BOSTON, MASS. – Keene’s Crying Nazi Christopher Cantwell, found guilty of threatening another white supremacist over the internet, is appealing his conviction.
Cantwell, 40, filed an appeal with the First Circuit Court in Boston this week seeking to have his case re-examined. Cantwell filed the notice of appeal on Monday, though he has yet to detail the grounds on which he is seeking the appeal.
Neither federal defense attorney Eric Wolpin, who represented Cantwell at trial, nor Assistant United States Attorney Seth Aframe, who is listed as representing the government for the appeal, responded to a request for comment. Cantwell is currently locked up, seeing a 41-month prison sentence.
Cantwell has until March 23 to file this docket statement with the appeal court, which would give grounds for why he thinks his case ought to be overturned.
Cantwell struggled to build up a career as a hate pundit, spewing anti-Semitism and racism in his radio program and online forums. He reportedly served as the inspiration for the Tree of Life synagogue shooter who murdered 11 people at the Pittsburgh temple. In the last few years he ran afoul of other online hate mongers who suspected him of being a federal informant. This is at the heart of his feed with the online hate-group known as The Bowl Patrol.
The Bowl Patrol is a group of white supremacists who elevate racist killers like Dylan Roof as part of their online ideology. They also advocate for mass, racist killings, according to court documents. The group takes their name from Roof’s bowl-style haircut. Roof is the mass murderer who shot and killed nine African Americans during a church service in Charleston, South Carolina.
After he was targeted for harassment by members of The Bowl Patrol, Cantwell struck back, threatening to rape the wife of a man named Ben Lambert, who went by Cheddar Mane online. Cantwell tried to get Cheddar Mane to reveal the identity of The Bowl Patrol Leader, known as Vic Mackey.
Mackey was later identified in another case as California man Andrew Casarez, who reportedly lives with his parents and grandparents.
Cantwell earned his Crying Nazi moniker at the 2017 white supremacist Unite the Right rally in Charlottesville, Virginia when was seen in an emotional video reacting to news he was going to be arrested at the rally.
Cantwell was convicted in 2018 on two counts of assault and battery for dispersing pepper spray on counter-protesters in Charlottesville. He was given a suspended prison sentence, but ordered to leave the state of Virginia and not come back for five years.
Cantwell came to Keene to be part of the Free Keene libertarian movement, but Free Keene leader Ian Freeman said Cantwell’s violent rhetoric directed at police put him outside the group’s standards and he was never actually part of Free Keene.
