FROM bombings and school shootings to poisoned sweets, hate-spewing cult leader Michail Chkhikvishvili plotted to sow mayhem across America.
The Georgian neo-Nazi – dubbed “Commander Butcher” – sent followers a “Hater’s Handbook” that encouraged terror attacks and outlined methods for mixing lethal poisons and gases for mass violence.
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Michail Chkhikvishvili, a Georgian national, is known as ‘Commander Butcher’ Credit: Department of Justice
Using Telegram, Chkhikvishvili recruited people to commit violent attacks Credit: Department of Justice
As the ringleader of Maniac Murder Cult, a Russian and Ukrainian-based extremist group, depraved Chkhikvishvili plotted heinous attacks for years before he was arrested.
Using Telegram, he recruited people to commit violent attacks – including a mass casualty New Year’s Eve attack in New York.
In a plot foiled by an undercover FBI agent, he wanted people to dress up as Santa Claus and hand out sweets laced with poison to Jewish children.
Prosecutors said Chkhikvishvili’s appalling hate manual inspired “multiple senseless killings”, including the killing of a 17-year-old at a Nashville school and a livestreamed mass stabbing in Turkey.
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Chkhikvishvili’s hate manual inspired ‘multiple senseless killings’ including a shooting at Antioch High School in Nashville, the US government said Credit: AP
In November last year, he pleaded guilty to charges of soliciting bombings, school shootings and other acts of hate-motivated violence across the US.
Today, Chkhikvishvili has been jailed for 15 years by Judge Carol Bagley Amon.
Chkhikvishvili was handed the sentence for soliciting hate crimes and distributing instructions to make bombs and ricin.
In the days prior to his sentencing, the federal court in Brooklyn heard statements from his many victims, transporting Commander Butcher from a man hiding behind an encrypted chat and into the real world.
Seeking justice, the courageous group – including survivors, relatives and a teacher – all faced Chkhikvishvili in person.
The brave collective gave statements outlining how the crazed cult leader’s Neo-Nazi propaganda helped radicalise real people to violence, which left the victims traumatised or dead.
Their statements pulled the case of online hatred into reality, where people lost their children, students and friends.
One of the surviving students from the Nashville ordeal wrote that “the shooter’s actions were influenced by the ideology promoted by the defendant”.
A teacher from Antioch also told the court that “this man manipulated a vulnerable and impressionable boy and turned him into a self-hating murderer”, the New York Daily News reported.
The emotional and moving statements highlighted the need for Chkhikvishvili’s sentence to address both the harrowing damage that had already been done as well as the reduction of harm in the future.
A letter that Chkhikvishvili wrote to the judge was also read to the court, proclaiming his change of attitude and ideology.
Claiming to have left the violent dogma behind, he said he was “very sorry for his conduct”.
“My apologies goes to Jews, Blacks and basically all people that I was targeting,” he wrote.
Chkhikvishvili started distributing the “Hater’s Handbook” manifesto to Maniac Murder Cult members in 2021 – encouraging people to carry out school shootings and other violent acts, the US government said.
Then, in 2022, he travelled to Brooklyn where, using encrypted messaging platform Telegram, he repeatedly encouraged people to commit violent hate crimes on behalf of the cult.
Maniac Murder Cult’s warped ideology is underpinned by Satanism and Nazism, according to researchers at the Combating Terrorism Center at the United States Military Academy in West Point.
Chkhikvishvili was nailed after an undercover FBI employee was solicited for an attack in New York.
In January 2024, Chkhikvishvili asked the undercover cop to target the Jewish community, Jewish schools, and Jewish children in Brooklyn with poison.
Attorney General Pamela Bondi said “violent, nihilistic, racist groups like these are an ongoing threat to the American people”.
FBI Director Kash Patel said: “This defendant admits to a horrific plot targeting Jewish people and racial minorities and even planned to poison children with candy around the holidays.
“The defendant was extradited from Moldova to face charges.
“This case shows once more that no matter where you are, if you try to harm our citizens the FBI and our partners will find you and bring you to justice.”
Assistant Attorney General John A. Eisenberg said: “Chkhikvishvili’s monstrous plots and propaganda calling for racially motivated violence against civilians, including children, posed a grave threat to public safety.
“His efforts on behalf of the aptly named Maniac Murder Cult in fact caused mayhem and death.”
