For years, the man who created much of the modern neo-Nazi propaganda machine was a ghost. VICE News tracked him down to his parents’ home in a suburb in Ottawa, Canada. In 2018, a special fourth edition of Siege, a hyper-violent neo-Nazi insurgency manual penned in the 1980s, was released. On the cover that was shared thousands of times, drawn in silhouette and with harsh lines, was a figure of a masked man with the face of a white skeleton and bright red dots for eyes. The sketch helped popularize the way followers of Siege, written by a man who is now listed as a terrorist entity by the Canadian government, would forever see and dress themselves: as murderous insurgents, intent on carrying out acts of terrorism to accelerate the collapse of society, all the while wearing what is now their trademark black skull-mask balaclava. Not much else was really known about the illustrator of this iconic image other than that he went by the alias “Dark Foreigner” and lived in Canada. For years, he was like a ghost; as several others in the fast-growing movement went to jail or were doxed, he carried on spreading his prolific propaganda on fringe art sites and inspiring terror groups the world over. Until now, the public has never known his true identity: Patrick Gordon MacDonald, a 20-something graphic designer from Ottawa, Canada, who lives with his parents. In a quiet capital city, under the noses of authorities, MacDonald helped define the aesthetics of a terrorist movement that has worried law enforcement agencies around the world. A person who was formerly in the scene with MacDonald told VICE World News of his identity. Multiple confidential sources monitoring neo-Nazi terrorists independently confirmed the young Canadian was indeed the prolific neo-Nazi propagandist. Multiple emails sent to MacDonald, family members, and people the Canadian had done work for went unanswered. Despite the lack of response, email tracking software shows the emails sent to MacDonald were viewed over 30 times and those sent to his family members and customers were likewise opened and viewed numerous times, but not responded to. VICE World News tracked MacDonald down to his doorstep in suburban Ottawa to hand-deliver a list of questions in an envelope. The woman who answered the door refused to comment or give access to MacDonald.
via vice: Unmasking ‘Dark Foreigner’: The Artist Who Fueled a Neo-Nazi Terror Movement