The suspected U.S. Holocaust Museum shooter is an 88-year-old white supremacist from Maryland’s Eastern Shore, according to multiple police sources. Not long after the shooting was reported, local police and federal agents had James von Brunn's apartment complex in Annapolis under observation.
FOX 5 learned Wednesday night that federal authorities were being very careful as they looked at von Brunn's apartment, located off of Admiral Drive. A neighbor said they told him there was a fear the place could be booby trapped, and that same neighbor told FOX 5 when he met von Brunn, something about him just didn't sit right.
"He didn't socialize with neighbors at all," said Harold Olynnger, who lives near von Brunn.
Olynnger was not allowed to go back into his apartment because he lives so close to von Brunn's place. He says authorities told him they fear that there could be explosives inside von Brunn's apartment.
Olynnger told FOX 5 he knew von Brunn casually. In fact, mmos he and his wife had von Brunn over for drinks when von Brunn apparently brought up the Holocaust.
"When we were talking, he said something about the media covering the holocaust too much," said Olynnger.
Olynnger went on to say that the conversation seemed to end there. No threats were made, no words of hate. He told FOX 5 von Brunn did not talk about Jews.
Authorities would not say what is inside von Brunn's home. Before officials went in, however, what looked like an explosives-sniffing K-9 inspected cars in the parking lot while police turned visitors to the complex away.
Von Brunn must have kept to himself. FOX 5 spoke to many people, showing them his picture-- but most had never seen him before.
Earlier Wednesday night, an agent with the FBI said that the investigation at von Brunn's home could take some time. She refused to comment on what they are looking for. But if what they said to neighbors is correct, they are being very careful as they take a close look at von Brunn's personal property.
More on von Brunn
James von Brunn created a website full of anger directed at Jews, the Holocaust and African-Americans which glorifies neo-Nazi thinking. According this website, von Brunn describes himself as a “former Boy Scout and PT boat captain” who grew up in “an ethical, middle-class American family.”
He goes into great detail about why, in 1981, he walked into the US Federal Reserve Building on Constitution Avenue wearing “a trench coat, which concealed a sawed-off shotgun, a .38 special” and “a Bowie knife.”
Claiming he wanted to conduct a “citizen’s arrest” of the Federal Reserve Chairman because he believed “the Jews” controlled the nation’s money, von Brunn says he "cased the building twice before and talked at length with one of the guards.”
He says he also carried “a camera case slung over my shoulder” which “contained a phony bomb,” confronted one of the security guards and shoved “the .38 into his gut.”
“I didn’t want to kill anyone,” von Brunn writes.
According to Federal court documents obtained by FOX 5, von Brunn was found guilty of burglary and multiple weapons charges for that 1981 Federal Reserve incident.
On his website, von Brunn claims he spent more than six years in jail and underwent a psychological examination, which he say found him “sane.”
Follow this link to an article published on the Southern Poverty Law Center's website on von Bronn: Holocaust Museum Shooter Had Close Ties to Prominent neo-Nazis
A bio from von Brunn's book website; holywesternempire.org:
James W. von Brunn holds a BachSci Journalism degree from a mid-Western university where he was president of SAE and played varsity football.
During WWII he served as PT-Boat captain, Lt. USNR, receiving a Commendation and four battle stars. For twenty years he was an advertising executive and film-producer in New York City. He is a member of Mensa, the high-IQ society.
In 1981 Von Brunn attempted to place the treasonous Federal Reserve Board of Governors under legal, non-violent, citizens arrest. He was tried in a Washington, D.C. Superior Court; convicted by a Negro jury, Jew/Negro attorneys, and sentenced to prison for eleven years by a Jew judge. A Jew/Negro/White Court of Appeals denied his appeal. He served 6.5 years in federal prison.
He is now an artist and author and lives on Maryland's Eastern Shore.
LINK: EXCERPT FROM VON BRUNN'S BOOK