Recruited into neo-Nazism at age 13
Meeink was recruited into neo-Nazism when he spent a summer with his 15-year-old cousin in rural Pennsylvania, who had already joined a skinhead group.
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
Kicked Out, Living with Dad, and the Summer That Changed Everything
At 19:03 · chapter starts 12:30
The expulsion from his mother's house arrives dramatically: Frank returns from school after being sent home, and his stepfather ambushes him, beats him, and orders him to pack his 'dago' things and leave. Frank moves to his Italian father's bar in Southwest West Philly, an almost entirely Black neighborhood, and is enrolled mid-year in a nearly all-Black school. The following summer, he visits his cousin in rural Pennsylvania expecting a punk-rock escape — and instead walks into a bedroom plastered with neo-Nazi newspaper clippings from the famous Geraldo Rivera brawl. The cousin has shaved his head and joined a skinhead crew. Older neo-Nazis visit, drink beer, bring girls, and — crucially — ask Frank what it's actually like living in a tough Philly neighborhood. It's the first time any adult has ever shown him that kind of attention, and it hooks him completely.
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