Willis Carto

Willis Allison Carto (July 17, 1926 – October 26, 2015) was an American far-right political activist.

He described himself as a Jeffersonian and a populist, but was primarily known for his promotion of antisemitic conspiracy theories and Holocaust denial.

Carto was known for the Liberty Lobby and successor racial extremist organizations which he helped create.

In that case, which was to eventually last eleven years, the court took "judicial notice of the fact that Jews were gassed to death at Auschwitz concentration camp in Poland during the summer of 1944."

The court went on to state, "It is simply a fact."

In 1955, Carto founded an organization called Liberty Lobby, which remained in operation under his control until 2001, when the organization was forced into bankruptcy as a result of a lawsuit.

In 1966, Carto acquired control of The American Mercury via the Legion for the Survival of Freedom organization.

Carto ran a group supporting segregationist George Wallace's 1968 presidential campaign and reorganized the group into the National Youth Alliance, which promoted Francis Parker Yockey's ideology.

Carto ran a group called "Youth for George Wallace" to aid the third party presidential campaign of George Wallace in 1968.

When the campaign failed, he converted what remained of the Youth for George Wallace organization into the National Youth Alliance.

As National Chairman for the group, Carto recruited William Luther Pierce, who later became known for writing The Turner Diaries.

Carto eventually lost control of the National Youth Alliance to Pierce who transformed it into the National Alliance, a white nationalist and white separatist political organization.

On September 10, 1971, the conservative magazine National Review published a detailed critique of Carto's activities up to that point.

It was titled "Liberty Lobby - Willis Carto and his Fronts".

Liberty Lobby published The Spotlight newspaper between 1975 and 2001.

Carto and several Spotlight staff members and writers subsequently founded a new newspaper called American Free Press.

The paper includes articles from syndicated columnists who have no direct ties to Carto or his organizations.

Carto founded the Institute for Historical Review in 1979.

He was also the founder of a publishing company called Noontide Press, which published books on white racialism, including Yockey's Imperium and David Hoggan's The Myth of the Six Million, one of the first books to deny the Holocaust.

Noontide Press later became closely associated with the IHR, and fell out of Carto's hands at the same time as the IHR did.

It was published until 1980.

The IHR and Carto were sued in 1981 by public interest attorney William John Cox on behalf of Auschwitz survivor Mel Mermelstein.

In 1984, Carto was involved in starting a new political party called the Populist Party.

It quickly fell out of his hands in a hostile takeover by disgruntled former associates.

Olympic athlete Bob Richards (1984), David Duke (a founder of the Knights of the Ku Klux Klan and a future Louisiana state representative, 1988) and former Green Beret Bo Gritz (1992) were the Populist Party's only three presidential candidates.

The law firm of Robert Von Esch, Jr., representing the defendants, settled with the plaintiff to remove themselves from the case by agreeing to pay $100,000 and an explicit apology for having filed an August 1986 libel suit by the IHR against Mermelstein.

The Von Esches also formally acknowledged that Jews had been gassed at Auschwitz and that millions of Jews had perished in German wartime camps.

Carto helped found the Populist Party, which served as an electoral vehicle for white supremacist group and Ku Klux Klan members, such as David Duke in the 1988 presidential election and Christian Identity supporter Bo Gritz in 1992.

Carto ran the American Free Press newspaper which publishes antisemitic and racist books and features columns by Joe Sobran, James Traficant, Paul Craig Roberts, and others.

The organization promotes 9/11 conspiracy theories.

Carto's many other projects included the Institute for Historical Review, which promotes Holocaust denial.

Willis Carto was born in Fort Wayne, Indiana.

He served in the United States Army in the Philippines in World War II and earned the Purple Heart when he was shot in the shoulder by an enemy sniper.

After leaving the military, he lived with his parents in Mansfield, Ohio.

He studied law for a semester at the University of Cincinnati Law School.

He later worked for Procter & Gamble and moved west to San Francisco, California where he worked for the Household Finance Company.

On September 19, 1991, the plaintiffs withdrew complaints of libel, conspiracy to inflict emotional distress and intentional infliction of emotional distress, following Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Stephen M. Lachs' dismissal of the malicious prosecution portion of the case.

After losing control of Noontide Press and the IHR in a hostile takeover by former associates, Carto started another publication, The Barnes Review, with the focus also on Holocaust denial.

It folded before it could nominate a candidate for the 1996 elections.

Critics asserted that this Populist Party (not to be confused with the 19th-century People's Party, commonly known as "Populists") was little more than an electoral vehicle for current and former Ku Klux Klan and Christian Identity members.