SWEDISH HEADLINE: “DEVIL WORSHIPPER BURNED DOWN THE CHURCH?”
Beyond those who actively take part in it, the Swedish police seem to be the only others who know what the Black Circle really is about in practice. The mayhem in Sweden has not abated over time, and may even overtake that of Norway in terms of sheer violence. On December 18, 1997, a 20-year-old Swedish “Satanist” was arrested in connection with several murders. According to the media (the police are reluctant to give out information), this might be the begin-ning of an internal “house-cleaning” of the Swedish underground in a similar way to what occurred in Norway. Varg Vikernes is seen as a probable influence.
SWEDISH HEADLINE: “CHASED BY THREE IN AXE DRAMA”
The police originally raided the home of the man for suspicion of abusing his girlfriend. In his apartment in the south of Stockholm, the police found a pistol with live ammunition and a human skull. They also found a so-called “ritual room” with an altar, skeletal remains, and “Satanic symbols.”
In connection with the raid, the police learned that the man had “claimed responsibility” for a murder committed in Gothenburg (or more likely boasted of it, given the behavior of other Black Metal criminals). According to the Swedish tabloid Expressen, the murder in question is an unsolved case concerning a teenage girl who was found undressed and dead in a graveyard in the summer of 1994.
Furthermore, the young man is now under suspicion of having killed a 37-year-old man from Algeria. The man was killed in a park in Gothenburg in July, 1997. The police believe that the 20-year-old might have killed more people. They later charged him with the suspected murder of a 16-year-old girl, Malin Olsson, killed on July 23, 1994—the exact same month and day of the murder in 1997.
SWEDISH HEADLINE: “THE CHURCH IN ASHES”
The young man had been in trouble with the law before. A few weeks before his arrest, he was charged with assaulting two men and a woman outside a restaurant in Gothenburg. The woman recalls that the man screamed: “Sieg Heil! Shall we slaughter people?” She also described him as a leader for a group of other young people. “They were like trained dogs. He pointed and told them to stand to attention, and they obeyed,” she said. Other witnesses describe the man as a “Satanist,” and say that he made Hitler salutes. The 20-year-old himself says he was too drunk to remember anything.
A second man has been charged in relation to the crimes, a 22-year-old who was alleged by the Swedish media to have been a close friend of Varg Vikernes. He is described as a “star in a Satanic rock band” by the press. This is, in fact, Jon Nödtveidt of the group Dissection, who may well be the source of the following quote from Slayer magazine in 1995, which was attributed to an anonymous member of the band:
...there are far more evil things to do than just bragging about church fires! Wait and see... Our empire seeks its senses in the darkest depths of mankind’s senses. What is hidden, but nevertheless existing. It cannot die! I don’t think that the Black Circle should be a fan club for Black Metal, it’s not about that...3
WANTED: JESUS
FRANCE
There are no reports of church burnings in France—yet. If the swelling interest in Satanism and Black Metal continues there unabated, anything is possible. The music received mention in a spate of newspaper articles which appeared in early 1997, focusing on connections between Satanic youth groups, Black Metal, and extreme factions of the right wing. While the accelerating media coverage resulted in a typical overreaction and a tendency to draw correspondences and conclusions that may have been unwarranted, there is no doubt that a number of bizarre actions did take place.
On the night of June 8, 1996, a desecration took place in the cemetery of Toulon. According to L’Express magazine, four youths exhumed the cadaver of Yvonne Foin. After liberating the body from its twenty-year rest beneath the earth, they rudely planted a cross in the center of her heart. Two of the desecrators, Anthony and Christophe Mignoni, both age 20, were known fans of Black Metal. Police soon raided Antony Mignoni’s apartment and discovered certain tracts and pamphlets among his belongings. L’Express drew particular attention to a leaflet with a unflattering portrait of Christ and the caption: “Wanted for Crimes Against Humanity: Jesus (AKA the Christ). He is accused of initiating the persecutions and murder of millions...”4 The leaflet is a publication of Napalm Rock, an underground magazine dedicated to heathen and revolutionary music groups opposed to the current political system. Napalm Rock is connected with the Nouvelle Résistance (New Resistance), a political group founded by Christian Bouchet.
In “another unsettling discovery,” the magazine reports that desecrator Anthony Mignoni is also a member of the French Black Metal band Funeral, in which he uses the pseudonym “Hades.”5 Interviewed in an alleged neo-Nazi fanzine, Deo Occidi, he is reported as stating:
I have created Funeral in order to spread my ideas based on the destruction of the Jewish, Christian, and Muslim religions, and on the purity and supremacy of the true Aryan race. ... The spirit of Heinrich Himmler will not die. We are the elite of the superior race. Under the sign of the SS, we will triumph. Loyalty and Honor. Sieg Heil!6
FRENCH GRAVE DESECRATORS
Later in the interview, he claims to be involved with an occult group calling itself “The Sacred Order of the Emerald.” Supposedly dedicated to Lucifer, the group was created by someone named “Antitheos,” who turns out to be none other than fellow desecrator Christophe Mignoni, operating the “Order” out of his parent’s home. The fanzine also provides evidence that the Mignoni boys paid regular visits to the graveyard. The interview is illustrated with a poorly reproduced photograph of two males in corpsepaint makeup, standing before a cemetery tomb with a Nazi armband in clear view.
ORDER OF THE EMERALD
A follow-up article in L’Express reveals further evidence which “confirms the ideological references of the young ‘devils.’”7 Some months after the original despoilment of Yvonne Foin’s corpse and subsequent raid of Mignoni’s apartment, grounds-keepers at a military area on nearby Saint Madrier peninsula discovered an odd sack under a pile of rocks. Upon closer examination, the contents of the sack were found to be photos of youths dressed in trenchcoats and wearing sinister face paint, manuscripts from the Sacred Order of the Emerald, and a number of neo-Nazi publications. The bag was later traced back to Christophe Mignoni. Police theorize the sack was hidden by his brother David, in a panic after the arrest of his sibling and friends. L’Express then goes on to imply the desecrators must have been involved with all the groups whose literature was found in the sack, including the Charlemagne Hammer Skinheads, the French Nationalist Party, and the inner circle of Nouvelle Résistance. Such speculations seem unfounded. The citizens of Toulon should be more worried that some of the tracts previously in the hands of the “little devils” also included instructions on homemade bombs, Molotov cocktails, and explosive lightbulbs. If no one else, at least the youths’ patron deity Lucifer (the “light bringer”) would be impressed.
FATHER UHL
Sensational tales in the press didn’t stop with the Toulon affair. In an act recalling the brutality of the Norwegian killings a few years earlier, on Christmas eve, 1996, a 19-year-old in Mulhouse paid an unexpected visit to an elderly priest in the town. The youth, David Oberdorf, had professed his faith before the same clergyman in the Saint Adelphe Church some years earlier. Wielding a recently purchased dagger with a twenty-centimeter blade, Oberdorf appeared at the residence of Father Jean Uhl. Once face-to-face with the priest he declared, “I am possessed by the demon—I must annihilate men of religion!”8 Father Uhl tried in vain to dissuade him from committing an irreparable act, but Oberdorf would not be deterred from his unholy mission. The body of the Church Father was later found dead, stabbed thirty-three times. Prosecutors speculated the killing was done as an attempt “to symbolize the death of Christ.”9 Whatever the motive, Oberdorf inflicted a number of wounds on the body after it was dead, including peculiar incisions on t
he insides of the priest’s palms in the shape of a “V,” or what may have been unsuccessful attempts to carve a pentagram. A legal official noted, “It’s not a matter of defense wounds—these are scarifications made after the death.”10
The report in the France-Soir paper describes Oberdorf as an “impressionable youth of modest intelligence,” who had previously attempted suicide.11 He had also placed numerous anonymous harassing phone calls to Father Uhl prior to the murder. The teenager’s room was described as quite ordinary, except for a collection of disturbing compact discs. His neighbors had often noticed sounds blaring from his room, “gnawing music, hard and stressful, which one would hear late at night”—not a bad description of standard Black Metal from an unfamiliar listener.12 Other media reports referred to the youth as a fan of “Viking music.” Oberdorf had no girlfriends, but spent time with a few other male teens. One, 18-year-old Stephane Fest, was later arrested after police found he had hidden the murder weapon for Oberdorf. Both youths routinely dressed in black. Investigators also found links between Oberdorf and Toulon grave desecrator Anthony Mignoni, who was thought to be the “initiator of David Oberdorf.”13 Mignoni, having served the sentence he received for the corpse defilement of the previous summer, could not be directly implicated in the murder of Father Uhl as he had a sound alibi. He had been at the home of his grandmother that evening.
FRENCH ALARMIST BOOK
The France-Soir piece on the Mulhouse killing also mentions the right-wing influences which pop up in Black Metal, and on the same page of the paper one finds an article titled “From Lucifer to the Extreme Right: The Skins” describing a recent French book by Jean-Paul Bourre, Les Profanateurs (The Desecrators). This 200-page exposé, by the previous author of The Luciferian Sects, spins tales of a dubious web joining skinheads, Black Metalers, drug use, neo-heathenism, and the right-leaning cultural intellectuals of the “Research Group on European Civilization.” The fascination surrounding the grave of Jim Morrison of the Doors (buried in Paris’ famous Pere La Chaise cemetery) and those of other notable personalities is also inexplicably discussed in one chapter. Les Profanateurs desperately attempts to pull all these disparate elements into a sinister scenario in hopes of alarming its readers. It makes the questionable assumption that anyone interested in vaguely similar ideas—even when of the broadest sort, such as “neo-heathenism”—must therefore be part of a de facto hidden conspiracy. Such grand conspiracies may make good fodder for the front pages of tabloids, but the reality of the situation is far less organized and interconnected than such journalists argue. The same was certainly true in Norway.
CHRONOLOGY OF KERRANG! ARTICLES
ENGLAND
Black Metal in the United Kingdom erupted in two different realms. Underground fans of the music inaugurated a series of church attacks in emulation of their Norwegian hero Varg Vikernes, and almost caused Black Metal music to be banned in Britain as a result. On the other hand, homegrown English Black Metal achieved far greater popularity than the genre had anywhere else in the world, entirely due to the success of one band. Both strata in the U.K. scene had a small bit of common ground.
BRITISH HEADLINES
By the spring of 1994, reverberations of the church burning epidemic in Scandinavia had been heavily covered in the British press, from Kerrang! magazine to the Manchester Guardian newspaper. Kerrang! in particular had devoted steady, melodramatic coverage to the Norwegian scene, regaling its readers with the latest shocking actions and pronouncements from Øystein Aarseth, Varg Vikernes, Fenriz of Darkthrone, and others. As a result, young fans were excited by Black Metal and well aware of the harsh ideological rhetoric that came with it. Vikernes’s statements—in particular, his claim the church arsons were acts of heathen terrorism—made a strong impact on a small clique of teenagers from the town of Tunbridge Wells in Kent, England.
PAUL TIMMS
The group of friends, led by 18-year-old Paul Timms, formed the nucleus of an underground Black Metal band dubbed Necropolis. Other members included Dave Wharton, a 22-year-old postman, Mark Reeves, also 22, and Kevin Mooney, a 21-year-old engineer for British Airways. Timms’s girlfriend later stated that the band was created after inspiration from the Norwegians. Kerrang! also believes that the group’s campaign of “attacking the church, with whatever means possible, was to earn respect and notoriety from their idols.”14 It certainly gained more attention than they would ever receive for their music, as Necropolis does not appear to have recorded a note.
Beginning in April, ’94, members of Necropolis carried their impulses to fruition, and began a desecratory assault against churches and cemeteries in their area. They would knock over or break as many as sixty headstones in a single night. Graveyards in Rusthall and Tunbridge Wells were hit first. On Easter the assaults accelerated with the desecrations of St. Peter’s Church in Southborough and St. Mark’s Church in their hometown. In the latter instance windows were shattered, the altar destroyed, prayer books shredded, and artifacts upturned. Timms later commented, “We wished we had burnt it afterwards.” 15 He also claimed the group would have targeted larger churches if they’d only had access to explosives. Desecrator David Wharton said the actions were carried out in the early hours of the morning with the group outfitted in camouflage clothing. Timms stated he felt nothing for those buried in the cemeteries or their living relatives, and justified himself: “We are Satanists. We believe it is revenge against Christians. They destroyed pagan boundaries and built their churches on top of them.”16 Such words demonstrate an obvious emulation of Varg Vikernes. Vikernes is quoted in the same Kerrang! feature as saying, “No one can stop the church burning. And if these people claim to be influenced by me, then that’s fine.”17
Following the initial graveyard and cemetery ransackings, a week later the group again attacked the church in Southborough along with St. Peter’s Church in Fordcombe. Their final assault, called “an orgy of desecration” by one U.K. paper, resulted in the vandalization of graves in Speldhurst, Groombridge, and Frant.18 Not only were headstones toppled over, but those which were in the shape of crosses were ripped up, inverted, and left standing upside-down. Timms and his fellow musicians were finally arrested in simultaneous police raids on May 27th. The authorities were acting on an anonymous tip, which may have resulted from someone overhearing Timms talk of the crimes to his girlfriend in a pub. At first police only brought in Wharton, Reeve, and Mooney, unaware of Timms’s connection to the group. However, in the raids on their homes, investigators found a homemade poster of Necropolis depicting the four members. Based on this they quickly realized one of the criminals was still probably at large. They arrested Timms two days later.
During one of the court hearings, presided over by a Catholic judge, Timms donned a T-shirt from the English band Cradle of Filth which featured the slogan “JESUS IS A CUNT” across its back. The youths expected to receive assignments of community service for their actions, but ended up with two-and-a-half year jail sentences. When initially in custody and asked by the jail wardens what he wanted to eat, Timms replied: “A bible!”19 He starved himself for four days before relenting with his dietary request. Damage for the crimes was assessed at a minimum of £100,000 ($160,000), possibly much higher.
Timms’s girlfriend, 16-year-old Justine Turnbull, described how he would talk to her about the plans of defiling the churches:
He used to say that if he didn’t do it, then he would be a hypocrite. Cradle of Filth talk about doing all this stuff against Christianity but they haven’t actually done it, whereas Paul put what he believed into practice. I admired that in him. I still do.20
When asked if she thinks he and his bandmates took it too far, she states simply: “No.”21 The Reverend John Banner of Tunbridge Wells, a former exorcist and friend of Timms’s mother, was vociferous in his outrage at the acts of destruction:
This is the first time I have come across a group who have seen, by virtue of a cult, what they have to do and go and do it like
a military operation. Their acts were committed to cause the most horrific offence to innocent people, arriving at their churches for Pentecost.22
CRADLE OF FILTH
Rev. Banner subsequently used the example of the desecrations as justification for attempting to ban Black Metal music in the U.K. altogether. “I have no doubt the Black Metal and Death Music and its teachings is 95 percent to blame for this. It has to be stopped...”23
The Kerrang! article points out that Timms was allegedly in regular contact with U.K. Black Metal bands Gomorrah and Cradle of Filth. The media excitement over the Tunbridge Wells vandalism soon developed into feature articles on the horrors of Black Metal music itself, and Cradle of Filth was generally singled out for attention. In reality, the band had no connection to Paul Timms whatsoever, although he had spoken to them on one occasion after a concert. Cradle’s singer Dani recalls:
I met the guy once and he was really polite. It was quite weird because he was in awe of the band. We’re quite down-to-earth people, there’s no façade there, but he was like that, in awe of us. He came up to us at a show, and you knew he was peculiar and that there was something wrong there. I didn’t pay much attention to it, really. When I was young and not appreciative of places like graveyards, etc., I remember being drunk with punks in the middle of a town and—it was a childish and immature thing to do—spray painting tombstones and kicking them over. This is all they did. They got pissed and destroyed a few graveyards and subsequently they were in prison for it. The hoo-hah died down pretty quickly over it, and that sort of thing isn’t good for a band of our stature anyway because people get the whole ideology wrong straight away. This is why we kind of branched off from the Norwegian thing because as soon as you’ve got the Black Metal tag, people assume you are a fascist and you’re into Devil worship, which can be linked to child abuse.24
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