New evidence emerges linking Civil War reenactor to fake Antifa threats

https://finance.yahoo.com/amphtml/news/evidence-emerges-linking-civil-war-174152649.html?__twitter_impression=true

Justin Rohrlich
Quartz
April 16, 2020, 1:41 pm


In 2017 and 2018, a series of anonymous threats were made against the nonprofit Cedar Creek Battlefield Foundation. The first threat came in the form of a pipe bomb, which was found unexploded on the grounds where the foundation holds its annual reenactment and led to its swift cancelation. The following year, the gathering was again canceled after someone sent several threatening letters to the foundation and its associates, promising to disrupt the reenactment with guns, explosives, poison, dog feces, and “cups of human urine.” The sender wrote the letters on fake Antifa “letterhead”—which doesn’t actually exist among the decentralized, independent factions—and mailed them in envelopes bearing phony Antifa logos.

The news of Antifa’s involvement initially caused outrage among the far-right.

But, as first reported by Quartz earlier this year, federal investigators believe the letters were in fact sent by Gerald Leonard Drake, a former volunteer at the Cedar Creek Battlefield Foundation who was upset about being kicked out of his Civil War reenactment unit after a 2014 dispute. Now, previously unknown details have surfaced in a 104-page search warrant application that further tie the 61-year-old registered sex offender to the bogus threats.

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