Technology
He Was an FBI Informant—and Inspired a Generation of Violent Extremists
Listing the Atomwaffen Division and the Order of Nine Angles as a lasting influence, Butcher also disclosed the nature of MKU’s “alliance” with 764, which was forged by the users “Xor” and “Kush” (both of whom are still unidentified). While deriding 764 for not committing enough in-person violence, Butcher said the two groups “might still stay associates because they keep cleansing their own way by making the weak suicide.”
According to victims of 764 members, “Tobbz,” a troubled young German convicted of killing an elderly woman and stabbing a man in 2022, was in the original 764 Discord server along with Almeida and Bradley Cadenhead, 764’s teenage founder who is serving decades in a Texas prison for CSAM offenses. Tobbz also had a Tempel ov Blood trident tattoo and had joined MKU, according to reporting from Der Spiegel and Recorder.
The second issue of Drums of Tophet, which its authors describe as “designed for the dark warriors of a doom now imminent on the near horizon,” continues in the same vein with features Q309, an occult sadomasochistic, self-described “art project” that borders on CSAM and prominently features Order of Nine Angles themes and a lengthy interview with a founder of the Satanic Front, a southern occultist organization.
In communications with a former Tempel ov Blood member viewed by WIRED, Sutter openly discussed viewing CSAM with other members of his nexion, and seemed obsessed with conspiracy theories like Project Monarch that involved child abuse. The former ToB member also noted Sutter’s fascination with the case of Belgian serial killer, rapist, and pedophile Marc Dutroux. Shortly before taking the Agony’s Point Press X account offline in March of this year, the account posted a photo of an occult altar featuring a blood-smeared photo of Dutroux next to human and animal skeletal remains, as well as a severed doll’s head inked with lightning bolts and a swastika, on top of a flag featuring a Nazi death’s head and the Nazi slogan “Meine ehre ist meine treue” (my honor is my allegiance).
On several occasions in the past year, the Agony’s Point Press account on X posted videos and photos highlighting 764 and its offshoots, particularly MKU and the group’s growing interest in the Order of Nine Angles. The account also routinely posted about 764 and com, occasionally adopting a faux journalistic tone to launder posts from the CSAM distribution and extortion network. Around Christmas 2023, @agonyspoint posted a graphic of MKU’s hockey goalie mask insignia with a ToB trident emblazoned in its forehead.
All this took place as the FBI’s investigation into 764 expanded and new arrests, including those of alleged member Kyle Spitze and Richard Densmore, who pleaded guilty in mid-July, were made in the early months of 2024. Moreover, there is an active FBI investigation on MKU that stems directly from its ties to 764, according to a law enforcement source with knowledge of the matter.
Earlier this year, the Agony’s Point account turned back toward older Martinet Press material, with several threads promoting Bluebird and Iron Gates, two books that Sutter introduced to the Atomwaffen Division as required reading that celebrate child abuse and rape.
“A Deal With the Devil”
The FBI has never addressed Sutter’s role in fueling violent far-right ideology. But the blowback from Sutter’s actions over the past decade is a feature, not a bug, of American law enforcement’s use of confidential informants, says Alexandra Natapoff, a professor at Harvard Law School who has studied the topic extensively for more than 15 years. “The informant market is run on this tacit, uncomfortable understanding that the cure sometimes might be worse than the disease,” Natapoff tells WIRED. By utilizing people with criminal or extremist histories to infiltrate hard-to-penetrate milieus like gangs, organized crime, or terrorist groups, she explains, the US government rewards such people for continuing to swim in the same waters.
“Baked into that arrangement is the well-understood, avoidable phenomenon that these individuals are going to commit criminal acts,” Natapoff says. “The FBI has authorized criminal and unauthorized criminal activity by confidential human sources, and the mere fact that those guidelines have those definitions is a recognition about the nature of informants.”