Updated | In the years since the horrific massacre of nine black churchgoers in Charleston, SC by white supremacist Dylann Roof, a small subset of Neo-Nazis have adopted the mass murderer as a martyr. Going by the “Bowl Patrol” or “Bowl Gang,” this loose confederation of white supremacists hope to inspire more acts of racist terrorism.
They take their symbol, the bowlcut hairstyle, from Roof himself, and subscribe to the political tactic of “accelerationism.” In white supremacist circles this means people who seek to spark the collapse of the U.S. government through acts of violence in order to create an ethnostate for white, non-Jews.
Although the “Bowl Patrol” can count high-profile white supremacist and former congressional candidate Paul Nehlen as one of its most enthusiastic supporters, most of them operate online under pseudonyms. And now, thanks to a series of foolish mistakes, another of their core followers has finally been unmasked.
Benjamin Lambert of Winfield, MO heads Lambert Technical Solutions, LLC, a small IT consulting firm that apparently works with the Western St. Charles County Chamber of Commerce. The Chamber of Commerce even featured him in an episode of “Carpool Karaoke” that they posted to their Facebook page.
But when Lambert isn’t working on computers, he’s moonlighting as “Cheddar Mane,” a vicious white supremacist who celebrates acts of mass murder.
As part of a long-running feud with the Bowl Patrol, Christopher “the Crying Nazi” Cantwell leaked a photo he said was of Cheddar Mane. He also threatened to contact Child Protective Services and present them with every episode of Bowlcast — a white supremacist podcast which Cheddar Mane often appeared on:
This threat was reposted last year by the official Bowlcast Telegram account. And its authenticity was seemingly confirmed by supporters of the Bowl Patrol. “Way to threaten a White father who had nothing to do with your gay feelz or your shard supply,” wrote Nehlen. “General consensus is kill yourself. Do it. Livestream it now.”
The Telegram channel “TERRORWAVE REFINED” posted the following about Cantwell: “He just doxed a white family in his radical agenda [sic] group.” “Radical Agenda” is the name of Cantwell’s main podcast.
But it was ultimately Lambert himself who connected the dots between his identity and his online persona. In 2017 a man named Ben Lambert whose author photo resembled the image provided by Cantwell wrote for Borderline Alternative Media (BAM), a website founded by far-right activist and ex-Infowars reporter Joe Biggs.
In his BAM bio, Lambert described himself as a “St. Louis Native” and “Patriot” who was “totally fed up with the Regressive Left” and “join[ed] the alt-right” to “fight in the culture war.” His articles reflected the latter part of his description.
In one article from May 2017, Lambert defended the display of Confederate flags and statues, and complained that “White guilt runs deep in the left.” In another he shared a video by the anti-fascist John Brown Gun Club, calling it a “display of autism” and referring to the participants as “cucks.”
In one from that same month, he praised white supremacist Richard Spencer as an “Alt-Right patriot” for leading a “pro-white rally” in defense of a statue of Robert E. Lee. “Despite what leftists may tell you, diversity – as applied by the left – is indeed code word for WHITE GENOCIDE,” he wrote.
“It means chasing the last white person down until there are none left.”
In early May 2017 Lambert appeared on a little-listened to podcast called Locker Room Talk; the show description called Lambert an “Alt-Righter.” In a distinctive, soft-spoken voice, Lambert told the hosts that he lived and worked in St. Louis, including for Multidata Systems International.
He claimed that he was “red pilled” during the riots in Ferguson which followed the death of Michael Brown, a black teenager, at the hands of Darren Wilson, a white cop. He voiced disappointment in far-right politician Marine Le Pen’s loss in the 2017 French presidential election.
And, quite revealingly, he remarked that “I would rather have all my neighbors be National Socialists, than have one neighbor as a commie.” It was a sign of things to come.
The first episode of Bowlcast aired in early 2018. By the third episode on July 4, 2018, Lambert was appearing as Cheddar Mane. In the same soft-spoken voice he complained that “these fuckin’ kikes and all their little nig puppets will still shame white people for giving them the best shot at having a good life that they could’ve ever dreamt of having.”
As Cheddar Mane, Lambert said that when he “lived in the St. Louis area” he “had a mail lady” who was a “sheboon.” She was terrified of his dog, he said, boasting that the canine “scares the shit outta niggers” because of its wolf-like appearance.
In the seventh episode, the Bowlcast co-hosts discussed how best to terrorize minorities in their own neighborhoods.
Lambert sarcastically said he would never drive to “gas stations where lots of blacks are” while “listening to Vaginal Jesus real loud.” (Vaginal Jesus is a defunct “hatecore” group that produced songs like “The Gestapo Stomp” and “Run Nigger Run.”) He added that he would never put up “anti-race-mixer stickers – ‘Once you go black, we never want you back’ – predominantly at gas stations, too.”
“Or if I was going to do something like that it would be focused mainly on all these fucking race traitors, and all these dumb cunts and their fucking parents that have ruined everything, and are ruining the white race by allowing their daughters to even be in the same room as a nigger,” he continued.
“So no I would never do anything against the law. But if I did, that’s the kind of thing I would do.”
In a June 2019 episode he explicitly endorsed the use of violence to achieve political goals. “You have to speak to the government in a language – and to your enemies – in a language that they understand,” he said. “The government doesn’t understand anything but force.”
During that same episode he encouraged directing violent threats at CEOs, journalists, and politicians who, he claimed, “need to feel the fear of the bullet.”
On social media Lambert regularly likened racist terrorists like Dylann Roof to saints.
His profile on Gab, a platform popular with white supremacists and other bigots, uses an avatar of Danny Glover’s character, George Knox, from the 1994 film Angels in the Outfield. Instead of a baseball cap, he sports Roof’s bowlcut, a swastika, and the phrase “Born to Kill” — a reference to Full Metal Jacket.
At the top of the page is the face of Brenton Tarrant — the white supremacist who pleaded guilty to murdering 51 Muslims in two Christchurch, New Zealand mosques — also sporting a bowlcut. To the left is the Bowl Patrol’s symbol: a shield with a bowlcut on it. The shield itself is borrowed from the Atomwaffen Division, a Neo-Nazi terrorist organization
On March 15, 2019, the day of the Christchurch attack, Lambert posted the following message on Gab: “#HeroBrentonTarrant you earned your wings, bowlther. You got a angel witchoo right now.” Two days later he lauded “#truechampions like [Anders] Breivik, [Dylann] Roof, [Timothy] McVeigh, and [Brenton] Tarrant.”
On his current Twitter account, @CheddarMane1589, Lambert tweeted a picture of Saints with the faces of domestic terrorists superimposed over them, including Breivik, Roof, McVeigh, and Robert Bowers — the man accused of murdering 11 Jews in a Pittsburgh, PA synagogue in 2018:
But he also gave his business, Lambert Technical Solutions, LLC, a five-star review under the alias “George Knox.” The photo Lambert used was similar to his avatar on Gab: a photo of Danny Glover sporting a bowlcut with the Bowl Patrol symbol to the right. The only other reviews from this account were Missouri-based establishments.
A third social media profile, this time on Instagram, lists the name “Benjamin Michael” and uses the handle @cheddar_mane. The account’s avatar is a photo that resembles Lambert.
Perhaps Lambert was so haphazard at covering his tracks because he had gotten complacent. Maybe he simply forgot how to properly separate his personal life as a white supremacist from his professional life as a karaoke-loving IT consultant.
But whatever the reason for his numerous missteps, one thing is clear: if Ben Lambert wishes to continue to praise acts of domestic terrorism and vent his hatred of Jews and non-whites, he has to do it under his real identity.
[This article has been updated to reflect the fact that Brenton Tarrant changed his plea to “guilty” in late March 2020.]
Angry White Men 