Joseph Tommasi

Joseph Charles Tommasi (April 15, 1951 – August 15, 1975) was an American neo-Nazi who lead the National Socialist Liberation Front, noted as the most militant neo-Nazi group of its time. A former member of the National Socialist White People's Party, he was kicked out of that group for unclear reasons in 1973. He was known for his extremely radical views and explicit advocacy of violent action, which put him at odds with most other neo-Nazis of the time. Tommasi was ultimately murdered by a member of the NSWPP in 1975, at the age of 24.

Tommasi became a neo-Nazi as a teenager; he was attending neo-Nazi meetings by the age of 15 and was reported in school for passing out neo-Nazi propaganda to his classmates. He officially joined the National Socialist White People's Party at the age of 17; shortly after he became the local leader of their Californian branch. In 1969, Tommasi, alongside William Luther Pierce, founded the National Socialist Liberation Front, initially only as the NSWPP's youth wing in an effort to appeal to college students. The NSWPP's leader Matt Koehl abruptly suspended Tommasi in 1973. Tommasi proceeded to re-launch the NSLF as an independent organization and took many members with him. Members of the NSLF committed or took credit for several bombings, shootings, and arsons. On August 15, 1975, Tommasi got into a fight in at the Californian NSWPP headquarters, and an NSWPP member, Jerry Jones, fatally shot him. Jones was convicted of second degree murder for his killing of Tommasi and sentenced to 300 days in jail. The NSLF effectively died with him, though in name it carried on for about a decade after his death.

Tommasi rejected conservatism and the social norms of most contemporary neo-Nazis, declaring himself a revolutionary. He advocated extremism and armed guerrilla warfare against the U.S. government and what he called its "Jewish power structure." He wanted anarchy and lawlessness so that the "system" could be attacked without protection. Tommasi was an early proponent of accelerationism, and influenced the development of the neo-Nazi conception of the leaderless resistance tactic. After his death, he influenced the development of James Mason's political thought and his book, Siege, which was based on a revival of the NSLF's Siege! periodical.