Boise man with alleged neo-Nazi ties, now facing gun charges, sought Idaho prison jobs
Before a Boise man was arrested in October for alleged gun crimes and was accused of trying to organize a “modern-day SS” on a neo-Nazi message board, he applied and interviewed for taxpayer-funded jobs at Idaho prisons.
That same man, 35-year-old Paul Kryscuk, said in Instagram messages made public in court filings that he also applied to become a Boise firefighter and prepared to take a Boise Fire Department exam less than two weeks before his arrest.
Kryscuk — who moved to Idaho in February 2020 — was arrested and later charged in federal court in North Carolina on multiple counts of conspiring to manufacture and ship firearms without a license. Three other men were charged in connection with the alleged conspiracy to manufacture and ship guns: Liam Collins, Jordan Duncan and Justin Hermanson.
Prosecutors say Collins and Duncan are former Marines who were previously assigned to Camp Lejeune in Jacksonville, North Carolina. At the time of the alleged crimes, Hermanson was still enlisted in the Marine Corps at Camp Lejeune.
In a motion filed in Duncan’s case last December, prosecutors attached dozens of pages of Instagram direct messages that they say were exchanged between Duncan and Kryscuk from last July to October.
On July 19, Kryscuk — using the account name “Slim Reaper” — reportedly messaged Duncan that he had an “interview with corrections next week,” and went on to say that the job was with a private prison company. The only private prison facility in Idaho is the Correctional Alternative Placement Program, or CAPP, which is located in Kuna and operated by the Management Training Corporation.
According to IDOC spokesman Jeff Ray, not only did Kryscuk apply for a job at CAPP last July, but months before that he applied twice to be a corrections officer with IDOC — in June and December 2019 — and was interviewed at least once.
Kryscuk was not hired for any of those jobs, Ray said in an email, and has never worked for IDOC or at the CAPP facility. A spokesperson for MTC told Ray that Kryscuk failed a background check after he applied for the CAPP job.
It was not clear whether Kryscuk was actually interviewed for the CAPP job prior to his failed background check. He applied for a job at CAPP once more in August but was not interviewed then, according to Ray.
At around the time of Kryscuk’s applications, he, Duncan and two other people met in the Boise area for live-fire weapons training outside of the city, according to prosecutors. During the training, the group made a video while shooting assault-style rifles, and at the end of that video, the four are seen giving a “Heil Hitler” sign and are wearing skull masks associated with the Atomwaffen Division, a terrorist neo-Nazi organization that is connected to multiple killings in the United States, federal authorities say.
The last frame of the video features the phrase “come home white man.”
In later Instagram messages, Kryscuk told Duncan on Oct. 9 that he could not meet because he had to rest up in preparation to take a test for the “Boise FD” the following day.
According to the Boise Fire Department’s website, Oct. 10 was the final of three days to take a written exam for the department. Applicants must pay a fee and then submit an application prior to the exam.
Spokesperson Haley Williams said she could not say whether or not Kryscuk applied for a firefighter job or took the exam, stating that type of information is not typically released. A records request sent by the Statesman to the city of Boise was denied, with the city attorney’s office saying the information requested would involve personnel records, which are not public.
Williams said anyone can apply and take the written exam as long as they pay the application fee. She noted that any background check or selection process would take place after the exam, when the applicant pool is narrowed down.
Not long after Kryscuk said he was going to take the Boise Fire test, he was in police custody. Kryscuk, Duncan and Collins were arrested in Boise on Oct. 20. Federal prosecutors in North Carolina announced the arrests and charges on Oct. 27.
Michigan governor kidnapping plot, Wisconsin shooting discussed in messages
In the Instagram messaging logs made public by prosecutors, Kryscuk and Duncan frequently used racial slurs and glorified violence, at one point discussing the shooting during protests and unrest in Kenosha, Wisconsin, that left two people dead and one wounded, allegedly at the hands of 17-year-old Kyle Rittenhouse.
Kryscuk and Duncan also discussed the group of men who planned to kidnap Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer, a Democrat who tried to put measures in place to curb the coronavirus pandemic and received the ire of right-wing groups. The two said that if the group had been more secretive, members “could’ve done it.”
The group in Michigan is accused of watching Whitmer’s vacation home and purchasing explosives in the hopes of destroying a bridge that would hamper a police response, according to federal charging documents. The group planned to kidnap the governor, destroy the bridge and escape in a boat, federal prosecutors say.
“Shows it can be done but only idiots try it,” Kryscuk wrote in a message, according to federal authorities.
“They were definitely bout (sic) it,” Duncan replied in reference to the men in Michigan.
Authorities say Kryscuk was present at a Black Lives Matter rally at the Boise State University campus in July, first in his parked vehicle and then driving around the rally for about 20 minutes, according to an indictment filed in the case. Kryscuk was nearby for another rally on Aug. 18. Even though the rally was changed last-minute to a park to avoid confrontation and counterprotesters, Kryscuk was seen in the area of the park for 5 or 6 minutes, according to authorities.
In October, Kryscuk and Duncan discussed shooting protesters in Boise, according to the superseding indictment, and also discussed “the end of democracy.”
Collins, Kryscuk and Duncan are all being held in police custody pending a trial, which has yet to be scheduled. It’s not clear whether Hermanson was in police custody as of this week.
Kryscuk waived his detention hearing in December, while judges ruled that Duncan and Collins should not be released from custody after their detention hearings.
