Joseph Keller

From Rofflehaus

The long saga of white supremacist, non-traditional student Joe Keller began with a Iowa State Daily Feb. 2003 article profiling the then 46-year old Harvard graduate's decision to live in the dorms (Knapp Murray house).

The article caught the attention of a reader, who notified the Daily that Keller was, among other things, a former candidate for Missouri governor in 2000 for the Reform party and an officer in the European-American Unity and Rights Organization, whose website is www.whitecivilrights.com. Suddenly, his quotes in the previous article, such as "But I do take advantage of basic social opportunities such as house meetings," had a more sinister tone.

The publishing of the Mar. 2003 article brought out some interesting feedback. Most people derided the Daily for writing what they felt was a hit piece against an otherwise capable Math 265 teaching assistant.

However, the Daily was somewhat vindicated when in April, Keller was arrested and charged with assault after unleashing a barrage of anti-Semitic insults against a student, who incidentally was not Jewish, but did have the misfortune of wooing a female student in whom the much older Keller was apparently interested.

Keller was none too pleased at the Daily and the second article's writer, Nicole Paseka. Paseka and other Daily staff members have reported incidents of Keller stalking them or making creepy comments to them. He also threatened to sue the Daily and made paranoid accusations, such as that Daily photographers were taking pictures of his house using weather planes/satellites.

Keller frequently contributes to the Daily's letters section and online feedback.