Newly Contrite Neo-Nazi Bill White Headed Back to Jail

A Virginia judge sentenced notorious neo-Nazi and convicted felon Bill White to 10 more months in prison yesterday for violating his parole and fleeing to Mexico after posting an Internet rant against the U.S. government. He had indicated on his Facebook page that he was in Tehran, but was arrested June 8 in Playa del Carmen, which is about an hour south of Cancun.

“I’m sorry for leaving the country without permission,” White told U.S. District Judge James Turk. White, the former leader of the neo-Nazi American National Socialist Workers Party, also said that after completing a two-and-a-half-year prison sentence on multiple charges of threatening enemies, he had tried to leave his former beliefs behind, but a difficult transition from solitary confinement to living on parole led to what he called “irrational thinking.”

White was ordered to undergo a psychiatric evaluation when he was brought back to the U.S. because of a series of bizarre screeds in which he claimed the U.S. was a “demonic dream.” In one instance, he sent a letter to federal authorities claiming that while in prison he was given drugs that enabled him to communicate “with beings that … allowed [him] to explore certain hidden and obscured aspects of human experience.”

The Roanoke Times reported that White gave no answer for why he fled the country, but he acknowledged it was a setback in what he claims are efforts to turn his life around. "I tried to start my life over and I went about it the wrong way," he said. “I'd like a chance to try to do it again."

White’s new life notwithstanding, the Times noted that testimony during his sentencing hearing hinted that his legal troubles may not be over. Probation officer Mike Price said that an investigation into possible new charges is under way, though no details were available.