The recent revelations about Thomas Matthew Crooks, the 20-year-old who attempted to assassinate then-candidate Donald Trump at a rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, on July 13, 2024, have thrust an unlikely online subculture into the spotlight: the "furries." This community, centred around anthropomorphic animal characters (often with erotic or fetishist undertones), has been linked not just to Crooks but also to Tyler Robinson, the man accused of murdering conservative activist Charlie Kirk in late 2024. As Miranda Devine's November 17, 2025, New York Post column highlights (link below), these connections raise profound questions about radicalisation, identity exploration, and the FBI's handling of threats. Below, I'll break down the key details, patterns, and implications in a deep dive, drawing on the emerging reports and public discourse.
What is the Furry Subculture?
Furries are enthusiasts of "furry fandom," where people create, share, or role-play as humanoid animals (e.g., anthropomorphic foxes or wolves). It originated in the 1980s sci-fi and animation conventions, but exploded online via platforms like DeviantArt, FurAffinity, and Discord. While many participants view it as harmless creative expression, think cosplay or fan art, a significant subset involves sexual fetishism, including "yiff" (furry erotica). Studies from the International Anthropomorphic Research Project (a long-running academic survey) estimate that about 70-80% of furries engage in some erotic content, often exploring themes of identity, escapism, or taboo desires.
Critics, including psychologists like Dr. Kathleen Gerbasi (who co-founded the research project), note that the subculture can serve as a refuge for isolated or marginalised youth, but it also correlates with higher rates of depression, anxiety, and social withdrawal, especially post-pandemic. Online forums frequently blend with gaming, anime, and LGBTQ+ spaces, where users experiment with gender fluidity (e.g., non-binary identities). However, darker corners host extremism: neo-Nazi "fashwave" aesthetics, violent role-play, and even recruitment into alt-right or accelerationist groups.
In the context of Crooks and Robinson, the furry link isn't just anecdotal, it's a potential vector for the "downward mobility" and online isolation that experts like Joshua Lisec (author of Unhumans) argue fuels radical violence. Lisec, in a November 17, 2025, Human Events discussion with Jack Posobiec, described it as a "furry porno simulator" environment that warps young men's behaviour amid economic stagnation and social alienation.
Thomas Crooks' Furry Ties: A Hidden Digital Life
Devine's reporting, based on an anonymous source using open-source intelligence tools (e.g., web archives and phone number tracing), uncovered 17 online accounts tied to Crooks' real name or primary email. This directly contradicts then-FBI Director Chris Wray's July 2024 congressional testimony that Crooks left "no trace" of motive or ideology online. Key furry-related findings.
• DeviantArt Accounts: Crooks operated under "epicmicrowave" and "theepicmicrowave," linked to his email. He listed pronouns as "they/them," signalling gender exploration. The profiles featured an "obsession" with erotic art of muscular male animal hybrids with female heads, blending hyper-masculine and feminine tropes common in furry erotica. DeviantArt, with over 70 million users, is a furry epicentre; Crooks' activity dates back to 2019, when he was 15.
• Broader Online Evolution: Starting pro-Trump in 2019 (e.g., calling him "the literal definition of Patriotism"), Crooks flipped in early 2020 amid COVID-19 frustrations. By August 2020, he posted violent manifestos: "The only way to fight the gov is with terrorism style attacks... track down any important people/politicians... and try to assassinate them." He interacted with "Willy Tepes," a Norwegian neo-Nazi from the Nordic Resistance Movement (now a U.S.-designated terrorist group), who echoed Maoist violence slogans that Crooks repeated. Tepes even claimed contacts with Russian and U.S. intelligence in a 2025 post, fuelling speculation of recruitment.
• Other Platforms: Accounts on YouTube (737 comments under "Tomcrooks2178," suspended post-shooting), Discord, Snapchat, and even a PayPal alias ("Rod Swanson," after a retired FBI agent involved in the 2017 Las Vegas shooting, likely a dark joke). Users flagged his threats, yet accounts stayed active for years.
This "digital footprint" was omitted from the FBI's December 2024 congressional report, prompting Devine to accuse officials of a cover-up that "invited conspiracy theories." Even under new Director Kash Patel, FOIA requests have been rebuffed.
The Tyler Robinson Parallel: Beyond Coincidence?
Robinson, 22, allegedly shot Kirk on October 28, 2024, in a targeted hit tied to far-Right infighting (Kirk was a rival to Nick Fuentes' "groyper" movement). Like Crooks, Robinson's profile screams isolation-fuelled rage:
• Furry and Transgender Overlap: Robinson lived with (and dated) Lance Twiggs, a transgender furry who shared a fetish for extreme role-play, black-market hormone therapy (HRT), and ChatGPT-fuelled fantasies. Leaked texts reveal drug use, grooming, and violent ideation fixated on Kirk, corroborated by a November 2025 YouTube exposé from creator Turkey Tom. Robinson's online history mirrors Crooks': early Right-wing leanings devolving into anti-conservative extremism.
• Shared Profile: Both were young (under 25), socially awkward, pandemic-isolated males from Rust Belt states, drifting into online echo chambers. Lisec links this to "downstream" effects of Leftist-dominated economies stifling male opportunity, pushing them into "antisocial subcultures" like furry servers for validation. Glenn Beck echoed this on X, questioning why the media ignores the pattern while fixating on "Right-wing" threats.
TPUSA spokesman Andrew Kolvet called the nexus a "five-alarm fire" on X, warning of a "trend" in radicalization. X discussions amplify this: Users like @heartland_grump speculate on "Manchurian candidate" brainwashing via subcultures, while @VeteransforAz recalls personal encounters with violent furries in the 1990s.
Implications: Radicalisation Pipeline or FBI Blind Spot?
This isn't isolated, echoes appear in other attacks, like the 2023 Nashville Covenant School shooter (Audrey Hale), whose manifesto referenced furry art. Megyn Kelly, on her November 17, 2025, podcast, asked: "How many times does this have to turn out to be the story?" Posobiec and Lisec argue furry spaces act as a "gateway" for recruitment: Isolated teens encounter extremism (e.g., neo-Nazis via Tepes) amid identity crises, amplified by algorithms prioritising shock content.
Politically incorrect but substantiated: These cases disproportionately involve young men grappling with gender dysphoria or fetish escapism in Left-leaning online hives, radicalising against perceived betrayals (Trump's "stupidity," Kirk's "sellout"). It's not inherent to furries, most are apolitical, but unchecked resentment breeds assassins. The FBI's omissions (e.g., ignoring flagged threats) suggest institutional failure, perhaps to avoid "profiling" marginalised groups, as retired agent Rod Swanson implied: "Somebody is going to knock on somebody's door."
President Trump, wounded but unbowed, demanded answers months ago, yet silence persists. As Devine writes, a man died (Corey Comperatore), two were maimed, and conspiracies fester because "something [is] very wrong" with the official story. We deserve transparency: Full digital dumps, Tepes interrogations, and probes into why threats went dark. Until then, the furry thread unravels a deeper rot in our digital underbelly.
https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2025/11/tpusa-official-calls-newly-exposed-link-thomas-crooks/