How cult leader ‘Commander Butcher’ plotted to sow mayhem across US

Far right (US)


Guilty plea by far-right activist lays bare plans for bombings, school shootings and Santas handing out poisoned candies


Edward Helmore in New York

Sun 23 Nov 2025 10.00 EST


Michail Chkhikvishvili, a self-described cult leader who called himself “Commander Butcher”, did not look like a Hollywood vision of a contemporary terrorist, despite the bizarre, almost made-for-TV extremist actions he planned, such as having people dressed as Santa Claus hand out poison candies on the streets of New York.

Chkhikvishvili appeared in a Brooklyn court last week as one might find an office IT tech: close-cropped hair and black-rimmed glasses, attentive, clear-spoken and cooperative as he was questioned about his understanding of a plea that could see him imprisoned for up to 18 years at his March sentencing.

The 23-year-old Georgian neo-Nazi was in US federal court to plead guilty to charges of soliciting bombings, school shootings and other acts of hate-motivated violence across the US.

It marked the end of an astonishing saga of plans for inciting and carrying out outlandish and appalling crimes. Chkhikvishvili was the leader of the aptly named Maniac Murder Cult, an international racist violent extremist group. He recruited people to commit violent acts, including plotting a mass casualty attack in New York City.

Southern Baptists reconsider condemning 'alt-right' movement

By rachel zoll and angie wang, associated press

PHOENIX — Jun 14, 2017, 4:48 PM ET






The Associated Press
Dr. Steve Gaines gives the president's address during the Southern Baptist Convention annual meeting, Tuesday, June 13, 2017, in Phoenix. (AP Photo/Matt York)

A national meeting of Southern Baptists will consider condemning the political movement known as the "alt-right" amid an uproar over the denomination's commitment to confronting prejudice.

Leaders of the faith group initially refused to take up a proposal that they repudiate the political group that emerged dramatically during the U.S. presidential election, mixing racism, white nationalism and populism. Barrett Duke, a Southern Baptist leader who led a committee that decided which resolutions should be considered for a vote, said the resolution as originally written contained inflammatory and broad language "potentially implicating" conservatives who do not support the "alt-right" movement.

But the decision caused a backlash online and at the gathering in Phoenix from Southern Baptists and other Christians, especially African-American evangelicals. The denomination has been striving to overcome its founding in the 19th century in defense of slaveholders. Thabiti Anyabwile, a black Southern Baptist pastor, tweeted that "any 'church' that cannot denounce white supremacy without hesitancy and equivocation is a dead, Jesus denying assembly. No 2 ways about it".

Southern Baptist leaders responded late Tuesday night with a dramatic call for attendees to return to the assembly hall, then announced they would take up the proposal after all on Wednesday. It was a highly unusual move for the denomination's tightly choreographed conventions, underscoring the sensitivity of the issue and the alarm among leaders that their initial rejection of the proposal would be viewed as an unwillingness to fight racism. In encouraging the meeting to reconsider, Steve Gaines, president of the Southern Baptist Convention, said he wanted to send the message that "we love everybody on this planet."