Neo-Nazi Litterbug Is Spending Thanksgiving in the Slammer
- Oops!Something went wrong.Please try again later.
The past month hasn’t given Jon Minadeo II much to be thankful for. But detractors of the man who bills himself as “AMERICAS #1 ANTI SEMITE” have certainly been celebrating a No-Nazi November.
Minadeo, 40, runs an antisemitic hate group called the Goyim Defense League — its name and acronym serving as ugly sendups of the Anti-Defamation League, or ADL. After a headline-making summer, Minadeo has had run of bad luck. The meme-savvy neo-Nazi has spent the past month in jail on a littering charge. While he’s been in the clink, his favorite social media tool for harassing young people with hate speech, Omegle, has been shut down. To top it off, on Nov. 29, Minadeo faces a new trial, one that could see him locked up for as long as a year.
Minadeo has three main strategies for spreading hate. The first is by paper: Distributing antisemitic fliers that promote perverse lies, including that Jews should be blamed for everything from the “covid agenda” and “Disney child grooming” to “Trump’s campaign funding” and “abortion and hookup culture.” The second is digital: Livestreaming on his own network, GoyimTV, where Minadeo broadcasts as a character called “Handsome Truth.” The third is by marching: In September, Minadeo and his loyalists joined forces with a hardcore neo-Nazi group called Blood Tribe, taking over an Orlando-area freeway overpass. The mob of hate demonstrators performed Hitler salutes and shouted threats like “Jews get the rope!”
The first strategy has gotten Minadeo in significant legal trouble. At the beginning of November, Minadeo was found guilty by a jury in Florida of “attempted littering” related to distributing his antisemitic hate flyers in West Palm Beach this past March. According to the warrant for his arrest, Minadeo was throwing the fliers from the back of a U-Haul “onto the public street, in the swale, and into residents’ yards.” The cop on the scene recovered only a few fliers from the street, so Minaeo was charged with “attempted littering” based on the stockpile still in the U-Haul, described in court as “over 700 bags with white paper and brown pellets, weighing at 47.5 pounds.”
In court, Minadeo made the argument that his foul flyers were protected free speech. “Mr. Minadeo was delivering flyers with a political message … packaged … in a manner that keeps its contents sealed and prevents that package from flying away,” his attorney wrote. “At no point did Mr. Minadeo distribute garbage or trash … Despite anyone’s opinion as to what was on the flyers, these flyers are political and religious in nature.”
The state of Florida countered with a motion that insisted the paper in baggies was trash — in both a literal and figurative sense: “Paper is clearly defined as what can constitute litter in the statute,” the state attorney argued. “Additionally, the paper is not political or religious in nature, the paper contains unsubstantiated claims attacking a specific religion and are correctly classified as trash having no true political essence.”
Ultimately, Minadeo’s First Amendment hail mary didn’t convince the judge. The trial went forward and Minadeo was convicted on the misdemeanor — and sentenced to jail, beginning Nov. 1.
Minadeo’s experience — as documented on his Gab account by a guest poster named “Ned,” who has been coordinating with the hate leader — has been miserable. Minadeo spent his first week-plus in quarantine. “He’s in 1 cell with 5 guys and 1 toilet,” Ned reported. Nonetheless, Ned added, Minadeo had spent his time “red pilling everyone he can” about the “filthy” targets of his hate.
Before long, odd handwritten legal filings began showing up in the court record. On Nov. 17, someone filed an “Extraordinary Emergency” appeal arguing that “Jon is jailed for throwing political newspapers.” The signature line of the filing is not a lawyer’s, however. It reads instead: “Held Hostage.” A similar filing claiming “indigent status” for Minadeo is also signed “Held Hostage.” Minadeo’s lawyer, Laura Wright, could not explain the documents, telling Rolling Stone: “I have no idea what those are. I certainly did not file anything like that.”
The filings, in fact, were made on Minadeo’s behalf by one of his GDL followers who spells his name “Colby-A: Frank.” Reached by phone, Frank said he’s not a lawyer and refused to answer whether Minadeo had requested he make the filings, saying only, “He wants my help for sure.” Frank then accused this reporter of trying to “blackmail” him before insisting “you’re acting extremely Jewish,” and concluding the call with a “fuck you!”
Minadeo will spend Thanksgiving behind bars. He’s expected to be released on Nov. 25. His Gab account promises that Minadeo will perform a livestream on Nov. 26. But that show won’t feature the usual exploits of “Handsome Truth” now that Omegle no longer exists. The social network — which operates like Chat Roulette, linking up strangers for chance face-to-face video encounters — was shut down on Nov. 8 amid an avalanche of litigation claiming the network exposed children to predators.
Minadeo’s use of the platform was highly controversial. While filming his livestream for a neo-Nazi audience, Minadeo would fire up Omegle, seeking to link with random teens, and even children. He’d reel them in, initially, by posing as a friendly drag artist. But Minadeo would quickly drop the act — and either attempt to groom the young people into flashing Hitler salutes and using slurs, or heap that kind of abuse on the young people, hurling the N-word and anti-gay slurs at them. Minadeo’s GoyimTV followers found this act funny, and would reward his exploits with cash donations.
Minadeo’s return to public life is likely to be short. On Nov. 29 he will return to court to face more charges for littering — stemming from another March incident in which he was caught tossing hate flyers. In that case, the offending material was meticulously collected from the West Palm Beach neighborhood where it was scattered, and weighed. Due to the volume of litter he’s accused of tossing — nearly 30 pounds — Minadeo faces up to a year in jail. Minadeo has pleaded not guilty to the misdemeanor. (Minadeo alleged offense predates a new legal enhancement in Florida that allows hate literature dumping to be prosecuted as a felony.)
On Gab, Minadeo’s guest poster Ned wrote that the hate leader may have some tricks up his sleeve in his attempt to avoid another term in lockup. “We can’t give away any strategies we are planning to use,” he wrote to Minadeo’s followers, “but we’re doing whatever we can, and will use whatever resources, to keep him from having to go back to jail.”
More from Rolling Stone
Best of Rolling Stone
