Brian Tierney, Skyler Philippi and the Rise and Fall of Primal Aryan Warlord Gang

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Written by: SoCal Research Club and Sunlight Anti-Fascist Action

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This is the story of Primal Aryan Warlord Gang, a short-lived accelerationist cell that was in the process of starting its own compound when the group collapsed after a series of arrests.

The group was co-founded by two petty criminals – one a braggadocious burglar and the other a 3-D printing gunsmith – and had direct connections to other militant accelerationists online and in-real-life.

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IN THIS ARTICLE

• THE OPERATORS
  • THE BRAGGADOCIOUS BURGLAR: BRIAN WILLIAM TIERNEY
  • THE MANIC, THE MYTH, THE LEGEND IN HIS OWN MIND
  • THE TRYHARD TERRORIST: “MAKE ME FAMOUS!”
  • THE 3–D PRINTING GUNSMITH: SKYLER ROBERT PHILIPPI
  • THE VIRTUAL GHOST WHO DOXXED HIMSELF
  • THE MACHINIST FROM MINNESOTA BECOMES A WOODLANDS HOBO
  • THE HATE HOUSE AND THE TRIBAL NETWORK
  • THE BLUSTER, BRAVADO AND BULLSHIT – AND THE RED FLAGS
• THE ASSOCIATES
  • THE CO–CONSPIRATORS
  • THE TEENAGE TERRORIST IN TRAINING
  • THE KVLTS
  • THE SOUTHERN SONS
• THE ORIGINS
  • THE OPERATIONS
  • THE PRACTICALITY OF THE LARP
• THE PLAN
  • THE (NOT SO) SMOOTH CRIMINALS
  • THE HYPE TRAIN HEADS TO VIRGINIA – IMMEDIATELY DERAILS
• THE FALLOUT
  • THE PANIC
  • THE RETURN OF PROFESSOR BARBARIAN
  • THE RALLYING CRY: #FREEMANIC
  • THE BLAME GAME
  • THE PLEA DEALS AND A PLEA FOR FREEDOM
  • THE HACKER, THE FLIPPER AND THE FANTASY

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On August 9, 2023, a news article was published titled:

‘Release our men’: Far-right used power grid threats to try and blackmail government into freeing neo-Nazi bank robbery suspects

The article was based on an FBI fusion center bulletin that had been issued in April 2023. It outlined specific and explicit threats that had been made on Telegram four months prior and stated that “the individual had not been identified”. 

Researchers with Fash Free Northwest, SoCal Research Club, Sunlight Anti-Fascist Action and the White Rose Society in Australia immediately recognized the demands to “Free Doc Grimson and Luke Kenna”, the conditions that were made to “1. Release our men 2. Leave them alone there after [sic]”, and the warning that “Failure to do so will result in more attacks on infrastructure.” 

The researchers also knew that those posts had actually been made by two men, and both of them had already been identified – despite the fact that law enforcement seemingly hadn’t connected them to the threats.

The threats had been posted on a Telegram channel the researchers had closely monitored the year before. In fact, they were made just two days after one of the men, whose alias at the time was “SCYZ0”, they had identified as Skyler Philippi. 

The other man, who briefly posted as “Insane Iguana”, was Brian Tierney, and he’d already been in federal custody for months before the FBI bulletin was issued.

FUN FACT: One of the white supremacists Fedposting on Telegram about attacking power structures on behalf of Michael “Doc Grimson” Brown and Luke “Leo Solaris” Kenna was their co-co-conspirator Brian “Manic” Tierney.

The other was a good friend of Tierney, who went by “SCYZO”. https://t.co/c0Hptb0V3H pic.twitter.com/KytIVUu4Mx

— SoCal Research Club (@SCResearchClub) August 9, 2023

Philippi hadn’t immediately been exposed after he’d been identified due to ongoing efforts at the time to also identify his close friend and fellow fedposter (someone who posts blatant and violent threats or calls to action online) who was known primarily as “Manic” (although he used various aliases across multiple accounts). 

Though “Manic” was positively identified as Brian Tierney just a couple of weeks later, he was arrested the very next day on federal charges. 

Philippi deleted his account and laid low after the arrest, so a ‘wait and watch’ approach was taken. There were indications that he had a new account on Telegram but wasn’t actively posting in public chats, but researchers figured it was only a matter of time before he would resume publicly posting. In May 2023, he reappeared and began posting under a known alias, and it didn’t take long for him to resume the type of posting that landed him on the radar in the first place.

THE OPERATORS

Researchers had taken notice of Philippi and Tierney earlier last year and began closely monitoring the two due to the nature of the comments they regularly made on Telegram, the content of the channels they ran, the “operations” they were conducting offline and their close connections to other neo-nazis and militant accelerationists, both online and IRL (in real life). 

THE BRAGGADOCIOUS BURGLAR: BRIAN WILLIAM TIERNEY

Brian Tierney first came to the public’s attention in January 2023 after he was arrested and charged for his role planning in a bank heist*.

While he did achieve short-lived notoriety as a spectacularly failed bank robber, what the public doesn’t know is that the 30-year old from Long Island, NY is also a twice-caught serial burglar and self-professed terrorist whose overinflated ego and compulsion to brag about his crimes, his supposed superior intellect and his self-perceived handsomeness cannot be understated. 

THE MANIC, THE MYTH, THE LEGEND IN HIS OWN MIND

It’s unknown when Brian Tierney began living a life of (mostly petty) crime, but his criminal history can be traced back seven years. 

His first arrest was in December 2016 when he was caught while in the process of committing a residential burglary. The arrest came after he’d committed a string of burglaries earlier that month throughout Nassau County, NY. In June 2017, he was arrested again for pawning jewelry and electronics from one of the homes he had robbed six months earlier. 

His incarceration record from New York’s Department of Corrections shows that he was ultimately sentenced for committing two felonies: second degree burglary and attempted second degree burglary. In May 2020, he was released on parole after having served just over 27 months at Mohawk Correctional Facility, and was given an additional thirteen months of post-release supervision.

Tierney’s accounting of his criminal history is a bit more embellished. In his telling, he wasn’t just a burglar, but a serial home invader who brandished an unregistered firearm and left calling cards to taunt the police. He also exaggerated the length of his sentence and post-release supervision, claiming to have served the max for both. Still, some of the details of his crimes that he shared were true, and some of those details were very specific. 

In the three and a half years since his release from prison, Tierney has repped “Brotherhood 13”, a skinhead gang he says is “an offshoot” of Nazi Lowriders (NLR) whose “mother chapter” is in Scottsdale, AZ. NLR is a prison gang with an established presence in a few western states, primarily California. Brotherhood 13 is so obscure, researchers were unable to determine if it actually exists.

His tendency to tell anyone and everyone about his prior convictions, along with the tidbits of personal information and a few scattershot selfies and photos he’d shared, is what led researchers to his identity the day before his (latest) arrest.

When he wasn’t recounting glorified versions of the criminal exploits that had gotten him locked up in the first place, Tierney was often spinning stories about his time inside of prison. Some of those revolved around his supposed sexual exploits, like the psychologists in the prison mental health facility he “hoodwinked” because they were all “hooked on [his] cock”, or the two hand jobs he got (including one from an old lady). 

His entire online persona revolved around being perceived as a hardened convict, a terrorist and the handsomest man to never show his face (because, in his words, “I’m a terrorist”). And he wanted everyone to know it.

THE TRYHARD TERRORIST: “MAKE ME FAMOUS!”

Tierney’s preoccupation with portraying himself as a formidable force in the fight against “the System” took precedence over practicing decent opsec. Instead of maintaining a low-profile after forming his own acclerationist group and participating in planning a bank robbery*, Tierney’s shameless self-promotion often got the best of him. 

When a December 2022 article was published about a neo-nazi group that had tried to capitalize on the power grid attack in Moore County, NC earlier that month, Tierney’s “Skin Head” Telegram alias had gotten a very minor mention in the piece – and he was ecstatic. 

He posted screenshots on his channel of the section of the article containing his quotes, which only consisted of “Nothing”, “Groups are gay” and “Get busy with yourself and a couple of real n****s only”. He had written across the middle of the screenshots in large font, “Yes please keep quoting me lol make me famous, jews! Thank you!”

“Did you see me on the news article with that shit?” he’d asked in one chat. In response to another member who had said they love being in the news, Tierney replied, “Same. I’m in that shit every day”.

He most definitely was not.

He would, however, actually make the news just three weeks later.

THE 3–D PRINTING GUNSMITH: SKYLER ROBERT PHILIPPI

Skyler Philippi is a self-described “tribalist, accelerationist and pagan”. 

He’s also a 23-year old drifter who attempts to stay off the grid and doesn’t seem to settle in one area for very long. Over the past two years, he left his hometown of Princeton, MN to live alone in the woods of New Hampshire, “chased adventure and profit” down to Louisville, KY and joined his “tribe” in Rustburg, VA, before returning to Kentucky in early 2023.

In contrast to his constantly changing location, Philippi has shown a consistent pattern of oversharing sensitive information, overstating his abilities and over enthusiastically engaging in a lot of fedposting. 

THE VIRTUAL GHOST WHO DOXXED HIMSELF

Philippi has almost no online presence outside of Telegram. He also frequently changes usernames and handles or deletes his accounts entirely. Despite this, it was possible to definitively connect him to multiple accounts and aliases he’s used on the platform.  

It was also possible to positively identify him due to the trove of personally identifying information he’d shared from various accounts over a one-year period – everything from his name, age, locations, family history, general background and physical description to full-faced selfies.

Something Philippi (somehow) thought wasn’t possible.

Of the countless pieces of personal information he’d shared, two of the most crucial came from posts he had made in May, October and December 2022. 

The first came from an article he had posted about a house that had exploded in his hometown. In his telling, he was an unsung hero after helping to rescue his neighbors from the explosive house fire. The second came in a series of “hints” he’d dropped over a period of a few months in which he revealed his name: Skyler Philippi. 

Out of the few known addresses for him, two are in Princeton, MN. The first is the home he was raised in. The second is adjacent to the house explosion he had shared the article about. 

From there, researchers were able to corroborate additional information he had shared, including specific details about his upbringing and his family. 

THE MACHINIST FROM MINNESOTA BECOMES A WOODLANDS HOBO

The earliest Telegram posts that could be definitively attributed to Skyler Philippi were made in December 2021 in a chat that had been run by Brian Tierney. They had all been made within a span of a few days and though the account had already been deleted by the time the posts were discovered, it was clear they had all been written by the same person – and that the person who wrote them was Philippi. 

At the time the posts had been made, Philippi was living in Keene, NH. He had arrived in the area two months earlier after having “fled Minnesota over the [vaccine] mandates” and “forced death camps” he was convinced were coming. He had quit his job as a CNC certified machinist and “left the only home [he] ever knew” to be close to his “brother”, who he considered not just his “family”, but his “Manson family”.

He was living the life of a woodlands hobo, and the two months he’d already spent living in relative isolation in a tent in the woods were getting to him. 

Luckily for him, he had cell service and Telegram provided a lifeline of sorts to the outside world until he was able to secure a place to rent a month later.

Unluckily for him, the posts he wrote in Tierney’s Berserker Chat made it possible to connect him to other posts he made in a separate chat – posts in which he shared his very specific (and rare) shoe size, photos showing some of his poke-and-stick tattoos and, perhaps most important of all, a few full-faced selfies. 

It was in this second chat that Philippi had begun showing off his growing arsenal of homemade weapons. 

In mid-2022 he posted some of the 3-D printed firearms he’d made, as well as his “ammo tin” that contained a bottle of a specific chemical compound that can be used to manufacture both gunpowder and incendiary devices (aka: homemade explosives). 

It was during this same period that he began “looking to escape New Hampshire” for reasons he never disclosed, though he would later “confess” to having hidden 80 pounds of Tannerite – another type of explosive – in the walls of his apartment before he left. 

THE HATE HOUSE AND THE TRIBAL NETWORK

By September 2022 Philippi was back on Telegram, this time under the alias “Pine Scented Menace” (which he would later change to variations of SCYZ0 and SCHIZO).

He had also made his way down to Louisville, KY, a move he said was motivated by “adventure and profits”.

During his short stint living in Louisville, Philippi claimed to be staying at a “wingnat hostel”, which he affectionately referred to as the “Hate House”. He said he’d lived in the nazi flop house alongside members of various white supremacist groups (as well as their children), and that all of them were all part of a larger “tribal network” spread across Appalachia.

According to Philippi, the groups whose members comprise this tribal network include Asatru Folk Assembly, National Alliance, American Freedom Network, an unspecified prison gang (which is possibly Brotherhood 13 Skinheads – if it actually exists) and other miscellaneous smaller “tribes”. As for his personal tribe, he said his core “tribal unit” consisted of 7 men, 2 women and 2 children, which included himself and Brian Tierney as the two oldest members.

While his claims about the other tenants of his hateful homestead couldn’t be independently verified, the location was identified as one of the very few known addresses for Philippi. Images of the house’s interior found on a listing of the property were also matched to the background of multiple photos Philippi had posted to Telegram.

Unsurprisingly, Philippi had grown tired of Louisville within the few short months he’d lived there. By December, he was romanticizing the time he’d spent living in New Hampshire, reminiscing about his home state of Minnesota and revealing his plans for his next move – he was headed for Virginia.

It was clear that he did not enjoy living in a city where white people are a “mere” 65% of the demographic, as evidenced by his posts about his time there and his anticipation of having to “make a hard exodus” after the tenants of the “Hate House” had (supposedly) been served an eviction notice. 

By the beginning of 2023, Philippi had made it to Virginia – and it turned out that he didn’t even have to shoot his way out of Louisville to get there (though he did seem to believe he was preparing to go to war).

THE BLUSTER, BRAVADO AND BULLSHIT – AND THE RED FLAGS

The impression of Brian Tierney and Skyler Philippi is one of bluster, bravado and bullshit – for the most part.

Many of their claims are (at best) unable to be substantiated. These include Philippi’s long-standing claims to have an active warrant out for his arrest, though no arrest, court or warrant records have ever been found for him. The lack of criminal records in his home state of Minnesota, where he supposedly did multiple stints in jail on assault charges and where court records are open access, cast doubt on the veracity of these claims.

Despite most of their claims appearing to be little more than embarrassing attempts to bolster their own bonafides amongst their peers, Tierney has proven that he poses a legitimate threat to public safety, and there’s a concern that Philippi does as well – especially considering that both men genuinely appear to be nihilistic, full-fledged believers in the need for accelerationist tactics to bring about societal collapse. 

Both men claim to have diagnoses ranging along the sociopathic spectrum, Tierney being a full-blown sociopath and Philippi having sociopathic (and homicidal) tendencies. While there’s no way to know how much truth there actually is to these statements, it’s clear that both men exhibit a callous disregard for their perceived enemies, and in Tierney’s case, he’s shown a complete lack of remorse for the crimes he’s committed and the people he’s victimized.

Philippi habitually develops close relationships with underaged teens. Some he maintains friendships with, others he takes on the role of mentor with, and at least one he was in a relationship with.

Philippi may have taken a premonition that had been told to him by his “cult mother” way too literally when she said, “the girl your [sic] looking for is still in highschool”. In May 2022, he admitted to being in a relationship with a teenager 5 years younger than himself. He described the 17-year old whom he’d “chased for months” as “a little damaged” on account of ongoing physical abuse from her father. He had disclosed all of this immediately after announcing: “I like giving cervical destruction”. 

The fact that Philippi also casually discusses a desire to commit extreme, often sexual, violence is another red flag that should be taken very seriously. The cult-like loyalty Philippi exhibits to his chosen family and his “tribe”, all of whom are members of various neo-nazi groups, is also cause for concern.

 

THE ASSOCIATES

While many of Brian Tierney and Skyler Philippi’s connections to other hardcore neo-nazis and accelerationists primarily existed online, others evolved into real-world networking between clusters of decentralized accelerationist cells and a larger extended “tribal network” spread across the Appalachian region.

Among Philippi and Tierney’s close associates, friends and extended network, many have been involved within the online Terrorgram sphere, a network of Telegram channels and chats run by a loose collective of militant accelerationists who share the common goal of radicalizing and inspiring others into committing acts of terror. 

Some of them have even been arrested and indicted for planning their own terrorist attacks and other serious crimes.

THE CO–CONSPIRATORS

Two of the PAWG operators’ closest associates were Luke Kenna of Gloversville, NY and Michael J. Brown Jr. of Glenmoore, PA – the two men Philippi and Tierney had threatened to attack critical infrastructure on behalf of.

Kenna and Brown each ran their own ‘tactical training’ groups, and both have documented histories of committing acts of violence. In 2019, Kenna was charged with second-degree strangulation. Between 2018 and 2021, Brown was charged with over 100 offenses ranging from stalking to aggravated assault.

Kenna was arrested in November 2022 after being pulled over during a routine traffic stop and found to be wearing a full-kit of body armor and armed with a loaded ‘ghost gun’. When Brown was arrested just a few weeks later, it was revealed that he and Kenna, along with a third unnamed accomplice, had hatched an absolutely absurd plot to pull off a bank heist under the guise of writing a screenplay. 

Less than a month later, the third co-conspirator was arrested: It was Brian Tierney. 

In the days leading up to his arrest, Kenna had reactivated an abandoned Twitter account and began making a series of bizarre comments. He posted about writing a training manual, a screenplay and a “book in real time”, and made comments about who he would “credit” in his writings. During this period Brown began incessantly messaging and tweeting at researchers and journalists, referring to them in at least one instance as “supporting cast”. 

Those bizarre comments soon took an ominous turn – the references not only hinted at the plans being made by the “SS Screenwriters Guild”, but Kenna’s especially echoed the actions of Lyndon McLeod, a mass murderer that he not only revered, but had a documented connection to. 

In the journal Kenna was carrying when he was arrested, he had laid out his plans: 

“Its coming up to the end of the year and I am flat broke with nothing but a gun and a dream. I’m going to fulfill my destiny one way or another. And It’s going to take bold action to do so. I have already set in to motion a plan to start it all off.”

This entry is especially troublesome considering comments he had made in the Berserker Chat he co-ran with Tierney one year and six weeks prior to his arrest.

In December 2021, had Kenna exalted “Saint [Lyndon] McLeod” just two days after the man had murdered five people in a targeted killing spree. In the years leading up to the murders, McLeod had self-published a 3-part book series in which some of the characters in his twisted tale of violent vengeance were named after his intended victims. In the days leading up to the murders, he’d produced a short-film that outlined his plans for carrying out the attack. 

In October 2022, Kenna had affectionately referred to the killer as “my boy McCloud [sic]” and questioned who was “going to send this year out with a bang?”

THE TEENAGE TERRORIST–IN–TRAINING

In August 2022, one of Philippi’s close acquaintances, a 17-year old from the Czech Republic known only by his online aliases “Stachan” and ”Lachtan”, had been arrested on terrorism charges. According to Czech news sources, the teenager was arrested and indicted after it was discovered that he and a peer were in the early stages of planning a series of terrorist attacks on embassies in Israel, China and the U.S. 

The budding terrorist was inspired by the 1995 Oklahoma City bombing, and he’d been devising a detailed plan to recreate the attack on three embassies on the 30 year anniversary of the tragedy that injured over 500 people and killed 168, 19 of whom were children. That he had already begun obtaining bomb making materials shows that he intended to follow through with his plan. 

Before his sentencing, Philippi had expressed an affection and concern for the teenager. He stated his desire to continue communicating with “Stachan” while he was in prison and eventually bring him to the U.S. upon his release.

THE KVLTS

It appears that Philippi likely came into contact with “Stachan” through their mutual involvement in at least two Telegram groups popular amongst neo-nazis and accelerationists: WarKvlt and RawMeatKvlt (RMK). 

WarKvlt is run by a man known as “Regis” and RMK was run by a man known as “MeatBro” (who has kept a low profile for at least a year since deleting his channels). “Stachan” was an admin for both channels and was a mutual member of various other chats with Philippi, Tierney, Kenna, “MeatBro”, “Regis” and others within their extended network. But he wasn’t the only teenager that’s been brought into this inner-circle full of mostly grown men.

THE SOUTHERN SONS

Not long before Stachan’s arrest, another teenager (who was later identified, though only by his initials, “A. A.”) became involved in a number of Terrorgram-related chats, and he was especially active with Primal Aryan Warlord Gang (PAWG) – a connection that he later claimed led to him being raided and having his devices seized. 

In the PAWG Chat, adult admins excused the teen’s obnoxious online behavior on account that “he’s a kid”, acknowledged that he’s “literally a child” and reassured others that “he’s learning”.

“A. A.” eventually became a co-admin of the PAWG channel alongside Tierney, Philippi, Kenna, a personal friend of Tierney’s known only as “wiglaf” (“wig”), and others who are closely connected within the core Terrogram network. PAWG admins frequently shared original Terrorgram publications (which included mass-murderer manifestos and terrorist training manuals), encouragement and calls-to-action for future “Saints” (a term given to politically and racially motivated mass-murders and terrorists by militant accelerationists) and posts glorifying acts of violence, industrial sabotage and attacks against critical infrastructure.

Both “wiglaf” and “A. A.” have direct connections to Southern Sons Active Club (SSAC), and it was “wiglaf” who introduced “A. A.” to Philippi, who now considers the teenager to be his “little Brother”.

Not much is known about “wig” as he was the least frequent poster out of the extended group, though the few chat posts written by or about him show that he’s one of Tierney’s closest friends and was considered to be a core member of PAWG. 

Exactly how he became involved with PAWG is unknown, but it’s worth noting that both SSAC leaders have admitted to either knowing or having met Tierney. Still, the connection is curious as SSAC members primarily live in South Carolina and Georgia, while PAWG and associates were mostly based in the Northeastern region of the U.S. – the area that Kenna believed would “definitely be a stronghold as things accelerate” and Tierney referred to as, “enemy territory… a target rich environment”.

THE ORIGINS

In 2022, Philippi and an unknown associate created a short-lived group called Anti-System Aktion (ASA). ASA supposedly disbanded due to the group’s Telegram channel being banned, but that’s likely not the only reason. After ASA folded, Tierney absorbed Philippi into his group, which he had just recently rebranded from Berserker Kvlt to Primal Aryan Warlord Gang.

THE OPERATIONS

Both ASA and PAWG followed the same MO as Brown’s Aryan Compartmented Elements (ACE): Identify a perceived enemy or target; commence an operation that includes stalking and/or committing acts of sabotage; post photos, videos and an action report afterward.

Many of the “operations” conducted by ASA and PAWG were nothing more than late-night thieving excursions turned into highly-stylized propaganda. But some did show the “operators” sabotaging the property of their enemies, and at least a few of their “operations” gave actual cause for concern – particularly the ones insinuating they were targeting first responders. This was the same tactic that ACE had encouraged “operators” to use when executing a mass-casualty event. 

Whether ACE, ASA or PAWG “operators” had actually intended to commit acts of mass-violence and terrorism (or if they already had) is debatable, but at the very least they were all closely involved with one another and were part of a decentralized network of accelerationists whose shared goal is to inspire others to do so. 

THE PRACTICALITY OF THE LARP

Acting as “operators” of a small cell accelerationist group also fit in perfectly with a hobby that Tierney and Philippi both engaged in: urbex (urban exploration). 

 

While there is nothing inherently suspicious about urbex or the hobbyists who partake in the exploration of abandoned buildings and other manmade structures, the hobby does potentially provide cover for those who have ulterior motives for the spaces.

It’s easy to dismiss the activities of these types of small cell “operators” as nothing more than LARPing and fedposting after the fact – but as the charges against Brown, Kenna and Tierney recently proved, the willingness to carry out even the most harebrained schemes shouldn’t be underestimated, especially by those who seriously overestimate their ability to successfully execute their plans.

As one admin in the PAWG chat explained: 

“LARPing is unironcally [sic] how you will to power. When you LARP you practice, coordinate, reninact [sic], and rehearse. LARPing is putting in the effort to training thinking and planning ahead, and rehearsing different actions and techniques.”

They were not playing. They were practicing.

They were also planning.

Exactly what they were planning isn’t completely clear, but when various chat posts made over the span of nearly a year and a half were taken together, a picture began to emerge: Between the overt fedposts and obvious shitposts were hints of a plan, one that appeared to be the creation of a neo-nazi compound run by a rag-tag group of outlaws and accelerationists in the making.

THE PLAN

Skyler Philippi spent most of 2022 bouncing around from state to state, honing his “trade” as a 3-D printing gunsmith and attempting to build a business out of making prints and castings for “specialty parts”. Judging by the quality of his weapons, the lack of business filings and the overall nature of his chosen lifestyle, his ‘business’ (if it took off at all), was likely neither legitimate nor legal.

Brian Tierney spent the early part of that year in and out of the NICU after his son was born and suffered severe complications during a homebirth gone very, very wrong. Between the time his son passed away in late March and his public return to Telegram that summer, his activities were mostly unknown – with one exception. 

In June, Tierney had attended “Blood on the Mats”, the inaugural festival put on by Devotion Jiu Jitsu near Lynchburg, VA. Devotion is run by members of Wolves of Vinland, a fascist neo-Pagan cult that Kenna and McLeod were also involved with. 

THE (NOT SO) SMOOTH CRIMINALS

When he wasn’t rolling around on mats with pagan neo-nazis, Tierney appeared to spend most of his time posting on Telegram, and most of that time was spent in a chat full of people who put more effort into working over the system than they would contribute to it over a lifetime. The group’s members can best be described as a mixed bag of “anti-wage slaves” doing everything from trying to maximize food bank hauls to learning the ropes of scrapping, to semi-professional fraudsters talking about how they make their “passive income”. The chat even comes with the added bonus of being at the center of some very bizarre, highly entertaining and (in a few cases) incredibly disgusting internet lore.

Philippi was also a regular poster in the chat, and the two men fit right in. Tierney had become the chats resident “convict” and unsolicited “schlong poster” and Philippi was known as the group’s “original scrapper”. By their own admissions, both men regularly engaged in committing petty crimes and both were seen teaching others how to do the same, either in chat posts or offering more thorough step-by-step guides. 

It was in this chat that Tierney volunteered the “kit post” he had written when Atomwaffen Division founder Brandon Russell, whose obsession with attacking the power grid recently landed him in prison (for the second time), had solicited a skilled thief from the anti-wagies to write “an anonymous article guide”. 

That same day, Russell had also put Philippi in direct contact with a personal friend of his that had recently joined Asatru Folk Assembly after Philippi had expressed interest in the whites-only neo-Völkisch hate group.

Later in the year, Tierney appeared to be focused on his “several unregistered businesses”. The twice-caught burglar had started up his own moving and delivery company called Viking Trucking Transport/Viking Transport and Trucking in mid-2021. By the end of 2022, he had expanded to include an affiliated company called Viking Overhead Doors which offered services in Virginia, Kentucky, North Carolina and Eastern Tennessee.

He often boasted about his side gigs as well, which allegedly consisted of him getting paid to do things like slash tires and beat up former cops.

At the end of 2022, Tierney also began working a legitimate job where he was paid to do what he says he does best: break into homes. Only these homes were foreclosures and he was hired to winterize the properties and change the locks. Still, he couldn’t help but admit that he was “considering using [the homes] as hideouts”. The day before his arrest he had also admitted, “I like raiding personally. I like adversarial shit. I’ve only been a wagie for a couple weeks and it’s for an ulterior purpose.” 

Tierney’s admissions are especially damning considering the timing and the circumstances in which he made them. 

His big brained idea about using foreclosed homes as hideouts is in line with a conversation that had taken place just a few weeks earlier between PAWG Chat admins (which included Tierney, Philippi and Kenna) regarding their favorite “Saints”. Among the top criteria was “operational longevity”, the ability to evade capture for long periods due in large part to the use of off-the-grid hideouts. It’s not surprising that members of the terrorist group The Order were among the top contenders and were praised for being “on some gangster shit. Hitting big heists on banks and assassinating k***s”. 

By the time of Tierney’s admission, both of his co-conspirators had already been arrested for the bank robbery the trio had been planning together* since November. 

Not to mention that a plan for at least half a dozen other members of the “tribe” to head to Tierney’s newly acquired undeveloped 5.5 acre property in Rustburg, VA was well underway by that time. 

THE HYPE TRAIN HEADS TO VIRGINIA – IMMEDIATELY DERAILS

Around the time Tierney finally moved from Long Island to Rustburg in late 2022, Philippi had already been planning his own move from Louisville back to the Appalachian region where his “folk and fight” were, stating that this was “a long time coming.” 

By the beginning of 2023, he had arrived and was living on Tierney’s property. 

Their good friend and fellow PAWG admin “wiglaf” had also made his way to Rustburg, a move he’d been planning since at least mid-December. “Regis”, their “Brazilian brother” whom they’d been working on getting a green card for, was also making plans to join the tribe. The identity of the others who were said to be making the white power pilgrimage to Rustburg are unknown.

The “hype train” was officially on its way to Virginia, and the “solar left hand cult” would finally be coming together – and possibly even expanding as they were said to “have the back of any Aryan looking to hide and plot”.    

Unfortunately (for them), the hype train derailed harder than a Hard Reset fever dream just two weeks into the new year when Tierney’s property was raided and he was arrested on January 13, 2023. 

“Regis” lucked out, seeing as the raid happened shortly before he had left to travel to Virginia, though it’s not clear if he was set to make a 4,700 mile trip from his home in Paraná (Southern Brazil) or if he had been living stateside.

Philippi and “wiglaf” were only half as lucky. They were both present during the raid, but neither appear to have been arrested or charged. Though Philippi has since maintained that he was subsequently detained for 11 hours – in his underwear.

THE FALLOUT

In the aftermath of Tierney’s arrest, there’s been some interesting activity in the terrorsphere – mainly in the form of panic, rumors and accusations, but there’s been at least one very interesting revelation.

THE PANIC

Within a day of the raid, an admin abruptly kicked all of the members from the PAWG Chat and shut it down. “Regis” immediately did the same with his WarKvlt chat. 

It also didn’t go unnoticed that Brandon Russell changed his username on Telegram the same day, which is unlikely to be just a coincidence seeing as he and Tierney had already been in contact for months by that point. 

Philippi quickly disappeared from Telegram, though his account wasn’t deleted for at least a month which led to speculation amongst some terrorbros that he’d also been arrested. 

An admin for one of the chats he and Tierney had been very active in later disclosed that Philippi had been quietly lurking in the interim, though he didn’t make an obvious reappearance for another five months.

THE RETURN OF PROFESSOR BARBARIAN

When Philippi did reappear on Telegram in May 2023, he was impossible to miss. 

Old habits die hard, so it was no surprise that he came back using a well-known alias, “Professor Barbarian”, or that he returned to many of the same chats he’d previously been active in and immediately started back up with the fedposting.

He also started doxxing himself the exact same way he had over a year earlier (sans the full face selfies). This time he said it didn’t matter because his “opsec had been blown” when he was detained during the raid (though he had never been publicly named or even alluded to by federal or local agencies, journalists or even researchers at this point).

He claimed to have filed a civil suit against the Rustburg Sheriff’s department for violating his fifth amendment rights, though no such case appears to have been filed.

He also hilariously dared VICE, the outlet that broke the stories about the failed bank robbers masquerading as screen writers, to “release his name” and vowed to sue the outlet for “defamation and damages” if they did. In Philippi’s mind, this scheme would be an easy payday in which he could “collect $2.2 million in ‘white reparations’”, which of course would be used (in part) to buy land for a new compound for his neo-nazi accelerationist crew.

Despite the fact that Philippi has been blowing his own opsec for over two years, his smug sense of superiority also led him to (falsely) believe that “I still have yet to be found by antifa”.

Philippi lamented that his gas mask was seized during the raid, though it’s unknown if any of the weapons, ammo, kits or other items that were seized belonged to or were manufactured by him. What is known is that he still has his 3-D printer and has continued manufacturing firearms and parts. To date, he’s claimed to have made over 40 guns.

He’s also encouraged other neo-nazis to do the same, telling them “you can be fabricator and distributor for your local guys”.

Philippi briefly disappeared from Telegram (again) immediately after the article about the threats against the power grid he and Tierney had made was published.

Though neither the the person(s) who made the threats nor the channel they were posted on were named, “Professor Barbarian” laid low for the next month. When he did return (again), he offered some hard-learned words of advice:

“It doesn’t pay to larp online. The internet is where dudes come and go to be arrested.”

THE RALLYING CRY: #FREEMANIC

The earlier show of support – and threatening demands – for the release of Kenna and Brown abruptly stopped and were replaced by a sad new rallying cry: #FreeManic. 

Granted, the scant amount of concern that had been shown for Kenna and Brown was primarily driven by those who were directly involved in the failed robbery plot and were scrambling to cover their own ass before they were eventually arrested themselves. First by Brown, who launched a fundraising campaign for Kenna consisting of the proceeds from the sale of a single 2-inch “support patch” offered on his website. Then by Tierney, whose support consisted of issuing incredulous denials, sharing Brown’s fundraiser once and, of course, threatening to attack the power grid.

The even more meager amount of concern shown for Tierney appears to be motivated by a selfish sense of self-preservation by some former Berserker and PAWG admins who were relieved that the “white supremacist neo nazi angle” didn’t appear to be a factor (or even a consideration) in his current criminal case. The paltry show of support for the former PAWG operator has consisted of little more than sloppy graffiti on the back side of the Kent County GOP headquarters in Michigan (courtesy of some of the chronically online teenage terrortots that Tierney chatted with day in and day out) and a few random hashtags on Telegram (courtesy of those same chronically online teenagers), though some just used it as an opportunity to dunk on him.

When news that Tierney’s wife was getting ready to launch a fundraiser to assist with the cost of his legal defense began making the rounds, the anti-wagies whom he’d spent so much of his online time chatting with were asked if they would offer their support. The response was a resounding “No fucking way”.

THE BLAME GAME

Unsurprisingly, some of PAWG’s closest associates have gone from a show of half-assed support for their imprisoned comrades to turning on one another. 

According to Philippi, it must have been Tierney’s association with the Order of Nine Angles (O9A) that led to his arrest. Though Philippi is hardly a reliable source of solid information, and his loyalty to Tierney coupled with his own personal grudge against the nazi satanist occult group taint his accusation with bias (at the very least), there has been speculation that Tierney had at least some degree of involvement with O9A. 

While he blames O9A for Tierney’s arrest, Philippi considers Kenna and Brown responsible for his close-friend’s current predicament.

In late-June, Philippi lambasted the two as “collaborators to the cops” who have “no loyalty, no integrity, not a single honorable trait” and vowed that the two co-conspirators wouldn’t be seeing their own families if his boy didn’t get to either. In his words: “FUCK THEM BOTH.”

The blame, however, doesn’t start or stop with sects of sinister satanist neo-nazis and Tierney’s co-conspirators – at the center of it all is “The System”. 

In July 2023, Philippi went on a long, violence-filled tangent that included his lifelong fascination with violence and how he now spends his time “perfecting [his] craft… violence and the application of”. He also wrote about his personal experience during the raid, the impact it left on him, his murderous fantasies about the revenge he believes should be exacted upon supporters or enablers of “The System” and how he “knew for sure that this is war”.

While Philippi has been pointing fingers at seemingly everyone and everything (except Tierney himself), at least two of Tierney’s associates pointed to Philippi’s continued flippant fedposting while their buddy “Manic” was in prison as being a bit too suspicious.

Thus, a former Berserker and PAWG admin and an old frenemy of Tierney issued a public warning about “professor barbarian” and the alleged consequences of “getting too cozy with this fuckhead”.

THE PLEA DEALS AND A PLEA FOR FREEDOM

It was only a matter of time before the would-be bank robbers would again start trying to cover their own asses, only this time it was from behind bars.

In May, Brown filed to change his plea, and on June 23, 2023 he signed a plea agreement. Kenna followed suit just a week later, and filed to do the same. He signed his plea agreement on August 17, 2023. 

As for Tierney, he hasn’t filed for a plea hearing, though his lawyer confirmed that he’d entered into negotiations with prosecutors on Tierney’s behalf back in July 2022.

Two months earlier a request for reconsideration of Tierney’s custodial status had been filed, and the arguments made by his lawyer and the supporting documentation that was submitted were nothing short of farcical.

While his lawyer contended that the government’s initial request for pretrial detention went unopposed due to “a dearth of information” showing that Tierney was a flight risk and a danger to the community, and that “the pretrial services report was, admittedly, very negative”, his lawyer argued that circumstances had changed with the birth of Tierney’s (second) son in early May. 

In a bid to sway the judge, a letter written by Tierney’s wife two months prior was submitted in which she shared about the tragic passing of their first son and pleaded for her husband to be released before the birth of their second. She asserted that her husband (who admitted to scouting out the foreclosed homes he was hired to secure as potential criminal hideouts) has “had major improvements throughout the last couple of years. He has been working full time steadily and has been staying out of trouble” and that he is “an honest, loyal, hardworking man”. 

Tierney’s lawyer argued that the self-described terrorist did not pose a danger to the community, and even claimed that there was evidence to the contrary. He cited Tierney’s prior criminal record (which Tierney brags about incessantly) and the fact that he never violated the conditions of his post-release supervision (which only lasted 13 months) as evidence that his client (who claims to still be part of a Nazi Lowriders affiliated prison gang) is a man of good moral character.

Tierney (who considers his diagnosis as a sociopath with antisocial personality disorder a badge of honor) chose to submit a letter in his own defense and requested that his lawyer “read a few selected sentences in order to demonstrate his peaceable nature and commitment to the community.” The best supporting evidence he could muster was an Eagle Scout certificate he had earned 12 years ago.

The judge was not swayed.

The next day an order was issued that Tierney continue to be held without bail. The judge’s reasoning stated, “the undersigned finds that there are conditions or a set of conditions that would ensure defendant’s return to court, but that there are no conditions or set of conditions that would ensure his safety in the community”. 

What Tierney’s “insanely awesome wife” had failed to mention in her letter was all of her husband’s “schizo shit and dangerous hobbies” that he claimed she’s “totally cool with”. What Tierney failed to mention was all of the “Secret Squirrel shit” he had been planning in addition to the bank robbery. And what nobody mentioned was that in the months leading up to his arrest, he was said to be honing a skill that few people even realized he had: Hacking. 

THE HACKER, THE FLIPPER AND THE FANTASY

According to a Texas-based hacker, fraudster and staunch anti-wagie that he regularly chatted with, Tierney had been getting into some “extremely odd software for hacking” and was “definitely planning some crazy shit”. The details of these illicit activities weren’t disclosed, but it was said that Tierney had enough of an understanding of “tech, hacking and fraud” that it was easy for him to learn the ropes when it came to committing cyber crimes.

Despite Tierney’s seemingly half-assed grasp on most things, he does have at least some tech-related knowledge and experience, which lends credibility to those claims.

Tierney had previously disclosed that he had gone to school for computer engineering but had dropped and decided that “pulling black hat moves” was more lucrative. Of the two jobs listed on his LinkedIn, one is Mobile App Developer for a company whose org chart still shows him listed as an employee to this day.

His interest and experience in tech may at least partially explain his fixation with getting his hands on a “flipper”, a hacking tool that was one of the many items seized during the raid on his property.

In the Criminal Complaint filed against Tierney, it was noted that some of the uses for a flipper were hacking radio protocols and accessing control systems/hardware, as well as the tool’s potential to be utilized during the commission of a bank robbery.

Another potential use for the device that has caused concern is cyber attacks – specifically the possibility of accelerationists using the device to carry out attacks against the power grid.

Coincidentally (or maybe not), the same FBI fusion center that issued the bulletin about the threats Philippi and Tierney had made against the power grid issued a separate bulletin the very same day about the concern that “racially and ethnically motivated violent extremists may seek to exploit the hacking capabilities of a new cyber penetration tester”.

According to the journalist who covered both of those bulletins, “Experts say the threat from the device has been greatly exaggerated.” According to Brian Tierney, “When my flipper zero gets here it’s fucking on”.

Accelerationists have long had a fixation with the power grid, and it’s not unusual to see them make calls to action for attacks against this specific sector of critical infrastructure.

Still, it’s worth noting that the day before his arrest most of Tierney’s final posts on Telegram were in support of committing acts of terror (both mass shootings and attacks on the power grid). He spoke to the effectiveness of using platforms like Telegram to radicalize others with pro-accelerationist messaging. He also shared his beliefs that substantial forces of white men were rising up and that attacks on infrastructure were perfectly suited for small scale guerilla units who lack the resources to inflict even more damage. He even went as far as to insinuate that he’d already gotten started and foolishly bragged about his ability to get away with it.

It remains to be seen whether the claims he made in his final hours on Telegram were just more ramblings from a braggadocious burglar who’s nothing more than a legend in his own mind, or if his posts were actually indicative of plans that extended far beyond the boneheaded bank robbery plot that landed him in prison hours after he’d made them.

No matter what he was planning, one thing is for certain: Tierney genuinely believed that he would never be caught.

Though now that he has been, one can only help but wonder how he feels about being captured, cuffed and stuffed into a garment resembling a straight jacket instead of fulfilling his fantasy of “dying in an epic shootout after banging [his] way across the world”.

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* allegedly