NEW YORK _ The maniac accused of stabbing five Jewish men in Monsey, N.Y., kept an anti-Semitic journal and googled "Why did Hitler hate the Jews" the same month as the attack, prosecutors said Monday in a hate crimes complaint.
The new details about Grafton Thomas's journal and internet search history contradicted claims by his family that he was not anti-Semitic but had long struggled with mental illness.
The journal, found at Thomas's home in Greenwood Lake, included questions like "why ppl mourned for anti-Semitism when there is Semitic genocide" and references to "Adolf Hitler" and "Nazi culture" on the same page as drawings of a Star of David and swastika, prosecutors said.
Thomas searched "German Jewish temples near me," "Zionist temples in Elizabeth NJ" and "Prominent companies founded by Jews in America" in the weeks leading up to the Saturday attack, according to the criminal complaint.
The federal hate crime charges are on top of the five state charges of attempted murder. Thomas is currently being held on $5 million bail and has pleaded not guilty.
Gov. Andrew Cuomo called the attack during a Chanukah celebration "a blatant act of domestic terrorism."
