The Bloody Trail of the Aryan Brotherhood of Texas

What’s the most violent extremist group in the United States today? The answer may be surprising: it is the Aryan Brotherhood of Texas (ABT), one of the largest white supremacist prison gangs in the country. According to ADL records, since 2000, this racist group—which has no relationship to the older, “original” Aryan Brotherhood—has killed more Americans than any other domestic extremist group.

Since 2000, ABT members and associates have committed at least 29 murders in the United States, all in Texas or neighboring states. The true number is likely considerably higher, as most murders that occur behind prison walls do not get reported by the media. The 29 known killings are all “street” killings, more evidence of the growing presence of racist prison gangs on the streets of America.

Why are there so many ABT murders? There are two main reasons. The first is that the ABT inculcates an acceptance of violence in its members; violence is as often as not the first—or even only—solution to a perceived problem.

The second relates to the nature of racist prison gangs in general and the ABT in particular: the ABT is an organized crime group as well as a white supremacist group. The ABT constitution even acknowledges that it can be a “hindrance” to put ideological beliefs before “business transactions” and that the group has to generate income to further its “mission and growth.” The result is that many ABT murders take place in connection with their “traditional” criminal activities, such as methamphetamine trafficking, home invasions, and identity theft.

Even more ABT murders are actually internal murders, in which gang members kill their own, usually because they believe or suspect the victim has become an informant or broken gang rules, but also sometimes due to factional or other internal fights. It is almost as dangerous to be an ABT member as it is to encounter one.

Ironically, only 3 of the 29 known murders linked to this white supremacist group in the past 12 years were actually hate-related, though there have been other hate-related crimes by ABT members, ranging from assaults to arsons of African-American churches.

There is no doubting, however, the viciousness of the ABT killings, some of which were torture-murders while others were execution-style killings, in which the victim’s body was burned, decapitated or otherwise dismembered in order to make identification difficult.

Alleged Cop-Killer May Be Anti-Government Extremist

Source: Ogden Standard-Examiner

In the latest twist to a deadly shootout that stunned the residents of Ogden, Utah, a recently revealed search warrant affidavit provides evidence that suggests the defendant, Matthew David Stewart, 37, may have been an anti-government extremist.

The shootout began on January 4, 2012, after police launched a raid on Stewart’s residence to execute a search warrant—an informant had alleged he was growing marijuana (16 plants were reportedly later found).  According to police, Stewart hid, opening fire on officers as they searched his residence.  Six officers were hit, some more than once, and Ogden police officer Jared Francom was wounded fatally.  Stewart allegedly continued firing as the officers fled the residence.  Police eventually wounded and subdued him in a backyard shed. 

Stewart was charged with aggravated murder, seven counts of attempted aggravated murder, and production of a controlled substance in a “drug free zone,” along with a dangerous weapons enhancement.

In March, authorities released an affidavit explaining the results of the search.  According to the affidavit, Stewart’s former girlfriend said that Stewart was “into” conspiracy theories and that he believed the federal government had no right to collect taxes (the primary belief of the anti-government extremist tax protest movement).  She claimed that he had not paid his own federal or state taxes since 2005 and that, if he were “forced” to pay taxes, he would “kill IRS employees.”  According to the girlfriend, Stewart claimed that Oklahoma City bomber Timothy McVeigh was “misunderstood.”

The affidavit further claimed that police recovered “computer-generated documents” related to anti-government extremism, anti-police Web sites, Oklahoma City bombing Web sites, instructions for making potassium chloride (used in explosives), and a map to the closest IRS building (where Stewart once worked as a security guard), among other items.  According to the affidavit, police also discovered “what appeared to be the makings of a bomb,” which were later removed and detonated by the bomb squad. 

Last summer, according to police, Stewart had allegedly told someone that if police ever raided him, he would “go out in a blaze of glory and shoot to kill.”  After the release of the affidavit, a neighbor of Stewart’s told a local television station that Stewart had allegedly talked about moving to Montana and “get[ting] myself a compound.”

Officer Francom was the first police officer to have been killed by a suspected domestic extremist since May 2010, when two West Memphis, Arkansas, officers were killed by anti-government “sovereign citizens.”  Since 2000, 27 police officers have been killed in the United States by domestic extremists. 

White Supremacist Arrested for 2005 Arizona Murder

Source:  Maricopa County Sheriff’s Office

On March 9, 2012, Maricopa County authorities formally “arrested” Toby Ray Gaspard, a member of the Vinlanders Social Club (VSC), a violent racist skinhead group, for the 2005 murder of another racist skinhead, Cory Simpson.  The arrest gave notice that detectives had finally cracked a murder case nearly seven years old.

Simpson, 31 at the time of his murder, had been released from prison nearly a year earlier after serving four years on an armed robbery charge. He was one of the leaders of the Canyon State Skinheads (CSS), a local racist skinhead crew. The skinhead scene in Arizona in 2005 was complicated, thanks to the rise of the VSC and its growth through adopting members of local racist skinhead crews, including members of the Canyon State Skinheads.   

On December 24, 2005, Simpson attended a party in Mesa for local racist skinheads, held at Gaspard’s home. Gaspard was also a high-ranking CSS member.  The party turned ugly when other skinheads confronted Simpson. One of them repeatedly stabbed Simpson, leaving him bleeding on his front lawn. Simpson’s wife and another racist skinhead, Christopher Gromberg, took Simpson to a hospital, but he had been fatally wounded.

Gaspard became a suspect in the murders. However, witnesses, generally white supremacists who hated the police, were not exactly willing to talk.  Some may have also feared retaliation, which turned out to be a justifiable fear in April 2006, when Gromberg was shot to death, execution-style, with two shots to the back of the head (in November 2011, VSC member David Bounds was indicted for the murder of Gromberg).  

Mesa and Phoenix police (especially Phoenix’s Career Criminal Squad) did not give up on the case. In 2008, Gaspard was extradited from Oklahoma to Arizona to face questions about the Simpson murder (he would later be convicted on unrelated weapons charges and given a five year prison sentence, insuring his future availability). Finally, in January 2012, an indictment was handed down that charged Gaspard with second-degree murder, assisting a criminal syndicate, and misconduct involving weapons.  The formal arrest—a transfer from state prison to the Maricopa County Jail—occurred in March. 

ADL assisted Mesa and Phoenix police in the investigation from the day of the murder onwards.

Triple Murder Suspect Uses Sovereign Citizen Arguments in Court Hearing

Source: Maricopa County Sheriff’s Office

Phoenix resident Michael Lee Crane, 31, charged with the murders of an elderly couple from Paradise Valley, Arizona, and a suspect in a third murder, recently used arguments from the anti-government extremist “sovereign citizen” movement when appearing in court following his arrest. 

On January 26, 2012, after being called to a fire at a residence, Phoenix police discovered the body of a cigar salesman, Bruce Gaudet, who had been shot to death. Several days later, police in Paradise Valley, after finding a burning car on January 30 that belonged to Lawrence and Glenna Shapiro, went to their home to discover it too was on fire. They also found the burned and bound bodies of the elderly Shapiros, who had been shot to death.   Preliminary ballistic reports suggest a match between the bullet casings in each incident.

Crane has been charged with two counts of first-degree murder (he has not yet been charged in connection with the Gaudet murder), two counts of kidnapping, two counts of armed robbery, one count of burglary, and one count of arson. Five other people have also been charged in connection with the case, primarily on charges of theft or trafficking in stolen property. 

On February 10, Crane and two other defendants appeared in a Maricopa County court to determine their bonds. Courtroom video reveals that Crane attempted to use “sovereign citizen” arguments in his appearance before the magistrate. The sovereign citizen movement is an extreme right-wing anti-government movement that believes that the legitimate government was long ago infiltrated by a conspiracy and changed into an illegitimate, tyrannical government. Consequently, sovereign citizens believe that this “illegitimate” government has no authority or jurisdiction over them. In the past several years, the sovereign citizen movement has been experiencing a significant resurgence of adherents and activity, including criminal activity. 

Asked by the judge for his name, Crane spelled his entire name out, specifying upper and lower case letters—sovereign citizens believe that if their name is written in all upper case letters, it is actually not referring to their “flesh and blood” person. Crane also declined to have an attorney appointed for him, which is common within the sovereign citizen movement. 

At the end of the proceeding, the judge asked Crane if he had any questions. Crane replied no, but that “I have a statement I’d like to make.”  He announced that he wanted to “reserve my right to Uniform Commercial Code 1-207 and the Uniform Commercial Code 1-103.”  Sovereign citizens believe that the “conspiracy” replaced constitutional law with commercial law and that therefore the Uniform Commercial Code (UCC) governs all legal matters.  Many believe that all legal proceedings are also commercial transactions.  Almost all sovereign citizens believe that they can avoid entering into “commerce” with the illegitimate government by reserving their rights under UCC 1-207 (now renumbered to UCC1-308). 

The judge did not seem to recognize this common sovereign citizen reference and merely informed Crane that the UCC did not apply.  Crane tried to get the judge to confirm that his appearance was a “commercial affair,” but the judge reiterated that it was actually a criminal proceeding. “Mmm, okay,” Crane replied doubtfully. “That’s what you say.”

It is possible that Crane, who has a past criminal history, became exposed to the arguments of the movement while incarcerated, as the movement has been spreading rapidly in prisons and jails across the country over the past decade.