A violent past and vehement anti-Semitism defined the life of the elderly man identified by police sources as the killer of a guard at the National Holocaust Museum.

James von Brunn, 88, was particularly focused on the June 8, 1967, attack on the U.S.S. Liberty, struck by Israeli fighter jets during the Six-Day War, which resulted in the deaths of 34 American crewmembers. The incident is recognized by the U.S. government as having been friendly-fire, but has been seized upon by conspiracy theorists.