White Supremacist Dennis Mahon Found Guilty in 2004 Bombing

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A jury in Arizona found Dennis Mahon, 61, a longtime white supremacist and anti-Semite, guilty in the 2004 mail bombing that severely injured Don Logan, an African-American who was director of Scottsdale’s Diversity and Dialogue Office at the time. The jury, however, stopped short of calling the incident a hate crime.

The jury found Dennis Mahon guilty on three charges: conspiracy to damage buildings and property by means of explosives, malicious damage of a building by means of explosives, and distribution of information related to explosives. Also charged in the case was Mahon’s twin brother Daniel, but the jury found Daniel not guilty of the one charge against him: conspiracy to damage buildings and properties.

Police originally arrested the Mahon brothers in June 2009. The arrests followed a lengthy investigation of the mail bombing, which occurred on February 26, 2004, when a box addressed to Logan exploded when he tried to open it at his Scottsdale office.

Both brothers have a long history of involvement in the white supremacist movement. Dennis Mahon held leadership positions within various white supremacist groups in the Midwest in the 1980s and 1990s, including the Ku Klux Klan and White Aryan Resistance (WAR), a now-defunct group led by well-known racist Tom Metzger. Metzger has long advocated “lone wolf” activity. According to the lone wolf model, individuals and small cells engage in activity that leave behind the fewest clues for law enforcement authorities, decreasing the chances that activists will end up getting caught. 

Dennis Mahon reportedly moved to Arizona from the Midwest in 2001 to establish WAR’s presence in the area. His brother Daniel joined him in Arizona.

Daniel Mahon was also an active white supremacist. In May 1999, according to court papers, American Airlines fired him after he violated written work rules that “prohibited threatening and intimidating behavior toward other employees and conduct detrimental to other employees and American Airlines.” Mahon was under investigation by the company for his activities related to his participation in a “Caucasian Employee Resource Group.”

ADL provided assistance to investigators throughout the lengthy case.