{{Short description|American minister and convicted criminal (1926–2018)}} {{Use American English|date=August 2025}} {{Use mdy dates|date=August 2025}} {{Infobox person | image = Gordon Winrod, 1958.png | image_upright = 0.6 | caption = Winrod in 1958 | birth_date = {{Birth date|1926|12|30}} | birth_place = Wichita, Kansas, U.S. | death_date = {{Death date and age|2018|08|29|1926|12|30}} | death_place = Rutledge, Alabama, U.S. | alma_mater = Concordia Theological Seminary | movement = Christian Identity }} '''Gordon Phillip Winrod''' (December 30, 1926 – August 29, 2018) was an American Christian Identity minister who was sentenced to a 30-year prison term for abducting six of his grandchildren in 1994 and 1995.<ref name=":0">{{cite news|title=Appeals court upholds conviction for anti-Semitic preacher|publisher=Associated Press|date=January 18, 2002}}</ref><ref name=":1">{{cite news|title=Judge sentences supremacist pastor in abduction of grandchildren|publisher=Associated Press|date=March 19, 2001}}</ref> Winrod was also ordered to pay up to $26 million after two of his grandchildren brought suit against him.<ref name=":2">{{cite news|title=Minister to Pay $26M for Abduction|publisher=Associated Press|date=May 4, 2002}}</ref>
==Biography== Gordon Phillip Winrod was born in Wichita, Kansas, on December 30, 1926, to Gerald Burton Winrod.<ref>{{cite web |title=Gordon Phillip Winrod |url=https://www.ancestry.co.uk/discoveryui-content/view/25318742:2238?tid=&pid=&queryId=abb952bf-1622-4ca2-867a-da1f4afa3a51&_phsrc=Dqh6646&_phstart=successSource |publisher=U.S., World War II Draft Cards Young Men, 1940–1947 |access-date=20 December 2023}}</ref> He attended a Lutheran day school (grades 1 through 8), finished high school at Hesston High School in Hesston, Kansas,{{Fact|date=March 2008}} and attended St. John's College in Winfield, Kansas.
From January 1945 to August 1948, Winrod served in the U.S. Maritime Service and the U.S. Navy. He married Genevieve Ann Dicke in Topeka, Kansas, in 1948. They had eleven children.
Winrod graduated from Concordia Theological Seminary in Springfield, Illinois in 1955. He then served as pastor of Lutheran Church – Missouri Synod (LCMS) congregations in San Antonio, Texas, and in Little Rock, Arkansas.
In April 1960, Winrod began publishing The Winrod Letter. Soon thereafter the LCMS expelled him from its ministerial roster. He then became the chaplain for the National States' Rights Party.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Kellman |first=George |date=1964 |title=Anti-Jewish Agitation |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/23602976 |journal=The American Jewish Year Book |volume=65 |pages=67–74 |issn=0065-8987}}</ref>
Winrod moved to Gainesville, Missouri, in 1965 and established Our Savior's Independent Christian congregation. He was sentenced to a 30-year prison term for abducting six of his grandchildren in 1994 and 1995.<ref name=":0" /><ref name=":1" /> He was also ordered to pay up to $26 million after two of his grandchildren brought suit against him.<ref name=":2" /> He was released from prison in 2012, and died in Rutledge, Alabama, on August 29, 2018, at the age of 91.<ref>{{cite web |title=Gordon Phillip Winrod |url=https://ancestors.familysearch.org/en/GQ5F-FDH/gordon-phillip-winrod-1926-2018 |website=FamilySearch |access-date=20 December 2023}}</ref>
==Legacy== Winrod attacked Jews and Judaism in his writings.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Kerr |first=Carolyn Michaels |url=https://www.google.com/books/edition/The_Book_Rat_s_Daughter/kGmOEQAAQBAJ?hl=en&gbpv=1&pg=RA2-PA74&printsec=frontcover |title=The Book Rat’s Daughter: A Memoir |date=2025-10-09 |publisher=Wipf and Stock Publishers |isbn=979-8-3852-5105-6 |language=en}}</ref> He described Jews as child-molesting perverts who hate God, practice the religion of Satan, run a "Secret Jewish World Government of anti-Christ", and said that the Jews have butchered, burned, and bled Christians through the centuries.<ref name='adl'>{{cite web|url=http://www.adl.org/special_reports/winrod/print.asp|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20020911233239/http://www.adl.org/special_reports/winrod/print.asp|url-status=dead|archive-date=2002-09-11|title=The Winrod Legacy of Hate|publisher=Anti-Defamation League|year=2000|accessdate=2007-12-26}}</ref>
==References== {{reflist}}
==External links== {{Wikiquote}} *{{cite web|url=https://www.adl.org/sites/default/files/documents/assets/pdf/combating-hate/The-Winrod-Legacy-of-Hate.pdf|title=The Winrod Legacy of Hate|publisher=Anti-Defamation League|year=2000|accessdate=December 27, 2018}}
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Winrod, Gordon}} Category:1926 births Category:2018 deaths Category:American anti-Zionists Category:American Christian clergy Category:American conspiracy theorists Category:American people convicted of kidnapping Category:Blood libel Category:Christian Identity people Category:Concordia Theological Seminary alumni Category:Critics of Judaism Category:National States' Rights Party members Category:Prisoners and detainees of Missouri Category:People from Wichita, Kansas Category:United States Navy personnel of World War II Category:Editors of Christian publications Category:American religious leaders convicted of crimes Category:American founders Category:Writers from Kansas Category:Christians from Kansas Category:Military personnel from Kansas