More Violence from Pennsylvania Skinheads Reported

Three members of the Keystone State Skinheads were charged in January with multiple felonies after two unrelated knife attacks in Pennsylvania -- two more reminders of the often savage violence that characterizes the Skinhead scene.

Twenty-year-old Jason Honeywell, who stands 6'2" and weighs 300 pounds, was charged with four counts of aggravated assault in the stabbing of two anti-racist SHARPs (Skinheads Against Racial Prejudice) outside Cafe Metropolis, an all-ages punk rock club in Wilkes-Barre. Honeywell is reportedly the leader of the KSS Wilkes-Barre unit, one of the Nazi Skinhead gang's nine chapters in Pennsylvania.

The trouble inside Cafe Metropolis started during a Jan. 7 performance by the band River Side Riot, whose lead singer is black. According to witnesses, the KSS members gave seig-heil salutes and made obscene gestures at the performer. When confronted by SHARPs, police said, the KSS Skinheads began "picking fights and ... shoving other individuals." A melee erupted inside the club and then moved outside, where police estimated around 100 people fought in the street. During that battle, prosecutors allege that Honeywell stabbed two SHARPs in the chest and stomach. Both suffered punctured lungs. Cafe Metropolis is the same club where, in 2003, KSS Skinheads attacked a 14-year-old boy for wearing an anti-Nazi patch.

Two weeks after the Wilkes-Barre stabbings, Todd Clair Sager, the leader of the KSS chapters in Pittsburgh and Greensburg, was charged with criminal solicitation to commit homicide and criminal solicitation to commit aggravated assault. Sager allegedly ordered KSS member Edward Robert Locke to stab a third KSS member during a barroom brawl at a New Stanton sports bar that broke out after the Skinheads tried to intimidate a mixed-race couple. Locke was charged with aggravated assault and attempted murder.