For some racial supremacists, it is a highly visible symbol for everything they hate. The U.S. Holocaust Museum in Washington, DC, first opened its doors in 1993, providing millions with a terrible but true window to the past. New classes of FBI Agents are taken on a tour of the museum to show these fledgling G-men and women what can happen if a society turns lawless. While most reasonable people accept that over 6,000,000 Jews were exterminated by the Nazi's during WWII, there are some that attempt to rewrite history to reflect their own twisted views, to include that Jews are the ruination of society, they somehow deserved to be slaughtered by the millions, and that Hitler and his murderous minions were somehow justified in their actions, although many who subscribe to such a belief system reject the idea that Jews were actually victims of Nazi atrocities.

James W. von Brunn, age 89, was one of these twisted believers. He reportedly belonged to Mensa, the society for top scorers on intelligence tests, but was also a mentally challenged man whose dark mind had been filled with hatred and lies for decades. His former wife of 10 years reportedly described him as an abusive alcoholic whose hatred against blacks and Jews ate him up like a cancer. That emotional cancer once again metastasized for Brunn when he attempted to enter the Holocaust Museum on June 10th at about 1:00 PM, this while armed with a 10-round capable .22 rifle. In the believed killer's 2002 red Hyundai, investigators found additional rounds for the rifle and a handwritten note that indicated "you want my weapons - this is how you'll get them. The Holocaust is a lie. Obama was created by Jews."

For von Brunn, the museum must have been both a symbol and a target rich environment, one filled, for his purposes, with potential victims of opportunity. He immediately saw and shot to death an armed security guard; subsequently identified as Special Police Officer Stephen T. Johns, age 39, a six-year veteran of that security force. Von Brunn double parked his vehicle (ironically with a handicapped tag) in front of the museum and walked to the door where Officer Johns, seening the approach of an elderly man, simply tried to open the door for von Brunn, at which time he was shot to death. Two other guards returned von Brunn's fire, striking him one or more times at the scene, this as hundreds of museum visitors scrambled to get out of the way of the bullets flying in the area. Von Brunn was transported to a local hospital in critical condition and will be charged with multiple violations, to include murder.

Von Brunn spent six and one-half years in federal prison in the 1980's, this, when, at age 61, he was caught on December 7, 1981, while trying to enter a Federal Reserve Board meeting carrying a bag full of weapons, to include a hand gun, a sawed off shotgun and a knife. On that occasion he also was confronted by a security guard who found the weapons and arrested him. He would later blame the blacks on his jury and the Jews involved in the criminal justice system for his conviction. While he said he only wanted to make a citizen's arrest of the board, (and perhaps kidnap Alan Greenspan), the hate continued to grow in the man who once told his ex-wife that he would die with his boots on. She said he wasn't simply going to die of old age and that he would eventually go out in his own way and take some people with him.

The same man who ranted and raged against blacks and Jews on his web site apparently once again put his twisted thoughts and words into action, in this case what may prove to be an act of "suicide by cop." I once dealt with a man who did something similar, in that case rob a bank and force us to shoot him. He, perhaps like von Brunn, wanted to go out his own way and wanted police to kill him. He, also like von Brunn, got his own way as in his case we killed him after he shot a female bank teller to death. I later found his personal diary. One entry dated 13 months prior to his death indicated he was "going to enter a neighborhood bank and make the police kill him." He got his way, and it only took him 13 months to carry it out.

When von Brunn wrote about his life on his web site, he discussed certain "character shapers" that he said made him the man he was. Things like life on the Mississippi River (perhaps like Mark Twain's 'Tom Sawyer'), his alleged service on a PT boat in WWII (perhaps like JFK) but in von Brunn's case he would later say he served on the wrong side, this while bragging about his various run-in's with the law over the years. The man who said Hitler's worst mistake was not gassing the Jews, therefore continuing his denial of the gas chambers in the concentration camps of WWII, would now have his way. His personal accounts on his Internet entries tend to blame blacks and Jews for his problems in life and rambled on that America would eventually be governed by blacks with the Jews controlling the media; calamities that he obviously believed had come to fruition. His family had reportedly "disowned" him years ago because of his racial hatred, with most family members believing him to be mentally ill. His book, self-described on his web site as "a new hard-hitting expose of the JEW CONSPIRACY to destroy the White gene pool," one he entitled "Kill the Best Gentiles," fortunately, was a book without a publisher.

While the vast majority of Americans see the various hate groups in this country as the fringe of the fringe, i.e., budding sociopaths or simple losers who seek their identity through the hatred of others, there are those in law enforcement who know that the combination of hatred, frustration and weapons can easily spell murder. As an FBI hostage negotiator in 1985, we dealt with The Covenant, the Sword, and the Arm of the Lord (CSA), a right-wing, neo-nazi, religiously oriented survivalist hate group, this after engaging in a limited siege of their rural Arkansas compound. We had surrounded their multi-acre "home" and negotiated with the leaders of the group of 85 heavily armed men, women and children for almost five days before obtaining their non-violent surrender. Upon entering their compound, in addition to firearms and explosives, we found barrels of liquid cyanide that one member of the group told me they had considered introducing into the Chicago drinking water system to kill blacks. For him the loss of the members of other racial groups who drank the same poisoned water, like those killed by Timothy McVeigh in the Oklahoma City Federal Building bombing, would have been simply collateral damage. Hate, as we have seen far too many times, knows no boundries or limits. Members of this group, like von Brunn, believed their common enemy was "ZOG" the Zionist Occupational Government they thought secretly ran America.

Law enforcement has identified almost 1,000 hate groups in and around the U.S., to include both blacks and whites as well as others. The election of Barrack Obama, the nation's first black president, (who Brunn did not believe was a U.S. citizen), and the ongoing immigration issues in this country have done much to galvanize the hate groups and provide them with identifiable targets on which to focus their hatred. Brown skin, black skin and white skinned people alike are targets of hate and violence by other racial groups. Many of these groups have advocated the purchase and stockpiling of weapons, fearing that the current administration will enact new laws to restrict their ability to purchase guns and "defend themselves" against so called racial hordes. With the loss of millions of jobs across the country, many are looking for someone to blame, and people who look different become easy targets.

In a report released in April of 2009, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security attempted to warn law enforcement about a rise in rightwing extremist activity, indicating the the election of President Obama, and returning military war veterans who are disgruntled about the war in the Middle East, could add to the ranks of racially oriented hate groups. Making reference to individuals who allegedly plotted to attack then presidential candidate Obama, the report further adds that since November 2008, over 7 million people have applied to buy guns, while only 203 U.S. military veterans were known to have joined active hate groups. Again, one need only think of Timothy McVeigh to see what one man with military training and and an all-consuming personal vendetta can do. It is the McVeigh type of "lone wolf" extremist that worries many in law enforcement as it is virtually impossible to detect them or their plans before they take action. A recent example of such a person is Abdulhakim Muhammad, the alleged Muslim convert charged with fatally shooting an American soldier at a military recruiting center last week. He said that he doesn't consider the killing a murder because U.S. military action in the Middle East made the killing justified. For some, if you want to kill it is not hard to find a reason, or a victim.

No one just snaps though. There are always signs, preincident indicators that are missed, disregarded, or simply ignored. In von Brunn's case, after 89 years, some will say, "who could have known?" One news report suggests that a friend noticed a change in his tone, with von Brunn indicating that his Social Security check had been stopped, probably, he thought, by someone in the government who was against his racial writings. He was now living hand to mouth. In my past study of "suicide by cop," I identified other signs or indicators that were also present in von Brunn. These included depression, giving away personal possessions to include his computer (his link to the outside world of similar believers), the more violent tone of his messages ("It's time to kill all the Jews"), and one of his last Internet postings, telling his readers that they should not expect to hear from him again. Who could have known...

For those who subscribe to a belief system like von Brunn's, they may believe themselves backed into a corner and, in some cases, they come out shooting. Though their numbers are relatively small, the twisted view of history that some preach, and the blame that they place on others can see their fractured ideas turned into action, and the targets of their anger and frustration turned into targets for their rifles and bombs. This as their numbers appear to be growing.