Security officer Stephen Johns reportedly opened the door for the man police say was his killer.

James W. von Brunn is a native of St. Louis, Missouri. His online biography says he served in World War II.

Dave Schechter
CNN Senior National Editor

If anything positive can come from the tragic shooting at the U.S. Holocaust Museum, it is to shine a light on the creatures who occupy a dark corner of American discourse.

I’ll resist a temptation to compare them with a particular species of insect, but the dictionary on my desk uses the phrase “destructive, annoying or injurious to health” to describe their ilk.

These are people whose lives are consumed by hate for “the other.” They may use a bullhorn in the public square, their free speech rights often protected by police, or the keyboard of a computer at home, sometimes hiding behind a pseudonym.

In the case of Wednesday’s tragedy in the nation’s capital, the alleged shooter – based on the venom on his website – held Jews and blacks in particular contempt. The unfortunate irony is that the security guard killed protecting visitors to a museum recalling the greatest horror inflicted upon the Jewish people was African-American.

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Writings attributed to James von Brunn and a biography appear on the Web site Holy Western Empire.

Alexandra Poolos and Alyssa Caplan
AC360°

Scott Aulbach flipped on the news when he finally got back to his Atlanta hotel room after a long day of training for his company. And suddenly he saw splashed across CNN a picture of his former roommate, James von Brunn. He was horrified to hear police reports that von Brunn was the man who walked into the Holocaust Museum in Washington with a rifle, and shot police officer Stephen Jones before being shot and apprehended by other officers.

Horrified. But not completely surprised.

"I heard something about a shooting at the Holocaust [museum] and the next thing I seen is his picture. I knew it was him."

Aulbach says von Brunn was his roommate for about six months in 2004. Aulbach had already been living with his friend Eric von Brunn, James von Brunn's son. Aulbach says neither he nor Eric von Brunn were white supremacists. In fact, Aulbach says Eric and his mother - divorced from James von Brunn - are wonderful people. But they heard plenty of supremacist rants from Eric's father.

Below are notes from our conversations with Aulbach in preparation for his interview with Anderson. AC360° producer David Puente also contributed to these questions. This evening, we will hear from Scott again as we take a special look at hate in America in our one-hour special, American Radical: The Lone Wolf, on AC360° at 10p ET. Please join us.

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The scene, Wednesday, outside the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum.

Editor's note: Deborah E. Lipstadt is currently Resnick Invitational Scholar at the Center for Advanced Holocaust Studies at the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum and Dorot Professor of Modern Jewish and Holocaust Studies at Emory University. She is the author of "History on Trial: My Day in Court with a Holocaust Denier.

Deborah E. Lipstadt
Special to CNN

I write this from my office in the Center for Advanced Holocaust Studies at the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum where I have been privileged to have had a fellowship for the past semester. Up until Wednesday at 12:50 p.m., it had been a perfect visit. Everything a scholar could hope for: exceptional scholarly resources and a magnificent museum staff.

When I arrive each morning, long before the doors open to the public, I always marvel at the people waiting to enter. They represent every religion, ethnic group, and nationality. In the past few weeks I've seen hundreds of school groups as well as Annapolis midshipmen, scouts, FBI trainees and police force members.

They come to learn about the consequences of hate and prejudice. And Wednesday the entire world was given a graphic reminder of what that hatred can produce when a white supremacist, anti-Semitic, Holocaust denier, entered the building and allegedly shot a guard before being wounded himself.

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Inside the Holocaust Memorial Museum.

Larry Shaughnessy
CNN Producer

We came in the same way hundreds of tourists escaped Wednesday afternoon's shootout. The "back" door of the US Holocaust Memorial Museum. The security officers were on duty. Still professional, helpful, kind. But not happy, not upbeat. Not after one of their own gave his life protecting the museum's visitors.

The Museum gave CNN exclusive access to the building Thursday, the first news crew inside since the shooting.

The first sign that there'd been trouble. A worker was sweeping up trash left behind yesterday... a single brown flip lay on the floor in the midst of torn papers and dust. It appeared during the rush to safety someone lost a shoe and didn't try to go back and get it.

We noticed almost none of the security officers were wearing body armor. Of the dozen or so officers on duty only one was wearing a bullet-resistant vest. We asked if that was a concern, he said "Everyone will have one soon." He didn't elaborate.

And the officers each had a black piece of tape stretched across their badge. It's a time-honored tradition when people in law enforcement lose a colleague. A tradition too often repeated in America.

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Police cars mass outside the Holocaust Museum in Washington after a shooting there on Wednesday.

Editor's Note: Professor Carol Swain will join Anderson tonight to discuss the rise in what she calls the "new white nationalism." Below is an excerpt from her 2002 book entitled "The New White Nationalism in America: Its Challenge to Integration." Tune in to AC360° tonight at 10p ET for more on yesterday's shooting at the Holocaust Memorial Museum and the 88-year-old white supremacist who is the alleged shooter.

Carol Swain
From her book "The New White Nationalism in America: Its Challenge to Integration"

Over the past ten years a new white racial advocacy movement has gained strength in the United States that poses a severe challenge to the ideals of an integrated society. Many of the leaders of this new movement, which is called “white nationalism” here, are very different from the sorts of people we have come to associate with the traditional racist right in America. Cultured, intelligent, and often possessing impressive degrees from some of America’s premier colleges and universities, this new breed of white racial advocate is a far cry from the populist politicians and hooded Klansmen of the Old South who fought the losing battles for segregation and white supremacy during the great civil rights upheavals of a generation ago. The new white nationalists differ even more from the small bands of misfits and psychopaths who formed the heart of the ineffectual neo-Nazi movement of that era. While sharing much in common with the older style of white racist and white supremacy movement, and drawing upon important white supremacist beliefs, the new white nationalism is potentially broader in its appeal and a development sufficiently different from the older racist right to be considered a distinct phenomenon. The new white nationalism, in this sense, might be considered a kind of repackaged, relabeled and transformed white supremacy that is aiming its appeal at a broader and better-educated audience.

Reprinted with the permission of Cambridge University Press.

Active Hate Groups in the United States

Program Note: The map shows different hate groups that are active across the country. It is part of the Intelligence Project of the Southern Poverty Law Center. Tune in to AC360° at 10 P.M. ET for more details on hate groups.

Southern Poverty Law Center

The Intelligence Project monitors hate groups and extremist activities throughout the U.S. and publishes the Center's award-winning Intelligence Report.

It also offers training to help law enforcement officials and human rights groups combat organized racism, including an online hate crime training course for law enforcement professionals.

Click here for more details...

An FBI investigator looks over gunshot holes in the door of the U.S. Holocaust Museum on Thursday.

Program Note: Author and former Neo-Nazi skinhead TJ Leyden will join Anderson tonight to discuss the views and innerworkings of this country's hate groups and shed light on yesterday's fatal shooting at the Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington D.C. Below is the preface to Leyden's book entitled, "Skinhead Confessions." Tune in to AC360° tonight at 10p ET.

TJ Leyden
Author, "Skinhead Confessions"

I heard the gasp of horror and knew I’d been caught. For several years I had hidden the depth of my involvement in the Skinheads from my parents, covering up my tattoos with long shirts, concealing my violent life through lies and deceit. Until now, my own mother hadn’t known how far I was entrenched in the world of hate.

“What are those?” she cried, pointing at my body, which was covered from my neck to the middle of my back in graphic, sinister tattoos. “Tell me or I will call the police!”

No way in hell I was going to tell her what they meant—the hate crimes I had committed, the people I’d hurt, stabbed, and maimed to earn those tattoos. No way would I tell her about the hundreds of kids I’d initiated to follow me into the White Power Movement and the things they did for me every day.

She picked up the phone, her eyes locked on mine. They connected her to the gang unit of the Redlands Police Department. She questioned the officer about what she had seen, and her eyes grew bigger in disbelief. I showed no emotion, even as he told her that the person she was talking about must be a fully indoctrinated and active Skinhead. Then . . . the inevitable question. Did she personally know the dangerous person with the tattoos?

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Program Note: Tune in tonight to hear more about the case from Soledad O'Brien on AC360° at 10 p.m. ET

A police car outside an entrance to the courthouse on the first day of the trial.

Brian Rokus
Producer, CNN Presents

For nine months, the community of Shenandoah, Pennsylvania waited to learn the fate of three high school football players. A late-night street fight last July had left illegal Mexican immigrant Luis Ramirez dead and these teenagers facing a range of charges, including murder. During those months, vigils were held, protesters against illegal immigration came to town, and protesters for immigration reform came to town. The case’s August preliminary hearing was briefly delayed when demonstrators drowned out the proceedings inside the court. Finally, a trial date of April 27 was set.

But there would be one more development before a jury would hear the case. Just weeks before trial, one of the teammates, Colin Walsh, took a federal plea deal and agreed to testify against his friends in court. Now there would be only two defendants – Brandon Piekarsky and Derrick Donchak. Piekarsky faced third-degree murder while both faced assault and ethnic intimidation charges.

After a summer of protests and tension, police had prepared for large groups of protesters, going so far as to enforce a quarter-mile protest exclusion zone around the court house. Local TV stations reported that Sheriff's deputies' vacations had been restricted for the trial and that all attendees would have to pass through two metal detectors to get into the courtroom.

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