Christian Picciolini

Christian Marco Picciolini (born November 3, 1973) is an American musician and author who is the co-founder of a nonprofit peace advocacy organization called Life After Hate. He wrote a memoir, Romantic Violence: Memoirs of an American Skinhead, which details his time as a leader of the American white power movement. An updated version of the story was published as a paperback in 2017, titled White American Youth: My Descent into America's Most Violent Hate Movement--and How I Got Out. 2Early life Picciolini was born and raised in Blue Island, Illinois, the son of Italian immigrants. His father was a hair salon owner and his mother is a restaurant owner. At age 14 in 1987, Picciolini was recruited to join the Chicago Area Skinheads (CASH) by the group's founder, Clark Martell. Two years later, after Martell had gone to prison for a second time, Picciolini became the group's leader at age 16. He facilitated a merger between CASH and the Hammerskins, a more violent and well-organized White supremacist skinhead organization.He would go on to head the white supremacist punk band, White American Youth (W.A.Y.) and, eventually, a hate rock band called Final Solution. Final Solution was the first American white power skinhead group to perform in Europe. The concert was held in a former cathedral in Weimar, Germany, attended by 4,000 people, and was made up of several other white supremacist band