This article was made possible by several contributors and was reviewed by Panic.
The Background
In March of 2016, while a student at Edinboro, Thomas Bauder apparently put up Neo-Nazi propaganda in the Bayfront neighborhood of Erie, PA and was arrested and charged with disorderly conduct. The charges were eventually dropped (partly due to Bauder’s father defending him to police and school administrators), which apparently cost a brave comrade her reputation. In his own words:
Yeah, the only reason these people dropped the case was because they realized that their allegations were only based on a communist girl’s feelings. This girl’s reputation just went down the shitter, and people are losing respect for her fast because of how radical she is. Naturally, she’s blaming me and the “patriarchy”, which is funny because she has a no-contact order.
Anyways, they realized that if they had to tell my dad what these “allegations” actually were, he would be suing them. Because there was no investigation, no probable cause, just one girl complaining about two posters and lying about me being a “Domestic Terrorist”.
The entire two-faced department came right down when my dad took off work, walked in with me, and we just asked the straight questions without getting angry. made a secretary panic and actually admit that she could lose her job over this. My dad made the point of saying he strongly disagrees with my views but that this whole thing is WRONG.
The recent leak of data from the fascist forum, Iron March, (where the Attomwaffen Division, Vanguard America, and National Action got their starts) finally reveals the identities of the individuals involved, along with a trove of information showing that they were extremely active in terrorist operations. We consider these members to pose an active an immediate danger to their respective communities.
The Trace
Iron March user “Sturmgeist” is identified as Thomas Bauder from Erie, Pennsylvania.
The Iron March leaks provide two emails used by Sturmgeist: fonebone933@gmail.com & jackkrauser1140@yahoo.com. From there, we dug up a page on the CreepyPasta Wiki user “Scorch933,” who kindly provided us with a Skype account, Xbox Live account, and Facebook account all linked to the same Yahoo email address (additional chat logs from CreepyPasta that include “Scorch933” are available
here and here):
The Facebook account, active within the last week, featured dozens of pictures of Bauder wearing a skull mask (common among Atomwaffen and associated groups), various Nazi imagery and symbolism (including Sonnerads, “1488,” swastikas, and anime characters in SS uniforms), and the logo of UK terrorist group, National Action, so we were confident that this is Sturmgeist–however, the name on the Facebook account was “Thomas Southworth” rather than “Thomas Bauder” so a little more digging was in order.
In 2015, Sturmgeist mentions that he was a student at Edinboro University, in Edinboro, Pennsylvania, a town just south of Erie, and that he attended on his sister’s recommendation. We tracked his family members through social media and confirmed that “Thomas Southworth” is indeed Thomas Bauder, who has a sister that attended Edinboro University (this picture also confirms a message from Sturmgeist stating that he has a younger brother).
The Manifesto
In 2015, Bauder was supposedly writing a 36-chapter Neo-Nazi manifesto, outlined in 3 sections. We don’t believe in platforming his Nazi garbage, so we won’t be posting it here. He does go on, however, to compare himself to Apostle Paul.
Assault and Friend’s Suicide
In a separate message thread, Bauder mentions that he picked up writing his manifesto again after an “ex-chapter member” named Joey (who Bauder used to do drugs with in high school) committed suicide around April 12, 2016:
“No. I still have a book to finish, mostly about Suicide and Letting go of ties to people in the world to become more efficient. I started writing it after Joey blew his brains out. Ex-chapter member, think I talked about him a few times. His story was basically broken up with his, kicked out of his house, contracted STDs from this slut, who told everyone about his life, ruined his life, pretty much everyone in his life turned on him, he started taking PCP again (we both did in HS), a week later blew his brains out with a shotgun”
In the same message thread, Bauder also bragged about “dressing up” with “Mike and Eric” and beating up a man that his girlfriend cheated on him with, then taking her back after performing some sort of pagan ritual in the woods.
Current Location
Given Bauder’s activity on Iron March, his past assaults, and his continued spreading of Neo-Nazi propaganda, his ongoing manifesto, and his continued commitment to fascism on Facebook, we believe he is still a threat to the community of Erie. You may find his most recently known location here.
According to his Facebook, he has worked as a Welder-Fabricator in Erie since December 18, 2018. If you know more about his current location of employment, please e-mail us at panicinthediscord@riseup.net.