Author Dave Irving
Outsiders – protesters who call author Dave Irving a Nazi sympathizer, Adolf Hitler apologist and Holocaust denier – is what Irving mostly worries about on his current coast-to-coast book tour.
But in Manalapan on Monday night, the threat came from within his audience, 35-plus people attending his lecture at the Ritz-Carlton.
As Irving stood at the podium and discussed “decoding the Nazi message,” he said, two of his guests – one with a knife – started rumbling outside the Ocean 1 conference room that Irving rented.
When the dust settled, about 9 p.m., both fighters were taken to the Delray Medical Center for treatment. Both were released overnight.
Manalapan police identified the combatants as Christopher Nachtman, 31, of Lake Worth, and John Kopko, 43, of West Palm Beach.
Kopko, whose criminal record includes a firearm arrest and another for aggravated assault, is a known white supremacist who once tried to force the county’s library to buy Nazi magazines and literature. During his effort in 1992, Kopko was known to perform the Nazi salute before Jewish library patrons.
Neither Kopko or Nachtman has been charged in the Ritz incident.
“I’m deeply ashamed that this happened,” said Irving, who once was imprisoned in Austria for spreading his rhetoric there. “I want to apologize to the people of Palm Beach County and the Ritz-Carlton management. But this incident had nothing to do with me or my lectures.
The Ritz
There was some broken furniture, Irving said, and plenty of blood on the hotel’s carpets. The group rented the conference room under the name Focal Point Publications, Irving’s book publisher in Great Britain.
“We didn’t know about this individual,” said the Ritz-Carlton’s General Manager, Brad Cance. “We’re still waiting for the results of the police investigation, but I can already tell you we don’t condone the kind of behavior we saw last night.”
Irving said his tour will continue. He’s headed to Clearwater and up the coast to New York City. Irving said both men were registered properly for his lecture, and paid their $15 fees. Vetted attendees are told about the lectures’ location just hours before the start.
“We do background checks on everyone who comes to my lectures,” Irving said. “We want no trouble or confrontations with protesters. But just the fact that someone came armed with a knife is worrisome.”
Irving said Nachtman came with his wife, Jessica, who might set up a bookstore and sell his books. Irving said he didn’t know Kopko personally but said he, too, was properly registered. Irving called Kopko “some kind of extremist.”
“I guess we’re going to double up our efforts to keep trouble-makers out,” Irving told Page2Live. “But so far, what we were doing worked since we never had anything like this happen.”
As it is the case on each tour stop, local protesters were trying to track down the location of Irving’s lecture most of Monday afternoon and night.
“We sent them to a phony location,” Irving said. “They all went to the Hilton at the West Palm Beach airport while we were at the Ritz.”
Irving said the two men had prior beef, although he said he didn’t know why. Neither Nachtman or Kopko could be reached for comment. Their phones are only activated for outgoing calls.
Incidentally, a Palm Beach Post photographer this morning found a handgun, in full view, on the ground across the street from the Ritz. Police seized it. There is no indication whether the discovery is related to Irving’s gathering.
Said Andrew Rosenkranz, head of the Florida regional Anti-Defamation League: “Irving’s events attract anti-Semites, white supremacists and racist skinheads, so it should be no surprise that these violent assaults occurred last night.”
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