Faces of Keystone United, New and Old

In all the fervor about the so-called “alt-right” we didn’t want anyone to forget the bumbling old school boneheads that we deal with regularly in Pennsylvania! Here are just some of that crowd.

In May of 2018 the white supremacist group Keystone United (KU) held a small gathering in Pittsburgh PA. Pictured above are confirmed ID’s of people at a picnic pavilion who are affirming their membership to KU. There are many long time members of KU at this gathering, a number of “probate” members, who are aspiring to become full members of KU, and a few known affiliates.

In 2009 Keystone State Skinheads changed their name to Keystone United in an effort to legitimize their hate organization. In 2003 Steven Scott Smith, above left, plead guilty to charges of terroristic threats and ethnic intimidation stemming from an assault on a black man in Scranton PA.

Smith is a founding member of KU and while maintaining an active organizing role for the group, he has managed to reinvent himself as a “white rights advocate”. Smith has been elected twice as a committee member in Luzerne County, where he has served for the past six years. Ryan Wojtowicz, right above, joined him on the same committee in 2017.

In 2002, Bob Gaus, left above, was arrested with two other KU members (Douglas Sonier and Joseph Hoesch) for assaulting a man in a diner because he asked them to stop throwing food at his table. The three of them plead guilty to simple assault and were given suspended sentences.

Travis David Condor, right above, operates American Defense Records, a white power record label established in Lexington KY but relocated to Pittsburgh PA in 2017 along with Condor. In April 2010, while on active duty with the 82nd Airborne Division, Condor plead guilty to beating a homeless man under a bridge in Cincinnati OH. He was sentenced to just 90 days with credit for time served.

KU has increasingly been holding public events throughout the state. These mostly include small gatherings, photo ops, and banner drops. Their propaganda stickers and banners have been posted in Pittsburgh, Philadelphia and several other towns across the state.

The growing presence of KU has led to multiple incidents of violence around the state. Travis Cornell, left above, and Jeremy Ingram, right above, have been charged with ethnic intimidation, criminal conspiracy and simple assault stemming from a July 8th group assault on a black man at a bar in the Pittsburgh neighborhood of Avalon. Four others have also been charged. This type of aggressive, racially motivated assault is in line with the actions of the KU founders. It is a direct result of the racial supremacist’s belief system.

This behavior is normal for organized hate groups. Incidents like this are a reminder that Keystone United still operates as a racist crew and not as a “rights advocacy group” that they claim to be. This new political climate is allowing groups and individuals to push their racist agendas behind a smokescreen of right wing populism. Knowing which individuals make up the group, what their history is, and their current actions are, is an important part of countering their campaigns of racial hate and violence inspired by that hate.

Others

L-R, Top Row: Aaron Klinger, Halifax, PA, Bryan P. and Patricia Vanagatis, Harrisburg, PA
L-R, Bottom Row: Damon Backwoods, Harrisburg, PA, Nicholas Gervasio, Pittsburgh, PA