law Skinheadenforcement specials I reportn America Racists On The Rampage includes: Racist Skinhead Movement History • Timeline • Glossary • Portraits • Symbols • Recent Developments SkinheadA Publication of the Southerns In PovertyAmerica Law Center Racists On The Rampage

Racist Skinhead Movement History • Timeline • Glossary Portraits • Symbols • Recent Developments

a publication of the southern poverty law center KEVIN SCANLON SKINHEADS IN AMERICA Racist skinheads are one of the potentially most dangerous radical-right threats facing law enforcement today. The products of a frequently violent and criminal subculture, these men and women, typically imbued with neo-Nazi beliefs about Jews, blacks, ho- mosexuals and others, are also notoriously difficult to track. Organized into small, mo- bile “crews” or acting individually, skinheads tend to move around frequently and often without warning, even as they network and organize across regions. For law enforcement, this poses a particular problem — responding to crimes and even conspiracies crossing multiple jurisdictions. As these extremists extend their reach across the country, it is vital that law enforcement officers who deal with them become familiar with the activities of skinheads nationwide.

What follows is a general essay on the history and nature of the skinhead movement, pre- pared with the needs of law enforcement officers in mind. After that, we reprint recent reports on the contemporary skinhead movement in America, including an overview of the latest developments, portraits of 10 particularly frightening leaders, and a gallery of insignias and tattoos commonly used by racist skinheads.

This booklet was prepared by the staff of the Southern Poverty Law Center’s Intelligence Project, which tracks the American radical right and also publishes the investigative magazine Intelligence Report. Contributors included Susy Buchanan, Anthony Griggs, David Holthouse, Brentin Mock, Laurie Wood and Alexander Zaitchik. It was edited by Holthouse and Intelligence Project Director Mark Potok.

INTELLIGENCE

PROJECTTM SKINHEADS IN AMERICA

2 intelligence report special edition SKINHEADS IN AMERICA

i. introduction The racist skinhead movement in the United States has entered its third decade. Since the first skinhead gangs surfaced in Texas and the Midwest in the early 1980s, this racist ing-class counterpoints to foppish and violent subculture has established itself mods, long-haired hippies, mohawked in dozens of states from coast to coast and punks and made-up goths. has authored some of the country’s most vi- The skinhead style first emerged as part of a non-racist and multira- cious hate crimes in memory, from arson cial scene. White skinheads took on a to assault to murder. The racist skinheads’ persona that reflected admiration for trademark style — shaved head, combat and kinship with a new generation of working-class West Indian immigrants boots, bomber jacket, neo-Nazi and white into the United Kingdom. Like the Ja- power tattoos — has become a fixture in maican immigrants of the time, the first American culture. skinheads were clean-cut, neat, and sharp-looking compared to the shag- The scowling skinhead has joined the America have darkened with steady gier youth styles of the period. (White hooded Klansman as an immediately post-World War II immigration from skinheads eventually lost their affinity recognizable icon of hate. Africa, Asia, and the Middle East, a for Jamaica as Rastafarian fashions Unlike the Klan, racist skinhead cul- nativist backlash has appeared in both became ascendant, with their overtones ture is not native to the United States. mainstream and extremist forms. The of black pride and pan-Africanism.) And unlike the Klan, it is a truly global skinhead movement is the most violent Many early white skinheads were phenomenon, with skinhead gangs and ideologically crude form of this vaguely nationalistic and “proud to be haunting major cities and towns in just backlash. Depending on the country, British,” but their deepest loyalties lay about every white-majority country on racist skinheads may have shadowy with their childhood chums and the earth. From Austria to Australia and ties to radical parties participating in local soccer team, not the “white race,” Argentina to America, working-class electoral politics. Skinhead groups in as professed by today’s racist skin- youths can be found dressed in some the U.S. lack such connections, but for heads. While known for their youthful local variation on the skinhead theme, those unlucky enough to encounter aggression, petty criminality, and soc- espousing a crude worldview that is them on a darkened street, this does cer stadium violence, this activity was viciously anti-foreigner, anti-black, anti- not make them any less fearsome. seen as borne out of economic hard- gay, and anti-Semitic. In recent years, the ship and a general spirit of bully-boy Internet and cheap international airfares ii. origins rebellion — not blind race hatred. In- have allowed skinhead groups across The first skinheads emerged in the late deed, the first skinhead music was reg- the planet to communicate and organize 1960s as just one of the many distinct gae and ska, both black musical forms; in ways that would have shocked the youth cultures that flowered in post- the earliest targets of white skinheads’ original skinheads of the 1960s and ’70s, war Britain. Taking elements of Eng- anger and homemade weapons were whose vision and turf was limited to the lish “mod” and Jamaican immigrant each other and rival soccer fans. East London neighborhoods in which fashion, these working-class London But a split between racist and non- they grew up and lived. youths crafted an identity in self-con- racist skinheads was apparent and The growth of the racist skinhead scious opposition to the middle-class began deepening soon after the style movement has mirrored the rise in “longhairs.” At various points in their was born. By the early ’70s, skinhead non-white immigration to the West. early development, English skinheads attacks on South Asian immigrants in

KEVIN SCANLON As the skin hues of Europe and North positioned themselves as tough work- London — the infamous sport of “Paki

intelligence report special edition 3 bashing” — had become an international iii. skinheads in the u.s. But Martell had merely proven he was news story. These violent skinheads had The neo-Nazi skinhead phenomenon ahead of his time, and his defeat was not yet acquired the trappings of neo- spread quickly to the United States. By local. When he first started recruiting Nazi costumes and ideology, but they the early 1980s, skinhead activity was for CASH, there were likely fewer than were already acting like Hitler’s goon reported in Texas and the Midwest, 200 racist skinheads in the United Sates. squads, the brown shirts. One skinhead among other places. But the movement By 1989, when he was convicted of home explained a typical “Paki bash” to a Time only started gaining national attention invasion, aggravated battery, and rob- magazine journalist in 1970: “You go up during the last third of the decade. It bery and sentenced to 11 years in prison, to them and bump into them, and then was then that skinhead gangs like the there were an estimated 3,000. you nut [forehead bash] them right, and Dallas Hammerskins made a splash A major force behind this national then you hit them, and as they go down with violent racist attacks on immi- growth spurt was Tom Metzger, a Fall- you give them a kicking, bash them with grants and blacks. brook, Calif.-based former Klansman an iron bar, and take their watches and The most important skinhead gang in and longtime leader of the neo-Nazi rings and things like that.” raising the American movement’s early group White Aryan Resistance (WAR). More than 50 such attacks were profile was Chicago’s CASH (Chicago Around 1986, Metzger formed WAR reported within a span of weeks in Area Skin Heads), which made national Youth and launched an organized 1970, triggering street protests by Brit- headlines with a brutal 1987 crime spree skinhead outreach campaign. Together ish South Asians. A definitive break that involved assaults on six Hispanic with his teenage son, John, Metzger between racist and non-racist skins women, swastikas painted on three sought to ground the dispersed move- had occurred. synagogues, and numerous incidents of ment in ideology and direct its wild During the early to mid-’70s, Eng- vandalism to Jewish-owned business. and chaotic youthful energy into build- land’s skinheads went into temporary The leader of CASH was an ex-con and ing smart, well-trained, and obedient decline. They experienced a revival former member of the American Nazi street cells around the country. In in 1976, when a new generation of skin- Party named Clark Martell. 1988, Tom Metzger organized the first heads started earning a fresh reputa- In the mid-1980s, Martell played the major hate rock festival in the U.S., tion for violence through attacks on role of a skinhead Johnny Appleseed, Aryan Fest, in Oklahoma. (The annual punks, homosexuals, and immigrants. performing around Chicago with his festival, now under the management of Fueling these attacks and cementing punk band Romantic Violence and pass- Volksfront, a skinhead group based in the new racist skinhead identity was ing out American Nazi Party newslet- Oregon, remains a main event on the increasing association with two neofas- ters and copies of National Socialist annual skinhead social calendar.) cist political parties, the National Front Skinhead magazine between his band’s It was also in 1988 that Metzger’s and the British Movement. The latter, sets. Martell’s neo-Nazi recruiting efforts bore their most bitter fruit. In founded by long-time neo-Nazi Colin drive caught the attention of Chicago’s November, WAR Youth representative Jordan in 1968, did the most to stamp numerous “traditional,” or non-rac- Dave Mazella visited Portland, Ore., a swastika on the racist sector of the ist, skinheads, including a number to train and guide members of a local skinhead movement. The British Move- of African Americans. (According to skinhead crew, East Side White Pride. ment ran candidates in the 1974 U.K. Chicago punk lore, the city’s skinhead During this visit, a group of Portland general elections who espoused neo- scene was founded by black, non-racist skins under Mazella’s tutelage attacked Nazi ideas and wore swastikas while skins). Enjoying the advantage of vastly a group of Ethiopian immigrants in the handing out party literature featuring superior numbers, anti-racist crews middle of a street with steel-toed boots the image and words of Adolf Hitler. such as Skinheads of Chicago (SHOC) and a baseball bat. One of them, gradu- In 1975, the British Movement gained routinely ganged up on CASH skins at ate student Mulugeta Seraw, died from a charismatic leader in the form of shows and in the streets. “They grew out his wounds. Although Metzger would Michael McLaughlin, who reached out of what we are — the punk scene — so later lose a bruising $12.5 million law- to the racist skinheads and appealed to it’s up to us to combat them,” a member suit brought against his organization their sensibilities and skills by empha- of the Chicago Anti-Racist Action (ARA) by the Southern Poverty Law Center sizing violence and street-level hate. skinhead crew told the Chicago Tribune. and the Anti-Defamation League — a Between the arrival of Michael By the time Martell and the other five suit that effectively wrecked WAR McLaughlin in 1975 and the election CASH skins were arrested for a grue- as an organization capable of putting of Margaret Thatcher as British prime some 1987 attack on a former member, skinheads into the street — he contin- minister in 1979, the first hardcore neo- CASH had been more or less beaten ues propaganda efforts to this day from Nazi skinheads were born. into submission by anti-racist skins. a new base in Indiana. But Metzger’s

4 intelligence report special edition current operation is limited to a news- movement continued to grow and was announcing that the group was separat- paper, an “Aryan update” telephone responsible for hundreds of racially ing itself “from the racist movement.” hotline, and a website (resist.com) that motivated crimes around the coun- The announcement explained: “We do is largely devoted to racist and anti-Se- try. It was also during this period, in not see anything positive being accom- mitic “humor.” 1997, that Denver police officer Bruce plished, for our nation or our people, The murder of Mulugeta Seraw was Vander Jagt became the first American by participating in the white racial- hardly unique during the American police officer killed in the line of duty ist movement as it stands. We have skinhead movement’s growth years. by a racist skinhead. attempted to change this movement Indeed, there were scores of brutal Hammerskin dominance failed to from within and have not succeeded. skinhead assaults around the country outlast the decade, however. As early It is our opinion that a large number during the late ’80s and early ’90s, as 1999, Hammerskins around the of the people involved in the greater including the cold-blooded murders country were complaining in private movement are paid informants, social of black men in Birmingham, Ala., and and on message boards about the outcasts, and general losers in life.” Arlington, Texas. heavy-handed and “elitist” leadership The third decade of skinheads in Those responsible for these mur- style of the organization’s top officers. America thus finds skinhead groups in ders included members of the dreaded The number of HSN chapters dropped disarray but hardly in decline. The num- Confederate Hammerskins, a confed- off, with new regional groups rising ber of skinhead groups has trebled in the last four years, totaling some 60 by early The scowling skinhead has joined 2007. These new groups are defined by a violent gangster ethos that is only partly the hooded Klansman as an imme- informed by racist and neo-Nazi ideology. diately recognizable icon of hate. iv. music & culture Along with exposure to extremist po- litical parties and hate literature, music eration of skinheads founded in Dallas up and loudly asserting their indepen- has always been a key element in the in 1987. After spreading throughout the dence. Chief among these renegade growth of the racist skinhead subcul- South, Hammerskin-affiliated gangs skinhead groups were, first, the Outlaw ture. This is appropriate, as the original began appearing on the east and west Hammerskins, and then the Hoosier skinhead scene was based around clubs coasts in the early 1990s. State Skinheads in Indiana and the playing ska and reggae. The hard-driv- It was out of these geographi- Ohio State Skinheads, which in 2004 ing rock-and-roll favored by today’s cally disparate Hammerskin gangs merged to form the Vinlander Social racist skinheads both exploits and that Hammerskin Nation (HSN) was Club, a.k.a. the Vinlanders. In 2005, channels the youthful energy of mem- formed in 1994. The idea was to unite the Vinlanders hosted the first Blood & bers and potential teenage recruits. all of the regional Hammerskin groups Honour USA Council, a unity meeting The importance of music in building into a national and even international of regional skinhead crews also known the racist skinhead scene was appar- force, with affiliated chapters in Eu- as the Council of 28 (because B is the ent by the late ’70s, when a hate-rock rope. And for a while, the plan worked. second letter of the alphabet and H scene exploded alongside the punk Hammerskin Nation established itself the eighth), in Ohio. It is at this annual rock movement, spreading lyrics that as the most powerful skinhead organi- gathering that skins would, according were anti-immigrant, anti-black, and zation in the country during the mid- to the Vinlander web site, “meet yearly anti-Semitic. Groups such as Skrew- and late ’90s. At its peak, HSN directed with other crews and exchange ideas driver, Skullhead, and No Remorse nearly 30 chapters and ran a success- and debate direction and tactics.” And forged a common skinhead culture in ful record label, publishing house, drink lakes of beer, of course. sweaty, beer-soaked, makeshift concert and website. The HSN symbol of two Incredibly violent, full of swagger, halls, with lyrics professing broth- crossed hammers swept the skinhead and loathe to take orders from any- erhood among whites and violent, scene. And an annual meeting and one, the Vinlanders were thought to uncompromising antagonism to out- concert, Hammerfest, was launched represent the future in a more decen- siders of all kinds. The early hate-rock in 1999, allowing HSN members from tralized skinhead scene. But in the first skinhead scene in Britain coalesced around the world to meet and organize. weeks of 2007, Vinlander founder Brien around what were known as the “Rock Throughout this period of Hammer- James, a particularly violent racist, Against Communism” (RAC) concerts, skin ascendancy, the racist skinhead posted a notice on the group’s website the first of which was held in Leeds in

intelligence report special edition 5 1978. RAC shows were organized in recruiters for the movement in history. reference and even annual events. The opposition to the earlier “Rock Against (Burdi has since renounced hate and ease with which interested parties can Racism” concerts, a series of musical embraced Eastern mysticism.) access hate literature and music online events meant to counter growing racist The first label to seriously challenge has also given rise to the phenomenon currents in English culture. A sub- the dominance of Resistance Records was of the “internet Nazi” — young fellow genre of punk that often veered toward Minnesota-based Panzerfaust, named af- travelers who are not part of organized racism was known as Oi!, which soon ter a Nazi-era German anti-tank weapon. skinhead gangs but who profess al- became global (if not completely accu- Before imploding amid a scandal involv- legiance to the movement’s code and rate) shorthand for skinhead music. ing the non-Aryan heritage of its founder, support purveyors of skinhead para- By the mid-1980s, a racist skinhead Anthony Pierpont, Panzerfaust was best phernalia with online orders. culture defined by loud hate-rock, known for a failed 2005 plan to distrib- The country with the worst skin- cases of cheap beer, bloody “boot par- ute 100,000 hate-rock sampler CDs in head problem today is Russia, where it ties” directed against immigrants and schoolyards across the nation. is estimated there are tens of thou- others, and the flagrant display of neo- The impact of U.S. hate rock is not sands of active neo-Nazi skinheads, in- Nazi iconography and paraphernalia limited to the United States. Since the cluding thousands in the capital alone. had spread to Western Europe and production, performance, and distribu- In recent years, immigrants, students North America. Although focused on a tion of such music is illegal in many and even senior embassy staff from skinhead gang in Melbourne, Australia, countries in Western Europe, the U.S., Asian and African nations have been the 1992 Russell Crowe film “Romper with its First Amendment guarantees of the victims of assaults and murders on Stomper” paints a particularly vivid free speech, has become a main provider the streets of Moscow. and well-researched picture of the day- of music to skinheads internationally As in Western European countries, to-day life of skinheads immersed in (just as U.S. computer servers host most Russian skinhead violence often dovetails this culture. (A later film that explored European hate sites in order to keep with soccer hooliganism. A 2002 report the racist skinhead culture, this one their owners clear of European anti- in The Nation described the trend: set in California, was 1998’s “American hate legislation). This relationship was “In the past few years a curious syn- History X,” starring Edward Norton.) built in part by the outreach programs of thesis of the soccer hooligan and skin- The importance of music in grow- Resistance Records under George Burdi, head movements has been observed ing the worldwide skinhead movement who used to offer Eastern Europeans steadily gaining strength in the city. cannot be overstated. William Pierce, CDs at 90% discounts, as well as free It’s no longer uncommon in Moscow leader of the neo-Nazi National Alli- license to reproduce the music. to see crowds of 300-400 soccer fans ance until his death in 2002, under- The center of gravity for hate-rock — dressed in the black bomber jackets stood well the potential impact of hate- today is probably “RadioWhite,” an on- and black boots popularized by German rock. “Music speaks to us at a deeper line white power music Internet radio skinheads — loitering on the streets in level than books or political rhetoric: station that maintains multiple 24-hour the city’s outer regions, and not always music speaks directly to the soul,” said music feeds. Other new media plat- on the same nights as soccer matches.” Pierce, author of the seminal hate-lit forms — including social networking Some of these skinheads, the article novel, The Turner Diaries. sites like MySpace and video file-shar- notes, have been seen wearing the Putting this insight into practice, ing sites like YouTube — are being used armbands of the neo-Nazi Russian Pierce purchased the ailing hate- by racist skinhead groups to recruit and National Unity party, suggesting links rock label and distributor Resistance expose others to their views. between street hate and organized Records in 1999 and built the company political parties. Such links are sus- into a major force in the world skin- v. the international scene pected to be common in many Western head movement. Resistance Records The connections between racist skin- European countries, where radical par- had been originally founded in 1993 heads in the U.S. and Europe are not ties participate in electoral politics, in by George Burdi, a young Canadian limited to hate-rock catalogs. With recent years with sobering success. skinhead who also started the band the rise of the Internet, groups scat- Across Europe, radical parties are RAHOWA (an acronym for Racial Holy tered across the globe have been able on the rise, exploiting fears over im- War), which was one of the most popu- to communicate and link up as never migration. In several of these coun- lar and influential hate-rock bands of before, transforming the skinhead tries, associations have been traced the period. Bernie Farber of the Cana- movement from an exclusively neigh- between skinhead gangs and parties dian Jewish Congress has described borhood-based phenomenon into a with representatives in regional and Burdi as one of the most effective global culture with common points of national bodies. 

6 intelligence report special edition KEVIN SCANLON

intelligence report special edition 7 AS THE POWER OF THE CENTRALIZED HAMMERSKIN NATION DECLINES, A RISE IN INDEPENDENT SKIN CREWS MAY BRING A NEW ERA OF VIOLENCE

8 intelligence report special edition MOTLEY CREWS

ast Memorial Day weekend, three racist skinheads stood side-by-side to pose for a photo at the Imperial Klans of America compound near Dawson Springs, Ky., where the IKA hosts the annual white power gathering Nordic Fest. Two of them — Eric Fairburn and Brien James, both founders of the Hoosier State Skinheads — flipped off the camera while holding a red, white, and black flag upside down. The flag displayed the marching ham- mersL symbol of Hammerskin Nation, a coalition of regional skinhead groups that dominated the United States skinhead scene for almost a decade. By posing with the flag upside down, Fairburn, James, and their accomplice declared the reign of Hammerskin Nation finished. Lest there be any mistaking their intent, the skinhead in the middle, a member of the Keystone State Skinheads, held his arms downward, fists closed, a deliberate inversion of the Hammerskin Nation signal of crossed arms up. The photo is a remarkable symbol of the rapid and treach- erous balkanization under way among organized skinheads in America, as well as a telling indicator of how the skin- head scene in this country, now more than ever, is less the revolutionary political movement its adherents claim than a disjointed criminal subculture. The skins in the photo are behaving like gangbangers, not race warriors. They’re “diss- ing” the Hammerskins, their fellow Aryans, right down to the gang signs.

intelligence report special edition 9 These trends parallel an alarming resurgence in skinhead activity nationwide, which continues to intensify. At the be- ginning of 2002, there were 18 skinhead crews active in the United States, most of them under the control of Hammer- skin Nation. That count has now more than tripled to 59 ac- tive crews, only six of which belong to Hammerskin Nation. As the power of the Hammerskins has waned, the skin- head scene has entered a free-for-all phase, with new and unaffiliated local, state, and regional crews proliferating rapidly. More and more of these newcomers subscribe to the ultra-violent ethos and disorganized crime profiteering of a chaotic band of Midwest-based gangster skins known as the Vinlanders. While there’s no skinhead census, and no official statistics on skinhead-specific crime, cops on the street that specialize in tracking skins say the facts are clear. “Skinhead activity has easily doubled in the last couple of years, and the Vin- lander influence is huge,” says Matt Browning, a detective with the Mesa, Ariz., police department who has investi- gated white power gangs in his region and their nationwide connections for 10 years, including two years undercover. Picking a fight: By posting this photo on the Internet, members of the “They’re more violent, they’re more technically savvy than Vinlanders Social Club were issuing a before in terms of using the Internet to organize, and, while direct challenge to the waning power they’re still motivated by race and politics, it’s also about of Hammerskin Nation. money now.”

Bloodshed and Retaliation The ongoing devolution of the skinhead scene began with what will live in infamy in skinhead lore as “the pool cue and be a “prospect” for one year, then a “probate” for six months. blowtorch incident.” It happened in mid-1999, when Ham- All this time, and forever after, they were required to pay merskin Nation’s power was peaking, with about 600 Ham- $10 a month in dues to their local chapter, and $10 a month merskins distributed across five regional divisions. To be- to Hammerskin national leaders in Dallas, who asserted do- come a Hammerskin, a skinhead who wanted to join had to minion over skinheads nationwide, portrayed Hammerskin RACIST SKINHEADS a timeline of the movement CIRCA CIRCA CIRCA 1982 1986 1969 EARLY Racist skinheads begin to appear Romantic Violence, also known as The original skinhead subculture in U.S. in significant numbers. CASH (Chicago Area Skinheads), explodes among urban, working- 1980s takes form as one of the first true class youths in Britain, combin- British skinhead scene factionalizes. White racist skinhead gangs in the United ing style elements drawn from power skinheads develop a separate subculture States, followed in short order by white “Mods” and West Indian based on the white nationalist music of “Rock the Confederate Hammerskins “Rudeboys.” Though tinged with Against Communism” bands like Skrewdriver, in Dallas. soccer hooliganism, traditional Skullhead, and No an

skinhead culture is not racist ttm Remorse who opposed Former California Klan e /b (to this day, there are black is the “Rock Against leader Tom Metzger forms rb “trad” skins). co Racism” concerts of anti- the Aryan Youth Move- racist skins. ment, a skinhead division of his white supremacist group White Aryan Resistance (WAR). 10 intelligence report level and nature of skinhead criminal activity in this country and abroad. The order was simple: Hammerskin leaders had deter- mined that a certain Hammerskin was no longer worthy of membership due to his persistent sexual propositioning of a fellow member’s wife. They directed the Indiana Hammer- skins to seek out this offender, inform him of their decision, and then “remove” his Hammerskin “colors,” meaning any patches, pins or other markers indicating his affiliation. Looking back, the Dallas shot callers may wish they’d been more specific on the meaning of “remove.” When a pack of five Indiana Hammerskins tracked down the offender, they not only roughed him up and tore off his colors, they held him down, burned off his Hammerskin tattoos with a blowtorch, and then shoved a pool cue up his rectum. The Hammerskin leaders were outraged and banished the attackers for exceeding their orders. Basically, the five Indiana skinheads were punished for being too violent. Eight of the other Indiana Hammerskins turned in their patches in protest of the punishment and together, the 13 former Hammerskins formed a new, rogue crew they called Outlaw Hammerskins, which represented the first serious challenge to Hammerskin Nation authority. From their very beginning, the Outlaw Hammerskins represented a new breed of racist skinhead. They avowed white power, yet listened to black gangsta rap. They had neo- Nazi tattoos, yet dripped with gold chains. They wore Doc Martens, but also gold teeth. They formed close ties with the Nation as elite, and enforced strict codes of conduct. Hell’s Angels, working security at the outlaw biker gang’s Early that summer, these leaders issued a direct order to events (the father of Jeremy Maske, one of the founding the members and two probates of the Indiana chapter of the Outlaw skinheads, was the president of the Indiana chapter Northern Hammerskins that set in motion a cycle of blood- of the Hell’s Angels at the time). shed, retaliation, and dissent that continues to shape the Within a few months, the Outlaw Hammerskins had o t d ph l r o w e d i p w

a Members of the Confederate Hammerskins 1988 patrol Robert E. Lee Park in Dallas, beating Skinhead violence any non-white they come across. The gang erupts across the is ultimately linked to 40 crimes, includ- United States, with ing the vandalism of a Dallas synagogue. scores of violent Police foil a plot by armed Hammerskins attacks and murders to destroy Jewish businesses on Nov. 9, recorded over the next the 50th anniversary of Kristallnacht, the four years. Nazi pogrom also known as the “Night of Broken Glass.” Tom Metzger and son A flying chair breaks the nose John organize the of television talk show host Ethiopian immigrant Mulugeta Seraw is first hate rock festival, Geraldo Rivera during a brawl beaten to death by members of East Side Aryan Fest, which is between skinhead gang leaders White Pride, a Portland, Ore., gang with held in Oklahoma. and African-American activists on the set of close ties to WAR. “The Geraldo Rivera Show.” intelligence report special edition 11 Eastern Hammerskins member Bob Himes, who runs a Pennsylva- chapters across Indiana and nia tattoo shop, displays a body Wisconsin. Their creed was “take covered in skinhead iconography, it to the extreme.” If another skin- including the crossed hammers head crew mocked them for being (right) that symbolize Hammer- “whiggers” (white “niggers”), skin Nation. Outlaw Hammerskins would beat them down. If attacked with fists and feet, Outlaw Hammerskins would retaliate with bats Falling Hammers and knives. If a rival pulled a knife, an Outlaw Hammerskin On Memorial Day weekend 2000, less than a year after the pulled a gun. Outlaw Hammerskins formed, three vanloads of Outlaw “We do remain open and hospitable to other racialists Hammerskin hooligans showed up at the Imperial Klans of who pass through our cities and states. However, we do America compound, looking to start trouble at Nordic Fest, not tolerate disrespect,” they announced on their website. which at that time was heavily attended by Hammerskin Na- “Meaning we don’t talk shit. There is no ‘next time.’ We’ll tion skinheads. The Outlaw Hammerskins skins were heavily light you up on the fucking spot.” armed, and when IKA security refused to allow them into

1991 1997 In June, more than 60 Aryan 1994 Bruce Vander Jagt becomes the first American police officer National Front (ANF) skinheads Regional Hammerskin factions unite killed in the line of duty by a racist skinhead when he’s gunned and Klansmen march through under the common banner of Hammer- down in Denver by 25-year-old racist Matthaus Jaehnig after downtown Birmingham in a skin Nation (HSN). a high-speed chase. The next week, a dramatic show of force. dead pig bearing Vander Jagt’s name is Skinhead gang leader Randall dumped outside a Denver police sub- Lee Krager (left) forms station, and Denver skinheads Nathan Volksfront in Oregon. Thill and Jeremiah Barnum murder a 1992 West African immigrant they encounter In April, members of the at a bus stop. Thill later tells a reporter skinhead gang ANF murder a 1995 that he killed Oumar Dia because he homeless black man in Birming- Southern California skinhead was “wearing the enemy’s uni- ham, Ala., after attending a Randall Rojas beats a homeless form” — his black skin. Hitler birthday party. black man to death behind a fast-food restaurant. Nathan Thill 12 intelligence report special edition the festival, they fired a volley of shots into the air, putting have continued the Outlaw Hammerskin tradition of openly Hammerskin Nation on notice. challenging and disrespecting Hammerskin Nation and its The following year, Outlaw Hammerskins showed up in only ally, the Portland, Ore.-based regional crew Volksfront. force at Nordic Fest, making it clear the event was no longer Two of these new, unruly crews, the Hoosier State Hammerskin Nation’s exclusive skinhead stomping ground. Skinheads and the Ohio State Skinheads, rose directly from In part because of this loss of face, Hammerskin Nation the ashes of the Outlaw Hammerskins. The Hoosier State membership numbers began to wither. Today, Hammerskin Skinheads were co-founded by former Outlaw Hammer- Nation is more like Hammerskin Hamlet. It’s down to about skins Brien James and Eric Fairburn (see profiles, p. 50 and 150 members. “Hammers have been dropping their patches p. 49). James and Fairburn also attended the first meeting all over the place,” says Detective Browning. The decline of in Central Ohio in 2003 of the Ohio State Skinheads, whose the Hammerskin Nation has been fueled by the insurrection founders include other former Outlaw Hammerskins. (Ohio of the Outlaw Hammerskins, lawsuits filed by hate crime vic- State Skinheads now has three local chapters in Ohio). tims, and widespread discontent with Hammerskin Nation’s The largest statewide crew now active is the Keystone elitism among working-class, anti-authoritarian racist youths. State Skinheads, which formed in September 2001 in Har- Still another big factor was the collapse of Panzerfaust risburg, Pa. (One of its five founders, Steven Smith, is a Records, a hate rock music company that distributed popular former Aryan Nations member who was recruited into the Hammerskin Nation-affiliated bands like Max Resist, Bound neo-Nazi movement while an Army soldier stationed at Fort for Glory, and the Mid-Town Boot Boys. Panzerfaust’s owner, Bragg, N.C.) The Keystone State Skinheads now has nine Anthony Pierpont, poured hundreds of thousands of dollars chapters across Pennsylvania and sponsors regular concerts into Hammerskin Nation festivals and legal battles after he and “white power picnics.” Its logo is a pit bull or bulldog in founded the label in 1998, but had to scuttle the company a circle made of chain against a red, black, and white back- last year after the Intelligence Report revealed he’s of Mexi- ground (see logos chart, p. 56). can descent. (Despite being a “mud person,” Pierpont is still The Ohio State Skinheads, Hoosier State Skinheads, and active in the business side of organized hate. His most recent Keystone State Skinheads are all also part of the Vinlander venture is manufacturing T-shirts for National Socialist Social Club, a.k.a. the Vinlanders, a skinhead “warrior clan” Movement commander Jeff Schoep and National Alliance devoted to drinking, fighting, and a racist variant of Odinism, chairman Erich Gliebe; see related story, p. 11). a form of ancient paganism once practiced by Vikings. Fair- burn, James, and other Hoosier State and Ohio State Skin- Rise of the Regional Crews heads founded the Vinlanders in 2004; today, that group has Infighting caused the Outlaw Hammerskins to implode in about 200 full members. Unlike Hammerskin Nation, which 2002, but by then they’d made an indelible mark on skinhead requires even probationary members to renounce their al- culture. Instead of leading to a return to power for Hammer- legiance to any other skinhead crew, the Vinlanders allow skin Nation, the demise of the Outlaw Hammerskins sparked and even encourage dual membership. A Vinlander can be an the still-ongoing surge of independent, regional crews that Ohio State or Hoosier State Skinhead, and vice-versa.

1999 Florida skinheads attack interra- cial couples, killing a woman and 1998 a child in two separate incidents. Independent Nazi Skins gang leader John “Polar Five ousted members of the Shane McCormick 2001 Bear” Butler ambushes Northern Region of Hammerskin Midland Hammerskin Shane McCormick and kills two Anti-Racist Nation form a renegade outfit (above) stabs a black man in a Missouri Action members in the they call Outlaw Hammerskins. 2000 restaurant. desert outside Las Vegas While Hammerskin on the Fourth of July. Hammerskin Nation reorganizes Nation remains the Hammerfest attendance drops to 220 and throws its first Hammerfest, nation’s largest skin- as HSN’s elitist posturing and relentless the group’s signature hate rock head organization, attempts to dictate the rules of skinhead festival, in rural Bremen, Ga. the number of HSN culture in the U.S. breed widespread More than 600 skinheads from chapters drops from resentment. o t d ph

l across the country attend. 27 to 19. r o w e d i

p w intelligence report special edition 13 a “Everyone [in Arizona] wants to be Vinlander now,” says Detective Browning. “The Vinlanders have very quickly gone from a little skinhead group in the Midwest to a national force with a great web presence. The bigger they become, the more power they have, and they’re getting bigger.” On Oct. 22, 2005, on the Logan, Ohio, property of Ohio State Skinheads member Kevin Kislingbury, the Vinlander Social Club hosted the first official Blood and Honour coun- cil, a unity meeting of regional skinhead crews also known as the Council of 28. The meeting was attended by at least 60 representatives of more than a dozen skinhead crews, including Hoosier and Ohio State Skinheads, Keystone State Skinheads, the New Jersey Skins, the Canyon State Skins (Arizona), and the Maryland Skins (one of the fastest grow- ing state crews), as well as the Imperial Klans of America and the National Alliance. Conspicuously absent at the Blood and Honour council was anyone representing Hammerskin Nation or Volksfront.

Recruitment Commerce According to the minutes of the meeting, the council mem- bers decided they would meet once a year in the future, and that any group “meeting the council criteria” would send two representatives. They also established a “uniform code of appearance and conduct” for “large scale public actions,” and designated the neo-Nazi National Alliance as their of- ficial “political outlet.” patches, and other paraphernalia to countries where such The former Outlaw Hammerskins also reversed them- items are banned. But when the Outlaw Hammerskins broke selves on the issue of hate rock, according to the minutes, away, they announced they would have nothing to do with deciding by majority vote to “explore the option of holding the shady business of hate rock or recruitment commerce. events for the general public for profit.” This was a major With the exception of the Keystone State Skinheads, the shift. Hammerskin Nation and Volksfront have a long his- council crews had all followed suit. tory of organizing hate rock festivals to raise money and also So what changed their minds? of channeling hate rock CDs and neo-Nazi flags, shirts, pins, Perhaps the hate rock company representatives who also

2002 Skinhead Kevin A. Johnson beats a 2003 man to death outside the Courtesy The number of skinhead chapters nationwide more than doubles, due mostly Diner in St. Louis while spewing to the rapidly increasing strength of independent, regional skinhead crews, anti-Semitic epithets, although his most notably the Hoosier State Skins victim is not Jewish. (Indiana and Illinois), the Ohio State Skinheads, and the Pennsylvania-based The Outlaw Hammerskins implode Keystone State Skinheads. due to infighting. Kurtis William Monschke, head of the HSN’s power continues to wane. Washington state chapter of Volksfront, helps three other racist skinheads use Hammerfest attendance baseball bats and rocks to beat to death dwindles to 150. a homeless white man in Tacoma.

Kurtis Monschke 14 intelligence report special edition RACIST SKINHEAD GLOSSARY 14/88: Common white supremacist Hammerskins: A nationwide skinhead code. 14 stands for the “14 words” syndicate, also known as Hammerskin slogan coined by David Lane, who is Nation, with regional factions and chap- serving a 190-year sentence for his ters that once dominated skin subculture part in the assassination of a Jewish nationwide. talk show host: “We must secure the HSN: Hammerskin Nation. existence of our people and a future for white children.” 88 means “Heil Hitler,” HFFH: “Hammerskin Forever Forever as H is the eighth letter of the alphabet. Hammerskin.” 28: Shorthand for Blood and Honour, a Hang-around: A young person who skinhead group. associates with skinheads but is not yet a probate (see below), akin to a gang- 38: Confederate Hammerskins, the banger “wannabe.” southern faction of Hammerskin Nation (see below). Probate: A “member in waiting” who is on probation for a set amount of time Boot party: Beating a victim to the before he or she becomes a full-fledged ground then stomping and kicking him member of a skinhead crew. or her with steel-toed boots. RAHOWA: Short for “Racial Holy War,” Braces: Suspenders. a slogan that originally came out of the Crew: Skinhead gang or faction. neo-Nazi Church of the Creator; also the name of a defunct band. Colors: Marks identifying affiliation; can be tattoos, patches on jackets, etc. Red laces: Bootlace color indicating the attended the Council of 28 convinced wearer has shed blood for the skinhead the skinhead leaders there that if they Curbing, curb job: Breaking a victim’s movement. Racist skinheads will often would just put down their mead drink- jaw or neck by forcing his or her face randomly attack non-whites to “earn” ing horns and pick up their thinking against a street curb and kicking the their red laces. caps, they could make serious money. back the of the victim’s head; popular- “The Vinlanders have the backing of ized in the 1998 cult movie, “American Spider web tattoo: Racist skinhead the hate rock record labels now, the History X.” “badge of honor,” often worn on the labels are bringing money to the table,” elbow, indicating wearer has committed Dr. Martens (a.k.a. Doc Martens): Brand murder for the skinhead movement. of durable boots popular with skinheads as well as young people in all walks of SHARP: Short for Skinheads Against life, though skins lace the boots differ- Racial Prejudice, commonly known as ently (see “straight-laced”) and wear SHARP skins, who often battle racist skins. either red or white laces (see below). 2004 Skinbyrd: Female skinhead. Non-Hammerskin crews Homey sock: Pool ball in a sock wrapped continue to evolve and unify. in tape so it doesn’t split open when Straight-laced: A complex boot-lacing used as a weapon. system favored by racist skins who lace Members of the Hoosier State their boots in horizontal, straight lines Featherwood: Female skinhead. Skins and Ohio State Skinheads rather than X or cross patterns. — including several former Outlaw Five words: “I have nothing to say.” NEWS-TRIBUNE

.]

H White laces: Bootlace color identifying

AS Hammerskins — form the Vin-

W Skinheads are exhorted to give this stan- , a a skinhead as being “white power,” as m lander Social Club, also known as dard response to any and all media and Taco opposed to a non-racist (“traditional”) or the Vinlanders, a skinhead “warrior law enforcement inquiries. anti-racist skin. JENSON / [ clan” devoted to drinking, fight- T

JANE Fred Perry: Brand of polo shirt favored ing, and a racist form of Odinism, ZOG: Shorthand for “Zionist Occupation by skinheads. a pagan religion once practiced by [or Occupied] Government,” reflecting Norse Vikings. Fresh cut: A newly indoctrinated the neo-Nazi conspiracy theory that the skinhead whose head has recently been American government is secretly con- shaved for the first time. trolled by a powerful Jewish cabal. intelligence report special edition 15 entirely of Polish-speak- ing immigrants). Skinhead criminal activity in the United States is still far less se- vere than in Moscow or, for that matter, Prague or Paris. But as inde- pendent crews continue to proliferate, and the ultra-violent skins of the Vinlanders and similar groups vie with the left- overs of Hammerskin Nation, it seems likely Billy Roper (right), a former National that skinhead activity Alliance official who now heads White here will grow, as it has Revolution, has repeatedly tried to recently after about a bring racist skinheads into the decade in remission. mainstream of the radical right. So far, most of the serious violence has been contained within the white power world says Detective Browning. to supply them with merchandise they (for example, the vicious White power music, after all, is a otherwise couldn’t have. beating the Vinlanders gave a National more lucrative underground trade in For these reasons, U.S. skinheads Socialist Movement speaker and two of Europe than dealing in hashish, ac- wield huge influence overseas, espe- his comrades at this year’s Nordic Fest). cording to Interpol. The demand for cially in Germany and the former Soviet But as any gang cop knows, the most American skinhead music is tremen- Union, where there are 30,000-50,000 dangerous member of a street gang is dous there both because there are skinheads in Moscow alone, according not the “O.G.” (“Original Gangster”) with far more skinheads and because it’s to Russian police. They terrorize and kill a well-established street reputation, but illegal for hate rock bands to perform, non-whites and Jews at a rate unimagi- the newbie looking to do whatever it record, or even rehearse in most Eu- nable in this country. In Russia, skin- takes to make a name for himself and his ropean countries. So while skinheads head culture, much of it exported from gang. The skinhead scene in this country in Europe for the most part consider the U.S., has brought death and destruc- has become a land of the white power their American counterparts to be tion for a generation. (There is also some up-and-comers, each of them a human drunken buffoons — and with good European influence on U.S. skinheads. hand grenade, just looking for an excuse reason — they are dependent upon the For example, the Burnden County to pull their own pin.  disorganized crime of U.S. skinheads Hooligans, a New Jersey crew, consists

2006 Skinhead resurgence parallels rise in skinhead-related criminal activity. 2005 The Vinlanders host the first official Blood and Honour Council, a unity meeting of regional skinhead crews also known as the Council of 28 (B is the second letter of the alphabet, H is the eighth; hence, 28 stands for Blood and Honour). The council is attended by at least 60 members of more than a dozen white supremacist groups.

16 intelligence report special edition the godfathers ONCE, RACIST SKINHEADS WERE REGARDED AS TOO EXPLOSIVELY VIOLENT TO BE POLITICIZED. TWO FORMER KLANSMEN CHANGED ALL THAT FOR GOOD

hen young racists across the United o t d ph l r o

States began emulating white-pow- w e d er British skinheads in the 1980s, i p w it soon became apparent they had a Wneither the discipline nor the charismatic leader- ship of the Nazi SS soldiers they idolized. They were loose cadres of ultra-violent outcasts, prone to poorly planned bursts of vicious, high-profile criminality, who found themselves as shunned by the leaders of established white supremacist orga- nizations as they were by mainstream society. That began to change after two Klansmen- turned-neo-Nazi leaders — Tom Metzger in the mid-to-late 1980s, followed by Bill Riccio in the early 1990s — showed that it’s possible, at least for a while, to harness skinhead rage in the service Former Klan leader Tom Metzger of a larger racist cause. Where other hate group was one of the first Americans leaders saw drunken, unmanageable miscreants, to see in racist skinheads the Metzger and later Riccio saw disaffected but potential “shock troops” for a malleable foot soldiers in need of a father figure coming race war. — potential “shock troops” in the coming race war. Like drug kingpins who use gangbangers to sling crack, these two merchants of hate enlisted and organized racist skinheads to do the dirty work of deemed necessary, brute force and intimidation. But these the white power movement. By doing so, they shifted the two self-appointed guidance counselors for neo-Nazi way racist skins are viewed by adult hate group leaders. youth also unwittingly demonstrated the collateral dam- While skinheads are still as likely as they ever were to get age skinheads cause their handlers when they learn their drunk and beat each other up or spontaneously commit a lessons all too well. random murder, it’s become the standard for neo-Nazi or- ganizations like the National Socialist Movement and the TOM METZGER Creativity Movement to seek out and recruit skinheads. With his black cowboy hat and brash swagger, Thomas Metzger and Riccio showed the potential value racist Linton Metzger has carefully cultivated an outlaw image skins hold for the white power movement in terms of over his 30-year-career as a racist. The tough-talking generating publicity, fundraising, recruiting, and, when television repairman and former California grand dragon

intelligence report special edition 17 of the Knights of the Ku Klux Klan alliance with American Front (one of the two other ESWP skins pleaded guilty was the first major racist leader in the first skinhead crews to develop chap- to murder, the Southern Poverty Law United States to invite skinheads into ters in multiple states), Metzger wasn’t Center sued both Metzgers on behalf of the organized white supremacist fold. choosy. In 1988, he and his son John the victim’s family and won a $12.5 mil- Metzger’s youth outreach efforts threw the first-ever hate rock festival, lion wrongful death verdict that ruined even predated the arrival of racist Aryan Fest, which was open to all skin- the Metzgers financially. skinhead culture in the U.S. in the heads. Skins from all over the country While the money trouble and public early 1980s. traveled to the festival in Oklahoma. scrutiny forced Metzger to stop network- In 1979, when teenager Greg From that point on, Metzger was a ing directly with skinheads, he main- Withrow created a furor by starting a sought-after speaker at rallies and con- tained the WAR hotline and kept publish- “White Students Union” at his north- certs sponsored by a variety of crews. ing white supremacist pamphlets. ern California high school, Metzger One of Metzger’s most devoted fol- In 1993, then 17-year-old Richard took Withrow under his wing, ulti- lowers was Dave Mazella, a California Campos was arrested for a series of mately transforming Withrow’s fledg- skinhead who took part in the traveling firebombings in Sacramento, Calif. His ling organization into the Aryan Youth skinhead circus Metzger put together targets included the house of a Sacra- Movement (AYM), a junior- mento city councilman, an varsity version of Metzger’s NAACP office, the office of own organization, White “Operate like a Nazi submarine! Use your the Japanese American Citi- Aryan Resistance (WAR). periscope! We have to infiltrate! Infiltrate zens League, a synagogue, Metzger then began insert- the military! Infiltrate your local and a state anti-discrimina- ing AYM’s teen newsletter governments! Infiltrate your school board! tion office. Investigators into WAR newspapers. Infiltrate law enforcement!” found that Campos had When the first domestic called the WAR hotline to crop of racist skinheads listen to Metzger’s messages began sprouting in the early-to-mid for the talk shows. “Tom Metzger was 34 times in a single month just before 1980s, White Aryan Resistance and the like a father to me,” Mazella later said. he carried out the bombings, which Aryan Youth Movement quickly moved After their nationally televised ap- Campos had credited to the “Aryan to become the first hate groups where pearances, Metzger promoted Mazella Liberation Front,” a domestic terror- skinhead culture and exploits were to vice president of AYM, where he ist organization of which he was the celebrated rather than shunned. “I was reported directly to John Metzger. only member. Campos told police he’d the first in the country to recognize When word reached WAR’s Fall- become “racially aware” after reading a skinheads and befriend them” Metzger brook, Calif., headquarters that in- White Aryan Resistance flier. Campos told a reporter in 2004. dependent skinhead gangs in the was tried as an adult, convicted, and Metzger tailored his pitch to suit Pacific Northwest were rapidly gaining sentenced to 17 years in prison. the skins’ affinity for rebellion, por- strength, Metzger dispatched Mazella to Since the civil judgment against traying his group as anti-authoritarian Portland, where the WAR emissary used him, Metzger has advocated “lone and pro-working class. “WAR wears no videotapes of his talk show shenanigans wolf” white supremacist activism, uniform, carries no membership card, to get in with the members of East Side which is leaderless and covert. A lone takes no secret oath,” he said. White Pride. John Metzger also sent wolf, according to Metzger, “gathers Metzger and a handful of skinhead ESWP a letter of introduction that read intelligence and carefully digests and protégés made the rounds of television in part, “You’ll get a feel of how we work develops this information into thoughts talk shows, defining skinhead culture when you meet Dave Mazella.” and suggestions.” Then he acts. for the shocked audiences of Oprah In Portland, Mazella arranged for Metzger, who recently moved to Winfrey, Geraldo Rivera and Phil Do- ESWP members to talk to Tom Metzger Warsaw, Ind., continues to speak at nahue. He established a 24-hour WAR directly on the phone, and drove the skinhead rallies, although his organiza- telephone hotline, with outgoing racist Portland skins around in his van to lo- tion is now little more than a publisher. messages scripted for skinheads, and cal high schools, where they distributed In January 2004, he addressed a crowd supplied early skinhead crews with AYM papers. He led them in violent of about 100 skinheads at a hate rock free bundles of WAR and AYM publi- attacks to prove his bona fides. festival outside Phoenix that was orga- cations to distribute on their own turf. On Nov. 12, 1988, three weeks after nized by the Portland, Ore.-based skin- These tactical moves were intended to WAR’s emissary arrived in Portland, head crew Volksfront. “Don’t operate make all racist skinheads and poten- ESWP skinhead Ken Mieske beat to like a battleship,” he shouted. “Operate tial skinheads feel part of a growing death an Ethiopian immigrant. The first like a Nazi submarine! Use your peri- national phenomenon. person Mieske called after the murder scope! We have to infiltrate! Infiltrate While he formed a particularly close was John Metzger. After Mieske and the military! Infiltrate your local gov-

18 intelligence report special edition ernments! Infiltrate your school board! ed in 1979 of possessing a sawed-off Birmingham the following June. (When Infiltrate law enforcement!” shotgun, in 1981 of violating probation Handley was later brought up on And remember, he said, “You are by illegally possessing a firearm, and in sodomy charges involving a teenaged not domestic terrorists. You are free- 1985, again, for illegal possession of a boy, Riccio defended him, dismissing dom fighters.” firearm, as well as marijuana. the accusations as false and obviously While Metzger benefited from the part of a law enforcement conspiracy BILL RICCIO media attention and the revenue gener- to defame the Klan.) “Send us your broken toys, and we’ll fix ated by his skinhead outreach, Riccio The lessons Riccio taught were not them,” Bill Riccio said to the camera. seemed to simply adore being adored. child’s play. Skinheads under his sway It was 1992 and Riccio, committed at least two murders then 35, was starring in the in Alabama. In one of those HBO documentary “Skin- cases, three skins were arrested heads, U.S.A.” that detailed for beating and kicking a home- life inside the Aryan Youth less man to death under a rail- Front, a skinhead crew or- road trestle in April 1992, just ganized by Riccio and based hours after attending an Adolf in Birmingham, Ala. Though Hitler birthday party at the he was not connected to WAR House. One of the killers, Metzger, Riccio had originally then 17-year-old Confederate called his loyal band of racist Hammerskin Mark Lane, had misfits White Aryan Resis- written on his application that tance. He changed the name he wanted to join the move- to avoid confusion, but kept ment “to benefit my race and calling the backwoods shack help my brothers and sisters of he rented “the WAR House.” the Aryan persuasion destroy The WAR House was all the scum and degenerates of equal parts skinhead recruit- our land.” ing station, clubhouse, and Four months later, in August crash pad. It was where Ric- 1992, the WAR House was cio, a former Klan chaplain, raided as part of multi-state kept his toy soldiers, who sweep of white supremacist were white teenaged boys, groups. Police found guns and many of them runaways. He grenades on Riccio’s property, plied them with beer, and and arrested him again for il- systemically indoctrinated legal weapons possession. them in racial hatred and his After serving 15 months in own special brand of neo- federal prison on a conviction Confederate Hitler worship. for that felony, Riccio moved As Riccio explained in the back to the WAR House and documentary, his ultimate goal was to re- He didn’t profit from his skinhead fol- renewed his devotion to the Klan, even- claim the South for pure Aryans. “Those lowers — the WAR House was funded tually becoming Imperial Kludd, or nigger-loving race traitors can go move to by his small auto-parts business — but national chaplain, of the North Georgia San Francisco or somewhere else where he did enjoy their unconditional loyalty. White Knights of the Ku Klux Klan. they might feel more welcome among its “I wish Bill would have been my Today, Riccio still occasionally large gay population,” he said. biological father,” one of the teenaged shows up at Klan events with a detail of Though based in Birmingham, at AYF skins says in the HBO documen- skinheads in tow, and some of the first the height of his influence, in mid-1992, tary. “He is my father. He’s all these generation of broken toys he wound up Riccio was the de facto Nazi youth youths’ father, every single one of us.” and turned loose, who are now in their troop leader of a network of at least Riccio worked hand-in-hand with mid-to-late 20s, remain active in the 70 skinheads in Alabama, Florida and Alabama Klan leader Roger Handley. white supremacist movement. Georgia. (Riccio worked closely with In November 1991, they co-hosted a As the judge who sentenced him in the Confederate Hammerskins.) Skin- huge skinhead and Klan gathering on 1992 put it: “It is [Riccio’s] apparent abil- heads from as far away as York, Pa., Handley’s farm. The two co-organized ity to organize and mobilize disenchant- made pilgrimages to the WAR House. a white power march by 150 skinheads ed young white males even to acts of By that time, Riccio had been convict- and Klansmen through downtown violence that makes him dangerous.” 

intelligence report special edition 19 Racist skinhead culture has long brimmed with violence and venom. But there are thugs, and then there are thug’s thugs WHO TERRIFY TENThe racist skinhead scene in America is typified by violence — over drugs, women, ideology, race, and just about anything else that could come up after a night of swilling beer. Since the first skinheads appeared in the United States in the early 1980s, they have periodically ter- rified mainly urban populations in places like Denver, Los Angeles, Portland, Salt Lake City and Boston, along with many smaller towns. But even within a world that is accustomed to violence, there have been a number of predators who are vastly more frightening than the rest. What follows are portraits of 10 of those individuals, including several who remain active and a number of others who are in prison or appear to have dropped out of the racist movement. Their stories are presented here as a cautionary tale, a graphic illustration of the kinds of people and criminal activity produced by the racist skinhead scene.

Gabriel Carafa, 25 New Jersey) in the neo- locked door, Carafa punched THE HATED Nazi World Church of the through the store’s front Never one for discretion, Creator (now known as the window, then yelled threats

Gabriel Carafa decided to carafa Creativity Movement) and and racial slurs, including advertise his racist skinhead a member of The Hated, a “let’s run this nigger over!” ideology by having “RA- skinhead crew active in New He served three years in HOWA” (short for “Racial Jersey as well as Florida. prison for his crimes. Holy War”) tattooed across Carafa’s hate crime Upon his release in 2005, his forehead in large gothic record includes convictions Carafa moved in with for- script. The skin of Carafa’s for bias intimidation and mer cellmate Craig Orler, a torso is riddled with crudely making terroristic threats. fellow member of The Hat- inked runes, swastikas, These stemmed from an ed who possessed a large SS bolts, and the clear-cut October 2002 incident in cache of weapons, some of phrases, “Race War” and which Carafa arrived at a them stolen. Carafa agreed “Kill Niggers.” 7-Eleven in Seaside Heights, to help Orler find a buyer A former member of the this convicted drug dealer N.J., to find the store closed. for the guns in exchange Latin Kings whose gang has been a “governor” (the When the store’s Hindu for a split of the profits. On name was “King Shaggy,” highest ranking member in manager refused to open the April 25, 2005, Carafa sold

20 intelligence report special edition a Winchester rifle with the lumberjack moved to especially toward women. serial number removed for Eric “The Butcher” Florida, where he worked In one instance, he tossed a $100 to a man he believed to Fairburn, 32 as a particularly scary repo female friend’s dog out of a be a fellow white suprema- VINLANDER SOCIAL CLUB man and whiled away his car window in heavy traffic cist, who in fact was a fed- Back in the 1990s, when off hours with Dungeons & during an argument. eral informant. Three weeks he was also known as Eric Dragons, the popular role- “I threw her new dog later, Carafa called the man Wolf, this tall and brawny playing game. In 2000, he out my car window at 70 and offered 11 more guns skinhead, unmistakable for turned up in Indiana and mph on I-70 westbound,” for sale, quoting a price of having “MURDER” tat- began associating with the Fairburn boasted in an In- $1,000 for seven shotguns, tooed in large letters across newly formed Outlaw Ham- ternet posting. “It got really three rifles, and a handgun. the front of his neck, was fucked up and died quickly The informant accepted. the rhythm guitarist for the as a truck behind me nailed Next, Carafa offered to Church of the Creator hate it with its back tires after sell him an M-16. Then he rock band RAHOWA. He trying to avoid it. It explod- started talking bombs. Ca- also dallied in the business ed. Great stuff.” rafa eventually supplied the side of hate rock as market- In 2003, Fairburn undercover operative with ing director for Resistance relocated to Springfield, 60 pounds of urea, a type of Records when the nation’s fairburn Mo., and moved in with the chemical fertilizer that is leading racist music label ex-girlfriend of Midwestern high in nitrogen. When Ca- was still based in Detroit. Hammerskin leader Shane rafa bragged about the urea After Michigan tax au- McCormick. When McCor- he’d obtained being of high- thorities raided Resistance’s mick and another Hammer- er quality than the fertilizer offices in 1997, Fairburn skins confronted Fairburn at used by Timothy McVeigh, moved to Washington, D.C., the woman’s home, Fair- authorities decided to end where he went to work for burn stabbed McCormick the six-month undercover Holocaust denier Willis (he survived). operation rather than run Carto’s extreme-right politi- Animus had already the risk of Carafa and Orler cal advocacy organization, been rising between Ham- actually detonating a fertil- Liberty Lobby. He also ed- merskin Nation crews, izer bomb. Both members ited the white supremacist including McCormick’s, of The Hated were arrested E-mail newsletter “Wol- and independent, regional and later pleaded guilty freign Update.” merskins (OHS). In 2002, he skinhead gangs like the to selling guns without a Fairburn has always and OHS leader Brien James Hoosier State Skinheads. federal license and possess- exhibited what criminolo- (see profile, below) founded Fallout from the stab- ing firearms despite prior gists term “poor impulse the Hoosier State Skinheads. bing brought a bitter feud felony convictions (Orler control.” During his tenure That same year, after that continues to verge on had past convictions for at Liberty Lobby, he went to seeing the movie “Gangs open warfare. In a post to burglary and assault). the home of Willis Carto’s of New York,” Fairburn a skinhead message board “We are pleased that this business partner, Todd renamed himself the in late 2003, Fairburn dangerous criminal is going Blodgett, to collect a debt. “Butcher” after the char- wrote: “To the shit talking to prison,” said New Jersey Blodgett, who lived in a acter in the film played by Hammerskins out there or Attorney General Zulima V. wealthy suburb in Virginia, Daniel Day Lewis, William their leaders who mislead Farber. “This defendant’s wasn’t home, so Fairburn “Bill the Butcher” Cutting, the other hammers under violent strain of racism and broke into Blodgett’s ga- a one-eyed crime lord and them: … I am ready for Val- his access to firearms made rage, stole a chainsaw that sadist who hates all non- halla or prison to do what him a grave threat to our Blodgett had inherited from whites and Irish immi- is right. … We are sick of communities.” his grandfather, and cut grants. Fairburn also began the lies, tired of the BS, we Now back in prison for down every single tree and carrying a large sledge- are calling you out: either up to 15 years, Carafa’s tat- shrub on Blodgett’s heavily hammer, and cultivating a listen to the truth or fight toos may prove to be a grave wooded property. reputation for unpredict- for your lives for the lie. threat to his own safety. In 1999, the neo-Nazi able and abusive conduct, YOUR CHOICE.”

intelligence report special edition 21 In 2004, Fairburn and activity in Phoenix to a level ley Sr., the victim’s father. release when police officers James formed the Vinland- the city had not witnessed “They kicked through bone found him in possession of er Social Club (see timeline, since Jimmy Miller’s crew and into temporal lobe.” two handguns and a 14-inch p. 38). In 2005, the Vinland- goose-stepped down Cen- Appearing at the press Bowie knife. ers hosted representatives tral Avenue in 1990 (see conference alongside “Mr. Fiedler is a clear, of independent skinhead Miller profile, below). Fiedler was his second-in- viable threat to the commu- crews from around the Fiedler shamelessly court- command, Sean Gaines, the nity,” his probation officer country at the first offi- gang’s chief enforcer, who wrote in a pre-sentencing cial Blood & Honour USA has a well-earned reputa- report. “He was given coun- Council, which aims to cre- tion for extreme violence. seling while in prison and ate a united front to chal- Gaines’ rap sheet includes also received his GED, yet he lenge the waning authority arrests for beating a Latino continues to violate the law.” of Hammerskin Nation. fiedler man over the head with a Fiedler was released from At the council meeting, 15 two-foot long tree branch, prison once again in January skinheads, including Fair- car theft, and beating a Jew- 2003. Around the time of the burn, stood in a circle and ish boy into unconscious- park clean-up media stunt, passed the “mead horn,” a ness. Gaines is currently he described prison as a ritual in the racist variant of awaiting trial for capital near perfect, racially segre- the Odinist religion. Wait- murder after allegedly act- gated environment. “Blacks ing his turn, Fairburn stood ing as the ringleader in the with blacks, whites with with a spare mead horn February 2002 mutilation whites, Hispanics with His- slung over his left shoulder, and murder of a drug addict panics,” he told a reporter. along with his trademark suspected of stealing money “It’s an ideal society.” sledgehammer. from Fiedler’s girlfriend. Luckily for Fiedler — not Another of Fiedler’s lieu- to mention the rest of the tenants, Jason Shakofsky, world — he’ll be enjoying Joshua David Fiedler, 26 ed the media, holding a press is now awaiting trial for that ideal society until at SS GUARDIANS/UNIT 88 conference in March 2003 at attempted murder for alleg- least 2022. Now serving a 21-year a park located in a predomi- edly stabbing and slitting prison sentence for pulling nantly minority neighbor- the throat of his crewmate a home invasion robbery, hood where he instructed and ex-girlfriend. Brien James, 30 28-year-old Josh Fiedler the skinheads under his com- Fiedler’s own criminal HOOSIER STATE SKINHEADS/ recently posted an online mand to pick up trash for the record stretches back to VINLANDER SOCIAL CLUB advertisement for prison cameras and told television 1997, when he was arrested Even in the violent world of pen pals. In it, Fiedler reporters, “We’re here for for possession of LSD and racist skinhead subculture, professes his love of comic the community.” received probation. A short there are thugs, and there are books, animals, and poetry. The skinhead park time later, he and a fellow thugs. Brien James, co-found- He makes no mention of his clean-up was an attempt by skinhead fired more than er of the Vinlander Social blood-spattered past. Fiedler to counter the nega- 40 rounds from assault Club, is a thug’s thug. In the From 2001 until his most tive publicity generated by rifles into a fleeing car; opinion of neo-Nazi activist recent incarceration in the murder of a young white Fiedler was convicted of and longtime James antago- 2005, Fiedler was the leader man with a pacemaker who felony endangerment and nist Bill White, the beefy tat- of a Phoenix skinhead crew, was kicked and stomped aggravated assault and too shop owner from Indiana alternately called SS Guard- to death outside a pool served three years in prison. is “nuts and violent — a joke ians and Unit 88, whose hall by several of Fiedler’s About six months after he you want to keep away from members were involved followers in late 2002. “My was paroled in early 2001, you because you know he’s in at least two murders, son was so disfigured the Fiedler attended a bonfire going to do so something to numerous brutal assaults, bouncer [who found him] where skinheads torched bring the cops over.” and other acts of violence couldn’t tell what race he a Jewish star. He was ar- Like punch and stomp a and racial intimidation that was. We couldn’t have an rested at the scene for vio- man to the brink of death brought skinhead criminal open casket,” said Cole Bai- lating the conditions of his at a party for refusing to

22 intelligence report special edition seig heil, as James did in In- to exert total control over ment could not succeed “by an imposing figure whose dianapolis in 2000. “I have whatever skinhead crew belonging to a social club continuing, heavy influence been tried for attempted he’s running with by acting where all we do is drink and on skinheads in the Pacific murder and multiple batter- as the “brains” behind the shoot the shit every Satur- Northwest has deep roots. ies and hate crimes,” James outfit, as well a good portion day night.” Krager has been involved boasted years later. “My of the brawn. Invariably so James and fellow mem- in the skinhead subculture JTTF [Joint Terrorism Task far, the demands of his huge bers of the Vinlander Social since at least 1989. That Force] file is a mile long.” ego have led James to even- Club took the comment year, when he was 15, Krag- James began his gang tually split from his current personally. They rushed er was arrested along with career young, when he and crew to form a new gang, Boswell immediately after several other skinheads some childhood friends in with himself as its self-ap- his speech and beat him in and charged with racial Knightstown, Ind., formed a pointed leader. front of his wife and young intimidation for allegedly gang called the Knightstown In 2002, James left the daughter. Other NSM mem- assaulting three teenagers Boys. In his late teens, James Outlaw Hammerskins to bers were attacked as well near a park in Portland, Ore. became involved with the found the Hoosier State in the melee that ensued. During the attack, assailants Klan before helping to found Skinheads along with Eric NSM member Gary Robin- pummeled a Hispanic girl “The Butcher” Fairburn son described his comrade in the face while shouting, (see profile, above). Austin Ibarra’s face as look- “Why aren’t you white?” In October of 2005, ing “like hamburger covered Krager was sent to a James helped convene a in bootprints.” juvenile detention center. “Blood & Honour” coali- Notch one more party The next year, he attend- james tion of 17 white supremacist wrecked by Brien James ed the civil trial of White groups in yet another direct and company. Aryan Resistance leader challenge to the de facto Tom Metzger — who was national leadership of the being sued by the Southern Hammerskins. This chal- Randall Lee Krager, 32 Poverty Law Center for lenge was also reflected VOLKSFRONT his role in encouraging the in the creation by James, At 6-foot, 2-inches and skinhead murder of a black Fairburn and others of the 240 pounds, with “FEAR” man in Portland — and told Vinlander Social Club, a tattooed across the knuck- a reporter that Metzger was coalition of regional skin- les of his right hand and a a “cool guy … one of the nic- head crews — including the large swastika stamped on est guys you’d ever meet.” Hoosier State Skinheads, his thick neck, Volksfront By the time Krager the Ohio State Skinheads, founder Randall Krager is turned 18, police had en- and the Keystone State countered him 28 times. Skinheads — that do not That year, 1992, Krager the Outlaw Hammerskins recognize the authority of was sentenced to 27 months in 1999 in the first direct Hammerskin Nation. in prison for putting an challenge to the authority of Tensions between the African-American man into

Hammerskin Nation. Vinlanders and other neo- krager a coma with a single punch. Online, James uses the Nazi groups exploded in During sentencing proceed- screen name “Hando2000,” Kentucky at last May’s hate- ings, Krager reportedly an apparent reference to the rock festival known as Nor- shouted “Fucking Jew pig!” character Hando, played by dic Fest. The violence was at court officials. Russell Crowe in the 1992 sparked by Missouri Nation- Krager’s white suprema- cult film classic, “Romper al Socialist Movement mem- cist beliefs were reinforced Stomper.” In the movie, ber Steven Boswell, who in prison. While inside, he Hando is the leader of a rac- started a speech touting networked with skinheads ist skinhead gang in Aus- NSM accomplishments by outside, laying the ground- tralia. Like Hando, James telling his audience that the work for his Volksfront neo- has a reputation for trying white supremacist move- Nazi gang. Krager assumed

intelligence report special edition 23 leadership of Volksfront im- That January at Aryan er. In 1979, when Martell was former member, CASH had mediately upon his release Fest, a white power fes- a member of the American been more or less beaten into in October 1994. tival in Arizona hosted Nazi Party, he was sentenced submission by Chicago’s anti- But Krager didn’t stay and policed by Volksfront, to four years in prison for racist skins. But Martell had out of prison for long. representatives of Krager attempting to firebomb the Ci- already proven he was ahead Weeks after his release, he claimed to have purchased cero, Ill., home of a Hispanic of his time. When he first called a local anti-racist five acres of land in Oregon couple and their five children. started recruiting for CASH, skinhead and threatened as the beginnings of a white He served 30 months. there were likely fewer than to kill him. Krager was ar- homeland. Although Krager In the mid-1980s, Martell 200 racist skinheads in the rested and pleaded guilty to officially stepped down began performing around U.S. By 1989, when he was first-degree intimidation. from his leadership position Chicago with his punk rock convicted of home inva- He served 14 months and later in 2004, today he con- band Romantic Violence. sion, aggravated battery, and was released in early 1995. tinues to control the group Starting in 1985 or 1986, robbery and sentenced to 11 Led by Krager, Volks- from the shadows. Martell passed out Ameri- years in prison, there were front maintained a highly can Nazi Party newsletters more than 3,000. visible presence in Portland between his band’s sets, along Martell was released until 2001, when the gang Clark Martell, 44 with copies of National So- in 1992 after an appellate essentially went under- CHICAGO AREA SKINHEADS cialist Skinhead magazine, for court overturned a different, ground, citing “police and In April 1987, six members which Martell was a cartoon- prior conviction on which governmental pressure” to of the Chicago Area Skin- ist. Martell corralled a follow- his lengthy sentence was explain its disappearance. heads (CASH), one of the ing among young racist skins based. In 1997, new Martell Volksfront resurfaced first racist skinhead gangs eager to copycat their British cartoons appeared in the rac- in 2001 and, to the amaze- formed in the United States, brethren, but his neo-Nazi ist skinhead periodical Right ment of many who knew busted into the apartment of recruiting drive also caught as Reina. That was the last Krager, officially renounced a 20-year-old woman who’d the attention of Chicago’s the skinhead world heard of violence. “[K]icking in quit the gang, and who the numerous “traditional,” non- Clark Martell, though he’s someone’s head will not CASH skinheads suspected racist skinheads, including a been neither forgiven nor make them our political of having black friends. number of African Americans forgotten by anti-racist skins allies. … We know that Once inside, the racist (according to Chicago punk in Chicago and elsewhere. violence created by stupid- skinheads, including CASH lore, the city’s skinhead scene “I can clearly remember the ity or machismo will and founder Clark Martell, who was founded by black tradi- fearless leader of CASH writ- can destroy organizations,” was then 26, pistol-whipped tional skinheads). ing all sorts of letters to punk read a notice on Volks- the former skinbyrd, Enjoying the advantage of and alternative magazines front’s website. sprayed mace in her eyes, vastly superior numbers, non- sucking up to black people In a blatant and brutal and painted a swastika and racist-turned-anti-racist crews once he spent about six violation of this supposed “Race Traitor” on her wall such as Skinheads of Chicago months in [prison],” a punk policy — a policy that ap- with her blood. (SHOC) routinely ganged up rocker using the screen name pears to have been a public That assault came in the on CASH skins at shows and SeattleTroll posted to the relations gambit more than midst of an 18-month crime in the streets. “They grew out online punk rock discussion anything else — Volksfront’s spree by Martell and 15 to 20 of what we are — the punk forum finntroll.net earlier this Washington state chapter followers that also included scene — so it’s up to us to year. “Of course, he still got leader, Kurtis William Mon- assaults on six Hispanic combat them,” a member of his ass kicked by every Irish schke, joined three other women, swastikas painted on the Chicago Anti-Racist Ac- SHOC skin when he got out racist skinheads in 2003 in three synagogues, and numer- tion (ARA) crew told the Chi- of jail.” beating to death a home- ous incidents of vandalism to cago Tribune. “We have more less man in Tacoma using Jewish-owned business. responsibility than anybody baseball bats and rocks. Martell, who hailed from else to bring them down.” Kenneth Mieske, 41 But this mindless violence Blue Island, Ill., about 20 By the time Martell and East Side White Pride hardly destroyed Volksfront. miles south of Chicago, was a the other five CASH skins The first inkling of the fury By 2004, Krager’s gang has violent neo-Nazi years before were arrested for the grue- that lurked inside Kenneth chapters in seven states. he was a skinhead gang lead- some April 1987 attack on a Mieske came when he was

24 intelligence report special edition not quite three. One day, Watch them die/I love to student, was being dropped six counts of arson, robbery, when his adoptive mother hear the agony, they vomit, off by two friends who and assault, a state-appoint- sent the boy to time out in scream, and cry.” were also Ethiopian im- ed psychologist petitioned his bedroom after a minor As a young adolescent in migrants. The skins begin the court on Miller’s behalf. incident, the diaper-clad tot Portland, Ore., Mieske got yelling at the other car to “He did not impress took less than two minutes into Satanism and began move, flashing their head- me as a rabidly delinquent to strip the bed of sheets, using drugs. A friend later lights. When they realized or antisocial individual,” tear down the curtains and said that roughhousing the race of those blocking Kevin Buckley argued after upend a chest of draw- with Mieske was “like play- their path, the night took meeting with Miller. “He ers. The toddler’s strength ing with a Doberman.” In an irrevocable turn. The certainly does not have the stunned her, as did the force 1984, he began playing in Ethiopians and the skins character of a leader.” of his anger. It was a rage, local death metal bands. A both got out of their cars. That remarkable assess- Mieske’s mother told author fellow musician gave him Mieske smashed the tail- ment might have amused Elinor Langer, that would the prophetic nickname lights and right rear win- Miller’s minions in the Ari- only build with time. “Ken Death.” dow of the Ethiopians’ car zona Hammerskins, and no As Mieske later wrote in In 1986, when he was 21, with a baseball bat. Then doubt would have surprised his poem, “Senseless Vio- Mieske went to prison for he brought the bat down on the targets of his violence. lence”: “Victims all around burglary. Inside, he im- Seraw’s head. Seraw crum- Superior Court Judge mersed himself in the hate- pled to the ground, where Gregory H. Martin didn’t filled theology of Christian Mieske hit him again, then buy it, and when Miller was Identity. By the time he was again, splitting his skull and convicted, Judge Martin released in fall of 1987, the killing him. sentenced him to five years skinhead scene in Portland All three of the ESWP in prison. Thus ended the

mieske (and the nation) was on the skins — Mieske, Kyle Brews- explosive first phase of rise, with established gangs ter (see blotter item, p. 9) Miller’s career as a skinhead whose numbers were grow- and Steven Strasser — were gang leader. ing. Mieske joined East Side arrested and later pleaded Jimmy Miller’s associa- White Pride (ESWP), an guilty to murder, assault, tion with the Arizona Ham- affiliate of Tom Metzger’s and racial intimidation. merskins had begun in the White Aryan Resistance Mieske was sentenced to fall of 1989, around the time (WAR). He also became life in prison. In a subse- he dropped out of Scott- lead vocalist of the death quent civil suit brought by sdale Alternative School. metal band, Machine. In the Southern Poverty Law Within a year, he was sec- September of that year, Center, a jury returned a ond-in-command in the or- Metzger sent Dave Mazzel- $12.5 million verdict against ganization — the right-hand la, vice president of WAR’s Metzger and WAR for en- man of the skinhead leader youth arm, to Portland to couraging ESWP members and Tom Metzger protégé, spur ESWP on to commit to commit violence. Case Colcord. brutal assaults, a tactic that Mieske will be eligible Miller and Colcord rev- culminated in the infamous for parole in 2018. Racist eled in organizing high- me/I feel nothing but hate/ November 1988 murder skinhead crews and neo- profile media stunts that Bashing their brains in/Is of Ethiopian immigrant Nazi websites still honor doubled as recruiting tools. my only trade/Senseless Mulugeta Seraw. him as a “Prisoner of War.” Together, they led dem- violence is the only thing I Mieske and two other onstrations in which they know/Piles of corpses never ESWP skinheads were displayed Nazi banners and ending, watch them grow/ drinking beer and party- James Lee Miller, 33 chanted racist and anti- Kill my victims for plea- hopping on a Saturday Arizona Hammerskins Semitic slurs. On Martin sure and for fun/Beat them night when they turned On Oct. 9, 1990, as 17-year- Luther King Jr.’s birthday, over the head. Shoot them onto a street they found old Jimmy “Soda Pop” the two marched down with my gun/Line them up partially blocked by an- Miller awaited trial as an Central Avenue in Phoenix, against a wall. Shoot them. other car. Seraw, a graduate adult in Phoenix, Ariz., on chanting, “Nigger, nigger,

intelligence report special edition 25 nigger! Out, out, out!” On the home of anti-racist in October 1990 that AF’s Adolf Hitler’s birthday, they skinheads. This explosive Richard Myers, 32 North Florida “director of marched in front of a local successfully cleared the American Front/ regional operations” was se- synagogue brandishing window of the Phoenix Confederate Hammerskins cretly Jewish, he laid a trap Nazi insignia. apartment, but the two tar- In 1990, when he was only at a skinhead party house A month after the Martin gets escaped to safety. 17, Richard “Richie” Myers in Daytona Beach rented Luther King march, Miller Miller was arrested that was named the Florida state by Fran Mercuri. (Mercuri began the rampage that September. During his trial leader of the American was then Florida chairman finally landed him in prison. he claimed to be reformed Front (AF), a nationwide for Tom Metzger’s neo-Nazi In February of 1990, and said he was eager to white power skinhead organization, White Aryan Miller attempted to fire- have his tattoos surgi- gang that was started in the Resistance, which worked bomb the home of Jason cally removed. (A SHARP mid-1980s in San Francisco. hand-in-glove with Ameri- “Fishbone” Mosely, a skin who testified at his The five founders included can Front.) Myers ordered teenage member of a rival, trial tauntingly suggested David Lynch, who later the North Florida officer, anti-racist skinhead group that Miller was afraid he’d moved to Port St. Lucie, John Daly, to attend a man- known as the SHARPs, for become somebody’s prison Fla., to become AF’s Eastern datory officers meeting at Skinheads Against Racial “cupcake.”) Despite these States Commander, and Bob the beach house. After Daly Prejudice. But Miller had promises and the appeals Heick, aka “Nazi Bob,” one arrived, Myers and six other the wrong condominium. of psychologists like Kevin of the skinheads involved in AF skinheads pummeled Fortunately for the el- Buckley, Miller was tried as the infamous brawl on the and kicked him while one derly couple inside, Miller’s an adult and convicted. set of The Geraldo Rivera shouted, “Die, Jew boy, die!” homemade bomb bounced After serving two years Show in November 1988. They then attempted to off the window screen. of his sentence, Miller was Lynch and Myers were drown him in the surf. Prior to the bombing, Miller released on parole in April the driving force behind Daly’s attackers later had called Mosley’s mother of 1993. a thriving racist skinhead testified that they watched late at night and threatened Against the rules of his scene in Florida in 1990, Daly’s body begin to float to kill her and her “mon- parole, and despite the fact as the American Front out with the tide, then left, grel” son (Mosley was of that he was living with his systematically absorbed excitedly discussing plans to mixed race). grandmother, the young local crews statewide and get their spider web tattoos, Soon after that attack, ex-con soon resumed engaged in blood feuds with indicating they had killed Miller and a small group leadership of the Arizona anti-racist skinheads. an enemy of the skinhead of Hammerskins visited Hammerskins. During the When Myers discovered movement. But Daly was Sean “Warbaby” Cooper mid-1990s, he expanded his not quite dead, and after at his grandparents’ home. role to become a leader of they had gone, he dragged As punishment for leav- the Hammerskin Nation, his himself ashore and later ing the Hammerskins group’s national organiza- drove to a hospital, where he — and out of fear that he tion. He also distributed reported the attack to police. would start another group a skinhead newsletter to myers Myers was arrested and and challenge Hammer- juvenile detention facilities charged with attempted skin primacy — they beat throughout the country. first-degree murder, con- Cooper and sliced away By the turn of the millen- spiracy to commit aggravat- his crossed-hammer tat- nium, Miller seemed to have ed battery, and aggravated too with an X-Acto knife. faded from the skinhead battery under Florida’s Six days after this brutal scene. A 2004 posting then-new hate crimes law, assault, Miller led a boot on the message board at which enhances sentences party against Kaipo Stant, Skinheadz.com referred to for violent crimes motivated another SHARP skin, Miller as “one time leader of by racial or religious bigotry. and stole Stant’s Doc the Arizona Hammerskins,” During his trial, when Martens boots. and grouped the once fear- Myers was asked to raise his In May, Miller attempted some Miller with “other old right hand, he instead threw a second firebombing at time skins.” up a Hitler salute. Tried as

26 intelligence report special edition an adult, Myers was con- In May 2001, Nelson be- in anticipation of Fielder’s They drove to a remote victed in 1991 and sentenced came romantically involved release. One morning in late area about an hour north of to 10 years in prison. with Phoenix skinhead February 2002, she dis- Phoenix known as Swas- Not long after his re- leader Joshua Fielder covered an envelope with tika Mine. lease, Myers soon re-im- (see profile, above), who $600 in it had gone missing. “What are we going to mersed himself in skinhead worked in a tattoo shop she Suspecting Mark Mathes do with him?” police say activity. He attended a St. frequented. When Fiedler — who was not home at Gaines asked Nelson. Patrick’s Day hate rock was sent back to prison the time — she called Sean “You know what we have festival organized by the for violating his probation Gaines, Fiedler’s second-in- to do,” she replied. Confederate Hammer- in the fall of 2001, he ar- command, who told her to Nelson and Bearup skins in March 2002, and ranged for Nelson and her call back as soon as Mathes ripped Mathes’ clothes now appears to be leading son to stay, rent-free, at the returned, according to po- from his body. Noticing a the Florida Hammerskins home of two of his tattoo lice reports and transcripts cheap ring on one of his chapter. He is also once of Nelson’s later accounts to fingers, Nelson tried to slip again associating with homicide investigators. it off, but the finger was too scanlon David Lynch, who crawled That evening, sometime swollen, so Bearup allegedly out of the woodwork last kevin after 9 p.m., Mathes came helped her cut off the finger year, apparently to relaunch in the back patio door while using wire clippers while American Front. Earlier nelson Nelson was outside smok- Mathes screamed. Gaines this year, two Salt Lake City ing. She offered Mathes a then allegedly smashed skinheads in their early 20s beer, snuck inside to call Mathes head with the shot- pleaded guilty to randomly Gaines, and then returned gun butt, repeatedly, until attacking a black man as to the patio, where she pet- he fell silent. part of an American Front ted a cat, made small talk, The four skinheads then initiation. and waited. dragged Mathes to the side Soon enough, Gaines and of an embankment and two other Unit 88 skin- threw him over a guardrail. Jessica Nelson, 31 heads—longtime Fiedler as- Hoping to prevent iden- Unit 88 sociate Patrick Bearup and tification through dental A dirty blonde with glacial “fresh cut” Jeremy Johnson records, police say, Gaines eyes and an equally icy — entered the yard swiftly, pumped two shotgun blasts temperament, Jessica Nel- carrying a shotgun, a large into Mathes’ face. son has a sweet smile that knife, and a baseball bat, Johnson was arrested spreads across her face like respectively. on Sept. 10, 2003, and Novocain. According to police confessed. Nelson, Bearup Born in Huntington clients, Bruce and Marie reports, Gaines pointed the and Gaines were arrested Beach, Calif., Nelson Mathes, setting in motion shotgun at Mathes, shout- the following day. When moved to Arizona when the chain of events that ing, “You fucked up!” police showed her Mark she was in the eighth grade. would lead to one of the Under orders from Mathes’ ring during one She enlisted in the Army most brutal skinhead mur- Gaines, Johnson began interrogation session, Jes- after graduating from high ders in recent memory. beating Mathes about the sica Nelson sat back in her school. After leaving the Not long after Nelson legs and back with the chair and cackled. military, she had a son (who moved into the home, baseball bat. After Mathes Nelson pleaded guilty to is now 13), developed an Bruce’s brother, Mark, a fell, Gaines allegedly a lesser charge of kidnap- on-again, off-again metham- middle-aged drug addict and bashed him in the head ping (as did Johnson) in phetamine addiction, and petty criminal who had fled with the shotgun’s butt, exchange for her testimony starting having trouble with to Arizona to dodge a war- knocking him uncon- against Gaines and Bearup, the law, racking up a felony rant in Washington state, also scious. The four skinheads who remain jailed awaiting forgery conviction, a DUI, joined the household. dragged Mathes into an al- trial for capital murder.  and misdemeanor charges Nelson worked as a se- ley and lifted him into the for making false statements. curity guard, saving money trunk of a car.

intelligence report special edition 27 Skin Symbols INSIGNIAS AND TATTOOS OF THE RACIST SKINHEAD UNDERGROUND

American Front

Ohio State Skinheads/ Keystone State Vinlanders Skinheads

Volksfront Blood and Honour, Klan, Odinist iconography Vinlanders probate patch

Old school RAC logo

Skinhead merchandise United Kingdom distributor Hate rock label patch skinhead patch

American Thule Totenkopf tattoo Skinbyrd Norse runes Celtic Cross tattoo Society (“My Honor is Loyalty”) patch tattoo

28 intelligence report special edition White power fist w/ laurels Independent skin tattoo Hate rock band patch Triskelion (“three w/Thor’s Hammer sevens”) tattoo

Fenris Wolf Pagan/ SS lightning bolts tattoo Odinist symbol tattoo Northwest Hammerskins Thor’s Hammer Hammerskin tattoo Nation

Skrewdriver life Council of 28/Blood Western rune patch and Honour Council 88 boots tattoo Hammerskins Confederate Hammerskins

Skynbird spinning swastika tattoo w/ 14/88

Eastern Hammerskin Hammerskins prospect patch

Skin skull tattoo “Hammerskin Forever, Forever Hammerskin”

Midland Hammerskins

Crucified skin tattoo Nazi skin (“One people, One Totenkopf (death’s Northern Hammerskin Celtic iconography tattoo Empire, “One Leader”) head) patch w/ 14/88 Hammerskins Cross tattoo

intelligence report special edition 29 THE INTELLIGENCE PROJECT We’re More Than a Magazine...

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