Dan Burros

Template:Short description Template:Use mdy dates Template:Use American English Template:Infobox person Daniel Burros (March 5, 1937 – October 31, 1965) was an American neo-Nazi affiliated with several far-right organizations. Burros was at one point the third highest ranking member of the American Nazi Party, and later a Grand Dragon of the Ku Klux Klan in New York. Within the far-right movement, Burros was known for the severity of his antisemitism. He edited several neo-Nazi periodicals and publications, including his magazine The International Nazi Fascist, which became popular with neo-Nazis. When The New York Times published an article revealing that he was Jewish, Burros killed himself.

Born to a Russian Jewish family in the Bronx, Burros was enrolled in Hebrew school in Richmond Hill, where he had his bar mitzvah. He became antisemitic as a teenager. After serving in the Army for several years, he was discharged under honorable conditions and joined the American Nazi Party in 1960. In 1961, Burros left the party alongside his close friend John Patler. Patler and Burros moved to New York and founded a splinter group, the American National Party, and a magazine, Kill! Soon after they had a falling out, their group and magazine failed, and Patler returned to the American Nazi Party. Ideologically influenced by fascist ideologue Francis Parker Yockey's book Imperium, Burros joined James H. Madole's neo-Nazi National Renaissance Party in 1963. After a dispute with Madole, he left the group and became an Odinist.

In 1965, Burros was recruited into the Ku Klux Klan by Roy Frankhouser, and quickly became the King Kleagle and the Grand Dragon of the New York chapter of the Ku Klux Klan's United Klans of America. On October 31, 1965, his Jewish heritage was exposed to the public by American journalist McCandlish Phillips, who published an article about Burros in The New York Times. Some hours after the article was published, Burros fatally shot himself in Frankhouser's home. His suicide was widely publicized; The New York Times received both criticism and praise for running the story. A biography of Burros, One More Victim, was written by A. M. Rosenthal and Arthur Gelb in 1967, and his life was the basis for the 2001 film The Believer.

Early lifeEdit

Daniel Burros was born March 5, 1937 to George and Esther Burros (Template:Nee), both children of Russian Jewish immigrants, at Lebanon Hospital in the Bronx, New York.Template:Sfn Template:Sfn Template:Sfn Both of his grandfathers spoke Yiddish.Template:Sfn George Burros enlisted in the United States Navy and served during World War I, where he received a disabling wound. He could work only occasionally as a machinist and so relied largely on his pension. He did not regularly attend synagogue and, according to Esther, was not very interested in Judaism.Template:Sfn Template:Sfn Template:Sfn Esther, who had immigrated from Russia aged two, worked occasionally as a saleswoman. Esther, unlike her husband, was a devout Jew.Template:Sfn Template:Sfn They were married by a rabbi in the Bronx on May 31, 1936.Template:Sfn

Burros was an only child, and shortly after his birth, his parents moved to Richmond Hill in Queens to be closer to his paternal relatives.Template:Sfn After the death of his paternal grandparents, Burros and his parents withdrew from the wider family and family gatherings.Template:Sfn His mother enrolled him in Hebrew school at the Orthodox synagogue Talmud Torah in Richmond Hill, where his bar mitzvah was held. Unlike most of the other boys in his class, he continued to come to synagogue afterwards.Template:Sfn Burros later said his family had pressured him into being religiously devoted.Template:Sfn Template:Sfn It did not last; when his rabbi accepted a larger congregation elsewhere in New York, Burros, hurt, cut back on attendance.Template:Sfn Template:Sfn He had high grades in junior high school, but became rebellious and often sought out fights.Template:Sfn Template:Sfn Template:Sfn Fascinated by soldiers, he aimed to get into the United States Military Academy at West Point.Template:Sfn Some of his friends knew he was Jewish, but others assumed he was Christian. He began to claim he was actually German-American and not Jewish; in one incident in 8th grade, he bragged about how having blond hair made him look "Aryan".Template:Sfn Template:Sfn

Burros attended John Adams High School in Queens, where he did well academically. When he entered high school, his IQ was tested at 134, and at 135 in 1952. He only failed a single course, Hebrew, telling the others in the class that he preferred German.Template:Sfn Template:Sfn A classmate recalled this class as easy and suspected Burros had failed it intentionally.Template:Sfn Garnering a reputation as a hardline right-winger, he was reported for behavioral problems several times.Template:Sfn A McCarthyite teacher politically influenced him.Template:Sfn Burros became fascinated by and began to collect German war materials and paraphernalia, though in his first two years of high school this was initially not Nazi related. By his junior year of high school, he displayed pictures of Nazi military officials in his room and argued Nazi Germany was misunderstood. In 1954, he called a Jewish friend of his a "Jew bastard", after which they never spoke again; this was, to his friends' knowledge, the first antisemitic thing he had said.Template:Sfn Template:Sfn Afterwards, his collection became increasingly Nazi focused.Template:Sfn He graduated in June 1955. Despite having good grades and having done several extra credit summer courses, he did not apply for admission to any college. He later told his friends college was for Jews.Template:Sfn Template:Sfn

Military careerEdit

While Burros claimed he tried to apply to West Point but was rejected due to poor eyesight, there is no evidence he ever tried to apply.Template:Sfn Burros enlisted in the National Guard in his senior year of high school come August 12, 1954, where he joined the Company I, 165th Infantry Regiment. By May of the next year he qualified as a marksman. In August he was discharged from the Guard to join the United States Army for six years.Template:Sfn Template:Sfn Template:Sfn He joined the Army August 18, 1955.Template:Sfn He initially served in the 364th Infantry Regiment, then the 187th Airborne Infantry Regiment and finally the 327th Infantry Regiment, at, successively, Fort Dix, Fort Bragg, and Fort Campbell.Template:Sfn He was one of the soldiers who forcibly integrated Little Rock Central High School in September 1957.Template:Sfn Template:Sfn He wrote in a letter at the time this was "the first time [he] really [felt] like a soldier",Template:Sfn but later sent letters saying he hated the incident.Template:Sfn He later claimed he left the army in disgust after Little Rock.Template:Sfn Template:Sfn

While initially pleased with the army, after some time it started to disappoint him. He was seen as a misfit, and did not receive the respect he desired.Template:Sfn Template:Sfn In what was probably an attempt to get out of the military, he ingested twenty aspirin (not a fatal dose) and shallowly cut his wrist.Template:Sfn Template:Sfn With it, he penned a suicide note, in which he said he wished for the revival of Nazism but considered the current situation "hopeless" and that with his death he "[goes] to my Führer Hitler, Der Grosse in the Third Reich that endures forever". The note ended "Heil Hitler".Template:Sfn Template:Sfn This was the third such attempt in several months.Template:Sfn As a result, he was sent to a psychiatrist in the Army. He was deemed emotionally immature,Template:Sfn Template:Sfn but not insane or legitimately suicidal.Template:Sfn He later claimed to members of the American Nazi Party that he had undergone psychological treatment while serving for (according to Rockwell) "sadistic tendencies and Nazi leanings", after he strangled an eagle.Template:Sfn Template:Sfn He was discharged under honorable conditions on March 14, 1958.Template:Sfn Template:Sfn His discharge was ascribed to "reasons of unsuitability, character, and behavior disorder".Template:Sfn Afterwards, he initially claimed that the army let him out after three years, and that he had decided to go due to personal factors.Template:Sfn

Political activityEdit

Burros may have studied under a fake name at the Manhattan School of Printing in the summer of 1958; he began work July 10, 1958 for the Queens Public Library, operating office machines and printing cataloguing cards. He had a reputation as a good worker, but would talk about neo-Nazi topics to his coworkers at length. This lasted for a year and a half before he quit in January 1960 over a printing dispute. Soon after he found work operating a multigraph for the U.S. Navigation Company.Template:Sfn Template:Sfn

Burros began expressing an interest in neo-Nazism in December 1958, and contacted several neo-Nazi groups. He signed his letters with a red swastika and the name of the American National Socialist Party; he was the sole member of the supposed organization.Template:Sfn Template:Sfn He collected Nazi paraphernalia and often drew antisemitic drawings that featured detailed art of Jews dying.Template:Sfn By this time, the police had taken notice of his extremist views. Burros became a known figure among the letter-sending Nazi underground, and through correspondence came into contact with several German ex-military officers.Template:Sfn He donated money to racist causes, including avowed racist John Kasper, who sent the money back as he considered Burros too pro-Nazi.Template:Sfn He was briefly a member of the British National Party in early 1960.Template:Sfn Template:Sfn

American Nazi Party (1960–1961)Edit

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The Official Stormtrooper's Manual, written by Burros

In June 1960, Burros joined the American Nazi Party and moved from New York City to their headquarters in Arlington County, Virginia.Template:Sfn Template:Sfn Template:Sfn According to the recollection of the party's leader, George Lincoln Rockwell, Burros had made contact with the party in 1960, first contacting James K. Warner. He was especially interested in the Nazi uniforms, and claimed on the application form that he was ethnically German.Template:Sfn He was accepted and took the "Trooper's Oath".Template:Sfn At the same time, he found work at the United States Chamber of Commerce operating a multilith.Template:Sfn Template:Sfn Template:Sfn Burros was accepted quickly into the group, willing to donate large amounts of time and money to the party.Template:Sfn His heritage was unknown in the ANP, but some members were suspicious of him, and he was occasionally teased for supposedly looking Jewish.Template:Sfn Template:Sfn Burros claimed he had learned Hebrew to better "investigate the enemy".Template:Sfn ANP member Matt Koehl later said Burros had not looked Jewish and said Burros probably had some amount of "Aryan blood".Template:Sfn

Rockwell appreciated Burros, impressed by his fervent Nazism and artistic and mechanical skills; he was seen as too fanatical, but unlike many prospective members had valuable skills.Template:Sfn Template:Sfn He was active in the ANP's public demonstrations and picketings, being convicted several times for language and fights.Template:Sfn Template:Sfn Template:Sfn He was an editor of the party's newsletter, The Stormtrooper.Template:Sfn Burros worked as the ANP's printer for their propaganda, including bumper stickers, antisemitic soap wrappers, largely sold through mail-order in the National Socialist Bulletin magazine. One of the items of merchandise printed by Burros was the "Jew Pass" (which was to be given to a Jew who would be last in line for the gas chamber).Template:Sfn When a Jewish teenager from Arlington arrived at their headquarters and said he wanted to join, several ANP members, including Rockwell, thought it would be a good publicity stunt to allow it, but Burros was staunchly opposed to any Jews joining the party.Template:Sfn When John Patler joined, his printing and fighting skills impressed Burros, and both men became close friends.Template:Sfn Template:Sfn Template:Sfn They asked Rockwell to take control of the National Socialist Bulletin from Warner, which failed but incensed Warner. As revenge, Warner told Burros a photo of his would be removed from the Bulletin. This resulted in a fit of rage from Burros, who had to be calmed down by Rockwell telling Warner to wait for a replacement photo.Template:Sfn Template:Sfn

Burros was known for his especially violent antisemitism,Template:Sfn to a degree author Kevin Coogan called "almost psychotic".Template:Sfn It sometimes embarrassed his compatriots,Template:Sfn and at times disgusted other members of the group, particularly due to his torture fantasies.Template:Sfn Burros carried a bar of soap labeled "Made from the finest Jewish fat", and often talked about creating torture devices to use on Jews. A specific, favorite fantasy of Burros involved the keys of a piano being modified to deliver electric shocks via wires attached to the Jewish victim of their choice, which the torturer would play to make the victim scream in different keys.Template:Sfn Template:Sfn Template:Sfn He expressed contempt for Christianity as a "doctrine of weakness" and in some letters he wrote he talked of a "Nordic religion".Template:Sfn After several neo-Nazis complained the ANP members were worse fed than the party dog, Gas Chamber, Burros suggested that they eat him, which some members believed was a genuine threat.Template:Sfn Template:Sfn

In 1960, ANP security officer Roger Foss conducted background checks on all ANP members; Rockwell said that a refusal to comply with the background check meant being kicked out of the party. Burros told Foss he could give neither his background information nor home address, even if it was given confidentially.Template:Sfn In response, party secretary James K. Warner suggested Burros be kicked out of the party. Warner and Foss went to Rockwell, who said he needed Burros as his printer, and directed them to make an exception for the background check. This led to lengthy arguments; Foss called it a security risk, and called Burros a "sadist" and a "nut" who was obviously Jewish. Rockwell nevertheless refused to remove Burros.Template:Sfn It is unknown if Rockwell knew that he was Jewish and did not care, or was unaware.Template:Sfn

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ANP members with the Hate Bus. Burros is fifth from left

On July 3, 1960, after a fight at a Rockwell speech, several ANP members, including Rockwell and Burros, and their opponents, were arrested for disorderly conduct. Due to the subsequent legal proceedings, Rockwell was involuntarily committed to a psychiatric hospital for observation for thirty days. The members worried that he would never be released.Template:Sfn On July 26, 1960, the day before Rockwell was committed, Patler and Burros went to the Anti-Defamation League headquarters, where they asked for copies of the ADL Bulletin, placed swastika stickers in the elevator and wrote the words "we are back".Template:Sfn A member of the ADL called the police and a warrant was issued for their arrest for defacing the ADL's private property.Template:Sfn Template:Sfn The next day, Burros, Foss and Patler all picketed the White House advocating for Rockwell to be freed. After they had spent several hours picketing, Patler and Burros were arrested due to the warrant, and were imprisoned. Patler's wife raised bail from a Jewish bondsman.Template:Sfn Template:Sfn Rockwell was released from the psychiatric hospital after only a few days.Template:Sfn When he returned, he suspended both Patler and Burros until the outcome of their trial, but then reinstated them due to his conviction in their innocence. Come their trial September 20, they were found guilty and sentenced by a jury to an $100 fine or a 10 day jail sentence and six months suspended. Both chose the fine.Template:Sfn Template:Sfn

The Chamber of Commerce fired Burros over his ANP membership in February 1961. In response, Burros got some of the other troopers to picket the building.Template:Sfn In May of that year, Burros was one of the ANP members to tour in the party's Hate Bus protesting the Freedom Riders.Template:Sfn When Jim Jones, the leader of the Peoples Temple, wrote to the American Nazi Party requesting a meeting over racial matters, it was Burros who wrote back for the party. Burros criticized Jones as an integrationist with "unnatural" beliefs and said their "natures are so divergent that we could never understand each other"; this letter was circulated in Jones's base of operations in Indianapolis.Template:Sfn He was promoted to lieutenant and national secretary of the party in July 1961, making him the third highest ranking person in the party, behind only Rockwell himself and J. V. Morgan.Template:Sfn He authored the ANP's Official Stormtrooper's Manual.Template:Sfn Template:Sfn It was the ANP's official manual, distributed to all group recruits, dedicated to Horst Wessel, with design by Patler.Template:Sfn Template:Sfn

American National Party (1962)Edit

File:Kill! magazine masthead.png

Masthead of Burros and Patler's Kill! Magazine

In late 1961, Burros and Patler began to question Rockwell's leadership.Template:Sfn They were causing unity problems, due to what Rockwell biographer William H. Schmaltz described as their "continual scheming", constantly accusing other members of being spies for the Jews.Template:Sfn Roger Foss grew to dislike the pair, who got Foss demoted over a disciplinary infraction, leading to him leaving headquarters.Template:Sfn Burros and Patler had also edited the Official Stormtrooper's Manual in a manner Rockwell viewed as self-promotional.Template:Sfn Template:Sfn Burros and Patler left without notice November 5, 1961 and moved to New York.Template:Sfn

In New York, they launched a magazine called Kill! which was "dedicated to the annihilation of the enemies of the White people".Template:Sfn Its first issue was published in July 1962, edited by Burros.Template:Sfn Template:Sfn The magazine was an outlet for attacking other members of the movement, and was described by Jeffrey Kaplan as "viciously racist and anti-Semitic".Template:Sfn Template:Sfn The first issue of Kill! displays on its back a noose and the words "Impeach the Traitor John F. Kennedy for Giving Aid and Comfort to the Enemies of the U.S.A."; the same issue also featured a Burros-written editorial entitled "The Importance of Killing".Template:Sfn Template:Sfn He attacked Rockwell in the magazine, saying that "without the swastika, Rockwell would be nothing" and calling him a "nigger loving liberal".Template:Sfn

Alongside Kill! the two founded their own splinter group, the American National Party.Template:Sfn Template:Sfn Patler was the national chairman and Burros was their national vice chairman.Template:Sfn Template:Sfn Their party was functionally a duplicate of the ANP, and never had more than a few members.Template:Sfn Template:Sfn They were so poor that they could not afford Nazi uniforms, disappointing Burros, and although they picketed leftist meetings and movie theaters, they received little attention.Template:Sfn Template:Sfn At the time, Burros worked at a Jewish-owned printing company, and did not discuss his views while at work. He spent his time collecting Nazi memorabilia.Template:Sfn Burros informed on members of other extremist groups in New York to the police, information which was rarely helpful.Template:Sfn Template:Sfn Despite the risk of it outing him as Jewish, he often visited his parents in the neighborhood where he was recognized as Jewish. He expressed regret that his views hurt his parents to Roy Frankhouser but said it was "for the best someday".Template:Sfn The American National Party dissolved about a year later and the magazine ended after four issues, when Patler and Burros had a falling out.Template:Sfn Template:Sfn When Patler was arrested and jailed for picketing a rally, he started a hunger strike in prison, and was angered when Burros did not provide sufficient support. He was also annoyed when Burros decided to watch football instead of picketing Eleanor Roosevelt's funeral with him. Burros stayed in New York and Patler returned to the American Nazi Party.Template:Sfn Template:Sfn Patler murdered Rockwell in 1967.Template:Sfn

National Renaissance Party (1963–1964)Edit

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Photo of their July 1963 booking. Madole is to the far-left, Burros is to the far-right

Now without a group, Burros spent his time giving speeches on street corners and reading literature.Template:Sfn He was especially interested in Francis Parker Yockey's book Imperium which he read repeatedly and called "the Bible of the American right-wing".Template:Sfn Template:Sfn Template:Sfn He joined the neo-Nazi National Renaissance Party in early 1963.Template:Sfn The leader of the party, neo-Nazi James H. Madole, was also interested in Yockey; while he hated Rockwell, he had many of the same views. Impressed by Burros's ideological fervor, he promoted him to the party's high-ranking Security Echelon. However, he did not trust him, worrying he was a spy for Rockwell.Template:Sfn Template:Sfn Burros wrote for the group's National Renaissance Bulletin.Template:Sfn The NRP members saw themselves as more sophisticated racists than the American Nazi Party, and at times found Burros's extreme views embarrassing, but nevertheless found him useful.Template:Sfn He was also the editor of a magazine, The International Nazi Fascist, sometimes just the Nazi Fascist and later renamed The Free American, which became popular with neo-Nazis.Template:Sfn Template:Sfn

During the investigation into the 1963 assassination of John F. Kennedy, it was found that Lee Harvey Oswald had Burros and Rockwell in his address book.Template:Sfn Template:Sfn This is printed in exhibit Volume XVI of the Warren Commission. They are the only far-right figures in his address book.Template:Sfn This is likely due to a communist publication incorrectly linking Burros's American National Party to Rockwell's, misinterpreting the news of its foundation as Rockwell relocating to Queens, leading Oswald to think Burros's group was Rockwell's.Template:Sfn Following the assassination, Burros wore a button emblazoned "Lee Harvey Oswald Fan Club".Template:Sfn Template:Sfn

In July 1963, Burros and other NRP members were jailed after getting into a fight with Congress of Racial Equality protestors at a diner. They were not arrested for the fight, but after they went to file a complaint against the CORE members, a police detective found a stash of weapons and racist literature in their car. Both Madole and Burros were arrested and indicted for conspiracy and several other crimes.Template:Sfn Template:Sfn Template:Sfn All were released on bail, and the case took ten months to come to trial, during which time Burros continued to correspond with other racists, attend NRP meetings, and work as a printer. He spent most of his spare time writing antisemitic literature,Template:Sfn and acquired some amount of notoriety with racists worldwide. His name was filed in the records of police in Germany and the United Kingdom, and he received letters from other neo-Nazis expressing their admiration. Several of his writings were distributed in German neo-Nazi meetings.Template:Sfn Come the trial May 4, 1964, Burros was sentenced to one to two years at Sing Sing State Prison. The judge blamed Madole and Burros, the most "sophisticated" members of the party, for leading the rest astray. One of the other members of the NRP was outed as Jewish during the trial.Template:Sfn Template:Sfn All of the men were released in less than two weeks after an appeal and Burros was bailed out by his uncle.Template:Sfn

Burros grew to dislike Madole and debated rejoining Rockwell's party, but never did. Burros disliked the NRP for, in his view, being only talk.Template:Sfn Madole and Burros ultimately had a falling out.Template:Sfn Template:Sfn One telling says this resulted from Burros's wish to nuke communist China, contrary to Madole's growing appreciation of China and leftist figures.Template:Sfn Madole claimed Burros left the party because he still liked Rockwell.Template:Sfn Burros also found Madole's dislike of swastikas annoying.Template:Sfn Burros left the NRP and became an Odinist,Template:Sfn Template:Sfn but was not very committed to the faith.Template:Sfn

Ku Klux Klan (1965)Edit

File:Dan Burros in Klan robes (cropped).png

Photo of Burros while in the KKK

After leaving the NRP, Burros became frustrated, feeling that the racist movement was not reaching people and or achieving its goals. He attributed this to a lack of leadership; he desired a group with many people and a leader.Template:Sfn In 1965, at the Museum of Modern Art, Burros watched the 1915 film The Birth of a Nation, a propaganda film for the Ku Klux Klan; after he saw it, Burros became preoccupied with the film and the Klan, seeing it as similar to Nazism and the actual organization he desired.Template:Sfn Template:Sfn Initially Burros saw the Klan as a dead movement, which saddened him, but former ANP associate and Klan organizer Roy Frankhouser, with whom he had reconnected after leaving the ANP, recruited him into the United Klans of America.Template:Sfn Template:Sfn

Frankhouser invited Burros to a Klan meeting in Bear, Delaware, on July 28. Burros was shocked by the amount of attendees, which numbered in the thousands. He told Frankhouser that this was what they needed, but that was saddened he could not join them because he was not Christian, which the Klan required. Frankhouser asked him if he "liked Christ and everything" and Burros agreed, which Frankhouser said was sufficient. While Grand Wizard Robert Shelton had previously refused to admit members of the ANP, Frankhouser swore by Burros and he had already left the ANP, so he was allowed to join.Template:Sfn Template:Sfn The Northern realms of the Klan (state level chapters) had less members, and especially devoted initiates into these chapters were promoted quickly. Burros became the Grand Dragon (state level leader) of the New York area Ku Klux Klan almost immediately after he joined, since the Klan needed "intellectual" types and Burros was one of only a few KKK members in the North who were seriously devoted.Template:Sfn He also became the King Kleagle (a KKK term for head organizer) of New York.Template:Sfn Template:Sfn At this time he worked as a printer for the University Club of New York.Template:Sfn

Burros was very enthusiastic about the KKK.Template:Sfn Template:Sfn He agreed to stop using the swastika so as to not tie the KKK to the Nazis.Template:Sfn Burros led two klaverns (local groups), one in Upper Manhattan and one in Lower Manhattan. They hated each other, and Burros tried to improve relations between the two.Template:Sfn Template:Sfn Burros and Frankhouser became close friends, and Burros continued to hide his Jewish background from him. On occasion Burros would make statements that made Frankhouser wonder if he was Jewish, but he never seriously considered that he could be Jewish due to how extreme his antisemitism was.Template:Sfn That year, he met and fell in love with a woman named Carol, also involved in white supremacy, whom he met at a Von Steuben Day parade. He claimed to her that he was German, and after they met she decided to join the Klan.Template:Sfn His new position brought him to the attention of authorities; his parents were visited by a federal agent, who then realized Burros was Jewish.Template:Sfn Template:Sfn After failing to hide that they were Jewish to the agent, his mother begged the agent to not include the information in the report.Template:Sfn His parents knew of his involvement in racist politics, but said nothing.Template:Sfn Partially out of sympathy for his parents, and partially due to the information on racist movements Burros provided them, the agent did not reveal this fact. More government agencies likely knew that Burros was Jewish, but for a time none revealed it.Template:Sfn Template:Sfn

Reveal of Jewish heritage and suicideEdit

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Roy Frankhouser in 1965, after he was questioned about Burros's death

On October 19, 1965, Burros was listed among prominent Klansmen in an article in the New York Journal-American. Burros correctly feared he would lose his job; he was fired the next day.Template:Sfn The same day, the House Un-American Activities Committee announced they were launching an investigation into the Klan.Template:Sfn On October 22, several Klansmen, including Burros, went to Frankhouser's home in Reading, Pennsylvania, to hide out.Template:Sfn Soon after the publication of the first story, the New York Times published an article including more information on Burros and his history. This was read by one of the government agents who knew that Burros was Jewish, but did not know he had joined the KKK.Template:Sfn On October 22, this agent tipped off New York Times reporter A. M. Rosenthal that Burros was Jewish and had undergone a bar mitzvah. Initially in disbelief, Rosenthal enlisted fellow reporter McCandlish Phillips, a fundamentalist Christian, to investigate.Template:Sfn Template:Sfn On October 26, the House Committee served a subpoena on Burros to Marshall Raymond Sullivan; he went to Burros's house to serve it, but was unable to deliver it.Template:Sfn

After discovering evidence of his bar mitzvah and Jewish schooling, Phillips tried and failed to contact Burros.Template:Sfn Template:Sfn Burros went back to New York on October 27 to pick up his new Klan robes and to visit Carol.Template:Sfn On October 29, Phillips saw Burros outside his apartment and followed him into a barbershop.Template:Sfn Template:Sfn Burros did not agree to a formal interview but agreed to have a conversation. Phillips went through the details of his military and political career, impressing Burros, before revealing he knew that Burros was Jewish.Template:Sfn Burros said that revealing this publicly would ruin his life and threatened to kill Phillips if he published the information.Template:Sfn After the interview, Burros called the paper three times throughout the day threatening Phillips and begging him to not print the story. At one point he offered to trade the story of his ancestry for another, which Phillips rejected.Template:Sfn Template:Sfn Template:Sfn In his last call, Burros said he accepted he could not prevent the story from being published, but that he would "go out in a blaze of glory", implying that he was going to shoot up The New York Times headquarters. In response the police were called and Phillips was given a bodyguard.Template:Sfn Template:Sfn

Late in the day on October 29, Burros returned to Frankhouser's home. He said that he admired Phillips's research, but that the journalist had "found out something that I just can't live with"; he claimed that this his Odinist beliefs, which would hurt the Christian-only Klan. Once there he paced throughout the house and threatened to blow up the House Committee and the Times, repeatedly saying he had to kill Phillips and himself. This terrified Frankhouser, who with other Klansmen present tried to calm him and locked up a gun he was carrying.Template:Sfn Frankhouser told Burros that he wouldn't care if he was Jewish; Burros had no response.Template:Sfn

The Times held the story until more proof was provided. On October 31, they obtained records of his bar mitzvah.Template:Sfn Template:Sfn The article, entitled "State Klan Leader Hides Secret of Jewish Origin", ran on the front page that day.Template:Sfn Template:Sfn After reading the article, Burros said he would kill himself, and was confronted by the other members of the house. He destroyed several pieces of furniture while trying to locate a gun, before finding his own, which had been left on a dresser.Template:Sfn Template:Sfn Burros said "Long live the white race. I've got nothing more to live for", before he shot himself in the chest. Still standing, he shot himself again in the head.Template:Sfn Template:Sfn He was 28.Template:Sfn Burros was cremated at the request of his parents, and his ashes were buried in Reading. After his death, Frankhouser apologized to Burros's parents.Template:Sfn

There are several conspiracy theories that Frankhouser was more involved in Burros's death than was confirmed.Template:Sfn Burros dying from multiple gunshot wounds led to an initial suspicion from the FBI and others that Frankhouser had finished him off or that Burros had not killed himself.Template:Sfn Template:Sfn In addition, Frankhouser was, at the time of Burros's death, a government informant.Template:Sfn The Deguello Report, a pseudonymously written, conspiratorial document distributed among some members of the far-right movement in the 1970s, alleges various things about Burros, including that his last name was "Sonnstein", that Burros and Frankhouser were homosexual and having a gay affair, that Frankhouser may have murdered him, that James K. Warner had known he was a Jew the entire time, and that Warner and Burros "spent their time discussing hideous ways to torture and kill Christians".Template:Sfn Thirty years after his death, the bloodstains and bullet holes were still visible in the house, Frankhouser having never removed them.Template:Sfn Template:Sfn

LegacyEdit

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A klan leader in New York eulogizing Burros on November 6, 1965

Burros's suicide was a national news story for several weeks.Template:Sfn The New York Times was criticized in the aftermath of the story by readers, its own staff, several Jewish groups, and neo-Nazis.Template:Sfn Template:Sfn Some of the Times' readers felt the paper had invaded Burros's privacy, or believed that he was mentally ill. Some Times staff believed the paper had gone too far with the story and that it was overly dramatic journalism, since Burros was not a major political figure.Template:Sfn Template:Sfn Others praised the paper for focusing on someone who could be a societal danger and argued Burros had given up his right to privacy when he became a political figure. Rosenthal was disturbed by both the criticism of the story and the suicide of Burros, but came to believe that something else would have triggered Burros eventually. Phillips was also upset over Burros's suicide, but did not regret writing the story.Template:Sfn There was an increase in suicides in the period after Burros's suicide, which has been studied as an example of the Werther effect, or the copycat suicide phenomenon.Template:Sfn

Rockwell eulogized Burros in his periodicals The Rockwell Report and The Stormtrooper. He praised Burros's dedication, saying that Burros had been "steeped in racist revolutionary causes" and through suicide had "ended his miserably sad life of lies". Rockwell took the opportunity to rail against Jews, whom he referred to as "a unique people with a distinct mass of mental disorders" and ascribed Burros's instability and suicide to the "unfortunate Jewish psychosis" which "cost him his life".Template:Sfn Template:Sfn Template:Sfn Privately, Rockwell was saddened by Burros's death; he described him as a "righteous Jew" and "brilliant young man", and believed that had he lived he could have continued to work for them in some capacity anyway.Template:Sfn He did wonder how Burros could have failed to predict that people would find out about his ethnic background.Template:Sfn In this eulogy, Rockwell wrote thus:Template:Sfn

Burros hated himself and his Jewishness, and went a step further, planning to MURDER them all.

It killed him.{{#if:|{{#if:|}}

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The reveal of Burros's background was bad publicity for Madole, as a former member of his party.Template:Sfn In response to Burros's suicide, Madole wrote an article for the National Renaissance Bulletin entitled "The Historical and Metaphysical Roots of the Conflict between Jew and Gentile", where he defended Burros as a genuine Nazi despite his ethnicity, and praised him for a willingness to "blast himself into oblivion as final proof of his loyalty."Template:Sfn Template:Sfn Template:Sfn Following the suicide, another member of the NRP and Burros associate, Robert Burros (no relation) admitted to the party he was half Jewish through his father. Initially he was criticized, but he was allowed to stay because he had "abandoned all mental and spiritual ties with the Jewish Community at the age of thirteen".Template:Sfn The Klan eulogized him as a "good Jew" for abandoning his Jewishness,Template:Sfn and Klansmen burned a cross in his honor in Rising Sun, Maryland a week after his death.Template:Sfn Frankhouser refused to disavow Burros.Template:Sfn

Following Burros's death, Rosenthal and Arthur Gelb wrote the biography One More Victim, which follows his life from his family origins to his becoming a neo-Nazi.Template:Sfn Template:Sfn Burro's life and suicide inspired the 2001 film The Believer, which follows a Jewish neo-Nazi skinhead named Daniel.Template:Sfn American publisher and neo-Nazi sympathizer Adam Parfrey had an interest in Burros; he republished Burros's Kill! magazine editorial "The Importance of Killing" in his 1987 book Apocalypse Culture. Parfrey, himself of Jewish descent, blamed Jews for Burros becoming a neo-Nazi.Template:Sfn Academic Jeffrey Kaplan described Burros as perhaps "one of the most tragic yet instructive cautionary tales to arise out of American National Socialism".Template:Sfn

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