
A Georgian neo-nazi who led an extremist network and encouraged followers to carry out bombings, school shootings and poison attacks on Jewish children has been sentenced to 15 years in prison in the US.
Michail Chkhikvishvili, known as “Commander Butcher”, was the ringleader of Maniac Murder Cult, a Satanist-Nazi hybrid group with roots in Russia and Ukraine. Operating through Telegram, he spent years soliciting acts of mass violence across the United States and elsewhere.
Hater’s Handbook
His “Hater’s Handbook”, which he began distributing to followers in 2021, contained instructions for carrying out school shootings, assembling explosives and producing lethal substances including ricin.

Prosecutors told the federal court in Brooklyn that it directly inspired multiple killings, among them a shooting at Antioch High School in Nashville in which a 17-year-old died, and a mass stabbing in Turkey that was livestreamed by the perpetrator.
In 2022 Chkhikvishvili travelled to Brooklyn, where he continued to coordinate through encrypted platforms.
In January 2024, undercover FBI operatives intercepted him soliciting an attack on Jewish communities in the borough, including a plot to distribute sweets laced with poison to Jewish children, timed for New Year’s Eve and carried out by people dressed as Santa Claus.
Change of heart
He was eventually arrested, extradited from Moldova and in November last year pleaded guilty to soliciting hate crimes and distributing bomb-making and poison instructions.
A letter Chkhikvishvili wrote to the judge, read aloud in court, claimed a change of heart. He apologised to Jewish people and other minorities he had targeted. The court was not convinced.
Prosecutor Joseph Nocella described him as “a hate-mongering menace who intended to hurt and kill children”.





