James K. Warner | |
|---|---|
 Warner in 1962 | |
| Born | James Konrad Warner February 2, 1939 |
| Died | before 2019 |
| Political party | |
| Other political affiliations | |
| Spouse | Debra Coleman |
James Konrad Warner (February 2, 1939 – died before 2019) was an American neo-Nazi activist. He was an early recruit to the American Nazi Party as part of the core of the party and national secretary. He later became involved with the National States' Rights Party. After moving to Los Angeles, he was converted to Christian Identity by Wesley Swift and started the New Christian Crusade Church. Warner succeeded Richard Girndt Butler as leader of the Christian Defense League. He eventually moved both the New Christian Crusade Church and the Christian Defense League to Louisiana. Warner later became the Louisiana Grand Dragon of David Duke's Knights of the Ku Klux Klan.
Early life
[edit]James Konrad Warner[1] was born February 2,[2] 1939,[3] in Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania, the son of Conrad L. Warner. His parents were divorced. He graduated from Coughlin High School in 1957. He belonged to the school's German Club, though barely passed the language and was placed 171 out of a class of 198 students. Teachers described him as not very social but not a troublemaker either. He was married briefly but was divorced by 1963.[4]
Politics
[edit]Neo-Nazism
[edit]
Warner served in the United States Air Force out of high school for two years. He also briefly served in the U.S. Navy. He was ultimately discharged due to his neo-Nazi beliefs.[4][5] He was an early recruit to George Lincoln Rockwell's American Nazi Party (ANP) and was one of the men who formed the core of the party.[6] He joined in mid 1959.[5] Waner made an unsuccessful attempt to integrate Odinism into the ANP as the religious dimension of the movement, after which he reportedly gave all of his Norse material to Else Christensen.[7] He eventually became the national secretary,[8] but left in 1960, when he joined the National States' Rights Party. He edited its newsletter.[4][9] Another story says he was expelled by Rockwell because Rockwell believed he had stolen the ANP's mailing list.[3]
After his discharge he left Pennsylvania in 1962 to find work in Birmingham, Alabama, where he lived at the NSRP headquarters.[4] He eventually became associate editor of the NSRP's monthly publication, Thunderbolt.[10] In 1963, Warner was sentenced to 180 days in prison and fined $100 on trespassing charges trying to picket negotiations at the University of Alabama.[4][11][3] Again accused of stealing a mailing list, a charge which this time led to a court case, this time from the NSRP and Edward Reed Fields. The case was settled out of court but severely injured his reputation in neo-Nazi circles (mailing list theft being considered "an unforgivable sin" among neo-Nazis).[3]
Having destroyed his reputation in the east, Warner decided to move to California, where he became affiliated with Ralph Perry Forbes and his branch of the National Socialist White People's Party, the rebranded American Nazi Party, though by this time Rockwell had been assassinated.[3] While in the California branch, Forbes underwent leadership troubles due to his conversion to the racist Christian doctrine of Christian Identity; several of the party members dissented, led by Allen Vincent, including Warner. Rockwell's successor Matt Koehl supported Forbes, resulting in a schism. Warner attempted to lead this schism, but the rest of the members did not accept him.[3][12]
Christian Identity
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After failing to take over the Californian branch of the NSWPP, he was converted to Christian Identity by Wesley Swift.[13][14] In 1971, Warner founded the New Christian Crusade Church, a Christian Identity church.[15] Warner considered himself the spiritual heir to Swift.[16] After the publication of Arthur Koestler's The Thirteenth Tribe, Identity ministers like Warner used it as support that the Jews were not God's chosen people, with no claim to the land in Palestine.[17] In 1979, Warner donated portions of his library to the American Heritage Center at the University of Wyoming.[18] His second wife, Debra Coleman Warner, was also involved in politics.[5] They had a son, Scott James Warner.[19][20]
Following the death of Swift, Identity minister Richard Girnt Butler assumed control of Swift's church and moved it to Idaho, leaving control of the Christian Defense League to Warner. Eventually, Warner moved the Christian Defense League and the New Christian Crusade Church to Louisiana.[21] Warner used the New Christian Crusade Church to speak of ZOG, that with "a hidden hand... secretly controls the flow of events in Mainstream America."[22] Proclaiming that since America was ruled by Jews, Warner claimed that the Jews used this power to perpetuate racial genocide.[23]
Warner later became the Louisiana Grand Dragon of David Duke's Knights of the Ku Klux Klan.[7] As of 2007, he was still active in neo-Nazi circles. when millionaire Richard Cotter, Jr. died, he gave $500,000 of his fortune to Warner's church, resulting in Warner's name making the headlines in 2000.[24][1] He was still alive in 2011.[13]
Death
[edit]Warner preceded his son, Scott James Warner, who died July 28, 2018, in death.[19]
Works
[edit]- The Law of Odin
- Aryans and Jews: A Study in Racial Differences
- The White Racial Basis of American Civilization
- Secrets of the Synagogue of Satan
- The Real Hate Mongers
References
[edit]Footnotes
[edit]- ^ a b Newton 2014, p. 89.
- ^ US Senate 1967.
- ^ a b c d e f Atkins 2011, p. 147.
- ^ a b c d e "Air Force Veteran Is Accused Of Conspiracy In School Disorders". Wilkes-Barre Times Leader. September 24, 1963. pp. 1, 3. Retrieved May 19, 2025 – via Newspapers.com.
- ^ a b c Atkins 2002, p. 306.
- ^ Simonelli 1995, pp. 562–563.
- ^ a b Gardell 2003, p. 167.
- ^ Simonelli 1999, p. 27.
- ^ Kellman 1964, p. 69.
- ^ Kellman 1963, p. 137.
- ^ Kellman 1964.
- ^ Kaplan 2000, pp. 1–3, 558–562.
- ^ a b Atkins 2011, p. 148.
- ^ Barkun 1997, p. 68.
- ^ Barkun 1997, p. 209.
- ^ Barkun 1997, p. 62.
- ^ Barkun 1997, p. 145.
- ^ "James K. Warner collection - Archives West". archiveswest.orbiscascade.org. Retrieved March 28, 2024.
- ^ a b "Scott James Warner Obituary". Picayune Funeral Home. Retrieved August 20, 2025.
- ^ "Defeated candidate sues over Holocaust letter". The Blade. Toledo, Ohio. June 2, 1996. p. 3. Retrieved August 20, 2025 – via Newspapers.com.
- ^ Barkun 1997, pp. 69–70.
- ^ Barkun 1990, p. 127.
- ^ Barkun 1990, p. 130.
- ^ "A Man in Good Standing --With a Strange Legacy". Los Angeles Times. Associated Press. December 9, 2000. ISSN 0458-3035. Retrieved April 26, 2025.
Sources
[edit]
- Atkins, Stephen E. (2002). "Warner, James K. (1947?- )". Encyclopedia of Modern American Extremists and Extremist Groups. Westport: Greenwood Press. pp. 306–307. ISBN 978-0-313-31502-2.
- Atkins, Stephen E. (2011). "Warner and the Christian Defense League". Encyclopedia of Right-Wing Extremism in Modern American History. Santa Barbara: ABC-CLIO. pp. 147–148. ISBN 978-1-59884-350-7.
- Barkun, Michael (1990). "Racist Apocalypse: Millennialism on the Far Right". American Studies. 31 (2): 121–140. ISSN 0026-3079. JSTOR 40642392.
- Barkun, Michael (1997). Religion and the Racist Right: the Origins of the Christian Identity Movement. University of North Carolina Press. ISBN 0-8078-2328-7.
- Gardell, Mattias (2003). Gods of the Blood: The Pagan Revival and White Separatism. Durham: Duke University Press. ISBN 978-0-8223-3071-4.
- Kaplan, Jeffrey, ed. (2000). Encyclopedia of White Power: A Sourcebook on the Radical Racist Right. Walnut Creek: AltaMira Press. ISBN 978-0-7425-0340-3.
- Kellman, George (1963). "Anti-Jewish Agitation". The American Jewish Year Book. 64: 135–144. ISSN 0065-8987. JSTOR 23603682.
- Kellman, George (1964). "Anti-Jewish Agitation". The American Jewish Year Book. 65: 67–74. ISSN 0065-8987. JSTOR 23602976.
- Riots, Civil and Criminal Disorders: Hearings Before the Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations of the Committee on Government Operations, United States Senate ... U.S. Government Printing Office. 1967.
- Newton, Michael (2014) [2007]. The Ku Klux Klan: History, Organization, Language, Influence and Activities of America's Most Notorious Secret Society. Jefferson: McFarland & Company. ISBN 978-0-7864-9559-7.
- Simonelli, Frederick J. (Spring 1995). "The American Nazi Party, 1958–1967". The Historian. 57 (3): 553–566. doi:10.1111/j.1540-6563.1995.tb02019.x. JSTOR 24451464.
- Simonelli, Frederick J. (1999). American Fuehrer: George Lincoln Rockwell and the American Nazi Party. Urbana: University of Illinois Press. ISBN 978-0-252-02285-2.