Jim Watkins took to YouTube following the El Paso shooting to speak to followers.

New life in Manila

Raised on a family farm in Washington state, Watkins' first real education in computers came through his work in the US Army, which sent him to a tech-focused school in Virginia, he said in a 2016 interview with the website Splinter. Watkins served in the US Army from 1982 to 1999: a sergeant first class, recruiter and repairman of attack helicopters, a Pentagon spokesperson said.

Two years after he left the service, he took steps to begin a new life in Manila, arriving in October 2001 and marrying his wife, Liezel, there three weeks later, according to a paid court notice related to Watkins's naturalisation petition published in February in the Manila Times newspaper. Watkins told the Post he began moving in earnest to the country in 2004, and began living there full-time in 2007. Watkins' business partner Riedel later disputed the court notice as "incorrect" but did not provide details.

Watkins had for years built a business in the lurid expanses of the Internet. In the 1990s, while still in the military, he had launched a now-defunct Japanese porn site, Asian Bikini Bar, that he claimed in a 2015 video had once been "one of the largest video streaming adult websites in the world." The site prospered by circumventing strict Japanese rules for censoring porn by hosting the content in the United States, Riedel said in 2016.

But its name, Watkins said in 2015, "didn't go over well with the wives" who saw it in credit-card statements, so he renamed the enterprise N.T. Technology. (The acronym, he said, means nothing.) The Reno, Nevada-based company is now tied to many of Watkins's other Web properties worldwide, business records show. Those include a smattering of Manila-based companies focused on computer services and real-world property over the years, including a now-closed organic food restaurant and, in 2005, a business called Race Queen, probably named for the scantily clad models who pose along the tracks of Japanese car races.

Located in a dilapidated Manila office tower, Race Queen calls itself a "software development and outsourcing company," according to a torn sign taped to the door. It has also been listed as an employer on work visas for foreign employees of 8chan and Watkins's other message boards, including Brennan, Philippines immigration records show.

Another Watkins business run from Manila, Loki Technology, owns the popular Japanese message board 5channel. Key positions at the company, like most of his operations, are held by a small group of relatives and close acquaintances. The company's treasurer and largest shareholder is Watkins' wife, the company's latest financial disclosures state.

The naturalisation court notice said Watkins and his wife had bought several properties across the country, including a condo in metro Manila and farms outside the city, where he said he raised pigs. Philippine business records reveal glimpses of a peculiar assortment of businesses in Watkins' orbit: The company Emerald Pedistal, which lists ownership in Manila condo units and calls Watkins "chairman of the board," said it had spent about 734,000 Philippine pesos, or about $22,000, on wages and received about $5600 for the sale of piglets in 2017.