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.
He kept a blog with screeds about “the ruling class” and other conspiracy theories.
OK this guy was definitely conspiracy brained, but the existence of the ruling class a "conspiracy theory"?
:zizek-ok:
I've literally been told that making any reference to the establishment or ruling class is antisemitism regardless of context :agony-shivering:
Bad actors weaponizing antisemitism mixed with a gullible public that takes whatever the msm says at face value.
Like that one poster here on Hexbear that said that "It's a Wonderful Life" was antisemitic because the antagonist was a banker (ignoring that the protagonist was also a banker and neither was Jewish in any presented way outside of the sus presumption of Jews being bankers!).
That was a fun one. Like sir are you suggesting that a small town banker in the middle of America in the fifties was Jewish because I assure you America was way too anti-Semitic at the time for that to be the case.
This equivocation and cynical defense mechanism of the ruling class only further cements and fuels anti-semitism. Disgusting that the ruling class uses this as a shield against criticism when they know full well that people will see that and then scapegoat Jews when things are bad, citing past bourgeois class violence as proof of evil Jews.
Ehh, lots of bad faith bullshit going around on twitter. Gotta filter out the noise, though it is worth it to check yourself every once in a while. I had a "lizard people" joke about Pelosi that i really loved but I gave it up when someone showed me how the "lizard people" meme is from some weird anti-Semitic book from the 70s or 80s.
I'm just waiting for the inevitable labeling of anyone who talks about the bourgeois as "MAGA Communist Neo-Nazi Conspiracy Theorists".
Jose Vega is a LaRouchite. That's what he calls himself. He references LaRouche in his twitter bio.
I don't think that's what the article is intended to say. This guy was a nazi. He used the phrase "the ruling class" repeatedly to refer specifically to jewish people. It's his own code phrase. That's why the article has the phrase in quotes.
I'm scrolling through his blog and a lot of the posts are explicitly anticommunism. There's a post that says that fascism is better than communism. There's holocaust denial posts. There's a lot of antisemitic posts. He uses the phrase "the ruling class" to refer to jewish people.
That's good. At least we can pretty clearly and definitively state that he wasn't one of ours. Fash won't listen, and Libs might not, but ranting about Jews is about as Nazi as you can get.
as we all know, the ruling class is literally a protected class, and hence suggesting the ruling class is actually ruling the world is, well, a conspiracy theory. /s
So it was the hippie to antivaxx to fash pipeline instead of the gamer to incel to fash pipeline or the beard as a personality to fash to superfash pipeline.
There's just a big bucket labeled Fascism and pretty much every American gets led to it
i mean uh.........he also posted like a 3 page rant about 'Black Adam killing white people' which ultimately concluded with a rant about TLJ literally yesterday so honestly it sounds like it was just the time-told Capeshit Fanboi > Weird YT Conspiracy Recommendations > Antivax > Fash pipeline lol
- 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.
Could have lived a peaceful life as a nude step-father hemp jewelry maker but you just had to blow it, huh?
I wouldn't wanna live with children either - but yeah he really did blow it because the weird nudist couple was kinda hot back in 2014. Jaymz Smith call me - I can work past the name and the random children running around your nudist colony
Nudism is wild because people think it's this really live laugh love hippie tolerance and acceptance thing, but the reality in the US is that a lot of hippies are either way down the crystals to fascism pipeline or are racist boomer swingers who hate young people and minorities.
all the weird ritualism and attached weird hazing/drug-use will fuck any mfer up
Some weird nudist brocial democrat. I do think it’s funny that just labeling a ruling class existing and ruling is apparently a “conspiracy theory”. I’m sure this guy probably was off the rails in conspiracism but they failed to prove that, just saying that he says the ruling class does censorship, which isn’t exactly far fetched
He listened to the election day coverage backwards and Matt gave him his activation instructions.
just labeling a ruling class existing and ruling is apparently a “conspiracy theory”.
I'm not going to go read his blog but given that he was ranting about wokeness and shit I'd bet you cash money he has at least dogwhistles about the Jews.
Yeah so why didn’t the article talk about that instead of vaguely insinuating that any class analysis is conspiracism?
Literally the wealthy and well connected husband of the second most powerful politician in the country. But no, no such thing as a "ruling class".
It's pretty clear he needed help... How many :frothingfash: does it take to swing a hammer?
Kinda pathetic that he couldn't take on an octogenarian with a hammer. Must be all that adrenochrome giving paul an edge
Sounds like you can pretty much draw a straight line from this guy running in libertarian circles to getting radicalized by cryptofash rhetoric to attacking someone they decided were a prime suspect.
Here's my recreation of a convo he had with a lib relative before he went over the edge.
"I WANT TO CHANGE THE FUNDAMENTAL REALITY OF AMERI—"
"I have an idea."
"YOU FINALLY HEAR ME! WHAT!?!"
"Vote."
"AND THEY SAY I'M THE CRAZY ONE!"
"I'm serious. Vote."
"THE DEFINITION OF INSANITY IS DOING THE SAME THING OVER AND OVER AND EXPECTING THE SAME RESULT. WHY CAN'T YOU SEE THAT?"
An r/politics comment
The wacko was supposedly spouting Mike Lindell “election fraud” talking points, Covid Vaccine conspiracy theories, etc on his social media pages.
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."
Nah the “new age hippie to alt right reactionary” pipeline is also pretty established and well known. I expect there to be a bunch of articles on shady yoga groups and new age scam shit for a bit.
The Spanish space program begs to differ
Also all the monarchs that got got by round bombs thrown by bearded men
Okay seriously though an Anarchist had a few beers once and then just casually shot the King of Italy. If that isn't a peak chad assassination I don't know what is.
Yeah but then that anti-communist anarchist, one of Goldman's buddies tried to kill my city's enemy Frick and he at point blank fucked it up
He hadn’t had enough money for a revolver or a dagger, so he had made do with the file, which was sharpened on three sides.
There's a lot of poetry in that. Taking down someone regarded as divinely blessed when you're so impoverished you can't even afford a proper knife. Real "When Adam sowed and Eve spanned who was then a gentleman?" hours.
Eris was clearly present at every step of that event cackling madly all the while.
My man got done in by a modified slot machine. That is a final fantasy ass move.
Our naked king here beat up an old drunk with his his own hammer and apparently didn't kill him. All that hemp and nudity weakened his essence.
Further proof that white people yoga is bullshit. It's called "Warrior pose" not "Flail ineffectively with a hammer" pose.
I mean it still is. The landlords have been aggressively and ruthlessly gentrifying the place for years now but there are still some good orgs there fighting.
It's really just nice to see the other shoe drop. We all knew it was coming, but the assassination attempt against the most senior level of the US government has finally happened. It's like we've been edging for years and Mistress finally allowed us to [REDACTED] :volcel-kamala:
Not being melodramatic, I swear I could feel the vibe shift as soon as I woke up this morning, before I checked my phone
Elder abuse requires the person to be a caregiver of some kind right? Not just did crime to an old person
