Roy Den Hollander was found dead in his car yesterday while holding a package addressed to United States District Judge Esther Salas near Liberty, New York. The FBI believes that Hollander had shot Judge Salas' husband and son earlier that day. Judge Salas' son died and her husband is still in the hospital. It is not clear whether or not Hollander was wearing a Federal Express uniform like the gunman was accused of wearing. Judge Salas was not hurt but she was home at the time. Hollander was a self identified anti-feminist and men's rights attorney that was suffering from cancer at the time. He was a failure of a lawyer that went out a failure of a hitman.
Hollander's murder spree is believed to have began a week ago when a man in a Federal Express uniform gunned down another men's rights lawyer in California. That lawyer was Marc Angelucci. Angelucci was founder of the Los Angeles Chapter of the National Coalition for Men (NCFM) a men's rights activist group. The NCFM specializes in lawsuits challenging laws that enable feminine privilege. Such challenges typically challenge laws that give women an advantage over men in some situations. Hollander was also a member of NCFM.
Hollander's website (http://www.roydenhollander.com/main/index.htm) is full of hateful statements directed at women including several self published books. He is believed to have referred to Judge Salas in one of those books as "a lazy and incompetent Latina judge appointed by Obama." Salas was presiding over a lawsuit filed by Hollander challenging the Selective Service laws as violations of women's rights that only allow men to register, but the real argument was that it discriminated against men by making them register and not women. Hollander might have had a point on that one, but he was never very good at arguing those points in court. His cases consist mainly of frivolous challenges to things "ladies night" at Manhattan night clubs that were thrown out of court. He was a failure of a lawyer, but possibly a necessary evil in the courtroom because there always need to be lawyers willing to argue anything.
Hollander appears to have targeted Judge Salas because of his views towards women in authoritative positions. He probably thought that if he could get her off the case that the case would have a greater likelihood of succeeding after he died. He was diagnosed with cancer and it looks like he decided to go out with a bang. He left a message on his website that read "Now is the time for all good men to fight for their rights before they have no rights left." Maybe he was hoping to inspire others on his way out the door, but by missing his mark he probably just inspired Judge Salas to spend the rest of her life on the bench taking out her grief on those that come before her. Anyone that she sentences for anything involving threats to government officials, anti-feminists, or anything that reminds her of Hollander will probably spend a lot more time in prison. Even if Salas does not realize it, there is no way something like this will not effect her views towards those that come before her. By killing her son, Hollander went out as a failure of a hitman that not only left her on the bench, but did so in a way that is sure to make her a vindictive judge if she were not one already.
But, why did he kill himself? Maybe he knew how bad medical care is for cancer patients in correctional facilities and just did not want to risk going through that, but he could have shot himself anytime, so if he wanted to go out with a bang why would he stop where he did? We believe that he intended to shoot himself eventually, but are surprised he did it so soon. We would have expected him to move on to other targets until he knew the gig was up. This makes us wonder if he shot himself at all or if maybe he was some kind of Manchurian candidate pre-programmed to shot himself after trying to take out his target.