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Award-winning investigative journalist Nate Thayer has done an exhaustive investigation of Valor Thief Larry Mitchell Hopkins, and is generous in forwarding his work to me for posting here. His documentation is voluminous, but I urge you all to take the time necessary to view the post in its entirety; it’s an incredible story of a life-long criminal and Stolen Valor thief.
\nAW1Ed<\/p>\n
By Nate Thayer<\/strong><\/p>\n June 13, 2019<\/p>\n The son of a country music Hall of Fame legend, U.S. Army Special Forces Vietnam combat veteran Colonel Johnny Horton, Jr., the commander of the heavily armed, paramilitary United Constitutional Patriots militia group, drew nationwide headlines earlier this year for detaining illegal immigrants at gunpoint on the New Mexico border and vowing to defend the United States against an \u201cinvasion of illegal criminals.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cI know the enemy is close to the border. I am going to fight and I may give my life but at least I will be there and stand by my oath. They didn\u2019t get me when I was in the army. If they get me now at least I will die for our country and what keeping America free is all about,\u201d wrote Horton, Jr earlier this year.<\/p>\n The gun-toting right-wing extremist leader of the United Constitutional Patriots vigilante group is, in truth, a U.S. military deserter and career criminal, U.S. Army and court records show, who has lived the life of a fraud for more than a half century.<\/p>\n Johnny Horton, Jr. was never with the U.S. Army Special Forces and never went to Vietnam, according to his official U.S. military records, both claims he has repeatedly asserted publicly.<\/p>\n His name is not even Johnny Horton, Jr., according to federal court records.<\/p>\n Larry Mitchell Hopkins, 69, aka Johnny Horton, Jr., is a multiple convicted felon, who has left a colorful trail of criminal arrests nationwide, according to numerous court records obtained in this investigation, living the life of a grifter, conman, and fraud for the last half century landing him in county jails and state prisons from Tennessee to Texas to Michigan to South Dakota to Idaho to Oregon to Montana to Washington to California and, as of April 22, Las Cruces, New Mexico where the leader of the most high-profile armed paramilitary militia group in the United States, the United Constitutional Patriots, now resides in the county jail awaiting trial on federal charges of possession of firearms by a convicted felon.<\/p>\n Hopkins aka Horton didn\u2019t \u201cstand by his oath\u201d when he was formally designated as AWOL by the United States Army and \u201cdropped from the rolls\u2013desertion\u201d from Ft Lewis, Washington on December 13, 1967 and on the run from the law until he was apprehended in Montana in late 1968 on interstate auto theft and federal military desertion charges, according to Army and court records. His official U.S. military DD-214 records, obtained through a Freedom of Information Act request, list him a \u201cPrisoner IHCA USAG Ft. MacArthur, CA\u201d as of October 20, 1969 and again as of July 29, 1970 until he was released from an Army brig as a private and given the boot on August 27, 1970.<\/p>\n Those records show he was discharged from the U.S. military with an \u201cRE3B\u201d separation code\u2013a designation that makes him ineligible to ever serve in the U.S. armed forces again\u2013and denotes \u201cindividuals who are not qualified for continued Army service\u201d, \u201cineligible for enlistment\u201d, and whose \u201cseparation is in the best interests of the Army.\u201d<\/p>\n The official U.S. Army DD214 military records of Larry Mitchell Hopkins, who claims he is a three-tour combat veteran of Vietnam with the U.S. Army Special Forces with the rank of Colonel. The records show Hopkins spent his entire Army career in a military prison in California on charges of desertion before being booted with the rank of private<\/strong><\/p>\n For more than 40 years, Horton, Jr. has lived a Walter Mitty life of an imposter, touring America with his music act falsely claiming to be the son of country music Hall of Fame legend, Johnny Horton, an identity he continues to insist is true despite the outraged protestations of Horton, Sr.\u2019s actual family.<\/p>\n In November 1968, Hopkins was arrested in Montana on Washington state auto theft charges after he stole his girlfriends truck in Washington state and she complained to authorities. She also told the cops Hopkins was AWOL from the military. \u201cLarry Mitchell Hopkins, 19, of Happy Camp, Calif., was picked up by Lake County Sheriff\u2019s officers Tuesday on a federal warrant for interstate transportation of a stolen vehicle. He has been transferred to Missoula. Hopkins reportedly is AWOL from the service and is charged with the auto theft in another state,\u201d reads a November 1968 Montana news article headlined \u201cAWOL Serviceman Arrested at Polson.\u201d Another Montana news clip that day said \u201cLarry M. Hopkins, 19, Pablo, charged with transporting a stolen car in interstate commerce, was ordered held in Missoula County Jail under a $2,000 bond Thursday after being arraigned by U.S. Commissioner J. E. Brodie. Hopkins allegedly transported a stolen automobile from Bremerton, Wash., to Gait, Calif. He was arrested Wednesday by Federal Bureau of Investigation agents.\u201d<\/p>\n Court records show that Hopkins has been arrested dozens of times by U.S. Army, federal, state, and local authorities and spent numerous spurts of time in county jails, military brigs, and state prisons in a multitude of states over the last half a century.<\/p>\n They show Hopkins has been arrested for impersonating a police officer, writing bad checks, prison escape, failure to pay child support, bigamy, auto theft, possession of firearms by a convicted felon, being AWOL from the U.S. Army, numerous probation violations, escaping from federal custody, and defrauding music club owners, among numerous other charges.<\/p>\n At least twice, in Oregon and Texas, he was arrested on charges of impersonating a cop. He has repeatedly claimed to be a U.S. Army Special Forces Colonel combat veteran of Vietnam, and claims to have a son who was killed in combat during the Gulf war.<\/p>\n In addition to his false Stolen Valor military claims and a career as the imposter son of a country music star, Hopkins also claims to be Elvis Presley\u2019s cousin, a graduate of the University of Wyoming, a full blood Cherokee Indian, and in regular contact with President Donald Trump since they met while, Hopkins claims, he was playing at a Casino in Las Vegas in the 1980\u2019s, interviews and court records show.<\/p>\n None of those claims are true, either.<\/p>\n Hopkins is the \u201ccommander\u201d and founder of the high profile United Constitutional Patriots armed militia group which grabbed headlines in 2019 after detaining hundreds of migrants at gunpoint along the United States-Mexico border. The group has issued calls \u201cfor reinforcements\u201d of other far-right armed extremists who, equipped with war weaponry and using military tactics, have \u201cdeployed\u201d to the border to conduct vigilante operations. They have raised thousands of dollars in donations over social media.<\/p>\n \u201cThey are former Green Berets. They are former law enforcement and they know what they are doing. This is what we need, people who know what they are doing. We are asking for former military or law enforcement,\u201d an April, 2019 United Constitutional Patriots radio broadcast seeking support said.<\/p>\n The group\u2019s listed objective is to \u201cuphold the Constitution of The United States of America\u201d and to protect citizens\u2019 rights \u201cagainst all enemies both foreign and domestic\u201d \u2014 which mimics the Oath of Enlistment taken by U.S. military service members.<\/p>\n Assuming his GI Joe fantasy life as a battle-tested U.S. Army Special Forces combat veteran of Vietnam leading his own private army defending America\u2019s borders from what Hopkins calls \u201can invasion of criminals, drug cartels, Muslim terrorists, and sex traffickers\u201d, Hopkins appointed himself a five star general of the United Constitutional Patriots, dressing in the full regalia including an Army Special Forces beret with five stars attached and five stars on shoulder epaulets, as well as U.S. army airborne wings on his chest.<\/p>\n Hopkins, of course, earned none of these ranks or medals.<\/p>\n There have only been five five-stars in the U.S. Army and four in U.S. Navy in U.S. military history, and Larry Mitchell Hopkins is not one of them.<\/p>\n They are George C. Marshall, Douglas MacArthur, Dwight D. Eisenhower, Henry H. Arnold, Omar Bradley, William D. Leahy, Ernest J. King, Chester Nimitz, and William F. Halsey.<\/p>\n General Omar Bradley, the most senior commander of American ground troops in Europe from D-Day in June 1944 to the German surrender in May 1945, was the last officer to receive the rank, in 1950. The rank has lain dormant since then. United States Founding father George Washington is the only American to have been accorded six stars.<\/p>\n But that didn\u2019t stop military deserter Hopkins from assuming that rank as head of the paramilitary United Constitutional Patriots border militia vigilante group.<\/p>\n The United Constitutional Patriots have deployed a rogues gallery of mostly overweight, middle-aged but heavily armed men dressed in mismatched military uniforms, adorned with regalia purchased over the Internet, to the border in New Mexico. Videos the group posted showing militia members wielding war weaponry ordering families, including young children, to sit on the dirt and wait for U.S. Border Patrol agents to take custody of them. The group is made up of \u201cAmericans that believe in the constitution and the rights of every American that will stand up for there [sic] rights in unity and help keep America safe,\u201d according to their Facebook page.<\/p>\n On Facebook, the group says they are a nonprofit and insinuates they are associated with the United States Army Special Forces. \u201cWe are covered under the 501C3 Home of the 5th,\u201d reads their Facebook page, referencing the U.S. army 5th Special Forces, a unit that Hopkins falsely claims to have served three tours in Vietnam with the rank of Colonel. Shortly before his April 2019 arrest, photographs of Hopkins show him wearing a 5th Special Forces Vietnam Veteran hat and accompanying medals, including airborne jump wings.<\/p>\n Hopkins actual military record is straightforward and documented. He was never attached to the U.S. Army Special Forces, his official DD-214 U.S. Army military records show. The entirety of his military service was spent in U.S. Army detention and prison after he deserted his unit in California shortly after enlisting in 1967 and went on the lam.<\/p>\n Hopkins fled when given a choice by a Montana judge in 1967 to join the army or go to jail and was on the run when he was arrested on interstate auto theft charges and federal charges as an Army deserter in 1969. U.S. Army records show he spent the remainder of his Army career as a military \u201cprisoner\u201d in California before being less than honorably discharged two years later as an army private, having never gone to Vietnam.<\/p>\n In April, United Constitutional Patriots spokesman Jim Bevie defended Hopkins, saying \u201cWe\u2019re just a group of volunteer patriots, veterans in law enforcement.\u201d Bevie still contends Hopkins is \u201ca 70-year-old Vietnam veteran\u2026He was a victim in this.\u201d<\/p>\n Hopkins continues to assert that he is a combat-tested military veteran. Recently, Hopkins defended many of the more outlandish false claims he has made in recent years.<\/p>\n When questioned recently about his stolen valor false military record claims, Hopkins still double downs insisting he is a U.S. Army special forces Vietnam combat veteran.<\/p>\n \u201cI do want one thing cleared up real fast. What you thought said stolen valor does not say stolen valor at all. It was stolen vehicle,\u201d Hopkins told the right-wing militia radio podcast in a live interview from his single-wide trailer in the New Mexico desert earlier this year. \u201cThe girl that I was going with back in Texas in the, I don\u2019t know, early \u201980\u2019s, I used her truck. I didn\u2019t get back when I was supposed to and she didn\u2019t know how to find me so instead of calling the Texas state patrol or whatever it was to put a locator on me she reported it stolen. The next morning I went in front of the judge on arraignment and it was all straightened out and dismissed immediately.\u201d<\/p>\n Actually, Hopkins appears to have lost track of his myriad of criminal charges and less than stellar association with the United States military over recent decades. According to court records, it was 1968 when he was first arrested on auto theft charges for stealing a girlfriends vehicle while simultaneously having outstanding warrants for desertion from the U.S. military. Instead of being \u201call straightened out and dismissed\u201d, Hopkins was turned over to the FBI who then turned him over to the custody of the United States Army where he spent the next few years in a California military brig.<\/p>\n \u201cWhat you say is stolen valor is stolen vehicle,\u201d Hopkins still insists. \u201cThere is not stolen valor of any kind.\u201d<\/p>\n Hopkins has indeed been charged with auto theft-related charges in Texas, California, Washington, and Montana. Twice he was returned to military custody on federal charges of desertion from the Army.<\/p>\n \u201cYou said your records are sealed\u2014your military records?\u201d asked an internet podcast interviewer in early 2019.<\/p>\n \u201cI was told not to go into that, because there are people who are making false statements, my lawyers are telling them to cease and desist. They are going to court,\u201d Hopkins replied.<\/p>\n \u201cMy grandfather was a Green Beret and did four tours and got three purple hearts and his military records were not sealed because it was not like he was Navy Seal,\u201d the suspicious interviewer from Renegade Radio responded. \u201cI was just wondering why you are so special.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cI am not going into it. I don\u2019t mean to be disrespectful,\u201d said Hopkins.<\/p>\n \u201cOkay. I was just wondering what made you so top secret, like if you were in with the CIA.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cI can\u2019t talk about it. I cannot talk about it,\u201d said Hopkins. \u201cI do get my military disability. I do have my VA card. And I do have my DD-214. My DD219 is sealed.\u201d<\/p>\n There is no such thing as a DD219. Hopkins made that up, too.<\/p>\n A DD214 is the official military record issued to anyone who has ever served in the U.S. uniformed services, and includes any deployments, training, rank, and awards, among other specifics of a veterans service. Hopkins declined to share his DD214 when asked. It was later obtained through a Freedom of Information Act request and more detailed portions of his military service record found in 2010 federal court records charging Hopkins with fleeing several states and assuming fake aliases to avoid paying court-ordered child support payments.<\/p>\n Disclosing his DD214 service records \u201cwould have tied into the false valor, but if you have other ways of proving that you actually did serve then I will definitely back off. To be honest with you, I don\u2019t even want to be involved with this. This is like watching soap operas,\u201d the interviewer concluded.<\/p>\n \u201cI am not going to talk about it. I was told that by my lawyers. If you come here I will prove to you I was part of the military,\u201d said Hopkins.<\/p>\n \u201cOkay, we are going to put the question of your arrest record to rest as everyone can change their ways and whatnot. I just have a question for you,\u201d asked a far-right militia member who hosts Renegade Network internet podcast. \u201cIf you\u2019re not rich and you\u2019re great friends with President Trump, Trey Gowdy, and Elvis Presley, how come they weren\u2019t able to give you bond money, bail you out of jail, because I saw one of your bonds was $15,000. That is just something that boggles me there.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cJust because you are friends with somebody doesn\u2019t mean you are going to call them when you get in trouble,\u201d Hopkins answered. \u201cAnd as for being friends with Elvis Presley, that is going deeper. He is my cousin. That is proven.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cThe people that I know and who my friends are, I have earned every inch of their trust and respect. Now when you are talking about people and them, we have people\u2014I\u2019m not saying their names or anything\u2014I\u2019ve been told not to say their names anymore because of the threats of the Democratic Party and on our radio show we have one of President Trump\u2019s advisors. We have direct contact to the oval office through two other people. We are working directly with them,\u201d Hopkins continued, referring to his rag-tag private militia efforts to intercept migrants on the southern border. \u201cPeople can believe it or not. It is a fact. It\u2019s true.\u201d<\/p>\n Referring to Hopkins claims to be in regular contact with his \u201ccousin\u201d Elvis Presley, who Hopkins claims is alive and living in Hawaii, the radio interviewer asked \u201cWhy on earth, because you would be the man to know, would a man who is so successful go into hiding, Elvis, your cousin, in Hawaii. Don\u2019t you think he would have been recognized by now.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cHe has been recognized. He has tried to come out. Go to youtube 2012 you will see a video he did that says \u2018I\u2019m still alive\u2019.\u201d Hopkins replied. \u201cThe whole deal was he was involved in the DEA. He had to go into hiding because he was a witness. It was a huge deal where the mafia was concerned. You can check that out. Google it. You will also find out he came out of hiding five years ago and right now he is ready to come back out for the whole world.\u201d<\/p>\n For decades, Larry Mitchell Hopkins has played the country music circuit under the name Johnny Horton, Jr., the son of country music hall of fame legend Johnny Horton. Hopkins has been revealed as an imposter multiple times in several states.<\/p>\n Calling himself \u201ctraditional country music artist\u201d Johnny Horton, Jr., Hopkins has videos of different versions of him singing the song “The Green Beret”<\/a> with footage of soldiers in battle and the American flag waving in the background.<\/p>\n![\"5](\"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/06\/Larry-Mitchell-Hopkins-wearing-a-U.S.-Army-5th-Special-Forces-Vietnam-Veteran-e1560617213293.jpeg\")
\nLarry Mitchell Hopkins wearing a U.S. Army 5th Special Forces Vietnam Veteran hat in April 2019 at the New Mexico \u201cheadquarters\u201d of the United Constitutional Patriots vigilante militia group<\/strong><\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/06\/hopkins-dd214-assignments-enlarged.jpg\")
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\nLarry Mitchell Hopkins arrest in Montana in 1969 on auto theft and desertion from the U.S. Army charges. He was turned over to military authorities and spent the next two years in a military prison<\/strong><\/p>\n
\nFingerprints of Larry Mitchell Hopkins listing several aliases in a 2010 South Dakota federal court document indictment of Hopkins for failure to pay child support<\/strong><\/p>\n
\n2019 New Mexico federal court document listing reasons why Larry Mitchell Hopkins is a risk to be given bail and released from pre-trial incarceration on federal charges of \u201cpossession of a firearm by a convicted felon.\u201d Hopkins has fled from numerous criminal charges in several jurisdictions after being granted bail in recent decades. He remains in the Los Cruces, New Mexico county lockup awaiting trial as of June 2019<\/strong><\/p>\n
\n2019 mugshot of Larry Mitchell Hopkins in Las Cruces, New Mexico<\/strong><\/p>\n
\n1986 mugshot of Larry Mitchell Hopkins in Michigan<\/strong><\/p>\n
\nHopkins in a photograph he posted on his United Constitutional Patriots militia paramilitary group Facebook page. \u201cI stand for the flag. I kneel for the cross.\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n
\nLarry Mitchell Hopkins adorned with a U.S. Army beret featuring the insignia of a five-star general on both his hat and shoulder epaulets, airborne jump wings on his left chest, and the patch of his private militia group on his arm. There have been only 9 members of the U.S. military who have been accorded 5 stars in U.S. history. Hopkins is not one of them. His photo is superimposed over a photograph of a portion of the wall separating the U.S. from Mexico in the background. <\/strong><\/p>\n
\nLarry Mitchell Hopkins, appearing less than fit to go into battle at the headquarters of his United Constitutional Patriots militia in Sunland Park, New Mexico in April 2019. (Photo credit: Roberto E. Rosales\/Albuquerque Journal) Albuquerque, New Mexico\/Roberto E. Rosales\/Journal <\/strong><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a>
\nLarry Mitchell Hopkins U.S. Army DD214 official military service record. It shows he spent his entire military career as a prisoner after he deserted his unit in California in 1967<\/strong><\/p>\n
\nA poster Hopkins put on his militia group Facebook page in March 2019 referring to himself : \u201cJohnny Horton, Jr. American Rockstar\u201d subtitled \u201cAmerican Patriot Standing Up For His Nations Sovereignty.\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\nLife as Country Music Star Imposter<\/h3>\n