The self-proclaimed “anti-feminist” attorney suspected of killing U.S. District Judge Esther Salas’ son in New Jersey has now been linked to a California homicide, the FBI confirmed Wednesday.
Twice in the span of eight days, a gunman posing as a delivery driver showed up on doorsteps nearly 3,000 miles apart and opened fire. Twice fatal shots were fired, and Roy Den Hollander, found dead Monday in New York’s Catskills in an apparent suicide, is considered the primary suspect in both homicides.
Angelucci, 52, was killed July 11 outside his San Bernardino County home, and Salas’ 20-year-old son was shot and killed inside their North Brunswick home July 19, while trying to render aid to his father, who remains hospitalized with serious injuries. Salas was unharmed in the attack.
Den Hollander’s body was discovered hours after the shooting at Salas’ home.
Den Hollander, who billed himself as a men’s rights attorney, wrote thousands of pages in online screeds denouncing women, including female judges, The New York Times reported.
Although investigators declined to identify the evidence linking the two shootings, authorities investigating Den Hollander’s apparent suicide found a semiautomatic Walther pistol that was the same caliber as the weapon used in both the California shooting and the New Jersey shooting, the Times reported.
Meanwhile, authorities are trying to determine if Den Hollander’s terminal cancer diagnosis, which he disclosed in a self-published book as a rare melanoma, might have prompted him to seek revenge on his enemies, the Times reported.
Angelucci, a prominent men’s rights activist, served as vice president of the National Coalition for Men, which fights what members argue is legal discrimination against men, CNN reported.
According to the network, Den Hollander was involved in a separate 2015 federal case, overseen by Salas, which argued the male-only military draft was unconstitutional. Salas sided against a portion of Den Hollander’s arguments last spring but also agreed with some of his, allowing the lawsuit to proceed. Citing his terminal illness, Den Hollander stepped away from the case in 2019.
Harry Crouch, president of the National Coalition for Men, told CNN that Den Hollander was furious that he had not been involved in the group’s own lawsuit against the Selective Service System in California.
He told CNN he booted Den Hollander from the coalition following a threatening 2015 phone call.
“(Den Hollander) was upset that it wasn’t his case, primarily. He was very upset and threatened to come to California and kick my ass,” Crouch told the network.
The coalition has issued the following statement expressing sadness and consternation over the attack on Salas’ family.
“We are deeply dismayed to hear that this senseless act was perpetrated by a self-described men’s rights activist and unequivocally denounce anyone who uses violence to intimidate and harm people. We offer our condolences and prayers to Judge Salas and the Anderl family,” Crouch wrote in the statement.