The Hidden Third

Snapshot · The Hidden Third

He Was a Violent Neo-Nazi Leader. Then He Found Out He Is Jewish.

Explore episode May 27, 2026

Where this was said

The Springfield Years: Cable TV Show and Neo-Nazi Notoriety

At 49:45 · chapter starts 47:10

The movement ships Meeink to Springfield, Illinois to escape Philadelphia warrants. Within days of arrival he assaults an anti-racist skinhead at a mall and is arrested — but the Philly and Jersey warrants are dropped in the jurisdictional shuffle, and Springfield lets him walk. Suddenly free of legal jeopardy, he sets up a neo-Nazi cable access show at Lincoln Land Community College — Abraham Lincoln's own Springfield, a detail not lost on Meeink. The show is deliberately designed to be engaging where older white-supremacist shows were boring: skits, music, jokes, and a young punk energy that he calls 'the racist Wayne's World.' He's also recruiting aggressively out of two high schools, using music and social pressure to pull in suburban kids. The arrest that ends this chapter comes during the taping of the second episode.

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