Louisiana Arsonist Burned Churches “to Raise His Profile as a Black Metal Musician”

Remember Holden Matthews? Well, good for you if you don’t, because he’s a total dipshit. But for the sake of you being able to follow this story, I’ll remind you: he was a 21-year-old (now 22) Louisiana black metal musician who was arrested last year for starting three church fires in St. Landry Parish, the congregations of which were all are predominantly African-American (fortunately, no one was in the churches when he burned them down).

Buzzfeed News now reports that Matthews has plead guilty to federal hate crime charges — specifically, three counts of violating the Church Arson Prevention Act and one count of using fire to commit a federal felony. And why did he commit these heinous crimes?

“Prosecutors said Matthews, the son of a St. Landry Parish deputy, admitted to setting the fires because of the buildings’ religious character ‘in an effort to raise his profile as a ‘Black Metal’ musician by copying similar crimes committed in Norway in the 1990s.’

“He also admitted to watching the churches burn and taking photos and videos of the fires and posting them on Facebook in an effort to promote himself in the Black Metal community, prosecutors said.”

Well, he definitely raised his profile alright: Matthews’ crimes come with a minimum sentence of ten years in prison. According to The Sentencing Project, nearly 68% of the prison population in Louisiana is African American. I’m sure they will welcome Holden with open arms.

Thanks: Benjamin B.