One of the master race people with tiki torches ranting about Jews and immigrants on UVA’s Central Grounds in 2017 killed himself last month as he was about to stand trial on fentanyl smuggling charges.
Teddy Joseph Von Nukem, 35, had been scheduled to stand trial on Jan. 30 on charges stemming from a 2021 traffic stop in Arizona in which Customs and Border Protection agents discovered 15 kilograms of fentanyl pills hidden behind the seats and floor compartment of his 2019 Nissan Pathfinder.
His death was first reported by independent Charlottesville journalist Molly Conger.
you probably remember this photograph. it's one of the more iconic of the awful images of the nazi torch march at UVA on august 11, 2017.
on august 12, the man in the center was elated to see himself on the cover of papers across the county.
today, i can tell you he is dead. pic.twitter.com/ti5c1c0LT0— molly conger (@socialistdogmom) February 14, 2023
According to investigators, Von Nukem – born Teddy Landrum, before legally changing his name in 2012 – admitted that he had been paid 4,000 Mexican pesos (around $215) to smuggle the pills into the country.
A warrant was issued for his arrest after he missed the first day of the trial, but as the warrant was being written, Von Nuke was already dead, after shooting himself behind a hay shed at his Missouri home.
Von Nukem wasn’t just one of the comically angry-looking white guys with torches at the “Jews will not replace us” rally in 2017; he was literally a face of that movement, with images of him in his black T-shirt going out on wire services the world over.
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Chris Graham
