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A North Carolina man who once bragged about attacking a prominent left-wing activist has become the latest person charged in Albemarle County for his participation in the torch-carrying mob of White supremacists that marched across University of Virginia Grounds back in 2017. Vasillios George Pistolis, who was 19 at the time of the hundreds-strong march, turned himself in for arrest Sept. 5 after he was charged with using fire to racially intimidate, according to Albemarle County Circuit Court records.
His file shows that the now-26-year-old Pistolis, who lists a residential address in Charlotte, was indicted back in February 2023, but the records don't indicate why 19 months elapsed before his arrest. "Whole crux of crime was intimidation," wrote a magistrate on an intake form. "But he drove up here to turn himself in; has been calm, polite, and cooperative in hearing.
" Pistolis The charge against Pistolis marks the 12th confirmed prosecution under the administration of Albemarle County Commonwealth's Attorney Jim Hingeley, who successfully campaigned on prosecuting the 2017 marchers who shouted "Jews will not replace us" as they made their way through UVa and ultimately came to blows with counterprotesters at the base of a statue of Founding Father Thomas Jefferson. Hingeley's office has won seven convictions. In one case in which Hingeley's office was forced to recuse itself, the defendant Jacob Joseph Dix argued that he was being prosecuted for First Amendment-protected speech.
A judge dismissed the case against Dix last month after a jury failed to reach a unanimous verdict. In the wake of the 2017 march and the following day's aborted Unite the Right rally, both in protest of Charlottesville's decision to remove its Confederate memorials, Pistolis was investigated by both ProPublica and PBS Frontline. The two news outlets found that the former Marine had boasted online about having "cracked 3 skulls" and "dropped kicked" left-wing activist Emily Gorcenski, who had encouraged her followers to counterprotest the White supremacists on the UVa Lawn.
The Unite the Right rally slated for the next day, Aug. 12, 2017, was called off after rioting broke out on the streets of Charlottesville and self-avowed neo-Nazi James Fields drove his car through a crowd, killing counterprotester Heather Heyer and injuring others. White nationalists lead a torch-lit march through Grounds at the University of Virginia on Friday, Aug.
11, 2017. As for Pistolis, the new outlet investigations in 2018 did not only find his self-incriminating statements about injuring counterprotesters in Charlottesville but also that he was a member of the Atomwaffen Division. An international consortium of neo-Nazis, the group had advocated for the overthrowing of the U.
S. government; some adherents have perpetrated acts of violence, including the 2018 murder of Blaze Bernstein, a gay and Jewish college student. When he sat for a deposition in the Sines v.
Kessler case, the sprawling civil suit against the organizers of Unite the Right which awarded the plaintiffs millions, Pistolis was asked about his advocacy in a leaked Discord chat for blowing up a Jewish house of worship. Pistolis "So you did advocate blowing up the synagogue at Unite the Right?" a lawyer asked him. "I plead the Fifth," he replied, referring to the Fifth Amendment to the U.
S. Constitution which protects against self-incrimination. During that same deposition, he confirmed that he carried a staple-encrusted flag pole at Unite the Right and an interrogator asked him about something he posted three days after the murder of Heyer.
"This guy is a hero," Pistolis wrote. "Too bad he killed just one land whale, right?" At the time of his arrest on the torch charge, Pistolis was working for the city of Tega Key, South Carolina, according to an Albemarle County court filing, which noted that he has no prior arrest record. However, Pistolis does have a troubled history in the Marine Corps.
His 2017 visit to Charlottesville and his affiliation with Atomwaffen led the Corps, in which he was then serving as a lance corporal, to initiate a court martial that demoted him to the rank of private, forced him to forfeit two thirds of a month's pay and confined him for 28 days. Under its Prohibited Activities and Conduct Prevention and Response Policy, the Corps asserts a zero-tolerance policy on participation in what it considers hate groups. It eventually ousted Pistolis.
A torch-carrying mob travels through Grounds at the University of Virginia on Friday, Aug. 11, 2017. Reporting on the military investigation, an independent publication called the Marine Corps Times revealed that until he claimed to have been assaulted at a 2016 rally by a member of antifa, Pistolis had expressed interest in communism and antifa, short for anti-fascism.
He allegedly told the investigators that he left Atomwaffen in October 2017 after leaders of the group intentionally leaked his chat logs to journalists. Pistolis, who is free on an unsecured bail, may get a trial date when his case gets called early next month. The Daily Progress left messages with his lawyer, Richmond-based Paul Galanides, but they were not returned.
Hawes Spencer (434) 960-9343 [email protected] @HawesSpencer on X Get the latest in local public safety news with this weekly email. Crime and courts reporter {{description}} Email notifications are only sent once a day, and only if there are new matching items.
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