A self-proclaimed incel has pleaded guilty to an attempt to murder after plotting sorority mass shooting
- An Ohio man pleaded guilty to attempting to commit a hate crime against female sorority students.
- Incel Tres Genco, 21, faces up to life in prison after his plan to commit a mass shooting was foiled.
An Ohio man has pleaded guilty to one count of attempting to commit a hate crime against female sorority students.
Tres Genco, 21, of Hillsboro, Ohio, faces life in prison because his crimes involved an attempt to kill, the Department for Justice has announced.
Prosecutors said Genco, a self-proclaimed "incel," wrote a manifesto saying he wanted to "slaughter" women "out of hatred, jealousy and revenge."
The case shines a light on the ideologies of the online incel movement — characterized by sexually frustrated young men who harbor a hatred of women, who they objectify and resent for not 'giving' them sex.
The indictment against Genco reads that he wrote a 2019 manifesto titled, "A Hideous Symphony, a manifesto written by Tres Genco, the socially exiled incel."
He said: "I will slaughter out of hatred, jealousy and revenge. I will take away the power of life that they withhold from me, by showing there is more than just happiness and fulfillment, there is all-encompassing death the great equalizer that will bear all of us into its seductively calm velvet of silence and serenity."
In another document — which Genco signed "your hopeful friend and murderer" — he wrote how he wanted to kill more than 3,000 people. In it, he said would "aim big."
The 21-year-old also searched the internet for "how to plan a shooting crime," and "when does preparing for a crime become attempt?"
He also said, according to a DoJ statement, that he had shot at "foids" — an incel-community term for women — with orange juice when they did not respond to his catcalls. Mass shooter and incel Elliot Rodgers did the same before he went on to kill six people and injure 14 at a sorority at the University of California, Santa Barbara.
Genco described Rodgers as "the saint."
Genco attended Army Basic Training at Ft. Benning, Georgia, from August through December 2019, said the DoJ.
Charging documents state that in 2019, Genco purchased tactical gloves, a bulletproof vest, a hoodie bearing the word "Revenge," a bowie knife, a skull facemask, two Glock 17 magazines, a 9mm Glock 17 clip, and a holster clip concealed carry for a Glock.
U.S. Attorney Kenneth L. Parker for the Southern District of Ohio said: "Genco formulated a plot to kill women and intended to carry it out. Our federal and local law enforcement partners stopped that from happening.
"Hate has no place in our country – including gender-based hate – and we will continue to work with our law enforcement partners to vigorously prosecute any such conduct."
Due to the incel movement being a primarily hidden online subculture, it is difficult to gauge its size accurately. However, current estimates suggest that the subculture hosts tens of thousands of people — mainly white, heterosexual men.
A recent study by the CCDH has investigated the incel subculture, with their analysis finding threads of prolific incel websites depicted overwhelming support among the users for rape.
Insider's Joshua Zitser reported that the study shows that 89% of those responding, who had a position on the issue, were in support of rape. Only 5% disagreed with rape, the study said, with one user saying they disapproved of the criminal act because it is too "unimaginative."
The study also found that, besides rape, posts promoted pedophilia, used racist, antisemitic, and anti-LGBTQ language, and discussed mass shootings.
In an introduction to the study, CCDH chief executive Imran Ahmed said: "Incels are dangerous to themselves and to others.
"They are a highly-developed example of the kinds of modern digital communities, based on malignant ideologies, pseudoscience, misinformation, and hate that proliferate and are enabled by unregulated online businesses to cause our societies serious harm."