The brutal shooting attack on the family of federal judge Esther Salas in North Brunswick, New Jersey this week has been linked to the murder of a civil rights attorney in California, authorities say.
Attorney Marc Angelucci was gunned down at his home in Crestline, California on July 11, just over a week before the New Jersey murder of Salas's son Daniel Anderl and the shooting of her husband, Mark Anderl. In both cases, authorities say, the assailant was dressed as a delivery driver.
On Monday, self-described "anti-feminist" Manhattan attorney Roy Den Hollander, 69, was found dead in the New York Catskills of an apparent self-inflicted gunshot wound. The FBI and the U.S. Marshal's service, who had in tandem been investigating the attack on Salas and her family, indicated that Hollander was the prime suspect in the shooting.
Now, it seems, he was also the prime suspect in the California murder of Angelucci. Like Hollander, Angelucci, 52, worked as a "men's rights" attorney. Additionally, Angelucci was the vice president of the National Coalition for Men, which describes itself as a "nonprofit educational organization that raises awareness about the ways sex discrimination affects men and boys."
Hollander, however, was not involved in the men's rights organization because he had been ejected for his erratic behavior, according to coalition president Harry Crouch.
"I threw him out five or six years ago because he was a nut job," Crouch said. When reports of the attack on Judge Salas included that the suspect dressed as a delivery driver, Crouch immediately made the connection between the two cases.
Without revealing all of the connecting evidence between the two cases, San Bernardino Sheriff's Office said that they have turned the case over the FBI. The FBI confirmed that they are looking at both cases.
"As the FBI continues the investigation into the attack at the home of U.S. District Court Judge Esther Salas, we are now engaged with the San Bernardino California Sheriff’s Office and have evidence linking the murder of Marc Angelucci to FBI Newark subject Roy Den Hollander,” a statement from the FBI said. “This investigation is ongoing."
Initial reports about the scene in New York where Hollander's body was recovered said that a a Walther .380 caliber handgun was found nearby, as well as a possible letter or package addressed to Judge Salas. Whether or not that gun is linked to either shooting has not been confirmed by authorities, though investigators have indicated that the gun matched the weapon used in the New Jersey attack.
Possible motivations for Hollander's suspected deadly attack on Angelucci, 20-year-old Daniel Anderl, and his father are not entirely clear, though Hollander had a history of contentious expressions against the judge and against the NCFM. Other reports say that Hollander had recently been diagnosed with terminal cancer and was working through a list of enemies in the final months of his life.
Hollander's contempt for Judge Salas was well documented in his own radical writings and publications. He had previously referred to the Obama-appointed justice as "lazy and incompetent," and implied that she was nothing more than a high school cheerleader; he also disparaged her race and sex.
His fallout with the NCFM is thought to be over the coalition's involvement in selective service registration for the U.S. Military only applying to men. Those close to the rift between Hollander and the NCFM noted that Hollander felt the selective service issue should have been his to litigate and that the law group was encroaching on his business.
"Roy was furious and beyond words furious, absolutely enraged that [NCFM] and Marc Angelucci were getting into the selective service case," said Angelucci's friend Paul Elam. "He viewed that as something proprietary for him," Elam said on a Facebook live video Monday night. "He saw Marc's work in that respect as an intrusion into his space. He was more than angry about it, he was livid."
Crouch lamented the loss of his friend and colleague on Wednesday, along with the updated information from authorities indicating that Hollander had been the killer.
"We are deeply dismayed to hear that this senseless act was perpetrated by a self-described men’s rights activist and unequivocally denounce anyone who uses violence to intimidate and harm people,” Couch said in a statement on the NCFM website. “We offer our condolences and prayers to Judge Salas and the Anderl family."