Paul Minton | |
|---|---|
 Paul "Paulie" Minton | |
| Born | 8/23/1976 |
| Home Base | 1542 S. 26th St., Philadelphia, PA |
| Published By | OPP HQ |
| Published On | 9/4/2023 |
Recently, an alert was circulated among Anti-Fascist social media accounts related to an individual from Philadelphia identified as Paul Minton (Be sure to read the whole thread).
The alert informed people that Minton was running several neo-nazi telegram channels and doxxing Anti-Fascists. The post featured pictures of Minton wearing Philly Antifa t-shirts and claiming that Minton had “masqueraded” as Antifa for several years.
Sadly, the alert is correct. Minton not only dressed the part, but participated in Anti-Fascist blocs from coast to coast from 2016 – 2019 and was targeted by both the far right and law enforcement for his activities.
Despite deep involvement in Antifa, Minton had, at some point, returned back to nazi politics. We say “back” because, as this article will map out, Minton had previously already been a neo-nazi skinhead as a young man and publicly broken with that movement in the mid-2000s. We even had an earlier Rogues' Gallery entry on him in those days - that we now have to bring back and update.
After months of research and interviews, we are ready to finally tell the story of Paul Minton and his turn from nazi to Antifa and back to nazi (with lots of stops along the way). Those interviewed (names withheld to protect them) were eager to tell tale of a man they describe as a manipulator and narcissist whose predatory and dishonest behavior ultimately left him isolated until he, unbelievably, re-joined the nazi movement.
Strap in, dear reader, this tragic tale has some serious twists and turns.
It is relatively common, if you're tuned in to these types of things, to hear stories of a young neo-nazi who leaves that movement and later denounces it. It is also not unheard of to encounter a far-right activist who may have dabbled in leftist politics before becoming committed fascists.
There is also a small fringe of “NazBol” red-brown types who will attempt to find common ground between Marxism (red) and National Socialism (brown). As well as eco-fascists who combine green anarchist or primitivist ideas with fascist ideology. What is almost unheard of, however, is hearing of someone “flipping” from one side to the other and then flipping back.
Generally speaking, adults do not oscillate in their opinions drastically around whether the Holocaust occurred and was bad, whether certain races are inherently predisposed towards different types of societies, or whether a cabal of Jewish people are secretly in control of the world's economy. So naturally, they don't find themselves switching between the far left and fascist politics. Most people engage and support one, or neither, side. “Fencewalking,” by unprincipled people is common, but that is usually limited to socializing with both sides, not engaging in activism and combat with both. Furthermore, most individuals who have betrayed a political movement and joined their sworn enemies would reasonably not expect to find acceptance should they attempt to return to their old movement.
Paul Minton is an exception. This article will attempt to trace his development from a young man who was recruited to neo-nazi skinhead culture, to hardcore punk “youth crews,” to Orthodox Christianity, to Islamism, to militant animal liberation, to Antifa and back to the same nazi skinhead politics he was viciously fighting (literally) not even 2 years earlier.
Paulie Minton was born August 23, 1976 (46 years old) and grew up in Gray's Ferry. Minton currently resides at 1542 S. 26th street and runs his neo-nazi outfit “White Lives Matter” (WLM) out of that home. In addition to Minton, his mother and her longtime boyfriend live in the home. Minton's oldest child is also living there as of when this was published. There is one more individual living there (that we know of) whom we will discuss later in the article.
Minton was raised with white supremacist beliefs by his father, and was in already a nazi bonehead by 1999. It was then when his friend and fellow nazi Keith James Pearce, Jr. murdered their mutual friend Yohan Lee for comments he made regarding necrophilia and cannibalism after watching a movie. Minton helped Pearce dispose of the body in a shopping cart on a basketball court in Norristown, PA before the 2 of them fled for New York City.
When in NYC, Minton betrayed his friend and snitched him out to the port authority police. Minton then testified against Pearce, receiving a sweetheart deal of 2 years probation for tampering with a corpse, a fact that (of course) enraged the victim's mother. Pearce was sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole.
A few years later, as his probation was winding down, Minton was spotted frequenting shows and bars around the city with neo-nazis, specifically members of the Keystone State "Skinheads" (KSS - now calling itself "Keystone United") and the American Thule Society. He also started a website dedicated to "Anti-Communist Action."
Minton would deny being a nazi when questioned about this and attempted to hang out in the Anti-Racist punk scene, leading local hardcore band Barricade to write a song “dedicated” to Minton entitled “Fence Walker."
Once his probation ended, Minton dropped all pretense and proudly declared himself a nazi. In an e-mail he sent to One Peoples Project during that time, he wrote... "I have always (been) WP (white power). I was on parole for the past five years and was told if I had any contact with anything I will do my whole 5 years back time... But guess what it is all over now and time to smash you fucks one again..."
He began antagonizing Anti-Fascists by doing things such as driving by punk shows at First Unitarian Church with his nazi buddies yelling “white power!” out of the car. Minton and co. threatened several shows during this period, usually demurring from actually showing up.
During 2005 Philly Pride, white Antifascists were countering an anti-gay group who were there, Minton, who at the time was repping KSS, arrived yelling homophobic slurs in a group of a dozen nazi skinheads associated with a coalition of neo-Nazi bonehead crews called Blood and Honour, including Joey Phy. who is currently associated with neo-fascist crews like the Rise Above Movement.
For reasons unknown, around late 2005 Minton left the white nationalist movement. He provided information and made a public disavowal of that movement to One Peoples Project. He got tattoos on his hands saying “Anti-Racist” with crossed out swastikas. He was briefly involved with co-opting hip- hop and graffiti culture as well as dabbling in Islam, orthodox Christianity, and 2 different hardcore crews.
The first, PBHC (Philly Brotherhood of Hardcore) Minton left relatively quickly (though not after getting a tattoo on the side of his head for the group that he would then need to immediately remove). The second was Baxwar, or “BattleAxe Warriors, a fan/biker crew started by the Canadian rapper MildChild. Minton also began having children (he has 4 so far) with his (now ex) longtime partner.
Flash forward to around 2016, there was a t-shirt order from Paul Minton for an Antifa t-shirt. He was vocally repping Anti-Fascism on his social media, and it had been 10 years, so we sent him a shirt. It's not unheard of for someone who was involved in far right politics as a young person to later support the Anti-Fascist movement. Sure enough, he was seen posing in the shirt on social media not long after.
As the Trump candidacy kick-started the far right in this country, Minton began associating with the Antifa movement. He began working with much younger and inexperienced people who were unaware of his history. Someone did attempt to warn some of these individuals to be wary of Minton due to his past as a neo-nazi as well as being a snitch and an accessory to murder. Unfortunately, those warnings were not taken seriously. Minton is very adept at manipulating people and insulating himself from criticism, as will be discussed later in this article.
Starting with the opposition to the March for Trump in Philly in 2016, for roughly three years, Minton worked with several different crews in Philly and around the country. He traveled to demonstrations all over the U.S., including Unite the Right in 2017, often brawling with fascists. He was recorded fighting on the Antifa side in Cville and doxxed by neo-nazis, including “Jack Corbin,” Daniel McMahon.
Minton is actually the person who originally informed Antifa Philadelphia that the previous identification of Corbin was incorrect and pointed us to the old Pioneer Little Europe post identifying McMahon as Corbin. Minton had infiltrated Patriot Front online and learned from loose discussion among their ranks of the original misidentification. From there, we needed only to confirm the information and then release it.
Minton was also very online and active in Anti-Fascist social media and research circles we are not involved in, so we don't have much information on that. Minton often goes by the alias “Misk.”
Eventually, as we've mentioned, Minton was alienated from the Anti-Fascist movement in Philly due to his own behaviors. The list of bad behaviors is long and would not surprise readers. He was untrustworthy, erratic and predatory. Most leftists and Antifa in Philly had stopped communicating with him entirely by 2020. Later, we were informed by members of his former crew that there were concerns about the nature of Minton's interest in a teenage girl whom he had been inviting to anarchist and radical demos in Philly. Reportedly, not long after he was ostracized, his longtime partner and mother of his children left him and that young woman (more on her below) moved into the home.
Minton's decision to return to neo-nazi politics can be traced to sometime in 2021. Former friends of Minton's contacted us concerned about social media posts he was making.
Prior to the postings, he had also been leaving long, incoherent voice messages to some other (former) friends about nobody wanting to work with him and having “good and evil raging inside” him. When questioned about the posts, Minton gave a very half-hearted excuse that he was “attempting to infiltrate”... with his real name and face. This was despite previous conversations where Minton claimed to be out of political activism and just focusing on his family.
What is known is that the WLM_PA telegram page that Minton set up and runs was originally set up as a honeypot, and Minton was still attempting to send information on local nazis to us. By that time, we could not reliably count on anything he was sending us so it was largely ignored. Minton is also believed to be running or involved in the “Embrace Struggle AC” and “PA Anti-Antifa” telegram channels.
Not long after this, a new doxx account on twitter began targeting people perceived to be Antifa in Philly. Some of the information coming out of that account pointed to someone with inside, but out-dated, knowledge of the Antifascist scene in Philly. The timing of this account with Minton's public statements strongly implicated him as involved. He was also sighted in the same area nearby immediately prior to several WLM banner drops and stickering runs.
Eventually, Minton dropped all pretense and began posting on social media pictures of himself wearing clothing and getting tattoos associated with neo-nazi and fascist groups.
Someone has also started parking an SUV with a gigantic White Lives Matter logo on it in front of his house.
As we have explained, it is primarily personal anger that motivated Minton's decision to flip back to being a nazi. Anger borne from being ostracized from our movement for his own behaviors, the most heinous of which was his grooming of a teenage girl whom he preyed on and then recruited to nazi politics.
Minton is a nazi because we are the things we do. But, to say he believes in anything is a partial truth at best. Minton is a cliche' man-child who tries to find a family in political movements, burns his bridges through his dishonest and predatory behavior, and then rage-quits and retaliates by doxxing and harassing his former friends and comrades. As dangerous as Minton can be as an enemy, he is far more of a threat as a “friend.”
The very young woman reportedly living with Minton, whom he recruited to nazi politics, is named Daisy McGowan. Minton met her at local political protests and later was able to get a job at Morning Glory Diner, which is owned by McGowen’s grandmother. Minton has reportedly been lying about McGowan's age, but an inquirer article from July 2018 states Daisy's age as 13. She turned 18 just in January 2023.
We have also just recently learned from our sources that McGowan is pregnant and that Minton is the father, confirming all of our worst fears. Reportedly, Minton is planning to relocate with McGowan in the near future, as most of both of their families are disgusted by the relationship and too many people in Philly know his history and both of their real ages.
Minton worked at the Diner for a time, but was fired for stealing from other employees. Daisy has cut ties with her grandmother. McGowan was arrested at an anarchist noise demo at a jail in Philly. We don't know Daisy, but earnestly encourage her to change her path while she can. No one has ever benefited from their relationships with Paul Minton. Everyone has suffered.
In addition to the demonstrations mentioned, Minton and co. have claimed responsibility for nazi stickers put up in Port Richmond, South Philly, Kensington, and Glenside. They also dropped a nazi banner on route 309 in Ambler.
Despite representing himself as a hustler and grinder, Minton's primary income has been social security disability since his corpse desecration trial in 2000. We do not know what the diagnosis was, but it is a mental health disability diagnosis that is long-term. We have also learned that the doctor that reapproves his status periodically specializes in “psychotic disorders.” According to interviewees, he spends his money largely on himself. He has a taste for expensive clothing, travels frequently for political events and meetings, and (of course) spends tons of money on tattoo cover-ups from all of his various drifting around scenes and movements. He lends very little financial support to his four children, three of whom reside out-of-state.
Due to his social security disability, Minton has to hide his other income streams. According to our sources, he sells his prescription medications around town. Minton has reportedly been working for Relay delivery services, using McGowan’s name. Minton did, at some point, obtain ServSafe certification from the City of Philadelphia and may also be working or looking for work as a food safety manager. We don't share this information about Minton's disability or his scamming to stigmatize others or because SS or tax scams upset us. Rather because, as an organizing neo-nazi, Minton is now championing an ideology that would describe someone like himself as a “parasite” and “asocial/mentally feeble” individual who would be lucky to simply be sterilized under national socialist doctrine. This mindset is absolutely abhorrent and wrong, but he is a complete fraud for viciously broadcasting genocidal language about the same situations and behaviors of others. While living, existing and supporting himself by similar means.
Furthermore, his actions as an abusive or absentee father who spends his money traveling to demonstrations or on endless tattoo cover-ups to hide his long history being a phony hypocrite, while his children struggle, is far from the rhetoric of the “rise above movement,” which claims to champion “the white family” and “traditional western values.”
This article is overdue. We first became aware of Minton “flipping” nearly 18 months ago. A quiet alert was circulated among those that had worked with or adjacent to him, and several other groups sounded the alarm on social media.
Unfortunately and remarkably, Minton has found allies willing to work with him, despite his past betrayals. He appears to be allied with Dan D'Ambly and Ron Sheehy's “New Jersey European Heritage Association '' (NJEHA), appearing together in Tom's River, and also stickering together.
Apparently not even knocking out the drummer of Condemned 84, Cliff Warby (rest in piss), with a crew of Antifa, is unforgivable in those circles. Yeah, that was Paulie, too. Minton is also associating himself with Robert Rundo's “Active Front” neo-nazi movement, even getting a tattoo on his leg indicating as much.
Active Front has been repped locally for years by the same KSS boneheads Paulie betrayed and left behind almost 20 years ago, including longtime KSS boneheads AJ Olsen, Nunzio Pellegrino and the same Joey Phy who was with Paul Minton harassing the Philly Pride event in 2005.
Minton regularly promotes their activities on his telegram pages, so we can assume they have some sort of relationship these days.
There is only one more group that Minton has had a long lasting and close relationship with, and that's the state and federal government. We have recently learned that Paul Minton was regularly visited by the FBI in his home for years. These visits were for neo-nazi, radical Islam, animal liberation, Anti-Fascist and other postings and threats on the internet at different times in his life. During one visit, he was reportedly offered (and turned down) a job on a task force for extremism.
When the FBI visited him during his time posing as Antifa, Minton admittedly chatted with them and tried to weaponize them back at the fascists who had called them on him. He also has his history of snitching and testifying in court. While we are not making any conclusions, we do find it notable that this man with a history of side-switching and snitching, who had burned all his bridges in the Antifa movement, has now started a local affiliate of a hardcore international neo-nazi network and is filling it largely with young fascists he finds on the internet.
As the Antifa movement's 15 minutes of infamy seems to be subsiding slightly, there will likely be a steady stream of “defectors” that come out of the woodwork for the next 10 years or so. With the huge influx of people coming into this movement during the Trump presidency, it is natural that some people will leave. Their level of involvement and reasons for leaving will vary. But in the case of Paul Minton, ideology was never important. Ideas, and people, are only important to Minton for how they make him feel. He wants to be close to danger, to feel like an “extremist” and to impersonate youth. In short, he's a self-absorbed liar and manipulator.
We think, in the context of the panic around “groomers” that the right is pushing, it is also worth noting that Minton was immediately called out and ostracized at the first sign he was preying on McGowan. That situation was not handled perfectly by those who had worked with Minton, but nobody tolerated it, even despite both of them claiming the relationship was not of that nature.
Meanwhile, he has now been bringing this young girl with him to various RAM and WLM events and meetings around the country, and nobody on their side seems to have any issue with a nearly 50-year old man and his newly 18 “girlfriend.” As many issues as the radical left, and our society as a whole, have with sexual violence and abuse, it is normalized on the far right in a way most of us would find unimaginable. One need only see some of the stories women have told after leaving that movement.
We hope that this story will serve as a warning to everyone in the Anti-Fascist movement. No matter how effective an organizer, spy, or street fighter, when someone is:
a) not trustworthy
b) seeking out attention/praise for Antifascism rather than treating it like a responsibility and self defense.
c) lacking fundamental understanding of the politics they espouse
d) a creep
it is only a matter of time before that person does serious harm.
If you're not Antifa now, then you never fucking were.