Roy Den Hollander
Roy Den Hollander was an American lawyer who specialized in men's rights activism and antifeminism. He was also a private investigator in Russia. Den Hollander was a suspect in the July 2020 murder of lawyer Marc Angelucci in California and, eight days later, an attack on the family of U.S. District Judge Esther Salas in New Jersey, in which Salas's son Daniel Anderl was killed and Salas's husband, Mark Anderl, was seriously wounded.
Education
Den Hollander graduated from the George Washington University Law School in 1985 and earned an MBA from the Columbia Business School in 1997.Career
Den Hollander worked as an Attorney in the Office of Chief Counsel of the Internal Revenue Service: Interpretative Division He was also an associate in the late 80s with Cravath, Swaine & Moore, New York, N.Y one of the most prestigious law firms in New York.Den Hollander also worked as a private investigator for Kroll Associates in Russia. In 1993, he addressed the Kremlin. In March 2000, Den Hollander married Angelina Shipilina, a woman he had met in Russia, but the two separated nine months later. He would later accuse his former wife of having ties to Russian organized crime.
Den Hollander was also a men's rights activist and self-described antifeminist who had previously been known for filing unsuccessful lawsuits against "ladies night" promotions at bars and nightclubs, as well as suing Columbia University for offering women's studies classes. His string of unsuccessful lawsuits earned him an appearance on The Colbert Report. On August 20, 2008, Den Hollander was an on-air guest of Fox News' Neil Cavuto.
In 2015, he represented the plaintiffs of a gender-equity lawsuit in the United States District Court for the District of New Jersey challenging the constitutionality of the military's male-only draft. The lawsuit went before Judge Esther Salas, who sided against some of Den Hollander's arguments but allowed the case to proceed in court. Den Hollander reportedly believed Salas was deliberately stalling the lawsuit for political reasons.
In September 2016, documents were uploaded to Den Hollander's website with contact info for Russian lawyers who should be contacted "if something happens to me".
In June 2019, Den Hollander handed the draft case to a team of fellow lawyers, citing a terminal illness diagnosis that he later wrote was melanoma. In January 2020, he informed reporters that he was "painfully dying from metastasized cancer."
Online writings
In various online rants running to thousands of pages, Den Hollander denounced women and specifically female judges. In 2,028 pages posted online in 2019, Den Hollander espoused sexist, racist, and misogynistic views, and in one such document, disparaged Salas directly. In another document, which outlined possible "solutions" to feminists and "political commies", he wrote, "Things begin to change when individual men start taking out those specific persons responsible for destroying their lives before committing suicide."Den Hollander said that he was a volunteer for Donald Trump's presidential campaign, and attacked President Barack Obama, Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor, and Hillary Clinton. Despite his "men's rights" activism, Den Hollander criticized the broader movement for not going far enough and wrote, "I don't belong to that group of wimps and whiners. They're trying to win back their rights by acting like girls instead of men."
Alleged crimes
Murder of Marc Angelucci
On July 11, 2020, lawyer and National Coalition for Men leader Marc Angelucci was fatally shot at his front door in Cedarpines Park, California, an unincorporated community in San Bernardino County, California. A man rang the doorbell and when someone else from the house opened the door, the unknown assailant said that there was a package delivery for Angelucci. After he came to the door to sign for the package Angelucci was shot, after which the shooter sped away in an as yet undetermined vehicle. Angelucci was pronounced dead on the scene after paramedics arrived.The FBI is investigating the murder and possible links to the shooting of district judge Esther Salas's son and husband in New Jersey which occurred eight days later. In both attacks, the murderer posed as a package deliveryman. According to the president of the NCFM, Harry Crouch, Den Hollander had been kicked out of the organization after he became enraged that he was not named as a co-counselor in National Coalition for Men v. Selective Service System, a lawsuit filed in 2013. Papers mentioning Angelucci had been found in the car where Den Hollander had killed himself. Den Hollander viewed Angelucci as a rival and reportedly bore a grudge against him.
Attack on Salas family
On July 19, 2020, Den Hollander allegedly targeted Salas's family at their home, killing Salas's son Daniel, aged 20, and leaving her husband Mark in a critical but stable condition from multiple gunshot wounds. Salas was in the basement at the time of the attack and was not injured. The Federal Bureau of Investigation is leading the investigation in conjunction with the U.S. Marshals Service and local law enforcement. Investigators believe a person dressed as a FedEx employee was in the neighborhood at the time of the attack, but they could not determine whether the person in uniform was the assailant.Apparent suicide and investigation
The day after the attack on Salas's family, Den Hollander was found dead from a self-inflicted gunshot wound in Rockland, near Liberty in Sullivan County, upstate New York, in an apparent suicide. A list of judges, doctors, and other targets was found in a rental car chartered by Den Holllander on the road where his body was found. The list included Judge Salas and Mr. Angelucci as well as one oncologist who had treated Den Hollander. He had recently received a terminal cancer diagnosis.Law enforcement officials told The New York Times that the Walther semiautomatic pistol Den Hollander used was "of the same caliber as the weapon used in both the California shooting and the New Jersey shooting."
Immediately after the discovery of Den Hollander's body, authorities identified him as the "primary subject" in the attack against Salas's family. Two days later, authorities linked Den Hollander to Angelucci's killing.