John Patler

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John Patler, formerly Yanacki Patsalos (born circa 1938), is the man best known as the assassin of American Nazi Party leader George Lincoln Rockwell. Patler was from a poor immigrant Greek family and grew up in New York City. Patler had been a member of a street gang in New York City and reportedly had killed a childhood friend at age 16. Patler also had a history of mental illness. [1] He changed his name to Patler to make it sound more like Hitler.

Patler had formerly been a captain in the American Nazi Party and was the editor and cartoonist for the party magazine, Stormtrooper. He attempted to organize a party coup among the dark-eyed members of the party against the "blue-eyed devils." He was expelled from the party in April 1967 for "Bolshevik leanings". On August 25th, he fired two shots from the rooftop of a beauty salon in the Dominion Hills shopping center in Arlington, Virginia into George Rockwell's car. Two bullets went through the windshield, hitting him fatally in the head and chest. Rockwell struggled out of the passenger side of his automobile and died on the pavement.

Patler was sentenced to 20 years in prison for Rockwell's murder in December 1967. Patler was paroled in 1975, but violated his parole and served an additional six years.