George Lincoln Rockwell & John Patler - Deadly Friendship (3 volumes)

 

Upton Hill Publishers, 1920 pages

Rockwell & Patler - Deadly Friendship Volume 1 : Free Download, Borrow, and Streaming : Internet Archive

Rockwell & Patler - Deadly Friendship Volume 2 : Free Download, Borrow, and Streaming : Internet Archive

Rockwell & Patler - Deadly Friendship Volume 3 : Free Download, Borrow, and Streaming : Internet Archive

A few minutes before noon on August 25, 1967, George Lincoln Rockwell entered the Econowash laundromat at the Dominion Hills Shopping Center in the 6000 block of Wilson Boulevard just down the street from NSWPP headquarters. Wearing a white short-sleeve shirt, dark grey slacks, and dark shoes, he appeared to be an ordinary businessman. Despite his local notoriety, no one appeared to recognize Rockwell. He chatted amiably with laundromat operator Ruby Pierce and several fellow customers while starting up his two loads of wash. After commenting “I think that I forgot my bleach” or something to that effect, Rockwell headed out the door.

He returned to his 1958 Chevrolet and began backing out of the parking space in order to return to party headquarters, just up the street. Shopping center patrons suddenly heard hurried footsteps on the tar roof above them and then gunshots rang out. Two bullets smashed through the Chevrolet’s windshield and fragmented, spraying Rockwell in a shower of metal and glass. His Chevrolet slowly rolled backwards into a parked car. A mortally wounded Rockwell staggered out of the front passenger’s side door and momentarily pointed toward the shopping center roof before collapsing onto the pavement. A spilled carton of Ivory Snow detergent and a copy of the New York Daily News lay beside him.

The gunman ran along the shopping center roof and jumped to the ground in the rear. A shop owner and customer briefly gave chase but were unable to get a clear look at the fleeing figure. Other customers called the Arlington County police department and checked Rockwell for a pulse. He had none; one of the four bullet fragments that struck Rockwell had ripped through several major arteries just above his heart. The internal bleeding was so heavy that he was dead in 2-3 minutes. A short time later at a nearby bus stop, John C. Patler – an estranged former member of Rockwell’s organization – was arrested as the suspected killer by a passing patrolman familiar with the Arlington Nazis. Later that day, after hearing news of his son’s death, Rockwell’s 78-year-old father commented laconically, “I am not surprised at all. I’ve expected it for quite some time.”

To this day, opinion remains divided among National Socialists regarding the exact circumstances of Rockwell’s death. Was John Patler a lone gunman fueled solely by jealous passions committing a murder as the prosecution had successfully argued at trial? Or had rogue elements of the NSWPP, with or without Patler’s involvement, assassinated Rockwell in furtherance of a specific political agenda as others have alleged? Patler, for his part, has consistently maintained his innocence over the years. The only two published accounts of the Patler trial lack substance and largely reproduce the limited details to be found in the newspaper coverage at the time. Discussion of the circumstances surrounding Rockwell’s death continues to be conducted in an atmosphere largely devoid of hard evidence and/or documentary records. 

The current three-volume compilation is meant to address this problem head on by providing interested parties for the first time with direct access to over 1,800 pages of archival materials related to the death of George Lincoln Rockwell. These documents include the text of the entire Patler trial transcript and subsequent appeals, FBI forensic and ballistics files, surviving portions of the original evidence files still resident in the Criminal Archives of the Arlington County (VA) Circuit Court, as well as a host of other rare supporting materials which help shed light on the accusations of involvement made against other NSWPP members. These documents may well spur a new round of informed investigation and re-evaluation of the events surrounding Rockwell’s death.