Marine featured in new report on violent white supremacists has Charlotte roots
A young Marine identified in a new report by ProPublica and Frontline as a white supremacist who bragged about beating people in Charlottesville, Va., last summer graduated from a Charlotte high school in 2016, the Observer has learned.
Vasillios "Billy" Pistolis is featured prominently in the May 3 report on current and former U.S. military personnel who are involved in white supremacist hate groups. The article is part of an ongoing partnership between ProPublica, a nonprofit investigative journalism outlet, and PBS Frontline, which will continue with a documentary series planned for this summer.
Ardrey Kell High Principal David Switzer confirmed Thursday that the man featured in the article was a student at the south Charlotte high school, but said he cannot comment further.
According to a graduation profile in the newsletter of Charlotte's Holy Trinity Greek Orthodox Cathedral, Pistolis is a 2016 Ardrey Kell grad who was active in the school's Marine Corps JROTC, played soccer and competed in Brazilian jiu-jitsu.
A.C. Thompson of ProPublica, the lead author of the "Documenting Hate" article, told the Observer Thursday he believes that the Charlotte graduate profiled is the same man he and his colleagues spent months reporting on, using confidential messages from a chat group used by the white supremacist group Atomwaffen. The reporters also tracked Pistolis' "digital footprint," including a Facebook selfie in his Marine Corps uniform, interviewed a former Atomwaffen member who knew Pistolis and reviewed photos and video footage of the Charlottesville rally that turned violent.
Vasillios Pistolis' father, George Pistolis, said Friday that "neither I nor my son’s mother have any personal knowledge or comment regarding these allegations."
According to the article, Vasillios Pistolis bragged online that he had "cracked 3 skulls open" and kicked a transgender woman, whom he named, at the Aug. 12 "Unite the Right" rally in Charlottesville.
"He belonged to a white supremacist group known as Atomwaffen Division, a secretive neo-Nazi organization whose members say they are preparing for a coming race war in the U.S. In online chats leading up to the rally, Pistolis had been encouraged to be vicious with any counterprotestors, maybe even sodomize someone with a knife," the article says.
The article also says that Pistolis reported in online conversations that he got involved with the neo-Nazi movement when he was 16 — a time when he would have been a Charlotte high school student.
The article says that when reporters interviewed Pistolis by phone and email, he denied attending the Charlottesville rally and said his online messages were jokes. He admitted to white supremacist beliefs, the article says, but claimed he was infiltrating Atomwaffen "on behalf of another extremist group."
On Friday, Pro Publica and Frontline reported that the U.S. Marine Corps had opened a criminal investigation into Pistolis' reported activities.
This story was originally published May 4, 2018 at 11:11 AM with the headline "Marine featured in new report on violent white supremacists has Charlotte roots."