Roy Den Hollander was a well-known men’s rights attorney and self-described “anti-feminist” who is suspected of being the gunman who shot the husband and son of federal Judge Esther Salas in the doorway of the family’s home in North Brunswick, New Jersey, before killing himself. Salas’ 20-year-old son, Daniel Anderl, was killed and her husband, criminal defense attorney and former prosecutor Mark Anderl, was wounded.
The FBI’s Newark office confirmed Den Hollander, who filled his website with rants against women, is the “primary subject” in the attack on Salas’ home. The FBI tweeted, “Den Hollander is now deceased. Individuals who believe they have relevant information should contact us at 973-792-3000, Press Option 2.” Den Hollander was involved in a case heard by Salas, but investigators have not yet determined his exact motive for the attack on her family.
Den Hollander left behind a memoir he published online (and which you can read here), calling Salas “a lazy and incompetent Latina judge appointed by Obama” and saying that he “wanted to ask the Judge out, but thought she might hold me in contempt,” according to NBC News. Here’s the second reference in his book:
A passage from Den Hollander’s book.
In some of his online writings, he expressed hatred for his mother and “raged about women judges,” NBC reported, calling judges appointed by Obama “Obamite bigots.” The book criticizes Latina judges and Salas herself in multiple passages, saying, in one place, “Salas clearly wanted to further her career by moving up the judicial ladder to the Court of Appeals or maybe even the Supreme Court. After all, there was now a Latina seat in the form of Sotomayor on the Court…lady unluck stuck us with an Obama appointee.” This is the dedication page to his self-published book:
Den Hollander’s website
Daily Beast first reported Den Hollander’s name via law enforcement sources. Multiple reports have claimed, via sources, that the suspect was wearing a FedEx uniform at the time of the shooting; however, The New York Times is now reporting that, while “authorities believe that somebody dressed in a FedEx uniform was in the neighborhood around the time of the shooting…it could not be determined if that person was the gunman.”
Den Hollander, 69, was long involved in unusual and publicity-seeking men’s rights causes. In 2016, Den Hollander sued various national news reporters in the U.S. District Court, Southern District of New York, including Chuck Todd of NBC’s Meet the Press, New York Times’ commentator David Brooks, and Major Garrett of CBS. He accused them of violating the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations (RICO) Act by allegedly committing “wire fraud,” alleging they created and caused “to be broadcast and disseminated false and misleading news reports concerning the Donald J. Trump candidacy for President of the United States.” You can see the full complaint here. In March 2020, he made a $20 donation to WINRED, a Republican Party fundraising platform, according to the Federal Election Commission’s records. In his book, Den Hollander wrote, “Donald Trump was telling the truth about illegal aliens in his bid for the Presidency” and “From day one of the campaign the PC—Pravda Correct—news media hammered Trump. The reporters lied, prevaricated, dissembled, took quotes out of content, spun them around to say what the reporters wanted and then reported such as facts to depict Trump as ‘inappropriate’ – to put it mildly.”
Den Hollender had the name and photo of New York State’s chief judge, Janet M. DiFiore, in his car, The New York Times reported. One possible motive given to the Times by investigators: That Den Hollender, recently diagnosed with terminal cancer, was taking out his enemies.
For years, Den Hollander made news with headline-grabbing ventures. According to TechDirt, he “sued a nightclub claiming that requiring him to buy a $350 bottle of vodka was a human rights violation” and sued nightclubs for holding Ladies’ Nights, which he said violated the 14th Amendment. He sued Columbia University “for offering women’s studies courses,” the site recapped in a 2016 article on Den Hollander.
On his website, he referred to a “Lady Judge” when describing the Ladies’ Nights decision, writing, “Lady Judge ruled that under the U.S. Constitution nightclubs can charge men more for admission than females, but in reaching her decision, she had to find that nightclubs cannot charge guys more for a drink. So if you can make it to the bar, you’re home-free.”
The website is full of grievances. “The terms Feminists, Fanatical Feminists, Rabid Feminists, or Feminazis, are used interchangeably. Some people use the terms Ideological Feminists, Radical Feminists, or Militant Feminists,” Den Hollander wrote. “It doesn’t matter what you call them; they intend to create and perpetuate a legal, social, and economic substratum occupied by men toiling in a Fritz Lang ‘Metropolis’ underworld.”
Authorities believe the suspect in the Salas family shootings died of a self-inflicted gunshot wound. His body was found in a car in Sullivan County, New York, CNN reported.
Daniel Anderl, 20, a student at Catholic University and the judge’s son, was shot and killed in the attack. The judge’s husband, Mark Anderl, was in critical but stable condition after it; the judge was not injured because she was in the basement at the time of the shooting, NBC New York reported.
“Judge Salas and her family are in our thoughts at this time as they cope with this senseless act,” Governor Phil Murphy wrote on Twitter.
The judge is the first Latina woman to serve on New Jersey’s federal bench, NBC New York reported. Rutgers University called her “The first Hispanic to serve as a US Magistrate Judge for NJ.
Here’s what you need to know:
1. Den Hollander Had a Case in Front of the Judge Involving a Challenge to the Male-Only Draft & Trashed Salas in Online Writings, Calling Latina Judges a ‘Problem’
Website photoRoy Den Hollander
When authorities were alerted that a municipal employee had found Den Hollander deceased inside his car near Liberty, New York, they discovered a FedEx package addressed to the judge in the vehicle, according to ABC News. Other ties soon emerged.
The suspect “was an attorney who had a case before Judge Salas in 2015,” ABC News reported. The Daily Beast reported that the case was a “challenge to the military’s male-only draft.”
However, Salas didn’t side against Den Hollander’s cause, although the case is still pending. In March 2019, USA Today reported, Judge Salas “allowed a legal challenge to the male-only military draft, increasing the pressure on Congress to decide whether any future conscription should apply equally to men and women – and whether the requirement to register should exist at all.”
The plaintiff was a New Jersey woman, Elizabeth Kyle-Lebell, who tried to register for Selective Service twice. According to USA Today, Salas “dismissed Kyle-Labell’s argument the male-only draft requirement deprived her of due process but allowed another one – that a male-only draft deprives women of ‘equal protection of the law’ – to proceed.” The New York Times reported that Hollander left that case last summer, saying he had terminal cancer.
In his book, Den Hollander discussed the draft case and Salas by name. “Unfortunately, Judge Esther Salas granted DOJ a do-over of its prior motions to dismiss the case for lack of ripeness under Rule 12(b)(1) and failure to state a claim under Rule 12(b)(6). Judge Salas had never made a decision on those motions. She had ‘terminated’ them allegedly because of the political shenanigans in Congress. Was she trying to keep this case in her court until a weatherman showed her which way the legal winds were blowing…” he wrote.
Den Hollander websiteThe passage in his book that NBC News says refers to Salas.
In another passage about Salas, he wrote,
Female judges didn’t bother me as long as they were middle age or older black ladies. They seemed to have an understanding of how life worked and were not about to be conned by any foot dragging lawyer. Latinas, however, were usually a problem—driven by an inferiority complex. After Salas agreed to allow the DOJ its fourth motion to dismiss, I checked her bio. It was the usual effort to blame a man and turn someone into super girl—daddy abandoned us, we were indigent, which means they lived off of the taxpayer, but we overcame all odds. Right, affirmative action got her into and through college and law school. Salas worked as an associate in an ambulance chasing firm doing basic criminal work. Left that firm to work as a public defender in the New Jersey District Court representing lumpen proletariat ne’er-do-wells. Joined politically correct organizations trying to convince America that whites, especially white males, were barbarians, and all those of a darker skin complexion were victims. She did, however, have one accomplishment—high school cheerleader.
He criticized her handling of the draft case, writing,
Four months after the submission of our papers on DOJ’s fourth motion to dismiss, Salas schedules oral argument to take place in two more months. Three and a half years after this case started, she throws in another delaying tactic—she’ll likely take another six months after oral argument to make a decision. Then the case will be four years old and the plaintiff, who had just graduated from high school when the case started, will have graduated college. Salas was apparently scared of making a decision one way or the other…Eleven days after publication of the Texas decision, Judge Salas issued her decision denying the DOJ motion to dismiss our Equal Protection claim. Thank heavens for older white-male judges willing to act as blocking backs. Judge Salas did grant the DOJ motion to dismiss our Substantive Due Process claim, but that was a Hail Mary anyway and we simply dropped it.
On his Twitter page, Den Hollander described himself as a “men’s rights attorney.” He had a YouTube channel where he posted various interviews, but it only had a few subscribers.
The men’s rights movement recently lost another prominent figure involved in challenging the male-only draft when California men’s rights attorney Marc Angelucci was gunned down on July 11 in his home by an unknown male. Angelucci was the vice president and board member of the National Coalition for Men. The National Coalition for Men wrote that Angelucci’s accomplishments included “recently winning an equal protection case against the Selective Service Administration overturning male-only draft registration.” Read about Angelucci’s shooting death here.
“As the FBI continues the investigation into the attack at the home of US District Court Judge Esther Salas, we are now engaged with the San Bernardino CA Sheriff’s Office and have evidence linking the murder of Marc Angelucci to FBI Newark subject Roy Den Hollander,” the FBI Newark revealed.
As the FBI continues the investigation into the attack at the home of US District Court Judge Esther Salas, we are now engaged with the San Bernardino CA Sheriff’s Office and have evidence linking the murder of Marc Angelucci to FBI Newark subject Roy Den Hollander.
Daily Beast is reporting that authorities have evidence Den Hollander was in California when Angelucci was murdered and the motive might be competitive jealousy because they both had lawsuits involving challenges to the male-only draft.
The slaying of Angelucci had a remarkably similar modus operandi. According to Spectator.com, a knock came to the door. A friend answered it, but “the delivery man said he had a package that Angelucci needed to sign for. Marc went to the door. Shots were fired.” The New York Times reported that federal investigators are looking into whether Hollander might have had anything to do with that case, saying the person at the door also wore a FedEx uniform.
In his book, Den Hollander wrote, “A group of men’s rights activists in California, with whom I had been in contact for years, filed a lawsuit on behalf of a young man claiming that draft registration discriminated against him and other guys 18 to 25 years old by not requiring females to register.”
Daily Beast is reporting that “One law-enforcement source said papers that mentioned Angelucci were found in or around Den Hollander’s car,” although the nature of them is unclear.
FacebookMarc Angelucci
In a document posted on his website, Den Hollander wrote, “I know how old I am. I know how old I feel. I know what I like to do. I know what social convention tells me to do. But I don’t give a damn for social convention, especially the PC-Feminist kind. After 15 years of rugby, 15 years of martial arts, and 30 years of litigation, I’m not going gently anywhere.”
In the shootings of Judge Salas’ husband and son, The New York Times reported that authorities were investigating whether a “lawyer” was the gunman. According to NBC New York, the suspect was “an attorney who filed various sorts of civil lawsuits over the years.”
“The suspect was a white man who wore a face covering and a FedEx uniform,” ABC News reported, citing law enforcement sources.
It was early evening on a Sunday, July 19, when the gunman, possibly wearing the FedEx uniform, walked up to the door of the Salas/Anderl home and knocked.
It was 5 p.m. on a Sunday, News 4 New York reported. The FedEx uniform may have prompted the victims to open the door, but when they did so, they were immediately gunned down. “We are aware of the media reports and are fully cooperating with investigating authorities,” a FedEx spokesman told CNN.
NBC New York reported that the judge’s husband answered the door and was shot “multiple times.” The son came to see what was going on and was also shot, that report said. However, there are conflicting reports about who opened the door first, father or son. ABC News reported that “the judge’s son opened the door to the family’s North Brunswick home and was immediately shot,” quoting North Brunswick Mayor Francis “Mac” Womack as saying that Daniel Anderl was “shot through the heart.”
CNN reported that Daniel opened the door with his father “right behind” and they were met with a “hail of gunfire.”
2. Den Hollander Declared That ‘Now Is the Time for All Good Men to Fight for Their Rights,’ Described His Expertise as ‘Anti-Feminist Litigation,’ & Wrote That He Was Boiling With Anger
Profile picRoy Den Hollander
Den Hollander’s website is filled with angry rants against “feminazis” and “PCers” and women in general. He freely admitted that he was boiling with anger, writing: “I boil through my days and some of my nights, but at least I’m in touch with my feelings. I’m not angry, I’m seething. An angry man is a Feminazis’ worst nightmare, so she uses the traditional therapist trick of making a man feel ashamed of his anger.”
“Now is the time for all good men to fight for their rights before they have no rights left,” Den Hollander wrote on his website. “Contact Roy to help battle the infringement of Men’s Rights by the Feminists and their fellow sisters the PCers.”
On a website where he shared writings, Den Hollander wrote, “Ammunition for fighting the PCers or Political Commies as well as the Feminists, a.k.a. Feminazis, their sycophants, appeasers, and Feminist opportunist.” Attached was a document called a Cyclopedia. It was basically a glossary of Den Hollander’s rants against what he called “feminazis.” You can read it here.
“With the rise of the Feminazis, who consider the personal as fair game for public attacks and absolve their acolytes of responsibility for any despicable conduct, civilized behavior no longer exists in America. Ignorant, loud-mouthed, little people no longer fear what may happen to them if they don’t keep their virulent mouths shut,” he wrote in that document. As for the word b****, he wrote, “I don’t use that term, it gives girls too much credit, and their heads are already swollen as it is.”
He made his political philosophies known, writing, “Roe v. Wade gave American females the unilateral right to opt out of parenthood” and “Feminazis are using the cry of affirmative action to receive preferential treatment, but preferential treatment only for the most desirable positions in society.”
On his resume, Den Hollander described his expertise as “Anti-Feminist litigation, investigations, and advice on general corporate matters.”
He wrote on a now deactivated 2019 GoFundMe page that he had cancer. “Cancer knocks you down & doctors finish you off,” it reads.
The motive is not yet clear. The suspect immediately fled the scene.
Judge Salas’s wounded husband is also a lawyer. Mark Anderl, 63, is a criminal defense attorney with the New Jersey law firm of Anderl & Oakley, P.C.
New Jersey Globe reported that the judge had been the target of threats but didn’t specify them.
However, ABC 7 is reporting that investigators believe that Salas’s husband may have been the “intended target,” not the judge.
ABC News quoted the mayor of North Brunswick as saying, “As a judge, she had threats from time to time, but everyone is saying that recently there had not been any.” My Central New Jersey reported that a neighbor provided video to authorities.
According to New Jersey Monthly, Salas met her husband when he was working as a prosecutor and she was working as a law school intern. He spotted her “getting fingerprinted” and came over to talk to her, she told the publication, adding, “We’ve been inseparable since 1992.”
His website biography says that Anderl practices in the areas of “State and Federal Criminal Defense Juvenile Delinquency DWI/Municipal Court.” He received his education from Brooklyn Law School and Northeastern University and was admitted to the New Jersey bar in 1985.
“Certified by the Supreme Court of New Jersey as a Criminal Trial Attorney, 1997 to present Over 250 Criminal Jury Trials Anderl & Oakley, P.C., partner, 1997 to present,” his website says. Before that, he worked as an assistant prosecutor for 10 years in the Essex County Prosecutor’s Office.
He has received numerous awards, including Middlesex County Bar Association Practitioner of the Year and New York top-rated lawyers.
3. Den Hollander Previously Worked on Security Issues in Moscow & Blamed a Bitter Divorce to a Russian Woman for His Men’s Rights Work
A passage from Den Hollander’s book.
Den Hollander’s book (above) reads like a romance novel in the begin, chronicling how he fell for the woman in Russia before deciding he’d been deceived.
Bad luck with a woman appears to have sent Den Hollander on his men’s rights crusades. The Southern Poverty Law Center has criticized that movement, writing, “Male supremacy is a hateful ideology advocating for the subjugation of women.”
Den Hollander traced his men’s rights activism to a “bitter divorce” in 2001 from a woman he married in Russia, The New York Times reported.
An article he posted to his website contains extended angry disparagement against his ex-wife. “While managing a private detective agency in Russia, I met and married this 6’ 1”, vatdyed blonde with grey-blue wolf eyes. Brought her to NYC.” He claimed she became a stripper, and he found out unsavory aspects of her past and believed she “had married me for a green card” so he kicked her out of their apartment.
According to his resume, Den Hollander had an “M.B.A. Columbia University Business School with Honors, J.D. George Washington University Law School with High Honors.”
He listed his work experience as “attorney and business consultant” in New York from 2000 to present. “Litigate civil cases, including men’s rights, immigration fraud, insurance subrogation, and RICO,” he wrote. “Advise businesses on corporate governance, contracts and litigation.”
From 1999-2000, he wrote that he worked for Kroll Associates in Moscow, Russia, saying he “managed and upgraded Kroll’s delivery of intelligence and security in the former Soviet Union.” He also worked as an attorney in Russia and Ecuador.
“Counseled companies, individuals, and nonprofit organizations in America, Russia, and Ecuador on legal and business issues, including international financing and marketing,” he wrote.
Back in the 1980s, he worked in private practice and also as an attorney “in the Office of Chief Counsel of the Internal Revenue Service: Interpretative Division.”
“I didn’t become a lawyer to make a lot of money. If I were after money, then I would have become an investment banker,” he wrote. “When I was first accepted to law school, I was also accepted to business school. Also, I didn’t become a lawyer to help the underprivileged. I became a lawyer to fight for my rights, but since courts are infested with Feminist ideology, it’s impossible to do that.”
From 1980 to 1981, Den Hollander wrote that he was a “political producer, writer, and assignment editor” for WABC-TV in New York. He attended Columbia Business School focusing on finance and George Washington University and Brooklyn Law Schools.
His resume contains this line, “Take hip-hop classes and martial arts for those who give me a hard time about hip-hop.”
4. Den Hollander Once Sued the Federal Government Over a Law Protecting Women From Violence & Called a Women’s Studies Program ‘a Bastion of Bigotry Against Men’
Rutgers UniversityEsther Salas
Den Hollander once targeted the Violence Against Women Act in a lawsuit.
According to a New York Times article, Den Hollander once “sued the federal government over a law that protects women from violence.” He also called Columbia University’s women’s studies program “a bastion of bigotry against men” and said it “demonizes men and exalts women in order to justify discrimination against men based on collective guilt.”
He alleged in court that parts of the federal Violence Against Women Act were unconstitutional.
On his website, Den Hollander wrote:
Clinton District Court Judge ruled that the Violence Against Women’s Act doesn’t injure American men. Judge William H. Pauley III’s decision ignored the democratic and legal standard of fairness, applied the wrong legal test for injury on a dismissal motion, and invented a fact not before the Court. VAWA allows alien females to acquire citizenship by falsely accusing their American husbands or ex-husbands or even boyfriends of mistreating them.
He also criticized judges, writing, “Never forget that judges work for the government—the employer of last resort. Most judges are nothing more than bureaucrats. Most bureaucrats have a can’t do attitude.”
According to The New Jersey Globe, in contrast, Salas is “a widely respected and popular jurist.” She was nominated by President Barack Obama to be a federal judge in 2010 after serving as a public defender and federal magistrate.
You can read the judge’s lengthy biographical questionnaire from her nomination hearing here.
The judge was recently assigned a case with a Jeffrey Epstein link.
According to Bloomberg, Deutsche Bank AG is being accused of misleading investors “about anti-money-laundering deficiencies,” including not properly monitoring high-risk customers, among them the financier Jeffrey Epstein, who died in a Manhattan jail cell while awaiting trial on sex offense charges.
Epstein’s ties to high-profile figures like Prince Andrew and the manner in which he died have caused some to question whether his death was murder instead of suicide (including a famed pathologist hired by Epstein’s family to review the autopsy). Authorities have given no indication that the motive for the Anderl shootings is tied into the Deutsche Bank case at all.
The case was filed “on July 15, 2020, and has been assigned to Judge Esther Salas,” according to Globe Newswire. Bloomberg Law also reported that the case was assigned to Judge Salas.
See the docket entry here.
Salas is also known for the case involving Teresa and Joe Giudice of reality television fame. She sentenced Joe Giudice to prison and “staggered” the couple’s sentences, according to AP.
When she submitted her nomination questionnaire for federal judge, Salas was asked for the most significant cases she had handled.
She listed a wide variety of things. She cited a 2008 case of a man who died in an altercation with off-duty police officers and whose family sued. She mentioned a civil action involving AT&T employees who were suing about pension plans. She cited a patent infringement case from 2009. She also cited a civil case involving the demolition of a Ford Motor Company plant. She mentioned a case involving a high school student injured in an accident from a baseball pitching machine. Again, there is no indication that the shootings stem from Salas’ cases.
Five years before her nomination hearing, her husband held a fundraiser in their home for New Jersey Senator Robert Menendez, she wrote. “I know Judge Salas and her husband well, and was proud to recommend her to President Obama for nomination to New Jersey’s federal bench,” Menendez said in a statement. “My prayers are with Judge Salas and her family, and that those responsible for this horrendous act are swiftly apprehended and brought to justice.”
“Throughout my professional career, I have made it a point to reach out to the community, and I have participated throughout the years in programs that seek to empower urban youth to achieve academic and professional success,” Salas wrote.
She expressed her interest in pursuing a federal judicial appointment to both of New Jersey’s U.S. Senators. In 2009, she was contacted by Senator Frank Lautenberg’s representative asking if she was interested. She then met with Lautenberg’s selection group and with Menendez and his chief counsel.
According to NJ Monthly, Salas has said one of her “proudest accomplishments” was creating a Pretrial Opportunity Program with another judge. It’s a jail alternative program for drug addicts. The story says Salas would “sit down for frank conversations with defendants,” adding that she “lives and breathes her work.”
FacebookDaniel Anderl
Her son, Daniel Anderl, is listed by Perfect Game.org as a 2018 graduate of North Brunswick, New Jersey. He was listed as uncommitted. He attended St. Joseph high school and stood 5 foot 10 inches tall and weighed 150 pounds. The team he last played for was listed as “baseball warehouse.”
Salas once told New Jersey Monthly, when her son was 17, that she could see him pursuing a legal career.
“I don’t want to dissuade him, but I was pulling for a doctor,” Salas told the publication. “He’s been arguing with us since he could talk—practicing his advocacy skills.” The story said that Salas “teaches him her mother’s mantra: ‘Tu no eres mejor que nadie, pero nadie es mejor que tu.’ It means you are not better than anyone, but no one is better than you.”
“Dan was a remarkable person because of his endless zest for life,” John Kish, who knew Daniel Anderl, told Heavy. “He’s the one person among my friends that seemed to have more energy, courage, and curiosity than the entire group put together. His great sense of humor and sometimes goofy personality made him a lovable guy to everybody.”
Kish added: “He studied Pre-law philosophy at CUA, and was passionate about the role of justice in society. He was quite hardworking and intelligent, and dreamed of living up to the examples that his parents had set.”
5. Den Hollander Filed for Bankruptcy in 2011, Reporting a Mountain of Credit Card Debt
PACERPart of the bankruptcy petition.
In addition to his failed marriage, other troubles plagued Den Hollander’s life.
In 2011, he filed for bankruptcy in the Southern District of New York. He listed his average income as $1,024 and his expenses at $3,119. He listed more than $120,000 in credit card debt.
The shootings are causing heightened concerned about escalating threats against federal judges in the United States. Threats and “inappropriate communications” against federal judges numbered 4,449 in 2019, CNN reported, adding that such threats have escalated in recent years.
There are about 2,700 federal judges in the country.
In 2005, a man upset that U.S. District Court Judge Joan Lefkow dismissed his lawsuit murdered her mother and husband in Illinois.
From 1979 to April 2020, only three federal judges had been murdered in the United States: Judge John Wood, Judge Richard Daronco and Judge Robert Vance, according to CNN.
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