CONCORD, NH – New Hampshire’s infamous Crying Nazi, Christopher Cantwell, is going to prison.
Officials with the United States District Court in Concord confirmed Monday afternoon that the jury returned verdicts of guilty on one count of transmitting extortionate communications and one count of threatening to injure a person or property. He was found not guilty on a charge of cyberstalking.
Cantwell faces a maximum of up to 22 years in prison and will continue to be jailed pending his formal sentencing, which is set for a later date. He was first jailed in January when FBI agents arrested him at his home in Keene on charges he threatened the white supremacist known online as Cheddar Mane over the identity of a third white supremacist, Vic Mackey.
Cheddar Mane, who is actually a Missouri man named Ben Lambert, is a member of the hate group The Bowl Patrol, so named for the haircut of racist mass murderer Dylan Roof, whom members of The Bowl Patrol idolize in online forums.
Last year, Cantwell and his white supremacist internet radio show, Radical Agenda, ran afoul of The Bowl Patrol, leading to the group’s members to prank call Cantwell’s show and otherwise harass him online. Cantwell found out Lambert’s true identity, and according to Hilary Sargent’s reporting in The Informant, he even sent his girlfriend to Missouri to get photos of Lambert.
Sargent reported last week that both Cantwell and Lambert cried when they testified during the trial.
Lambert himself was interviewed by FBI agents last year about Cant-well, and reportedly feared he could be prosecuted for his own only behavior, which included threats or rape, according to court documents. This prompted him to cooperate with law enforcement.
“At the time Cheddarmane spoke to the FBI about his communications with Cantwell, he legitimately feared that the FBI would pursue him as a criminal rather than vindicate him as a victim,” Cantwell’s attorney Eric Wolpin wrote. “The FBI publicly acknowledged that it was targeting white supremacists for criminal prosecution as domestic terrorists.”
Cantwell, now 39, had numerous contacts of his own with FBI and local law enforcement last year as he sought a way to stop The Bowl Patrol from harassing him. Cantwell feared they would harm his career. He sent police more than 50 emails, including some of the threatening emails he sent to Lambert which would be used as the basis for the criminal case, according to court records.
Cantwell allegedly threatened to rape Cheddar Mane’s wife, and call child protective services if he did not give up the real identity Vic Mackey, one of The Bowl Patrol leaders.
“So if you don’t want me to come and (expletive) your wife in front of your kids, then you should make yourself scarce[.] Give me Vic, it’s your only out.” Cantwell wrote. “Get a (expletive) life or you will lose the one you have,” Cantwell wrote to the alleged victim, according to the new indictments. “you’re the one who is going to suffer cause you’re the one I can get.”
Mackey has subsequently been publicly outed as Sacramento, California, resident Andrew Casarez, 27. According to J Weekly, the Jewish News of Northern California, Casarez lives in the suburb of Orangevale with his parents and grandmother.
Cantwell first got attention at the white supremacist Unite the Right rally in Charlottsville, Virginia, in 2017 where he earned his nickname “Crying Nazi.” That came when he 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.
The “Unite the Right” rally saw one counter-protester murdered when white supremacists James Alex Fields Jr. drove his car into a crowd, killing Heather Heyer. Fields pleaded guilty and is serving a life sentence.
