A white nationalist from Indiana is facing charges of battery after allegedly attacking his wife and his wife’s stepfather.
Matthew Heimbach, leader of the Traditionalist Worker Party, was arrested March 13 after he put his wife’s stepfather, David Matthew Parrott, in a headlock and grabbed his wife’s cheeks, according to Orange County court documents.
Parrott and Heimbach’s wife confronted Heimbach in his Paoli, Indiana, home after the two found out he was having an affair with Parrott’s wife. Heimbach posted $1,000 cash bond and is scheduled for his initial hearing Monday.
In 2015, Parrott and Heimbach founded the Traditionalist Worker Party, which is considered a neo-Nazi hate group by the Southern Poverty Law Center. Heimbach also married Parrott’s stepdaughter around the same time.
In October 2016, PBS NewsHour did a segment titled “Why white nationalists hear a political ally in Donald Trump.” The segment featured Heimbach and Parrott sharing their vision of a racially pure nation where white people and black people are separated and Jewish people are exiled. The two also gave a tour of Paoli, pointing out abandoned buildings that used to be businesses.
Heimbach received national attention after he helped promote the August “Unite the Right” rally in Charlottesville, Virginia, which led to a clash between nationalists and anti-racism activists that left three dead and dozens injured.
Parrott told the SPLC shortly after Heimbach’s arrest that he would be leaving the Traditionalist Worker Party.
“I’m done. I’m out,” he said in an SPLC article. “SPLC has won. Matt Parrott is out of the game. Y’all have a nice life.”
Laurel Demkovich
