Radio active

Timothy Wilson, the man who plotted to blow up a hospital treating coronavirus patients in the Kansas City area in March, was the co-host of an online radio show produced by the long-running neo-Nazi group the National Socialist Movement, The Informant has learned.

Wilson, who died during an armed confrontation with the FBI in Belton, Missouri, went by the name “Werewolf” and co-hosted at least eight episodes of the racist and antisemitic “Mason-Dixon” show.

Wilson's role in the show demonstrates he had a deeper involvement in the NSM than was previously known publicly. On at least one of the episodes, he was joined by the organization’s leader, Burt Colucci, who has since claimed to have never known Wilson.

Combined with social media posts uncovered by The Informant as well as court records, the online radio show helps paint a clearer picture of what the months leading up to the would-be terrorist attack looked like in Wilson’s world. In some of the social media posts, Wilson discussed his descent into Nazism and his recent membership in the NSM.

“I am proud that my ancestors on both sides of my family fought for our race,” Wilson wrote in a Telegram post in August, going on to claim he had relatives who fought for the Confederacy and Hitler’s Germany. “Glad I can continue their struggle by being a part of the NSM.”

The FBI said that Wilson, 36, was in the final stages of a plot to bomb a hospital in the Kansas City area when federal agents moved in to arrest him on March 24. He had acquired materials for the bomb and ultimately settled on the hospital as a target in light of the COVID-19 pandemic, authorities said. He ended up shooting and killing himself before he could be arrested.

Wilson was first introduced to the listeners of the “Mason-Dixon” show on December 5. The show’s usual host, NSM member Randall Ramsey, led off the two-hour episode by introducing his “fine Aryan” audience to Wilson under the name “Werewolf.”

“Joining me tonight is a newly patched member of the National Socialist Movement,” Ramsey told listeners. “Werewolf, how you doing, brother?”

Ramsey said he’d been trying to get Wilson on the show for some time.

“Unfortunately, I don’t like to talk to people very much,” Wilson replied.

The Informant reviewed the nine most-recent episodes of “Mason-Dixon” and found “Werewolf” was the co-host of eight of them. The show appears to have ended in late February, about a month before his death.

The personal details “Werewolf” discussed on the show match up with what is known about Wilson’s background: he lived in Missouri; he was a father; he spent time in the military; and he recently became a full-fledged member of the NSM.

Additionally, Wilson went by the name “Werwolfe 84” on Telegram, where he was listed as an administrator of the NSM’s main chat room and where he sometimes discussed the show. (“Werwolfe” is the German spelling of Werewolf.)

“Mason-Dixon” was one of a handful of internet radio shows produced by the NSM. The group’s shows are streamed and archived on BlogTalkRadio in apparent violation of the platform’s terms of service, which explicitly prohibit “any content that promotes, either directly or indirectly, hate, racism, discrimination, pornography, violence.”

After The Informant inquired about the show, BlogTalkRadio said in an email that it was investigating the matter. It did not respond to subsequent follow-up questions, and the NSM continues to broadcast on its platform.

“Mason-Dixon” was a show that clearly crossed the line repeatedly.

On Wilson’s debut episode, for instance, Ramsey talked at length about the antisemitic conspiracy theory that Jews secretly control the United States.

“The government we have now is totally useless, and it needs to be totally dismantled and started from scratch again,” Ramsey said. “It isn't really remotely our country. It's the Jews’ country. We serve Israel. We're at their beck and call.”

He also blamed Jews for the terror attacks on 9/11, using an antisemitic slur in the process.

“You look at 9/11, you know, [either] the Jews are behind this to get us to go after the Muslims or the Muslims actually truly done it on their own but it was because we supported Israel,” Ramsey told the audience. “Either way you look at it, the hook nose was the cause of it.”

Soon, Wilson was joining in with his own antisemitic jokes.

“However, I do want to give a shout out to Israel on one thing,” Wilson said. “They can dance like nobody else. And if you don't believe me just Google dancing Israelis. I mean, you will blow your mind. Great dancers.”

That type of banter continued for the next several weeks, including on January 16, when NSM’s leader, Burt Colucci, joined the show.

Colucci was running the switchboard for callers who wanted to talk to the “Mason-Dixon” co-hosts live. But he also interrupted the discussion between Ramsey and Wilson several times to add his own opinions. He used one such interruption to rant about LGBTQ people.

“I don't call it homophobic because phobia is when you're afraid of something. I'm not afraid of homosexuals. I despise them. They're disgusting,” Colucci told listeners.

He said he would disavow members of his own family if he found out they were gay.

“I don't need family like that. Fuck you, have a nice life,” Colucci said. “I don't give a damn if it's my own kids. I'll tell my own kids to fuck off.”

Ramsey agreed.

“I'm going to stand for my beliefs 24/7 no matter who's in front of me,” Ramsey said. “I don't care if it hurts their feelings, how mad they get in there, I'm going to stand tall with it. There's a commitment I made to my race and I'm going to do it seven days a week.”

Wilson was mostly pushed to the sideline in the later part of the episode, but he managed to speak up with the phrase “88,” which is neo-Nazi code for “Heil Hitler,” in the closing moments of the show.

“Eighty eight,” Ramsey said.

“Eighty eight,” Wilson replied.

Court records first uncovered by Kansas City Star reporter Steve Vockrodt in April show the FBI was investigating Wilson for about six months before his shootout with agents in Belton, and that an undercover agent was in near-constant communication with him as he plotted his terrorist attack.

Wilson discussed targets in Missouri and Arkansas with the FBI agent, according to the court records. Those targets included a nuclear power plant, Islamic centers, a synagogue, Walmart headquarters, and federal buildings.

He called his plan “operation boogaloo.” In other words, he hoped it would kick off a second Civil War in the United States.

He also appeared to use the 1995 Oklahoma City bombing as a blueprint for his actions, at times comparing himself with perpetrator Timothy McVeigh.

“My question is, are we doing this like Mcviegh with a moving truck? Or some other way?” Wilson said to the undercover agent through an encrypted chat app. “Cause most fed buildings and places like hospitals have security and a u haul would prob stand out.”

Wilson also showed admiration for The Order, a neo-Nazi terror group from the  1980s. The records show that he named one of the encrypted chat rooms he created to discuss his attack plans after the group.

In mid-March, Wilson became increasingly paranoid about lockdowns that were being put in place nationwide to stem the spread of COVID-19. He talked about accelerating his plans. He had already been amassing the makings for a vehicle bomb by then.

“I think that right now, with the way everything is going, it could be prime time,” he told the undercover agent. “I'd hate to wait ‘til April, and then worst case scenario, you know, they've locked everything down tight where you can't travel and we miss the opportunity.”

Two days before the shootout, the undercover agent met with Wilson in a parking lot in Belton. Wilson discussed more targets, including a police station and power stations. Eventually, he settled on the nearby Belton Regional Medical Center.

Wilson and the undercover agent visited the hospital that day. Wilson noted to the agent that the glass windows on the medical center would act as shrapnel in the bombing, and that it had the potential to become a “mass casualty” event.

Wilson described his plans to pack a vehicle full of explosives, drive it to the hospital and park it outside. After parking the vehicle, he wanted the undercover agent to pick him up and drive him to an area near his home in Raymore, Missouri, so he could walk back to his house through a wooded area. If authorities came to get him, there would be a “firefight” at his house, he promised.

They agreed that March 24 would be the day of the attack.

In the months leading up to his shootout with federal agents, Wilson was an active user of the social media app Telegram. The platform has become a hive for neo-Nazis and terror organizations after other, more-mainstream social media sites have shut them down.

Following his death in March, The Informant was the first to report that Wilson used the name “Werwolfe 84” on Telegram and was an administrator of a public chat room run by the National Socialist Movement. His duties as an admin meant that he enforced the neo-Nazi group’s rules and banned trolls whenever they would invade the space, which turned out to be quite often.

Megan Squire, a professor of computer science at Elon University who tracks extremism online, shared an archive of the chat room with The Informant. It encompassed more than six months of discussions between Wilson and other members and friends of the NSM.

It was there in the chat room that Wilson often mused about how he became a neo-Nazi.

“I used to be a pastor believe it or not,” he wrote on September 3. “It was a southern baptist church. I left in 2016, after my red pilling. Honestly my heart wasn’t in it  anymore and it felt fake.”

“Red pilling” is a phrase used in white supremacist circles and beyond to refer to the idea that someone has been awakened to what they now believe is the truth.

Wilson went on to explain that he looked into other forms of religion and ultimately settled on Christian Identity, an explicitly racist and antisemitic theology that preaches Jews are the offspring of Satan and that non-whites are “mud peoples.”

On September 1, he wrote that he had joined the NSM a few months earlier.

“I joined in July and do not regret it,” Wilson wrote. “I did it because I am kind of alone in my area as far as my political believes (sic) and I thought it would be a good way to network with like-minded individuals in person and not just on the Internet.”

He made it clear in other posts that he originally joined on a probationary basis.

He was sworn in as a full member in October. To mark the occasion, an anonymous user in the NSM chat room posted a photo from the swearing in. It showed Wilson dressed in jeans, a black shirt and green jacket. The shirt had the logo of the original Nazi SS. Wilson’s face was covered by a skull mask, a hallmark of neo-Nazis who admire terrorism as a tactic.

Standing behind Wilson was Randall Ramsey, who would go on to be his co-host on the “Mason-Dixon” show. Also pictured were NSM members Matthew Paul Slatzer and Daniel Burnside, as well as three men who have not been identified.

The photo was taken at Burnside’s house in Ulysses, Pennsylvania, which is adorned with swastikas and tributes to dead Nazi terrorists.

As time went on, Wilson began praising some of those same Nazi terrorists.

On January 21, for instance, he posted a tribute to the founder of the ‘80s terrorist organization The Order. The group was involved in multiple robberies as well as the 1984 assassination of radio talk show host Alan Berg.

“36 years ago a brave group of men fought for our people,” Wilson wrote. “Never forget their names or their deeds. I hope we can be as courageous as they were.”

In a January 30 post, he suggested that the “Mason-Dixon” show should invite the widow of one of the members of The Order on as a guest. The widow, Susan Yarbrough, is still active in the neo-Nazi movement.

“We should have Susan come on the mason Dixon show one night,” Wilson wrote.

Before his death, Wilson also promoted the NSM’s annual conference, which is generally held in April to celebrate the birth of Adolf Hitler. He said in the chats that he planned to bring barbecue sauce from Kansas City as his gift for the group.

Following news of his death, the NSM postponed their conference. It finally took place earlier this month in Pennsylvania. On July 17, the group held a private swastika burning at Burnside’s house in Ulysses. The next day, they held an armed march in nearby Williamsport. About 20 people showed up for it.

I wanted to give the National Socialist Movement a chance to respond to what I discovered about Wilson. So I first emailed Ramsey, the co-host of the “Mason-Dixon” show. He declined to comment and referred all questions to Colucci, the group’s leader.

Colucci basically pleaded ignorance to the whole thing. But he did refer to an article by the Anti-Defamation League that included a video still from Wilson’s swearing-in.

“I am unaware of anyone by that name being affiliated with the NSM. I did notice on the ADL website that they had a video of someone named ‘Tim’ at Dan Burnside’s house in Pennsylvania, but the individual had a mask on,” Colucci wrote in his email to me. “One thing I am 150% sure of is that whether these are the same or separate people, I've never met or spoken to either one.”

I followed up with Colucci to note that he had appeared on an episode of the “Mason-Dixon” show with Wilson. This time, the NSM leader’s reply was irate. He called me a Communist and told me to never contact anyone in his group again.

“I would also implore you to provide a picture or video clip of this person and myself with this person in NSM attire. You provide that Mr. Smarty pants and I will gladly acknowledge publicly everywhere that this guy was a member. I also looked at your laughable … website and clearly you are an Antifascist scum bag and SPLC wannabe.”

Colucci told me in that same email he couldn’t even find the episode I mentioned in the BlogTalkRadio archives. So I went to check the archives myself and, sure enough, all of the episodes with Wilson in them had been deleted.

I sent one more email to Colucci.

I told him I had archives of the episodes saved. Deleting them, I told him, didn't really do anything other than acknowledge that he and I are were the same page about Wilson.

Colucci never wrote back.

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