October 31: The Jewish Klansman

Dan Burros (center in the photo, with George Lincoln Rockwell at left), an American Nazi and Ku Klux Klan leader, committed suicide with a gun on this date in 1965 after the fact that he was Jewish was exposed by the New York Times. Burros attended Hebrew school in Richmond Hill, Queens and became a bar mitsve on March 4, 1950. He reportedly had an IQ of 154. Obsessed with military uniforms and gear, he enlisted in the Army and was dismissed for reasons of personality disorder. While working at the Queens Public Library, he operated the one-man American Nazi Party branch from a post office box in South Ozone Park. He then moved to Arlington, Virginia in 1960, lived at the headquarters of the American Nazi Party, and quickly became the party’s third highest officer while being arrested numerous times for vandalism and disorderly conduct. Back in New York in 1961, he published disgustingly antisemitic and racist materials and began to brawl with anti-racist protestors. In 1965, Burros moved his allegiance to the Ku Klux Klan. An FBI investigator leaked the news about his Jewish origins to the New York Times, which outed him. He was 28. “If you publish this, I’ll come and get you, and I’ll kill you. I don’t care what happens, I’ll be ruined. This is all I’ve got to live for.” --Dan Burros