10-Year-Old Son of NSM Leader Held in Father’s Slaying
The 10-year-old son of prominent neo-Nazi Jeffrey Hall stands accused of murdering his father at their Riverside, Calif., home with the man’s own handgun. Hall, who led the Southern California chapter of the National Socialist Movement (NSM), was asleep on his couch when the boy allegedly shot and killed him before dawn on May 1.
The 10-year-old son of prominent neo-Nazi Jeffrey Hall stands accused of murdering his father at their Riverside, Calif., home with the man’s own handgun. Hall, who led the Southern California chapter of the National Socialist Movement (NSM), was asleep on his couch when the boy allegedly shot and killed him before dawn on May 1.
Hall, 32, advocated for a “white nation” and often led rallies of white supremacists giving stiff-armed Nazi salutes and waving swastika-adorned flags amid hundreds of angry counter-protesters. He made armed trips to the Mexican border to hunt undocumented immigrants. He was considered something of a rising star in the neo-Nazi universe, and made news last fall when he quietly submitted his name as a candidate for the Western Municipal Water District board of directors in Riverside County. He affirmed his neo-Nazi beliefs when confronted by the media as the election approached, losing the race, but still receiving almost 28% of the vote.
Hall apparently involved the 10-year-old in at least some NSM activities. Along with using his home as headquarters, he gave the child a belt bearing the SS insignia and was teaching him to shoot a gun. The NSM is notorious for attempting to draw children in at a very young age — it has a specialized organization called the Viking Youth Corps that is open to children of “European descent.”
A New York Times reporter who was working on an in-depth profile of the Southern California chapter of the NSM at the time of the killing characterized Hall as an “engaged father” who — when he wasn’t leading followers in chants of “Sieg Heil” and “Six million wasn’t enough” — seemed to live a “sunny suburban life.” Hall interacted lovingly with his five children and “gamely officiated at a sack race for his children” outside a house decorated with family photographs, according to the newspaper.
A darker picture began to emerge later in May. The Los Angeles Times reported that the boy apparently had been pushed to the breaking point by his father’s abuse of him and his stepmother, 26-year-old Krista McCary, and that the boy was terrified that he’d have to choose between them if his father’s behavior led to a divorce.
The Associated Press reported that McCary had told police that Hall “hit, kicked and yelled at his son to punish him for being too loud or getting in his way,” and that Hall had also abused her and the boy’s younger sisters. Other articles said that the Hall home was squalid, its floors strewn with unwashed laundry and empty beer bottles and its bathrooms stinking of urine.
At press time, the boy’s lawyers were considering a plea of not guilty by reason of insanity. He was facing trial in juvenile court.
McCary allegedly left the loaded pistol used to kill Hall on a low shelf where the five children in the house could easily access it. She was charged with five counts of child endangerment and four counts of criminal storage of a firearm, and the other four children were taken from her.
With 50 chapters in 32 states, the NSM is currently the largest neo-Nazi group in America. Its roots are in the original American Nazi Party, which was founded in 1959 by former Navy Cmdr. George Lincoln Rockwell. Rockwell was murdered by a fellow neo-Nazi in 1967.
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