LEXINGTON, SC – Former Aryan Nations leader August B. Kreis III, who’s history of neo-Nazi activism spans over forty years, may never be a free man again.

The 61-year-old has been convicted of three counts of child molestation, which included repeated sexual abuse to two young girls between the ages of 10 and 14,  and has been sentenced to a total of 50 years, a possible life sentence given his age.

According to the State newspaper, Kreis sentence of two 15-year terms and one 20-year term could have been served concurrently, but Kreis requested they were served consecutively and Lexington County Circuit Court Judge Douet “Jack” Earley obliged him. Kreis was arrested in February 2014 after the mother of one of his victims contacted police to report she was assaulted. One of the victims, now in her 20s read a poem in court to Kreis calling him a “monster” and reminding everyone in the courtroom that abusers such as Kreis shatter the lives of their young victims, leaving them emotionally scarred.

“Days turn into months, and months into years, and every night is full of this child’s worst fears,” the woman read. “Looking to the stars and wishing for a different life, this pain pierces through me like a jagged knife. … Go through life watching behind me, and hold onto my heart with one hand. … My soul cries at the mention of your name.”

“Your disgusting little secret is out,” she concluded. “I hope you are haunted till the day you die for the things you’ve done,” she said. Judge Earley asked her for a copy of the poem, telling her, “You are a brave young lady,”
Involved in neo-Nazi activism since his high school days, Kreis dropped out of high school in Newark, NJ and went into the Navy serving in Vietnam for nine months before he was discharged as unsuitable for military service. He was in the Ku Klux Klan and Posse Comitatus, another white supremacist group, before joining Aryan Nations. By that time, Kreis had been one of the more recognizable faces in neo-Nazi circles, famously being thrown off the Jerry Springer show for insulting him and holding musical events on his Pennsylvania compound. Kreis worked closely with then-Aryan Nations members Charles John Juba, who currently lives in Kansas City, and Keystone State “Skinheads” founding member Steve Smith, currently a Republican committeeman who once posted on Stormfront that people like Kreis and Juba “go way back” and “have a proven track record of standing up and fighting Jewish supremacism.”
In recent years, Kreis’ activism has slowed down in conjunction with health and legal troubles. In addition to having both legs amputated due to diabetes, he pled guilty to fraud after he was caught drawing a need-based pension for military service while failing to report thousands of dollars in other income. It was just after serving a year in prison and house arrest along with two years probation when he was arrested on the child molestation charges.

Even while in court, Kreis attempted to maintain his activism, displaying a “Vote for Donald Trump” sign during the trial, which the judge instructed the jury to ignore, and declaring his positions just before sentencing. “I will always hate the Jew,” he said. This government is run by an evil group of people, and please — vote for Trump!”