The Mainstream Publishers, Distributors and Bookshops Selling Satanist Neo-Nazi Books
Books associated with a Satanist Neo-Nazi group are being sold and distributed in the US by mainstream outlets including Amazon and Barnes & Noble.
At time of publication, Bellingcat found that literature associated with the Order of the Nine Angles (O9A) and its US affiliate Tempel ov Blood (ToB) are being sold in the US as well as a number of international retailers.
In line with O9A ideology the books commonly promote the use of vicious tactics to subvert society such as advocating for ritual murder of civilians. Much of the content is presented in a mystical language and setting, but includes more specific real world Neo-Nazi references including describing the Holocaust as a lie and praising Nazi Germany.
Retailers, bookshops, publishers and distributors involved in the supply and sale of these books may not be aware of the graphic content contained within them, nor their links to the O9A group. However Bellingcat’s investigation uncovered how easy it was to access books and symbols related to the group via mainstream retailers and publishers.
What is the O9A?
The Order of Nine Angles (O9A) is “intrinsically intertwined with Nazism,” according to a 2019 report on the far-right by HOPE not Hate – the UK’s largest anti-racism and anti-extremism organisation. Variously described as a network, sect, or cult, the O9A follows an ideology that combines Neo-Nazism, wiccan elements and satanism.
The report outlines that disruption and subversion are key tactics widely encouraged by O9A. Its followers believe that “civilisation must be undermined and destroyed from within, so adherents are encouraged to be as grubby and horrible as they like – committing crimes, random acts of violence, sexual assaults, and even the ‘culling’ of human victims.”
According to HOPE not Hate the group emerged in Shropshire in the UK in the 1960s from a collection of occultist groups. Despite initially having small numbers, limited reach and a decentralised structure, chapters began to emerge in other places partly due to the spread of O9A ideas online as people sought out the “edgiest” positions. People affiliated with the group have been convicted of serious crimes including Ethan Melzer, 24, of Louisville, Kentucky.
Melzer, a former US Army paratrooper, was sentenced to 45 years in prison in March 2023 for a number of charges including attempted murder of US service members and unlawful transmission of national defence information. Melzer had been interacting with O9A members from the “Rapewaffen Division” on Telegram. Before his arrest he had formed a subgroup “Op Hardrock,” where prosecutors allege Melzer discussed the planned attack. Melzer pleaded guilty to charges and told the court: “I regret every single thing I did.”
According to his defence attorney, Melzer was “in thrall to a bizarre satanic cult with white supremacist and ‘accelerationist’ political beliefs, the Order of the Nine Angles (“O9A”), that he had discovered in obscure corners of the internet the year before.”
What are O9A-affiliated books?
Like O9A itself, the networks of books related to the group are loosely defined. Bellingcat defined O9A-affiliated books as those which list ‘Order of Nine Angles’ or ‘O9A’ in the title or as the author (these are generally self-published works), as well as books that list ‘Tempel ov Blood’ as the author or ‘Martinet Press’ as the publisher of the books. Bellingcat is not naming or linking to active sale links to prevent amplification.
Traditional O9A books commonly describe the Holocaust as a lie, advocate for ritual murder (which they refer to as ‘culling’) while Tempel ov Blood books have even more disturbing content, for example glorifying sexual exploitation of children.
Patrik Hermansson, a senior researcher at HOPE not Hate who has published on O9A, told Bellingcat that O9A-affiliated books typically describe ritualistic ceremonies including human sacrifice in vague terms.
But towards the end of the texts, the vague discussion often turns into more concrete suggestions of how to improvise attacks using modern weapons.
“Then it’s back to just straight-up arguing terrorism, but it comes at the end of this very strange ceremony that makes it past the censors first. So it will add this mythological layer over everything.”
Hermansson outlines that O9A-affiliated books are used in ritualistic ceremonies and spread O9A ideology ultimately giving adherents clout within the community.
“You don’t buy a book just to read it, you buy [a Tempel ov Blood book] to smear your own blood over it and take pictures with it.”
How do the Books Attain Wide Reach?
Bellingcat found that mainstream retailers, bookshops, publishers and distributors were involved in the supply and sale of these books including outlets such as Amazon and Barnes & Noble.
We contacted all retailers, bookshops, publishers and distributors involved in the supply and sale of these books identified in this article including Amazon, Ingram, Martinet Press, Indigo, and Bol.com. We provided a detailed list of books we had identified and asked a series of questions about whether they broke any guidelines.
Barnes & Noble told Bellingcat they were not aware of O9A, nor their publications. They stated that such titles should not appear on their website and they are in the process of removing the titles. Both Indigo and Bol.com told Bellingcat that they were not aware of the content of O9A-affiliated books and that they had millions of books on their sites, many of which are automatically uploaded. Indigo told Bellingcat they have initiated reviews of the O9A-affiliated products they sell, while Bol.com removed all O9A-affiliated products from their website. Furthermore Bol.com told Bellingcat none of the O9A-affiliated books we identified had actually been sold. Amazon told Bellingcat they have “product and book content guidelines governing what can be listed for sale on Amazon and promptly investigate any listing when a concern is raised.”
Ingram and Martinet Press had not responded at time of publication.
Martinet Press and Tempel ov Blood
Most of the O9A-related books Bellingcat found being sold by bookshops and retailers list the publisher as Martinet Press, several of which list “Tempel ov Blood” as the author.
According to HOPE not Hate’s Hermansson: “Martinet Press is an outlet for Temple ov Blood and therefore a part of the O9A network. Its books are all in line with O9A/ToB’s ideas and mythology.”
The founder behind Martinet Press is reported to be Joshua Sutter—a member of a number of White Supremacist groups including Aryan Nations—who was revealed in 2021 to have been an FBI informant since a 2003 arrest. US District Court filings indicate that he received more than $140,000 for his work, which included testifying against an Atomwaffen Division leader.
Bellingcat found Martinet Press listed in the Global Register of Publishers, registered to an address in Lexington, South Carolina. The contact person for the publishing house is listed as Joshua Sutter’s wife. A search of marriage licences from Lexington County, South Carolina, show Joshua Sutter married her in 2008. As reported by The Empire Never Ended podcast, we found the same now-defunct email address angleton_imprints@yahoo.com registered to Martinet Press was attached to a post in an email chain discussion “[o9a] Is The ONA Fake?” as part of an O9A Yahoo Group discussion in May 2013.
Screenshot from Global Register of Publishers showing registration information for Martinet Press (left). Screenshot from Lexington County, South Carolina marriage licence search (centre) we have blurred the name of Joshua Sutter’s wife and marriage date. Screenshot showing matching email address from Martinet Press used in an O9A Yahoo Group (right). Image Credit: Compilation of screenshots.
Martinet Press publishing house advertises many of its books through Amazon.com purchase links – we found 22 unique active links to Amazon.com (Amazon’s US Website) on the Martinet Press website. Without the purchasing links, the reach of Martinet Press books may have been limited to those who accessed Martinet Press directly, but the links potentially enable a wider audience to access and purchase the books.
Bellingcat attempted to contact Joshua Sutter and Martinet Press via three Martinet Press emails, two bounced back but one was delivered. Bellingcat had received no response to our questions at time of publication.
Online Retailers and Publishers
Bellingcat found that Amazon.com—the world’s largest online retailer of consumer goods—currently sells at least 19 Martinet Press books. In addition to the Martinet Press books, Amazon.com also sells at least five other O9A-affiliated books from other publishers.
The O9A books also feature in Amazon.com’s bundle suggestions including ‘Frequently Bought Together’ and ‘Customers who viewed this item also viewed.’
Some of the books are listed under ‘Spirituality and Religion’ while others are included in the ‘Demonology & Satanism’ section.
Using the website camelcamelcamel which archives historical Amazon product price data, we can see that O9A-affiliated books have been sold via Amazon.com since at least December 2015.
Kindle Direct Publishing
Kindle Direct Publishing (KDP) is another route that allows O9A-affiliated books to reach a wider audience by enabling the self-publishing of O9A books.
We found at least four cases where Amazon KDP was listed as the publisher of O9A-affiliated books that were being sold by mainstream bookshops. One of these was Indigo Books and Music – one of Canada’s largest bookshops.
KDP is Amazon’s self-publishing system that allows anyone to sign up and publish an ebook, paperback or hardcover.
The KDP system promises authors they can get their work “to market fast” and offers two royalty options of 35% or 70% on sales, with conditions. The royalties are typically higher than traditional publishers.
It appears Amazon KDP is currently enabling the self-publishing of O9A books.
This is not the first time the KDP system has been used in this way; a 2020 ProPublica investigation found evidence the KDP system had been used by white nationalist groups to self-publish.
The O9A-affiliated books that we found were published through Amazon KDP also appear to violate Amazon KDP’s own offensive content guidelines which outlines that Amazon will not sell “content that we determine is hate speech, promotes the abuse or sexual exploitation of children, contains pornography, glorifies rape or pedophilia, advocates terrorism, or other material we deem inappropriate or offensive.”
Bellingcat also found several O9A-affiliated books sold on Amazon.com that listed their publisher as “CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform,” a company that was bought by Amazon and merged with KDP.
An Amazon spokesperson shared a link to Amazon’s approach to controversial products and content and told Bellingcat: “We have product and book content guidelines governing what can be listed for sale on Amazon and promptly investigate any listing when a concern is raised.”
An Indigo spokesperson told Bellingcat that they were “unfamiliar with the content of the specific books in question.” Given their 13 million titles on their website it was not possible to personally review every title and they relied on their publishing partners to evaluate the content of the materials they publish. In contrast books that are stocked in-store are hand-picked by staff. Indigo told Bellingcat they have initiated reviews of the O9A-affiliated products they sell.
Physical Bookshops
Barnes & Noble—the largest retail bookstore in the US—sells both Martinet Press published books, as well as ebooks that list the author as “Order of Nine Angles.” And we found a physical copy in a bookstore in Texas.
The Barnes & Noble website listed one O9A-affiliated book which was on the recommended reading list for Atomwaffen Division members as being in-stock at a Dallas, Texas, retail store- which Bellingcat confirmed in-person.
Several passages of this book explicitly violate Barnes & Noble’s content policy which applies to all publishers selling content and prohibits “content that graphically portrays the sexual exploitation of children.”
Barnes & Noble told Bellingcat they were not aware of O9A, nor their publications. They told Bellingcat that such titles should not appear on their website and they are in the process of removing the titles from their website. They outlined that it is extremely rare that they have ever sold objectionable books of this sort and the one book stocked in their Lincoln Park store has now been removed.
They went on to explain that a book of this sort may have found its way into a store if a customer ordered the book for collection in the store but never collected it or returned it as unwanted. Booksellers are expected to examine the book and generally any title from outside the store’s stock is not actually shelved in the store, but kept in the back to be returned to the publisher.
“We rely on bookseller vigilance to exclude unacceptable titles but recognise sometimes that this will not be obvious and isolated mistakes may be made.”
They reiterated that they are in the process of removing all titles from the website and have removed the book from the store.
Distribution
Ingram Content Group is one of the largest book wholesalers in the world, and also has a self-publishing arm. It has 25 physical locations across the world and they make their catalogue of 17 million titles available to 40,000 retailers. Among the books Ingram Content Group stocks appear to be the O9A-affiliated Martinet Press books.
Although Ingram Content Group appears to restrict access to detailed book inventory information, Bellingcat was able to use Ingram’s Stock Check app to identify that Ingram listed—at the time of publishing—more than a dozen O9A-affiliated books as “In Stock”.
The items we checked appeared to be in stock in their Tennessee distribution centre.
Although it is unclear who prints the physical books, we found a number of examples where Ingram’s stock was provided to other physical bookstores in the US for example, one university bookstore selling the book included the disclaimer “Note: This site lists what’s available for special order from Ingram Content Group.”
Ingram had not responded at time of publication.
O9A Symbols and Merchandise
The lore of the O9A contains a confusing assortment of symbols, most of which are—for those unfamiliar with O9A—difficult to distinguish from more mainstream satanic or black metal imagery. We reviewed symbols discussed in a number of O9A books, but have not linked to the books here.
A symbol seen on the cover of at least one O9A book and also appears in other O9A-affiliated literature is the O9A “sigil”, an elongated seven-pointed star inscribed in a circle. It is displayed on many O9A documents and publications, as well as on a prominent O9A affiliated website.
Bellingcat identified several online stores—including Amazon.com—that sell products with the O9A sigil on them–most commonly patches and necklaces, but also clothing like t-shirts. However a number of these were removed from Amazon.com in the week prior to publication.
In addition to Amazon.com, we found a different online store that sold baby clothes with the symbol.
A Network of Retailers, Bookshops, Publishers and Distributors
Bellingcat initially examined the more obvious sources of O9A-affiliated books being published and sold. However, as we continued to investigate we found that O9A-affiliated books were being published, distributed and sold through a variety of methods and also appearing in international markets. The way these books made their way to other sites was not always straightforward, but hinged on a number of publishers and distributors.
Some of the other publishers and distributors of O9A-affiliated books were harder to track down. Bellingcat identified several international retailers distributing O9A-affiliated books. For instance online retailer Bol.com in The Netherlands sold three O9A-affiliated ebooks which list the author as O9A and publisher as “Mulberry Colour.” Bellingcat found few references to Mulberry Colour online and it is not registered in the Global Register of Publishers. However we found one reference to Mulberry Colour on a Russian-language VKontakte page that regularly posts O9A-related content. We attempted to contact the owner of the page to find out more about Mulberry Colour, but at time of publication had received no response.
Bol.com told Bellingcat that they were not aware of the content of O9A-affiliated books, and had taken the three ebooks offline. They stated that none of those books had actually been sold. They went on to detail their review process for books and content that involves an automatic scanning system, where they try to actively locate hateful and discriminatory books. They also retroactively review books.
It should be noted again, that retailers, bookshops, publishers and distributors involved in the supply and sale of these books may not be aware of the graphic content contained within them, nor their links to the O9A group. Three organisations that responded to our request confirmed they were unaware of the content of O9A-affiliated books.
After we contacted them, a number of organisations told us they had removed the books or were reviewing them.
Python scripts that were developed for—and useful in—the research of this article are available in a GitHub repository.
Correction: This article was updated on 3 July 2023 to note that Barnes & Noble contacted us before the deadline we outlined to them. We have now updated the copy to include their response.
We would like to thank Ali Winston for his contributions to this report.
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