One of the most notorious members of the white nationalist/neo-Nazi movement may be getting an overdue dose of karma. After being ostracized by its white nationalist brethren and a bizarre affair between its leader and the wife of its spokesman, it looks like the Traditionalist Worker Party is no more.
The TWP, led by Matthew Heimbach and Matt Parrott, first emerged in the spotlight last summer, when Helmbach shoved a Black Lives Matter protester at a Donald Trump rally in Louisville. It played a key role in the ugly events in Charlottesville, and is named as a defendant in a lawsuit filed by a number of counter-protesters against a number of white nationalist outfits. More recently, court documents in California suggest it worked hand in glove with police against antifa activists.
But things have gone downhill fast since last week, when the run-up to a speech by alt-right guru Richard Spencer at Michigan State University turned violent. TWP members figured prominently in the violent clashes between white nationalists and counter-protesters.
Soon afterward, Daily Stormer founder Andrew Anglin began publicly rebuking Heimbach for supposedly damaging the alt-right’s image. Too violent for a guy who actively tried to crash the funeral of Heather Heyer, who was killed when a Daily Stormer fan plowed into a crowd of counter-protesters? And too violent for a guy whose minions have harassed and trolled Heyer’s family almost nonstop, forcing her mother to bury her in a secret location? Now that takes some effort.
Heimbach urged Anglin to “bury the hatchet” for the sake of the movement, saying that “when White men fight, Jews win.” Anglin delivered his answer a few days later. At his behest, The Right Stuff, an alt-right podcast network, canceled the TWP’s podcast, “Action!” In a post on Gab, the Twitter alternative favored by far-right outfits for its laissez-faire attitude about trolling, the TWP also claimed it had lost its landing page at The Right Stuff as well.
Clearly, TWP was reeling. But matters took another twist early Tuesday morning, when Heimbach and TWP’s co-founder and longtime spokesman, Matt Parrott, got into a violent scuffle at Parrott’s home in Paoli, Indiana–roughly halfway between Bloomington and Louisville. Parrott’s stepdaughter from a previous marriage, Brooke, is married to Heimbach. However, Heimbach had been carrying on an affair with Jessica Parrott, Brooke’s half-sister, for three months
Although Heimbach and Jessica Parrott claimed to have broken off their affair, Parrott and Brooke weren’t convinced. They spotted Heimbach and Jessica having sex in a trailer on Parrott’s property, prompting Parrott to walk in on them. According to a police report, Parrott claimed that Heimbach twisted him down, injured his hand, and choked him into unconsciousness.
Parrott fled to a nearby Walmart with his younger stepdaughter and called police, saying that Brooke had recorded the whole thing on her phone. When police arrived, they heard Matthew and Brooke Heimbach arguing. Later, Brooke claimed that her husband kicked the wall before grabbing her and throwing her on the bed.
All four listed their occupation as “white nationalist” on the police report. The Southern Poverty Law Center got an example.
Update to our earlier story: TWP chief Matthew Heimbach arrested for battery after an affair with TWP top spokesman Matt Parrott's wife. https://t.co/EeOiCD2EEn pic.twitter.com/qpoiL6GY4N
— Hatewatch (@Hatewatch) March 13, 2018
Soon afterward, Parrott resigned as TWP’s spokesman, saying, “SPLC has won. Matt Parrott is out of the game. Y’all have a nice life.”
Later on Tuesday, he deleted TWP’s Website, telling The Daily Beast that he feared its members would be caught in “this white trash circus.” He claimed that nuking the site was the only way to protect members’ personal information, and believed members would leave en masse as a result of “the events that transpired.”
If Heimbach thinks he can resurrect the party, he may have his work cut out for him. He pleaded guilty to disorderly conduct for his assault on the BLM protester last July and received a 90-day suspended jail sentence. However, he was required to stay out of trouble for the next two years. He faces a probation hearing on June 1, and it’s possible he could be headed to a Kentucky jail.
So it looks like one particularly noxious piece of white nationalist trash has been taken out. It’s rather fitting. They reveled in violence, and now they’ve probably gone down in violence. Isn’t karma lovely?
(featured image: screengrab courtesy WHAS-TV)
