Sundance Labs Filmmaker Elgin James Indicted By FBI for Extortion
When I interviewed Elgin James a few weeks ago, his personal narrative was so compelling that it's no surprise Hollywood wanted to option it. A former Boston gang leader who stole from drug dealers to give to straight-edge causes, James had cleaned up his act and moved out west to become a filmmaker, and after seeing two of his scripts accepted into the Sundance Labs, he was preparing to go into production on one of them (Goodnight Moon, starring Alia Shawkat and Juno Temple) in just a few months. It was a striking trajectory, though as James told me then, "The criminal lifestyle is more honest, maybe, then what I found in Hollywood." Still, it seems that former lifestyle may have caught up with him.
The Boston Phoenix reports that James was indicted by the FBI this week on extortion charges that could carry a sentence of up to twenty years in prison.
According to the allegations, in October 2005, a member of Chicago band Mest was beaten by six men as he walked to his tour bus, forcing Mest to cancel its show that night for fear of further attacks. A month later, James contacted the victim and informed him that for a payment of $5,000 to James's gang, FSU, he could buy himself "protection" for the band's upcoming tour. The money, James was alleged to have said, would be used to bail out a friend of James and to buy Christmas gifts for his children.
In February 2006, the victim met with James while under FBI surveillance and exchanged the money, an act that would lead to the charges against the fledgling filmmaker over three years later.
Phoenix blogger Carly Carioli said of James yesterday, "Late last night we heard through the grapevine that he was out on bail." Developing...
· From Sundance to the slammer: FSU founder-turned-filmmaker indicted on extortion charges by FBI [The Phoenix]
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Comments
Isn't this the guy who started FSU? Why are you guys surprised? They're straight-edge fascists. That dude from Mest was probably beaten for smoking a cigarette. I believe that FSU has been investigated for murder as well, but that could be made up.
If everyone in Hollywood knew that this guy was trying to tell the rest of the world what to do, I don't think they'd be so into it.
Who knows what happened, but the guy from Mest is no angel, he's the same guy that was in a white power band and murdered his girlfriends ex-boyfriend in Studio City two years ago. Maybe he's just trying to talk his way out of his own trouble.
His talents are wasted on writing. Make this guy the head of a Major Studio!
In other news: Ed Harris recently celebrated his 100th birthday...
Ooh, I didn't know that about the Mest guy! Anyhow, the smoking's gonna get him anyway, so let's just let that one go.
Hmmm…Bruce Swaintock (may have spelled that wrong) who was an original member of FSU was a Confederate Hammerskin in the mid-1980’s. Nathan James was a skinhead from Connecticut who didn’t mind fence sitting–think back to Forced Reality days– until somehow FSU got a name for “fighting nazis”. Incidentally, I am a Boston native and saw very few Nazi skins in the area. The few that showed up got chased away pretty quick. Sure, FSU might have been involved in that but it was a case of personality clashes and “turf” BS, nothing about being crusading anti-racists.
I knew Nathan vaguely when he worked the door at The Paradise in Boston and got along well enough with him. The trouble is, Nathan will say anything you want to hear, depending on the crowd or who is listening. I’ve met few people who want to be “infamous” more.
As for the SXE thing, I have no idea where that all started. I know Nathan didn’t do drugs or drink but I met plenty of FSU members who did. And listened to racist bands, for that matter.
Some of the FSU guys I knew were okay, some were big assholes. But it does seem like the latter category ultimately won out…I never feared going to a show because of “Nazi skins” but certainly would think twice if there was going to be a large FSU presence.
I’m no FSU expert and wouldn’t want to be. Just telling people what I saw in the late 1980’s, early ’90’s before shit like this made me give it up for Nick Drake records.
What goes around, comes around, doesn’t matter if you are a white power asshole, a drug dealing asshole or a “saving hardcore” asshole.
Elgin James is the James Frey of film.
A privileged upbringing in Connecticut spun to sound tough - with made up stories to boot.
According to the Sundance Institute: Elgin wasn't approaching 40 and trying to capitalize on his embellished stories, he was "crawling out of the criminal lifestyle and settling in Los Angeles"
Apparently, the guy from Mest that he was taunting and having beaten didn't get the message that Elgin was "crawling out of the criminal lifestyle"
P.T. Barnum would be proud
Sounds like alot of Boston Crew members or affiliates got sand in their vaginas because Nate walked out of the candyland world where they were not much more then attempted carnival robbers and is out making more of himself then a wanna be MMA fighter or a piss poor 40 something bully with mickey mouse hand tattoos. Boston Crew was always the weak because they lacked cohesion for all their ego and thug ambition. Nate was wasting his years away keeping their screwups from going public and making FSU look like the suckers of the hardcore scene.
Privileged? You're tripping. Knew him back in the day on the streets of New Haven. Always a real dude. Sorry for the situation now but am sure it will all work out when details come to light. Can't stand all the anonymous haters...
Thank you Sundance for supporting someone who has caused so much destruction in other people's lives.
It is sad that anyone who has lived an interesting life is now "The James Frey of...." Stop projecting your own boring lives onto people who have done something with theirs. I won't say I knew Nathan (Elgin) well by any means but we had some mutual friends in Boston in the 90s (M-80) and he was always very polite and very serious. He never struck me as a bullshitter, not in the least. He always had varied interests, unlike his friends, or so it seemed to this quasi-outsider. I can't comment on these charges but men like Nathan have been targeted for a lot worse throughout history. A little jealousy goes a long way.
It is not sad that anyone who has lived an "interesting life" is now "The James Frey of..."
Plenty of people lead interesting lives.
The difference is is that Nathan has to make up stories about is past.
James Frey is a decent writer and I'm sure he has people who like him - it doesn't make him any less of a liar.
Nathan is posing like Frey did though.
Savath,
So anyone who is at all skeptical of Nathan leads a "boring" life?
You also said, "men like Nathan have been targeted...throughout history?
Please.
If you want to give interviews bragging about your gang leadership, shouldn't you also have to accept the responsibilities that come with that role?
I'll buy Nathan some t-shirts with sleeves (apparently someone keeps tearing his off), if you can elaborate on how he has been "targeted"
like other men like him "throughout history"
Points for drama
All these personal attacks are getting old. This suspicious case is all that matters. The evidence will show the truth. Good luck man.
According to Elgin's incredibly profound opening monologue he wrote/performed for "Boston Beatdown," it was McDonald's and Starbuck's that drove him to this behavior.
Of course, he doesn't mind corporate money when it will benefit him.
What about all the mom & pop extortionist's he put out of business?
Stop Big Extortion!
This kind of pointless back and forth bickering is reason enough to never go online again.
how can you all talk like you know this guy's past? say that he's making things up? are you his family or something?
i don't understand...
i have to agree with 'everyobdy's hero'...
Funny, all these negative comments are from the same person who's cut and pasted them in every thread on the internet about this case, pretending to be a bunch of different people Give it a rest. Some of us actually want to see this movie get made. Long Live Maeby Funke!
HAHA, You noticed that too? I thought I was just having a major case of deja vu. Haterz are killing the internet.
Has anyone bothered to corroborate Elgin's many stories?
Here's a hint: He didn't grow up on a farm...he didn't get jumped in Bridgeport, CT...there's more
Jumped where then Chris? On the beach perhaps? More...
Here's the deal.
Elgin's great talent seems to be in telling stories....and in surrounding himself with sycophants...in Boston, and now in LA
In the "History" Channel show on FSU - Elgin tells a story of getting jumped in Bridgeport CT. The video makes it seem like he was jumped by racist skinheads...and that is what Elgin wants people to believe because it seems so much more dramatic or righteous than the truth.
He did get beat up once, and that is unfortunate, but it was at a party while he was home on college break (and it wasn't in Bridgeport) and it definitely wasn't by skinheads.
Like I said, he is a good story teller. Good story tellers include an element of truth. Like telling people he was a "homeless teenager". Well he may have been a teenager, but he was an adult (over the age of 18) and he could have gone home at any time. A far cry from what it means to be truly homeless, or homeless as a teenager - say 15 or 16 yrs. old.
If he says he became "homeless" (as a teenager), after getting "jumped" people infer that one caused the other. "Wow -he got beat up and it caused him to be homeless"-it's dramatic. The truth is much more mundane. He was an adult, college drop out, seeking adventure, who moved to a city and couldn't support himself; a story repeated a million times a day all over the U.S. ..especially in LA.
How about his story of getting stabbed - conveniently, there were no witnesses...it goes on and on...
Didn't you hear? Elgin James is a pacifist now! ...will we hear untrue stories about his nonviolence now?
i know nathan and lived with him for many years. his stories are true and like all stories they always make the person telling them look a little better"the hole big fish i caught story" but they are 98 % on the ball. life is what you make of it and he seems to have tried to better it.i lost touch with nathan in 1997. wen i left fsu to become a member of the outlaws mc. love him or hate him he has a storie to tell. talk on the internet is cowardly leave your name .be a man .nathan always was. feel free to reference me. its my real name in the post.
Bruce,
Sorry, but Elgin does exaggerate and embellish. These are not the marks of someone who is "being a man". More likely, they describe someone who is manipulative and craves attention, fame... whatever. Elgin has actively sought to promote himself based on his bio. So, does the bio hold up?
I only brought up two simple points (to begin with):
Was he jumped in a gang fight? No
Did he grow up on a farm? No
Bruce, why make up these stories? If I'm wrong, tell me what the truth is.
It's not so interesting to say I was a kid from a middle class background with no obvious job skills who dropped out of college and me and my buddies formed a group that beat up drunk college kids in a trendy section of Boston. (see "Boston Beatdown" - another Elgin scripted self promotion)
As far as "leaving my name" - I have, my first name.
Have you read the transcript of Elgin's extortion attempt? - its online. It offers some insight into Elgin's character. If being a "man" is having your groupies beat someone who won't pay you money, then he's a man.
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