Infamous White Nationalist, Former Senate Candidate Arrested On Kidnapping Warrant

Brevard County Sheriff's Office
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A politically active white nationalist known for once drinking goat blood has been arrested on a kidnapping warrant.

Augustus Sol Invictus allegedly kidnapped his wife at gunpoint in South Carolina and drove to Florida, where he was arrested and is being held without bond. A Brevard County, Florida probable cause affidavit for Invictus said he was wanted for kidnapping, “high & aggravated” domestic violence and possession of a firearm during a crime of violence.

A report from the Rockhill, South Carolina police department states that on Dec. 12, Invictus held a gun to his wife’s head and forced her to travel with him to Jacksonville. Invictus’ wife, whose name is redacted in the report posted by journalist Hilary Sargent, was able to escape back home once in Florida. She was interviewed by police on Dec. 22.

Invictus was booked Monday, jail records show.

Born Austin Gillespie, Invictus later legally changed his name and has been known in the extremism world for years.

In 2015, he ran for U.S. Senate in Florida as a libertarian. The chairman of the state’s Libertarian Party, Adrian Wyllie, resigned from that position after the party failed to denounce Invictus, who was the party’s only candidate for the U.S. Senate nomination at the time. (Another libertarian candidate ultimately trounced Invictus for the party’s nomination; Marco Rubio eventually won reelection to the seat.)

Wyllie objected to Invictus’ fascist politics and for “sadistically dismembering a goat in a ritualistic sacrifice” — what Invictus later confirmed was an instance in 2013 when he slaughtered a goat and drank its blood. The fraternal-religious group Ordo Templi Orientis, of which Invictus had been a member, kicked him to the curb after the stunt.

In 2017, Invictus was a speaker at the white nationalist Unite the Right rally in Charlottesville, and later established a legal defense fund for several members of the white nationalist Rise Above Movement who were prosecuted for their actions at the event and in separate violent skirmishes in California.

Invictus announced a presidential bid in August, journalist Nick Martin reported. Among his positions as listed in an archived website for the campaign, is a “Ban on all kosher or halal slaughter” and the assertion that “Only white male citizens have the right to vote.”

White nationalist leader Richard Spencer credited Invictus with penning the first draft of the so-called “Charlottesville Statement” outlining an “alt-right” ideology, the Miami Herald noted.

The final draft includes such highlights as “Whites alone defined America as a European society and political order,” “We oppose feminism, deviancy, the futile denial of biological reality, and everything destructive to healthy relations between men and women” and “Leftism is an ideology of death and must be confronted and defeated.”

As the Daily Beast noted, Invictus has faced accusations of domestic violence in the past but never faced criminal charges for them.

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