Nicky Crane

Nicola Vincenzio "Nicky" Crane (21 May 1958 - 8 December 1993) was a British neo-Nazi skinhead activist. He came out as gay before dying from an AIDS-related illness in 1993. Max Schaefer's 2010 novel Children of the Sun depicts an aspiring screenwriter's search to find out about who was the "real" Nicky Crane.

Neo-Nazism

Nicky Crane joined the British Movement (BM) in the late 1970s, and by 1980, he had become the BM organiser for Kent. In 1980, he attacked a black family at a bus stop near Liverpool Street station. For this act, he was convicted of unlawfully fighting and making an affray, and given a suspended sentence. Crane appeared on several T-shirts and calendars produced by the Aldgate skinhead shop The Last Resort during the 1980s. In 1981, he appeared on the cover of the Oi! compilation album Strength Thru Oi! (due to his skinhead appearance, not his racist views), with his Nazi tattoos partially airbrushed out.^[1]

Also in 1981, he was convicted and jailed for four years for his role in a BM-organised attack on a group of black youths arriving on a train at Woolwich Arsenal railway station in 1980. He once led an attack on an anti-racist concert being held in Jubilee Gardens in London. Pictures of him storming the stage where singer Hank Wangford was performing appeared in national newspapers; although Crane was clearly identifiable, no action was taken. Released from jail in 1984, Crane soon began providing security for the white power skinhead band Skrewdriver, and remained associated with the band and its leader, Ian Stuart Donaldson, for the rest of the decade, designing two of the band's album covers and writing the lyrics for the song "Justice" on the LP Hail the New Dawn. He was jailed again in 1986 for six months following a fight on an Underground train. In 1987, he was instrumental in setting up the neo-Nazi network Blood and Honour with Donaldson.

Homosexuality

Crane was leading a double life as a homosexual, even serving as a steward at the London gay pride march in 1986. He was a regular at London gay clubs such as Heaven, Bolts and the Bell pub.^[2] At various times, Crane had worked as a bin man, bicycle courier, and a doorman at an S&M club. He worked for the protection agency Gentle Touch, and was able to shrug off any connection with the London gay scene as just part of his security work.^[3] He also appeared in the Psychic TV video for Unclean, and in amateur gay porn films while still a neo-Nazi activist.^[4] In July 1992, Crane admitted his homosexuality on the Channel 4 programme Out. On the programme, Crane and various other homosexuals explained why they were attracted to the skinhead scene. He was immediately disowned by his Nazi associates, including Ian Stuart Donaldson, who said he felt "betrayed". The same month, the UK newspaper The Sun ran an article on him entitled Nazi Nick is a Panzi, and included a picture of Crane with his face snarling at camera, head shaved bald, braces worn over his bare torso, faded jeans, white-laced boots and brandishing an axe. Some 18 months later, Crane had died from an AIDS-related illness.

Footnotes

1. ^ www.garry-bushell.co.uk - Oi! – The Truth by Garry Bushell
2. ^ Searchlight, September 1986
3. ^ http://www.skrewdriver.org/diamond.html
4. ^ Sounds, 22 September 1984

External links

• The Strange Case of Nicola Vincenzio Crane

Persondata
Name	Crane, Nicky
Alternative names
Short description
Date of birth	21 May 1958
Place of birth
Date of death	8 December 1993
Place of death