Teddy Joseph Von Nukem, who had changed his name from Teddy Landrum to embrace his German ancestry, was found dead in the snow outside his Missouri home in the US after failing to attend his trial for drug smuggling. The man who became one of the most prominent faces of the 2017 white supremacist rally in Charlottesville has killed himself before facing trial. An arrest warrant had been issued by a judge after neo-Nazi Teddy Joseph Von Nukem failed to show up to court for a drug trafficking charges. Von Nukem had been arrested at the US Mexico border on March 17, 2021, allegedly with 15 kgs of fentanyl pills hidden in the car he was driving. According to law enforcement records, the suspect quickly admitted he had been paid the equivalent of around $215 to smuggle the pills. He was released pending trial and was meant to appear in federal court in Tuscon, Arizona, on January 30 but he didn’t turn up. At about the same time US District Judge Rosemary Marquez issued a warrant for his arrest, Von Nukem’s wife discovered his body outside their Missouri home. He had walked out into the snow behind the shed and shot himself. (…) He left behind a wife and five children aged under nine. His obituary read: “Some people knew Ted and understood he was a different type of fellow and had different views of things.” After pictures of the tikki-wielding far-right figures at the Charlottesville Rally emerged, former classmates quickly identified him. One told local reporters he was known as “token goth kid” who had “an unsettling interest in Nazi Germany.” (…) His death was first reported by independent journalist Molly Conger from Charlottesville. She also suspected Von Nukem took part in the brutal beating of African American Deandre Harris in a parking garage the day of the rally.
via mirror: Screaming Nazi who waved torch at Charlottesville white supremacist rally is found dead
