‘Wolves in sheep's clothing': how a neo-Nazi cell infiltrated a martial arts school in Tennessee

The Guardian

3 hours ago

A neo-Nazi fight club that secretly infiltrated a Tennessee martial arts school where young children train has been banned from the facility, after an inquiry by the Guardian.
Last month, the South Central Tennessee Active Club published video footage on the messaging app Telegram showing its members participating in combat training at Shelbyville BJJ Academy, a Brazilian jiu-jitsu school in Shelbyville, Tennessee, that offers classes to students as young as three years old.
The group is part of the wider Active Club network, which consists of dozens of decentralized cells across the US and abroad that use combat sports to lure people into white nationalist and neo-Nazi causes.
While lesser known than other far-right groups like the Proud Boys, experts warn Active Clubs are acutely dangerous because they recruit boys and young men into violent white nationalist circles by using notions of fraternity as a gateway to extremism.
'What makes them unique is the 'wolves in sheep's clothing' approach, which aims at fooling law enforcement into believing Active Clubs are just about sports,' Alexander Ritzmann, a political scientist and senior advisor at the Counter Extremism Project who studies the movement, told the Guardian.
In a 2023 report, Ritzmann warned that the ultimate goal of Active Clubs 'is the creation of a stand-by militia of trained and capable [right wing extremists] who can be activated when the need for coordinated violent action on a larger scale arises'.
At one point in the video posted by the Tennessee cell, an Active Club flag featuring a sonnenrad, a symbol of Nazi Germany that has been adopted by neo-Nazis and other far-right extremists, can be seen hanging on the wall where young children would normally gather.
After it was presented with the video of the Active Club training at its facilities, Shelbyville BJJ Academy told the Guardian 'that type of behavior at our gym is a direct violation of our code of ethics and goes against our community offering as a safe place for children and adults.
'The situation has been remedied promptly and we appreciate you bringing this to our attention,' the school continued, in a statement. 'We can assure you, this will not be happening again. Ever.'
The academy also rejected the Active Club's extremist ideology, emphasizing: 'We accept and welcome all people. We all belong. No matter background, skin color, creed, nationality, or status.'
As for how the group gained entry, the school said it provides keypad access to members so they can train outside regular class hours. It believes the Active Club entered using this method and said the access code has been changed.
While the South Central Tennessee Active Club blurred the faces of most of its members shown in the video taken at Shelbyville BJJ Academy, the face of one man was left uncensored. His name: William Chase May.
Records on Smoothcomp, a software used to organize and record combat sports events, show he was awarded his blue belt by Shelbyville BJJ Academy in 2023.
The school confirmed that May was a member, though said his attendance was infrequent and that he only showed up from 'time to time'.
He was banned after the Guardian brought his identity to its attention and, the academy said, an internal investigation into whether any other members made unauthorized use of the facility is ongoing.
Riztmann told the Guardian that the Active Club's presence at the Tennessee academy is especially concerning because the movement's architect, the white supremacist Robert Rundo 'laid out the principle recruiting strategy, which includes reaching out to minors at schools'.
In April, the Guardian reported on Telegram accounts which showed many Active Clubs in the US had participants between the ages of 16 and 18.
Multiple images posted to the Google reviews page of Shelbyville BJJ by May, under the alias 'Chase Odinson' show he had trained and interacted with young children at the school as far back as 2023.
May viewed a request for comment sent to him on Telegram by the Guardian, but did not reply.
Images of the Active Club chapter training at the Shelbyville school were first discovered in September by a pseudonymous independent researcher who tracks Tennessee Active Clubs, according to chat logs they shared with the Guardian.
In December, they began posting some of their findings on the social media network Bluesky, where they use the alias Inteltwink.
'It was through Chase May that I identified Shelbyville BJJ,' they told the Guardian, adding that they identified him after they 'infiltrated TAC's private telegram chat'.
While it is unclear how frequently or for how long the Active Club used the school's facilities, the latest video confirms the group was sharing documentation of its activities there for months.
The seat of Bedford County, Shelbyville is a city of 23,000 located 50 miles southeast of Nashville, the state capital. Tennessee has been identified in recent years by researchers and journalists as a hotbed for violent white nationalist activity.
In 2023, the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) revealed a statewide Tennessee Active Club was holding networking events and fight clubs at a Nashville area general store owned by a self-declared 'actual literal Nazi'.
Last month, the SPLC reported that the statewide Active Club was being secretly controlled by the Patriot Front, a racist and neo-fascist hate group.
In March, News Channel 5 reported Patriot Front had established a 122-acre compound in Tellico Plains.
And, last fall, the Daily Beast reported that one of the men Channel 5 identified as a leader of that compound, Ian Elliott, had infiltrated another child-friendly Tennessee grappling school in Athens (the school kicked him out).
Meanwhile May, who was part of the Active Club that infiltrated Shelbyville school, appears to be acquaintances with Elliott.
An image he posted to his personal Telegram account on 26 October 2024 shows him and the Patriot Front leader posing alongside a third man whose face is obscured with a sonnenrad.