Billionaire Republican megadonor and friend of Supreme Court Justice Thomas Harlan Crow lives a quiet life in Dallas, Texas.
Crow, heir to a real estate fortune, also collects Hitler artifacts, a signed copy of Mein Kampf, assorted Nazi memorabilia, and a garden of statues of 20th century despots.
The garden contains portraits of dictators Nicolae Ceausescu, Vladimir Lenin, Mao-tse Tung, and Joseph Stalin, in addition to renditions of Churchill and Thatcher.
These are apparently not statues that Crow has commissioned—Crow has said that they’re bona-fide artifacts from public squares across Europe and Asia that citizens toppled at the end of dictatorial regimes. According to Crow, the white streaks on the Lenin statue are the remnants of paint thrown by furious Russians, and the chunks missing from Stalin are evidence of the wrath of the anti-Communist hordes.
–Washingtonian
Crow says he’s filled his property with these mementoes because he hates communism and fascism.
In 2015, Crow organized a fundraiser for Marco Rubio on the eve of Yom Kippur, which caused a bit of a stir. The RNC provided cover for Rubio at the time, saying opposition was manufacturing a false controversy since Crow also collected artifacts belonging to Abraham Lincoln and others.
“I still can’t get over the collection of Nazi memorabilia,” says one person who attended an event at Crow’s home a few years ago and asked to remain anonymous. “It would have been helpful to have someone explain the significance of all the items. Without that context, you sort of just gasp when you walk into the room.” One memorable aspect was the paintings: “something done by George W. Bush next to a Norman Rockwell next to one by Hitler.” They also said it was “startling” and “strange” to see the dictator sculptures in the backyard.
