By Erez Ben-Ari, JTNews Correspondent
Violent, homicidal, suicidal, thug, egomaniac, drug addict and alcoholic. These are just a few of the words Frank Meeink uses to describe himself. Is the description fitting? It used to be.
Ten years ago, this is exactly who Meeink was: One of the dominant figures in the neo-Nazi skinhead communities in Philadelphia and Illinois. Having beaten up his first victim when he was only 14, Meeink was on the fast track to spending his life in jail. Circumstances, however, led him to open his eyes and let go of his hate and fear. Meeink now considers himself a recovered skinhead, and spends most of his time trying to prevent others from going down the same path.
Frank “Frankie” Meeink was born to an Irish mother and Italian father and grew up in a rough Irish-Catholic neighborhood in South Philly. Meeink developed a talent for getting into trouble early on. Taking beatings from his mom’s boyfriends on a daily basis, he took out his anger and frustration at school, getting into fights and getting suspended frequently. When his cousin became a skinhead one day, Meeink was intrigued, and joined the gang.
“My mom and dad never cared much about me, and never even asked me how was school, and here I was with a group of adults who expressed sincere interest in my life.” Meeink said at a June 2 event in Seattle sponsored by the Pacific Northwest chapter of the Anti-Defamation League. “No wonder I loved it.”
Whether it was that or the joy he felt at being feared instead of being afraid is hard to say, but it didn’t take long from him to dive in fully, shaving his head and donning a pair of Dr. Martens boots.
“I always heard Hitler was bad,” he said, “but my new-found friends ‘informed’ me of the various Jewish plots to rule the world, and how Hitler was protecting the Aryan race from that.”
Having been a devout believer in God, Meeink was even sent to Bible studies courses, where experts in Nazi ideology provided their interpretations for various biblical stories. For example, according to the skinheads, the Serpent from the Adam and Eve story was actually Satan incarnated within the body of a man, and the apple story was code for having seduced Eve to sleep with him. The interpretation further called Cain the fruit of that illicit act, while Abel was Adam’s legitimate son. This made Cain the devil’s child, and by having slain Abel, he not only proved that, but also became the forefather of the Jewish people, making them the devil’s children.
“We learned that we were Aryan soldiers, and have the right to unleash God’s wrath on earth,” Meeink said.
By the time he was 16, Meeink was already leading his own crew of skinheads, participating in regular beatings and humiliations of gays, African-Americans, the homeless and, of course, Jews. He proudly carried a swastika tattoo on his neck, hosted a public-access show on cable TV, and was frequently wanted for questioning by the police for his involvements with horrendous acts of hate.
“Around that time I was a full blown alcoholic,” admitted Meeink. “I was depressed most of the time, and while working in Indiana, I tried to commit suicide, which landed me in a mental institution.”
Meeink escaped and continued his reign of terror until a particularly brutal beating got the police’s attention. Meeink admits to not having been too bright in running his organization.
“Not only were we stupid enough to videotape the act,” he said, “I actually went out of hiding to do my cable TV show, when undercover cops showed up to the taping and arrested me.”
Being 17 at the time, Meeink was tried as an adult and sent to prison, where he was held in solitary confinement.
“Being in a cell all by myself was driving me crazy, and I started reading the bible, looking for a sign from God,” says Meeink. “I read about fasting, and tried it for a while.”
The fasting was interpreted as a hunger strike by the prison’s warden, who released Meeink into the general population, leaving Meeink free to associate with other prisoners.
“Many movies make it appear as if prisoner groups hate each other and don’t interact much,” Meeink said, “but in reality, we would, and I even played sports with the black population.”
This was the first step toward Frank’s rehabilitation from hate. Shortly after getting released, he met another African American who had served a sentence in the same prison, and they swapped stories.
“The guy told me I was really down-to-earth, and that got me thinking,” Meeink told the audience. Later on, when another skinhead insinuated that Frank’s daughter was not “white enough,” being of Italian heritage, Meeink lost control and beat up the guy.
These events were the start of Meeink’s recovery, and led to him further research race and equality and discard his racist believes. However, he still held on to the core of Nazi ideology: Hatred of Jews. Eventually, he was able to let this go as well.
“While looking for work,” Meeink said, “I got a gig for a Jewish antique furniture seller, but thinking the way I was thinking, I expected the guy to ‘Jew’ me — cheat me out of my pay.”
To Frank’s astonishment, not only did this not happen, the furniture seller, was handsomely generous. Meeink started working with him regularly, and as time went by, learned to appreciate his boss more and more.
“One day, while driving with Keith to New Jersey, he gave me an incredible pep-talk, and I looked at him and felt very grateful for having him in my life,” admitted Meeink. “I suddenly felt embarrassed by my skinhead boots, and on that day I took them off and was done with that for good. God consistently proved to me that I was wrong.”
But Meeink’s past started to haunt him, and he decided he needed to be more than just “sorry” for what he did. He joined forced with the ADL, and since then, he has been actively involved with his local community, trying to help kids steer away from the circle of hate that captured him as a kid. He also travels the country to tell his story, as was the case with his Seattle visit. Today he is considered an enemy of the skinhead movement, and receives regular threats. That does not deter him from trying to make a difference, he said. In his book that came out in March, Autobiography of a Recovering Skinhead, Meeink tells his story without trying to cover up his past or make excuses for his crimes.