Edit 3/21: Brianna Jeanne was a pseudonym her real name is Briana Pietropaula. We will continue to update this article as we get more new info on these scumbags. To those of you who have been sending us info, thanks.
Back in October the Philadelphia chapter of the Keystone State “Skinheads”/KSS (also know as Keystone United or KU) invited Neo-Nazis, White Nationalists and generally ugly people to our city under the guise of a “Leif Ericson Day Celebration.” In reality, the event served as an opportunity to show that KSS has a street presence in Philadelphia. However, as the report back and subsequent identification of almost all of the identities illustrated, only a handful of those in attendance actually live in Philadelphia area, and KSS had inflated their numbers with people from as far away as Indiana, Oklahoma and Washington state. This post will serve to identify the key players in Philly KSS who were involved in bringing that mob of Neo-Nazis to our town.
Bryan Vanagaitis and Patricia Benner Vanagaitis
Bryan and Patricia Vanagaitis are longtime boneheads. They live with their son at a house at 6611 Ditman Street in Tacony . Their son is a little nazi too; one we encountered at Leif Ericson Day 3 years ago when he was briefly detained then released after getting caught with a knife.
The house on Ditman street serves as an important home base for KSS in Philly. In addition to hosting social events there, the Vanagaitises provide housing to boneheads when they are first arriving in the city or if they need a place to stay. One guest of theirs a few years ago was a bonehead named Drew Boyle, who was eventually expelled from KSS for being a loudmouth drunk with a habit of getting arrested on embarrassing charges while they were trying to bury their history and whitewash the KSS brand.
AJ Olsen and Briana Pietropaula
AJ Olsen is the head of Philly KSS. He spearheaded organizing the Leif Ericson day celebration as well as a new initiative by KSS called the Be Active Front, which attempt to co-opt European graffiti and Autonome imagery and language to mask their Nazism.
Briana Pietropaula (aka Briana Jeane on fb), AJ’s partner, is a supporter of KSS (originally KSS did not allow female members. it is unclear whether Patricia Vanagaitis is patched in or not but she is definitely active in the organizing and recruiting for KSS) but has yet to make that support public. So we went ahead and did it for her.
AJ is another bonehead who lived with the Vanagaitises when he first moved from New Jersey to Philly. He was then living at 2415 Tulip street in a house owned (at the time) by Briana’s father Robert. AJ was living at 2560 Memphis Street until very recently, but he moved, possible in with Briana.
Joey Phy and Stacey Sautner
Joey Phy and Stacey Sautner live with their daughter at 4383 Salmon Street in Bridesburg. Phy was under house arrest a few years ago when KSS was getting a lot of press, but recently has become very active, helping organize Leif Ericson day as well as attending a recent protest against Russian intervention in Ukraine.
There will be consequences for attempting to organize a Fascist or Nazi presence in Philadelphia, even if it ends in abject defeat for the Fascists as Leif Ericson day did last year. Those responsible and their supporters cannot hide.