Telegram image and booking image of Frankie Rizzello wearing the same jacket with a symbol associated with Will2Rise, the white supremacist clothing line for the Rise Above Movement (R.A.M.).
On March 9, 2024, authorities arrested Frankie Rizzello Jr., a 20-year-old resident of Chesterfield, Missouri, on two felony charges related to property damage motivated by discrimination, one grounded in religion and the other in race. According to charging documents from the University City Police Department, Rizzello faces these charges for allegedly spray-painting a church and an Asian restaurant with graffiti in 2023.
In October 2023, after an extensive examination of user profiles on YouTube and Telegram, the ADL Center on Extremism (COE) uncovered the identity of the individual behind the profiles as 20-year-old Frankie Rizzello, a Missouri-based white supremacist and the administrator of the Telegram channel “NS Hooligans.” Rizzello used the Telegram channel to claim responsibility for and celebrate a variety of white supremacist and antisemitic vandalism incidents in the St. Louis metropolitan area. COE shared this information with relevant law enforcement. St. Louis Prosecuting Attorney Wesley Bell called ADL’s information “essential” in bringing the charges:
Rizzello posted images of graffiti and propaganda on Telegram for a range of white supremacist groups, including White Lives Matter (WLM) network, Active Club Network and Goyim Defense League (GDL).
Images of spray paint and white supremacist propaganda posted to Telegram by Rizzello
Rizzello standing next to antisemitic graffiti (Telegram)
Rizzello also posted violent rhetoric on Telegram, for example, “What if we spray paint ’Total N***er Death’ on the side of the school?” and “Kill n***rs (this isn’t a joke anymore).” According to charging documents and reporting, Rizzello allegedly “armed himself with a rifle” when officers first approached him and had searched the internet for the penalty for killing a police officer.