‘HE LOVED HITLER’
Mail bomber described as ‘lost soul,’ fan of Klan
The rabid Republican busted for mailing homemade pipe bombs to an A-list of Democratic leaders shares something with his hero, President Trump: A tenuous relationship with the truth.
Attorney Ronald Lowy, in a Saturday interview with the Daily News, said the jailed Cesar Sayoc Jr. would create different personas or try to change his looks in hopes of creating a “sense of importance.”
“Like somebody very famous that he idolizes, he seems to decide what the facts are and then assert them regardless of the truth,” said Lowy, who represented Sayoc in a pair of prior criminal cases.
“He was looking for acceptance everywhere. He wanted you to like him. He was a lost soul.”
Lowy suggested that Sayoc., arrested Friday morning outside a Plantation, Fla., auto parts business, was incapable of building a functional explosive device and could raise an insanity defense.
Sayoc faces five federal charges for the five-day binge of threatening packages.
“This is not a normal individual,” the lawyer said. “A person with a regular IQ? No. This is not in an emotionally stable person. This is a person with ideations. The idea that he could carry out a sophisticated crime like this? … This is a 14-year-old in an adult body.”
Two Florida friends of the imprisoned suspect told The News about his bizarre lifestyle and love of Adolf Hitler.
Sayoc’s sticker-covered van was a rolling pigsty filled with fast food bags, bottles of booze — and a pair of headless mannequins, said a former boss who hired him at a Fort Lauderdale pizzeria.
“In his car, he had puppets, you know … with the heads cut off, you know,” recounted Debra Gureghian, 59. “He said he was fixing the dolls. He said he was like a doll doctor.”
The 56-year-old Sayoc, jailed pending a Monday court hearing, espoused his admiration for Hitler and his hatred of prominent liberals from former President Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton to MSNBC host Rachel Maddow and comedian Ellen DeGeneres, said Gureghian.
“He loved Hitler — absolutely loved Hitler, wanted this society to go back to that mind-set,” said Gureghian. “White supremacist — his van had the Klu Klux Klan … hangman’s noose, you name it.”
She recalled Sayoc as a diligent and dedicated worker. But he was also a homophobe who reduced Gureghian to tears with insults after learning that she was a lesbian.
“He just started spewing horrific (stuff ),” she recalled. “And then off on the tangents with the Obamas, and the Nword with them, and you know — ‘CNN sucks,’ and loved Fox (News) and loved Hitler.”
Co-worker Teresa Palmer, 48, recalled how she freaked out after learning Friday about Sayoc’s arrest in the domestic terrorist case.
“I got goosebumps and sick to my stomach when I found that out,” she said. “I cannot believe this, that I worked with somebody like this. It’s just slightly shocking to find out that I was working with somebody that could want to hurt people.”