I'm parking this here for possible future use in an article on Mair, should he be determined to be notable. In this article it's grotesqure overdetail. His dad worked in the lace industry -- his parents where "Mary, a factory worker, and James Mair, a machine operator in the lace industry". The lace industry. Got it.
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Thomas Alexander Mair (born 12 August 1963 in Kilmarnock, Scotland) was the elder of two sons of Mary, a factory worker, and James Mair, a machine operator in the lace industry. After Mair's parents divorced, he, his brother and their mother moved to Birstall, a mill town 8 miles (13 km) south-west of Leeds, before his mother married again and had another son.[1] Mair lived in Birstall for at least forty years and exhibited traits of obsessive-compulsive disorder. However, he was examined by a psychiatrist after his arrest who could find no evidence of mental problems that could have caused his actions. He believed liberals, leftists and the mainstream media to be the cause of the world's problems.[1] Mair was a frequent user of his local library's computers, where he researched subjects such as the BNP, white supremacism, Nazism, the KKK, Waffen SS, Israel, public shootings, serial killers and matricide, as well as the Wikipedia pages of MPs William Hague and Ian Gow (who was killed by a Provisional IRA car-bomb).[1] Mair was particularly fascinated by Norwegian far-right terrorist Anders Behring Breivik, and kept newspaper clippings from the Daily Mail about the case.[2] Detective Superintendent Nick Wallen from West Yorkshire Police described Mair as a "loner in the truest sense of the word ... who never held down a job, never had a girlfriend [and] never [had] any friends".[1]
Although he had links with the National Front in the 1990s, and was recently seen at an EDL rally, both anti-fascists and supporters of various far-right organisations deny that Mair had ever "crossed their radar". Despite the presence of several fringe far-right groups in West Yorkshire and his identification with extremist political figures, Mair appeared to have made little effort to make contact or involvement with local individuals or groups of a like mind.[1] Todd Blodgett, an American former far-right activist, told the SPLC that in May 2000 (when Blodgett was working as a paid informant for the FBI), Mair attended a gathering of American white supremacists in London that was convened by National Alliance head William Luther Pierce and arranged by another member of the British far-right, Mark Cotterill.[3][4] According to Blodgett, the group of 15 to 20 people included Stephen Cartwright and Richard Barnbrook, and the group discussed how to expand American white power music (such as that promoted by Resistance Records, which Pierce had recently purchased) into Europe. Blodgett described Mair as quiet, self-educated, well-mannered, and loosely affiliated with the Leeds chapter of the National Alliance. According to Blodgett, Mair expressed racist and antisemitic views, was a Holocaust denier, and admired the neo-Nazi band Skrewdriver.[3][4]
According to The Daily Telegraph, a January 2006 blog post attributed to the group described Mair as "one of the earliest subscribers and supporters of SA Patriot",[5] a far-right, pro-apartheid publication (renamed SA Patriot in Exile in 1991), and published at least two letters in the publication in the years 1991–1999. Mair wrote to the organisation in 1991 saying that:
| “ |
I was most impressed by your publication and the insight it gives into the South African scene ... Meanwhile, you might be interested to know that the British media's propaganda offensive against South Africa continues relentlessly. Almost every "news" bulletin contains one item about South Africa which, needless to say, never fails to present Whites in the worse [sic] possible light ...
The nationalist movement in the UK also continues to fight on against the odds. The murders of George Seawright and John McMichael in Ulster are an extreme example of what we are up against. Despite everything I still have faith that the White Race will prevail, both in Britain and in South Africa, but I fear that it's going to be a very long and very bloody struggle. |
” |
| — Mair in 1991[6] |
In 1999, Mair wrote to the publication. In his letter, he spoke out against "'collaborators' in the White South African population" who were opposed to apartheid, saying that:
| “ |
It was heartening to see that you are still carrying on the struggle ... I was glad you strongly condemned "collaborators" in the White South African population. In my opinion the greatest enemy of the old Apartheid system was not the ANC and the Black masses but White liberals and traitors. |
” |
| — Mair in 1999[6] |
In 2006 the magazine's online newsletter asked for information on Mair's address as "recent correspondence sent to him was being returned".[7]
Following Mair's arrest, the SA Patriot said:
| “ |
It is true that a Mr Thomas A. Mair from Batley in Yorkshire subscribed to our magazine S.A Patriot when we were still published in South Africa itself. We can confirm therefore that we have never met Mr Mair, and apart from brief contact way back in the mid-1980s when he briefly subscribed to our magazine we have had no contact with him. All attempts to try to link him to our magazine during more recent years are therefore completely without foundation.[7] |
” |
Mair also bought literature from the Springbok Club. Alan Harvey, editor of its official magazine, told The Guardian that Mair sent the group £5, "which would have been enough for about five issues".[1]
The Guardian referred to Mair as "an extremely low burner" who "appears to have fantasised about killing a 'collaborator' for more than 17 years, drawing inspiration from" David Copeland.[1] Copeland, a diagnosed paranoid schizophrenic and admirer of William Luther Pierce (head of the National Alliance) was a source of great inspiration to Mair when he bombed Black British, South Asian and LGBT populations on a 13-day campaign in 1999 in the hope of triggering a race war within the United Kingdom. Three died and more than 140 were injured, many losing limbs. Copeland was arrested shortly after this final bombing of the Admiral Duncan.[8][9] Ten days after Copeland's first court appearance, a consignment of goods from the National Alliance headquarters in the United States were sent to Mair's home. According to a packing slip obtained by the Southern Poverty Law Center, Mair had bought numerous items from the organisation, including: manuals on the manufacturing of bombs and homemade pistols; 6 copies of Free Speech, a publication of the National Alliance; and a copy of Ich Kämpfe. Over the course of four years, he began to subscribe to Free Speech as well as Secret of the Runes and We Get Confessions. The SPLC released receipts showing that Mair had spent more than $620 buying publications from National Vanguard Books in the years 1993–2003, including works on how to make improvised weapons.[5][10]
In 2010, Mair attended Pathways Day Services for adults with mental health problems. He then began doing voluntary work and told the Huddersfield Daily Examiner that volunteering had improved his mental health, saying: "it has done me more good than all the psychotherapy and medication in the world".[11] The evening before killing Jo Cox, Mair, then an unemployed gardener,[12] visited an alternative therapy centre in Birstall seeking treatment for depression; he was told to return the next day for an appointment.[13] However, Mair's health was not part of the defence case in the trial.[14] After his arrest, he was examined by a psychiatrist who could find no evidence that he was not responsible for his actions due to his mental health.[1]
Cox was singled out for attack as a "passionate defender" of the European Union and immigration. Mair viewed the Labour MP as "one of 'the collaborators' [and] a traitor" to white people.[1]
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