Eric Lin is a Maryland man accused in federal court of threatening to kill a South Florida Hispanic woman and her family and vowing to exterminate all Spanish-speakers in Facebook direct messages.
Lin used the name Eric A. Schopenhauer on Facebook. He also used the name Jake Howard. In posts that could previously have been seen by the public before his pages were shuttered, it wasevident Lin is a devotee of Adolph Hitler and on his page, he espouses extreme fascist and Nazi rhetoric and ideology; his Facebook timeline is filled with diatribes about ridding the world of Jews and hatred for “mongrels.” Heavy took screenshots of some of the posts before the accounts were shut down, by whom is not clear.
According to a federal warrant for his arrest, Lin, of Clarksburg, was jailed in Seattle Friday Aug. 16 and charged with interstate transmission of threatening communication. He faces a fine and up to five years in federal prison if convicted.
Lin, 35, began sending messages to a South Florida Latina from May 30 until earlier this month. Federal authorities were alerted by Miami-Dade Police after the woman brought her concerns to local authorities. In those messages, he allegedly threatened to kill her and her family members, and advocated for the extermination of Hispanics: “In 3 short years your entire race, your entire culture work will perish. Only then, after I kill your s**c family, will I permit you to die by hanging on metal wire.”
The messages are private, direct messages on the social networking site, so on Aug. 8, a federal agent obtained a sealed search warrant, court records show, to have Facebook hand over the communications Lin sent to the woman; 150 pages worth. Facebook complied on Aug. 13. That same day, an FBI agent called Lin’s cell phone number. He answered, identified himself and said he was in Los Angeles. On Aug. 16, Lin was arrested in Seattle.
According to the arrest warrant, the woman told federal agents that Lin had eaten at a restaurant where she worked and spoke about mass shootings and of his “idolization of Adolph Hitler.”
Beginning in May and continuing until the day he was arrested, Lin’s DMs made the woman fear for her and her family’s lives, the arrest warrant says.
In an initial message, he sent a photograph of himself with a Hitler face-filter superimposed on his own. And then came the threats like this one. And far worse.
“You are worth less than a rabid dog… Rabid s***s like you need to be put down. With extreme ruthlessness!”
Lin was a student in Maryland. He has an arrest record there and an enigmatic history. His Facebook page, under the name Eric Schopenhauer, is now filled with extremist fascist and Nazi ideology and race-based hatred with calls for a violent race war and extermination of Hispanics, black people, and Muslim people. Eric Lin, aka Eric Schopenhauer, has more than 800 friends on the page.
For now, Lin is being held without bail pending a hearing in a Seattle federal court next week.
Here’s what you need to know about Eric Lin, which is not even his birth name; he changed it in 2005.
1. The FBI Says Eric Lin, AKA Eric Schopenhauer, is a Nazi & Hitler Ideologue Who Threatened to Annihilate a Latina & Her Family & Exterminate Hispanics
Lin’s months-long campaign of terror included messages like: ”I will let you live so that you can slowly watch me destroy your entire race, then your family will be targeted for being ‘anti-American,’ which they are!”
In the arrest warrant and attached complaint filed in federal court, FBI Special Agent Matthew Jones included a number of representative messages Lin sent to the woman over the course of three months. The volume of messages filled 150 printed pages, court records show. Most of the messages appear to have arbitrary words with uppercase spellings and some where the emphasis provided by Lin seems apparent.
“THIS IS A RACE WAR and all of you will die! Good luck s***s, n*****s, Arab, Jew, Spainaird (sic).”
“I’m going to enslave rape and use you like a baby making machine. Once I’m finished with you I might just get rid of you like a piece of trash.”
“Should I decide to kill you specs no power on earth is going to stop me. I’m cool calm calculating and methodical. I will be caring a rifle handgun and SS as my honor is called loyalty dagger. You try to pretend to be a s**c Nazi. You want to see what a real Nazi can do? I guarantee I can kill you when you least expect it. I’m coming to kill you.”
“I will stop at nothing until you, your family, your friends, your entire worthless Latin race is racially exterminated.”
“By the authority of Adolf Hitler in God I hereby declare Spanish and all Spanish-speaking people illegal!”
“That’s all I need authority from Adolf Hitler to act. I follow only Adolph Hitler and then God. They are one and the same!”
“When I come with my arms, I will cut you to the knees so that you know to bow in front of a natural born king. Then I will cut your fucking heart out and at is as it is still beating I will eat it in front of your eyes!”
It’s not clear how long after the messages began that the woman went to authorities in Miami, but the messages came regularly for months.
2. In His Facebook Messages That Form the Basis of the FBI Complaint & Arrest Warrant, Lin Praised Donald Trump & Thanked ‘God’ for the Coming ‘Race War’ & Vowed to Commit ‘Genocide’
Lin, who in 2015 appeared to not support Trump, had a major ideological shift and as evidenced by the messages the FBI says he sent to the woman, he’s a ardent Trump supporter now and has been for the past several years.
In a message to the woman dated July 19, Lin allegedly wrote: “I thank God every day President Donald John Trump is president and that he will launch of racial war and proceed to keep the n*****s, s***s, and Muslims and any dangerous non-white or ethnically or culturally foreign group ‘in line’ by ‘in line’ it is meant that they will either be sent to ‘concentration camps’ or dealt with ruthlessly and vigorously by the United States military.”
Lin allegedly wrote that “providence has willed” a race war and he’s signed on.
“I just know that Providence has willed this White Holy Race War in the United States of America for a reason and that I will make my name on it.”
Lin said that he was going to participate in “genocide” and made specific threats to slaughter and rape Latinos in Miami.
“I look forward to committing a genocide …”
“The time will come in Miami will burn to the ground and every Latin men will be lined up against the wall and shot in every Latin women raped and cut the pieces …”
3. Lin Tried to Hire a Friend to Beat Up & Kidnap the Woman in Miami, Bring Her to Seattle & Said ‘I Don’t Care If I Have to Pay You $1 Million …I Want This Done
According to the complaint, Lin also allegedly tried to engage or hire a person to go to Miami and “beat up this s**c who insulted me. I will pay you $10,000.”
The person Lin tried to hire, whose name is Chris and is a friend of Lin’s on Facebook, agreed if he was paid first.
“Hey Chris, I was wondering if you could do me a favor. I was wondering if you could go to Miami and beat up this s**c who insulted me. I can pay you $10,000.”
Chris responded, “Sure PayPal me first.”
And then Lin laid out the plan mentioning the name of an individual associated with Chris saying the two should “…convince (the woman in Miami)that you are rich white American people that she looks up to. Then get her into a rented house or mansion and then chain her up and put her in a Rubbermaid plastic bin and you’ve got to drive her to Seattle, Washington upon which I will pay $25,000.”
Lin said that Chris didn’t need to “kill her.”
“You don’t need to kill her. Hurt her. So at most you will be charged with kidnapping. Nothing will happen to you if you get the right lawyers. She’s a s**c who hates white Americans. I doubt the FBI would care much about her. I don’t care if I have to pay you $1 million or more I want this done.”
4. Lin’s Facebook Page, Redacted & Hidden on the Court Documents But Located by Heavy, Shows His Politics Changing Over Time But Shows His Hatred of Jews & Idolization of Hitler Since 2016
In court documents, given he did not use his real name, Lin’s Facebook usernames and URL’s were redacted by the FBI. Heavy was nonetheless able to locate Lin’s Facebook accounts. On the one where he goes by Eric A. Schopenhauer, posts from 2015 show him appearing as a liberal or Democrat possibly, and mocking Trump. Curiously, his Jake Howard Facebook page appears to exist to be a friend to his Eric A. Schopenhauer page with ‘Jake’ often liking Eric’s posts a vice versa.
By early 2016, Lin was a zealous Trump fan. His ‘about’ is a reflection of his obsession with Trump. Lin as Eric A. Schopenhauer says he is “President of the United States at President of the United States, Chief Executive Officer at The Trump Organization, Works at Streets Of Rage, Studied Law at Harvard Law School, Studied at Trump University and Studied at The Wharton School.”
Lin has shared dozens of posts filled with captions that read as essays revealing his hatred of Jews and idealization of Hitler.
“A Man like Adolf Hitler was bold enough to envision a World without Jews. And whether Anglo-Saxons like it or not there will be Another Man as Bold but even Stronger than Adolf Hitler and he will lead his Armies and Absolutely Destroy their Weak, Pathetic, Decadent and Totally Racially Mongrelized Nations.”
In all the above posts, Lin is sharing them with his other Facebook page, Jake Howard.
5. Lin, Who Has a Rap Sheet That Includes a Burglary Conviction Where he Stole an Assault Rifle, Was Found Competent to Stand Trail & ‘Responsible For His Actions.’ Lin, Who Attended the University of Maryland, Was Not Born Eric Lin
Lin has numerous cases where he was charged with various types of harassment in several Maryland cities from 2008 until 2012. He served nine months for making harassing phone calls in 2009. He was the subject of an order of protection. Was found guilty of harassment and served 90 days in county jail. Interestingly, buried among the long list of court cases Lin has been involved in, one is a domestic case: a name change. He is Zhaoyuan Cheng, who changed his name to Eric Lin in 2005 court records show.
In 2010, Lin was arrested in Montgomery County and charged with breaking into a house by climbing up a balcony fence and slipping in through an open window where, local media reported at the time, “…took a shower, had lunch and went on Facebook as if he was living there.” Family of the home owner found him in the house and he took off, apparently with a Sig-Sauer assault rifle he’d stolen. Police found him nearby and arrested him. Lin was reported to have told police he was homeless.
After he was convicted on one count of burglary and sentenced, he filed a Habeas Corpus motion in court claiming that he was being held in a jail unlawfully and should have been sent to a hospital, but court records show the hospital he named refused to take him. A court-ordered exam found him to be competent to stand trial and responsible for his actions. Sentenced to 20 years, he served 16 months, with the remainder suspended, and five years of probation.
According to his Facebook, he attended the University of Maryland, and he has Facebook friends from the school, where he says he studied evolutionary psychology. While his attendance at the university was not confirmed to Heavy, court records show he did have a harassment charge filed against him by university police.
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