Max Azzarello, the Florida man who died after setting himself ablaze outside the New York City courtroom where Donald Trump's hush money trial was underway, embraced conspiracy theories and railed about a "totalitarian con" and the government.
Azzarello, 37, from St. Augustine, Fla., doused himself with a flammable liquid and set himself on fire outside the Manhattan courthouse on Friday, shocking bystanders as police frantically tried to douse the flames.
He tossed pamphlets in the air before he set himself aflame that included references to a 2,700-word manifesto he published on Substack detailing a number of conspiracy theories.
"This extreme act of protest is to draw attention to an urgent and important discovery: We are victims of a totalitarian con, and our own government (along with many of their allies) is about to hit us with an apocalyptic fascist world coup," Azzarello wrote.
A former classmate who knew Azzarello when he was studying for his 2012 master's degree in city and regional planning at Rutgers University said he was "super curious about social justice and the way things 'could' be," and described him as "creative and adventurous."
But friends of the Florida native say he was deeply disturbed by the death of his mom, Elizabeth Azzarello, in April 2022 on Long Island, the New York Times reported.
"That was around the time when he became more outspoken," Steven Waldman, a friend of Azzarello's from high school, told the newspaper. "They were close, and they had a good relationship. He was heartbroken."
A year after her death, Azzarello's writing showed that his grief was under control but other problems surfaced.
He described himself as a "research investigator" on his LinkedIn page, and began telling friends of the manifesto he had penned.
In August 2023, he wrote on Facebook about being treated for mental health issues. "Three days in the psych ward, and all I got were my new favorite socks," he quipped in the posting, the New York Times reported.
