The Federal Bureau of Investigation announced a key development in connection to the shooting of U.S. District Judge Esther Salas‘s family. They said there’s evidence connecting the deceased alleged gunman, men’s rights activist and lawyer Roy Den Hollander, to the murder of men’s rights activist and attorney Mark Angelucci in California.
The FBI’s announcement is the first public confirmation that they believe Hollander is linked to California slaying. Angelucci, the vice president of the National Coalition for Men, was found unresponsive and suffering apparent gunshot wounds on July 11, said the San Bernardino Sheriff’s Department. He died at the scene. The motive and suspect were immediately unclear, but the new development may well change that.
Authorities previously identified Hollander as the suspect in the Sunday shooting at Salas’s home in North Brunswick, New Jersey. Dressed as a FedEx delivery man, Hollander is believed to have critically injured husband Mark Anderl and son Daniel Anderl, 20, authorities said. The judge was in the basement of the residence at the time, reports say.
Hollander was later found dead by apparent suicide in Sullvan County, New York, authorities said. He was a plaintiff’s attorney in a lawsuit filed in 2015 which argued against the men’s-only military draft. Salas was the judge.
Online federal records viewed by Law&Crime show that the plaintiff replaced Hollander as one of the attorneys of record in an order signed by Magistrate Judge Joseph A. Dickson on June 24, 2019.
Hollander previously made no secret of his hate for Salas, calling her an “incompetent Latina judge appointed by Obama” in his misogynist 2019 autobiography. He had also written that he was diagnosed with a terminal cancer.
It is safe to describe the lawyer’s attitude toward women as oscillating between desire and disdain. By his own account, Hollander would ogle at his mother, but he also detailed his resentment of her. This attitude continued through his lawsuits, in which he sued New York nightclubs over ladies night specials.
“If I’m hitting on some young girl at the club – and I won’t be hitting on an older one because they don’t look as good – if she knows how old I am I’m not going to be able to exploit her infinite capacity to delude herself into thinking I’m younger,” the then-66-year-old attorney told The New York Daily News in a 2013 report.
Officials reportedly believe that Hollander used the same gun to shoot of the Anderl men and Angelucci. According to two officials cited by NBC New York, Hollander took Amtrak from New York to California and returned via train before the attack on the judge. A spokesman for the New York State court system has also said that investigators discovered a picture and the name of state Chief Judge Janet M. DiFiore in a car linked to Hollander.
Media reports previously cited sources highlighting a possible link between the shootings of the judge’s family and of Angelucci. Harry Crouch, president of the National Coalition For Men, called Angelucci’s death “horrendous” and said he knew the suspect, according to CBS Los Angeles. Hollander was a member of the NCFM’s board. Crouch said the attorney was kicked out after threatening him.
“But I want to be real clear, he’s not a NCFM member. Why isn’t he? Because I threw him out five or six years ago, because he was a nut job.”
Linda Kenney Baden contributed to this report.
[Screengrab of the Salas investigation via ABC News]