In past reports we have identified several pseudonymous authors published by the neo-Nazi small press Antelope Hill Publishing. First there was Ben Welton, who wrote under the pen name “Sinclair Jenkins.” Then we exposed Jesse Ogden as the prolific white nationalist podcaster “Borzoi Boskovic” writing as “John Chapman.” We next identified “Branka Ryan” who wrote an Antelope Hill Publishing book for “white children.” Since the author was a minor at the time we did not expose her, but instead exposed her mother and enabler, Amy Wainwright, who uses the alias “Clarion Wakefield” on “Avalon Rising,” a neo-Nazi women’s chat group on Telegram messenger.
Today we bring to you former correction officer and writer for Antelope Hill Publishing “Jack McKraken,” who a wrote a memoir of his time working in a New York state prison. While we learned that he indeed was a correction officer for the New York Department of Corrections and Community Supervision (DOCCS) we also learned that he had a distubing history in white nationalism, even while working as a correction officer, and it didn’t end there.
Livin’ The Dream
Published on November 11, 2020, Livin’ the Dream is the the memoir of pseudonymous author “Jack McKraken,” described by the publisher as “a deep dive into the beating heart of American Corrections [sic].” The publisher states on their website:
Antelope Hill is proud to publish Livin’ the Dream as its second original work. Jack McKraken’s work is not just a memoir of exciting anecdotes and useful tips, but an account of how one can survive and keep their sanity within one of the most soul-crushing settings known to man. This title is a must-read for anyone who may find themselves in prison, regardless of which side of the bars.
But while the book is ostensibly about one correction officer’s experiences and his view of the prison system, the book is actually a diatribe against liberal politics and so-called “social justice warriors” tinted with distinctly racist overtones. “McKraken,” who began his literary career with a self-published science-fiction novel that went nowhere, refrains from using outright racial slurs for the most part, but with passages like, “The snitch was a conniving black, a creature eager to leverage his racial power over unsuspecting white men by putting pen to paper anytime his targets used off-color language, cut a corner, discussed controversies, or anything that might be deemed inappropriate by the State’s investigatory nannies,” outright slurs are unnecessary. “McKraken” devotes an entire chapter to “How prison leads to race realism and shatters pre-existing liberal notions.” He wrote:
A prison is a place where you can figuratively reach into a big hat marked “stereotypes,” pick one, read it, and then witness that very stereotype unfold right before your eyes within seconds. It’s a place where fried chicken day sees the biggest mess hall turnout by blacks. It’s a place where Hispanic visitors regularly are denied entry because they don’t have photo ID. It’s a place where Rastafarians get busted for stashing weed in the nooks and crannies of their unwashed dreadlocks, and where Hasidic Jewish men are vastly overrepresented in the ammonia-scented halls of the sex-offender units.
Within a year of working behind bars, your understanding of society and life in America (as you understood it via mass media and public education) will be vastly challenged. After two, the illusions are shattered completely. Three or more? By then, your body has thoroughly digested the red pill. You now operate as God (or nature) intended: aware of the differences between the races and completely understanding the truth of race itself. While the bien pensants would consider this a bad thing, whether out of ignorance or self- preservation or full enlistment in the anti-white agenda, race realism places you back in a mindset consistent with thousands of years of human history. Only recently did the inane mantras of pro-diversity proliferate; to reject these mantras wholesale places you back in a category of “normal” along with virtually all of your ancestors.
This is a common argument among white supremacists, who often cite a perceived “anti-white agenda” and claim that racism is a manufactured concept. “McKraken” further argued that politicians and bureaucrats, “deep in the abyss of political correctness,” have hamstringed the ability of correction officers to do their jobs. Deriding diversity, “McKraken” wrote:
In reality, diversity and multiculturalism, and the idea that our society’s strength is derived from the worship and tolerance of the other, are wholly fabricated false idols. “Anti-racism” and “tolerance” are fake virtues birthed in the public school system and continually preached throughout every one of our institutions to keep us distracted from the very reality of nature itself.
His book is not the only platform on which he expressed his views. “Jack McKraken” has also been very active on social media, particularly on Telegram messenger, promoting his book and making his opinions known on a variety of topics. These posts more explicitly presented his neo-Nazi, white nationalist viewpoints. In one post on August 25, 2021 “Jack McKraken” announced that he was about to be married and posted a photo of a cake, which was decorated with a Nazi swastika.
While Antelope Hill Publishing professes to be champions of free speech, “Jack McKraken” has a decidedly particular take on whose speech is to be actually free. In one Telegram post he celebrated the Nazis burning books of the “jewish ‘intelligentsia’ [sic]” and speculated on the future “American version of the Nazi party, whoever inherits that glorious legacy.” His channel is a consistent stream of racism, antisemitism and anti-LGBTQ+ sentiment.
Not just an “online Nazi,” “Jack McKraken” is an active participant in white nationalist movements. He stated on his Telegram channel that he was involved in the National Justice Party (NJP), a neo-Nazi organization run by Mike “Enoch” Peinovich, writing that he had been to six out of eight of their conferences.
At one point in the Telegram channel, “Jack McKraken” trolled counselors at The Trevor Project, a suicide prevention and crisis intervention organization for LGBTQ+ and questioning youth, and posted screen shots of an online chat during which he posed as a trans youth in crisis. Besides being an utterly tasteless stunt, it also shows the profound disregard “Jack McKraken” has for youth in crisis and for LGBTQ+ persons.
“Jack McKraken” has also been enjoying some celebrity in online white nationalist literary circles, contributing articles for the white nationalist blog The Hyphen Report, like “The White Mile: Examining the anti-White Bias in Criminal Sentencing,” which is probably one of the most implausible titles ever, considering the actual racial inequities that exist in the American criminal justice system.
“Jack McKraken” was a commenter on the website of Mike “Enoch” Peinovich‘s “The Right Stuff” neo-Nazi podcast network, which uses Gravatar, a service for providing globally unique avatars. Using a Gravatar account allows commenters to recognize each other across websites. We found the Gravatar information for “Jack McKraken” in the source code of the webpage and learned that he used the profile name “elciv123” with a display name of “El CIv.” This was interesting to us since we also found a similar name, “El_Civ,” in the Discord Leaks, a massive trove of leaked messages from the neo-Nazi organization Identity Evropa published by Unicorn Riot.
Identity Evropa
One participant in an Identity Evropa Discord chat leaked by Unicorn Riot noted a news piece about Identity Evropa propaganda being posted in and around Middletown, New York. The user “El_Civ” replied:
“I’m responsible for the Middletown stuff. That mayor is a grade-A cuck with known mob ties. He’s as corrupt as the day is long. The fact that he labeled me and the rest of us “sick bastards” is actually pretty ironic, and I’m relishing in his contempt. Good work on the phone calls, boys!”
In another post responding to a news story in which Identity Evropa flyers were found around Orange County Community College in Middletown, “El_Civ” stated that he was proud that his hometown made the news, writing, “I’m thrilled my hometown has made the forfront [sic] of the commotion!”
“El_Civ” had also participated in an event called “Defend Identity” during which he and his fellow Identity Evropa members got together to spread their propaganda and posted photos of the event.
Elsewhere in the leaks, “El_Civ” posted some touristy photos from a New York city meet-up of local sights and architecture. One of these photos is used on the Amazon author page for “Jack McKraken,” further confirming that “El_Civ” was the same person as “Jack McKraken.”
After Identity Evropa’s Discord channels were leaked, the group moved to another platform, Slack, to discuss plans. These chats were also leaked and provided to Unicorn Riot. “El Civ” participated in the early 2019 Slack chats leading up to Identity Evropa’s re-branding into the “American Identity Movement. We found him in the “upstate-ny” Slack channel, as well as others in these leaked chats.
While “El_Civ” had provided several valuable tidbits of information in these leaked chats already, he provided yet another when he linked to a YouTube video of an event in New Paltz, New York. The video he linked to was not interesting itself, but the YouTube account that hosted the unlisted video was. The display name of the account’s user showed it was attributed to “John M.”
This channel also hosted a game-play video of the video game CounterStrike: Global Offensive in which his gamer handle “El Civ” is visible, so we were confident that the “El_Civ” in the Discord Leaks was the same person that operated this YouTube channel.
Based on the working assumption that the former correction officer “Jack McKraken” and the Identity Evropa member “El_Civ” were the same person, we searched public salary records for New York state correction officers in the Middletown area that went by the name “John” with a last name that started with “M.” We eventually found who we were looking for.
“Jack McKraken”: John Robert Metz of Middletown, New York
John Robert Metz of Middletown, New York, born on May 5, 1988, was a correction officer for the Shawangunk Correctional Facility in Shawangunk, NY, just a thirty minute drive from Middletown. He was employed at that facility for five years, from 2014 to 2019. On July 19, 2019 Metz was placed on the New York state Police/Peace Officer decertification list when he was “removed for cause. While don’t know why he was fired, we can safely assume he screwed up something at some point. Title 9 of New York Codes, Rules and Regulations state: “Removal for cause of a full-time or part-time employee means removal for incompetence or misconduct.” As seen by Metz’s dates of employment, he was employed as a law enforcement officer while being an active member of a white supremacist organization.
Confirming that “El_Civ” is indeed John Robert Metz, we found a dating profile on the dating site FriendFinder-X where he used the username “el_civ,” listed his location as “Middletown, New York,” his birth date as “May 5, 1988” and his photo matched photos of John R. Metz found on social media sites. Furthermore, “El_Civ” noted in the Discord Leaks that he was bald. This is confirmed by his photos.
Another Pseudonymous neo-Nazi Author Made Public
Antelope Hill Publishing states, “If you are a dissident who wants his voice heard, we want to publish you.” They don’t mean “dissident” in the conventional sense. By “dissident” they mean the Nazis, fascists, racists and bigots whose goal is to prevent society from being more equal and deny marginalized people their basic human dignity.
Thus far we have identified four of their pseudonymous authors. While “Jack McKraken” may have been “livin’ the dream,” John Robert Metz is about to get a rude awakening.
Update: 5/9/2022
After we exposed John Robert Metz as “Jack McKraken” several people have come forward with new information about this individual. We have noted earlier in this piece Metz’s extreme anti-LGBTQ+ rhetoric. Metz has made numerous defamatory statements about trans people, referring to them using slurs, or calling them “perverts” and the like.
As it turns out, Metz had been known in the Middletown, New York LGBTQ+ community around 2017-2018 as a “chaser,” or a cis person who is attracted to trans people but only in a fetishized or objectified manner. One person with personal experience with Metz approached us with this information after she learned of his involvement in neo-Nazi activities (she has given us permission to share some of this information). She told us he had frequented LGBTQ+ bars and dated other trans women in the community. He used the same lines on each of them, saying that he had “just gotten out of a relationship” and wasn’t looking for “anything serious.” This person provided screenshots of text chats to corroborate her story. Since the details noted in the chats match what we know of Metz we are confident this information is accurate.
Considering Metz’s extreme hatred of LGBTQ+ persons, and trans persons in particular, the fact that he chased trans women is an unexpected and disturbing development. In light of this predatory behavior we deem John Robert Metz a danger to trans persons and the LGBTQ+ community in general.
