Civil War reenactor sentenced after planting pipe bomb and blaming it on antifa

Gerald Leonard Drake planted a pipe bomb and sent threatening letters, prosecutors said. (Mugshot: Frederick County Sheriff

Gerald Leonard Drake planted a pipe bomb and sent threatening letters, prosecutors said. (Mugshot: Frederick County Sheriff’s Office)

After getting kicked out of his Civil War reenactment unit, a man terrorized a related organization by planting a pipe bomb and writing anonymous letters in which he pretended to be “antifa.” Gerald Leonard Drake, 64, was sentenced on Thursday to nine years in federal prison for unregistered explosive device and stalking.

In court documents and press statements, prosecutors in the Western District of Virginia said Drake belonged to a reenactment unit commemorating the 1864 Battle of Cedar Creek. He got kicked out in 2014 over an “internal conflict.”

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