Greg Withrow

Gregory Withrow (born May 1, 1961) is an American far-right White supremacy activist. He was described by the Chicago Sun-Times as being "widely acknowledged as the founder of the [white power] 'skinhead' movement in 1978". Withrow subsequently publicly abandoned his earlier political beliefs in the late 1980s and became a regular face on television speaking out against racism and the organisation of young people by the far-right. In later years Withrow repudiated his change of heart and returned to far-right activism.

Withrow was the son of first cousins who married due to unplanned pregnancy. The marriage ended after three years and Withrow was raised by his father Albert. Withrow stated that he came from a racist background and that his father made him read far-right literature and study the life of Adolf Hitler whilst growing up in Sacramento, California. He also claimed that his father had been violently abusive and that, amongst other incidents, had once armed the young Greg Withrow with a knife before setting the family bull terrier on him and telling him to kill the dog or be killed. Withrow however subsequently claimed that he had exaggerated and invented much of the narrative of his childhood in order to garner sympathy.

Withrow joined the Ku Klux Klan at the age of 14 and with his friends set up a gang that carried out a series of muggings against Japanese tourists and gay people. Withrow was quickly arrested however when one of his intended victims proved to be an undercover police officer.

In 1979, whilst in attendance at American River College, Withrow established the White Student Union as an attempt to increase white supremacist action among the student population. Withrow had become disillusioned with what he saw as the ineffectiveness of the Ku Klux Klan. He came to the attention of Tom Metzger and before long Withlow's group had formed a close link with the Aryan Youth Movement, the youth branch of Metzger's White Aryan Resistance. Under Metzger's direction Withlow became recognised as a rising star on the far-right and neo-Nazi scene in the USA, with a series of speeches delivered at the Aryan Nations compound in Idaho attracting wide attention for the fiery nature of their rhetoric. He attracted further controversy at the 1986 Aryan World Congress by stating that non-Aryans in the USA should "be terminated or expelled".

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