Wanting to further his black metal agenda, musician Holden Matthews took to burning three Louisianan churches in a span of 10 days.
There’s a lot of things artists will do to further their image and credibility, but one metal musician took things a little too far. In March and April, three historical African American Louisianan churches were burned to the ground in the span of 10 days. Shortly after, Holden Matthews was taken into custody as the suspected culprit.
Saint Mary’s Baptist Church, Greater Union Baptist, and Mount Pleasant Baptist were reduced to ashes with congregations devastated. Fire marshals scrambled to gather evidence to these then-suspected arsons, and wondered what the motive was.
Not too long after the third fire took place, police arrested their suspect after a gas can was found at one of the fires locations and was linked back to a credit card purchase. The accused, Matthews, is a 21-year-old self-proclaimed black metal musician. To make matters worse, he is also the son of one of the local deputy officers.
According to CNN, the Louisianan Governor John Bel Edwards said, “these were evil acts,” adding, “I [don’t] know what this young man’s motive was, I don’t know what was in his heart, but it cannot be justified or rationalised.”
Now, the true cause of these crimes has been revealed, along with Matthew being convicted. As reported by Loudwire, the suspects friends noted that “Matthews was upset with his parents for not supporting his path as a metal musician” and that he chose the route to burning churches after being influenced by “black metal and its associated history with church burnings“.
While Matthews has now plead guilty to setting the churches ablaze, he will have to wait until the 22nd of May to be sentenced where he will face between 10 to 70 years in prison.
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According to FBI special agent Bryan Vorndran, “Holden Matthews made a conscious decision to randomly target and destroy churches within his own community. His atrocious actions inflicted severe pain and grief upon these congregations.”
Check out the ABC News report of the incident:
