What we know about David DePape, suspect in Paul Pelosi attack
Updated: Oct. 28, 2022 12:09 p.m.
Law enforcement have identified David DePape 42, as a suspect in the Friday morning home invasion violent attack on Paul Pelosi. Officer's said that when they arrived at the Pelosis' home at 3 a.m. they found a man and Pelosi — the husband of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi — holding a hammer.
The assailant allegedly wrested the hammer from Pelosi's hands and beat him with it. DePape was booked on suspicion of attempted homicide, assault with a deadly weapon and elder abuse. Here is what we know about him so far:
1. He was tapped to be the best man in a 2013 nudist wedding at San Francisco City Hall. David DePape was known as a "father figure" in a three-bedroom Victorian flat in Berkeley, where famed nudist activist Gypsy Taub lived with her three children and fiance Jaymz Smith prior to the wedding she had planned to hold on the steps of City Hall. The couple had tapped DePape, a hemp jewelry maker who lived with them in the crowded home, to be their best man.
2. He listed himself as a member of the Green Party. Voting records show DePape listed himself as a member of the Green Party years ago.
3. He kept a blog with screeds about "the ruling class" and other conspiracy theories. "The elites/ruling class never censor themselves,"DePape wrote in a WordPress blog he apparently maintained and kept updating through August 28 — the date of the last post. With the domain " godisloving.wordpress.com " and banner "Welcome to Big Brothers Censorship Hell," the blog, which lists DePape as an author, is larded with conspiracy theories about elites — including government officials, tech companies and media outlets — who he accuses of censorship.
It includes a series of entries with headlines that invoke conservative beliefs or conspiracy theories promoted in far-right circles. On Aug. 25, DePape created posts with such headlines as "Communist Voodoo science" and "Feminist gets owned." A post on Aug. 25 titled "The woke are Racists with a guilty conscience" has no text or links in the body.
An r/politics comment
CNN article
Alleged Pelosi attacker posted multiple conspiracy theories - CNNPolitics
Updated 2:14 PM EDT, Fri October 28, 2022
(CNN) The man who allegedly attacked House Speaker Nancy Pelosi's husband early Friday posted memes and conspiracy theories on Facebook about Covid vaccines, the 2020 election and the January 6, 2021 attack on the Capitol, and an acquaintance told CNN that he seemed "out of touch with reality."
David DePape, 42, was identified by police Friday as the suspect in the assault on Paul Pelosi at the speaker's San Francisco home.
Two of DePape's relatives told CNN that DePape is estranged from his family, and confirmed that the Facebook account -- which was taken down by the social media company on Friday -- belonged to him.
His stepfather, Gene DePape, said David DePape grew up in Powell River, British Columbia, and left Canada about 20 years ago to pursue a relationship that brought him to California.
"I really don't know what to think," the suspect's uncle, Mark DePape, said of his nephew's alleged attack on Pelosi. "Hopefully it's a scam. I don't want to hear something like that."
Last year, David DePape posted links on his Facebook page to multiple videos produced by My Pillow CEO Mike Lindell falsely alleging that the 2020 election was stolen. Other posts included transphobic images and linked to websites claiming Covid vaccines were deadly. "The death rates being promoted are what ever 'THEY' want to be promoted as the death rate," one post read.
DePape also posted links to YouTube videos with titles like "Democrat FARCE Commission to Investigate January 6th Capitol Riot COLLAPSES in Congress!!!" and "Global Elites Plan To Take Control Of YOUR Money! (Revealed)"
Two days after former Minneapolis Police Officer Derek Chauvin was found guilty of killing George Floyd, DePape wrote that the trial was "a modern lynching," falsely indicating that Floyd died of a drug overdose.
He also posted content about the "Great Reset"-- the sprawling conspiracy theory that global elites are using coronavirus to usher in a new world order in which they gain more power and oppress the masses. And he complained that politicians making promises to try to win votes "are offering you bribes in exchange for your further enslavement."
Most of the public posts on DePape's Facebook page were from 2021. In earlier years, DePape also posted long screeds about religion, including claims that "Jesus is the anti christ." None of the public posts appeared to mention Pelosi.
Two former acquaintances of DePape's in California told CNN he exhibited concerning behavior over the years.
Linda Schneider said she got to know DePape roughly eight years ago and that he occasionally housesat for her. When they met, she said, DePape was living in a storage unit in the Berkeley area and told her he had been struggling with hard drugs but was "trying to create a new life for himself."
Schneider later received "really disturbing" emails from DePape in which he sounded like a "megalomaniac and so out of touch with reality," she said. She said she stopped communicating with him "because it seemed so dangerous," adding that she recalled him "using Biblical justification to do harm."
Laura Hayes, who also lives in California, said she worked with DePape for a few months roughly a decade ago making hemp bracelets when he was living in a storage shed in the Berkeley area. She said DePape sold the bracelets as a business.
"He was very odd. He didn't make eye contact very well," Hayes said. She recalled him saying that "he talks to angels and there will be a hard time coming." But she didn't remember any seriously threatening comments, and said she didn't think much of it because "it's Berkeley," a place where eccentric characters aren't uncommon.
Hayes, who was Facebook friends with DePape, called his more recent posts "so phobic in so many ways" and filled with "so much anger."
Hmm
He sounds like the target audience of Russell Brand