He was transferred to a medium security federal prison following his sentencing where he was then murdered three days later by a fellow inmate, who struck him in the head with a block of concrete.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Michael Brescia</span> American bank robber and white supremacist

Michael William Brescia is an American convicted bank robber who has also been alleged to have been involved in the Oklahoma City bombing.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Emily Harris</span> SLA member

Emily Harris was, along with her husband William Harris (1945–), a member of the Symbionese Liberation Army (SLA), an American left-wing terrorist group involved in murder, kidnapping, and bank robberies. In the 1970s, she was convicted of kidnapping Patty Hearst.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">United States Penitentiary, Florence High</span> United States federal prison in Colorado

The United States Penitentiary, Florence High is a high-security United States federal prison for male inmates in Colorado. It is operated by the Federal Bureau of Prisons, a division of the United States Department of Justice. USP Florence High is part of the Federal Correctional Complex, Florence, which is situated on 49 acres (20 ha) of land and houses different facilities with varying degrees of security. It is named "Florence High" in order to differentiate it from the United States Penitentiary, Florence ADMAX, the federal supermax prison located in the same complex.

The Tyler poison gas plot was an American domestic terrorism plan in Tyler, Texas, thwarted in April 2003 with the arrest of three individuals and the seizure of a cyanide gas bomb along with a large arsenal. Authorities had been investigating the white supremacist conspirators for several years and the case received little media coverage and limited attention in public from the government.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Terrorism in the United States</span> Systematic or threatened use of violence to create a general climate of fear

In the United States, a common definition of terrorism is the systematic or threatened use of violence in order to create a general climate of fear to intimidate a population or government and thereby effect political, religious, or ideological change. This article serves as a list and a compilation of acts of terrorism, attempts to commit acts of terrorism, and other such items which pertain to terrorist activities which are engaged in by non-state actors or spies who are acting in the interests of state actors or persons who are acting without the approval of foreign governments within the domestic borders of the United States.

In 2002, a pair of white supremacists planned to bomb a series of institutions and people associated with African American and American Jewish communities.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Faisal Shahzad</span> American convicted terrorist incarcerated in a US federal prison

Faisal Shahzad is a Pakistani-American citizen who was arrested for the attempted May 1, 2010, Times Square car bombing. On June 21, 2010, in Federal District Court in Manhattan, he confessed to 10 counts arising from the bombing attempt. Throughout his court appearance, Shahzad was unrepentant. The United States Attorney indicated there was no plea deal, so Shahzad faced the maximum sentence, a mandatory life term.

Wolves of Vinland is a Norse neopagan group based in the outskirts of Lynchburg, Virginia. In 2018, the Southern Poverty Law Center added the Wolves of Vinland to its list of hate groups.

The Fort Smith sedition trial was a 1988 trial of fourteen white supremacists accused of plotting to overthrow the United States federal government and conspiring to assassinate federal officials. The fourteen defendants were acquitted after a two-month trial. One of the jurors later married one of the defendants, while another said they agreed with many of their views.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Soldiers of Aryan Culture</span> White supremacist prison gang in the United States

The Soldiers of Aryan Culture (SAC), sometimes referred to as Soldiers of the Aryan Culture and Soldiers of an Aryan Culture, is a large American white supremacist prison gang.

References

  1. Haskell, David D. (11 December 2002). "Supremacist of sentenced in bomb plot". upi.com. UPI . Retrieved 30 July 2016. Though Felton is a self-described white supremacist, his father is a black architect and his mother a white civil rights activist.
  2. 1 2 Turn It Down Archived June 14, 2006, at the Wayback Machine
  3. SPLCenter.org: From the Belly of the Beast Archived September 3, 2005, at the Wayback Machine
  4. Moser, Bob (18 December 2002). "Leo Felton's Prison Plot, Aryan Unit One, Hits the Streets". splcenter.org. Southern Poverty Law Center . Retrieved 30 July 2016.
  5. "Prison for Bomb Plot Supremacist". Los Angeles Times . Associated Press. 12 December 2002. Retrieved 30 July 2016.
  6. "Two with Ties to White Supremacy Suspected in Plot to Bomb Boston Sites". adl.org. Anti-Defamation League. 20 June 2001. Retrieved 30 July 2016.
  7. Terror suspect no racist, supremacist, father says Boston Globe/July 4, 2001 By Farah Stockman
  8. Tough, Paul (2003-05-23). "The Black White Supremacist". New York Times Magazine . p. 42. ()
  9. US v. Chase and Felton 01-10198-NG, Eastern Dist. Mass.
  10. Carless, Will (25 May 2017). "An ancient Nordic religion is inspiring white supremacist terror/" . Retrieved 24 July 2018.