Th e IdahoSpmEsimi ^MYiEW AN EDITION OF THE SPOKESMAN-REVIEW » NEWS ONLINE WMIW.SPORAIE.NET FBI: Aryan Matrh 22, 1998 • $1.50 by Kehoes ‘Army’ used weapons in string of bank robberies By Bill Morlin Staff writer A terrorist gang responsible for 22 bank robberies obtained firearms from accused murderer Chevie Kehoe and his father, Kirby Kehoe. Aryan Republican Army mem­ bers used guns supplied by the Kehoes in some of the Midwest bank robberies, which netted “We seized an $250,000, the FBI confirms. aw ful lot o f Agents aren’t saying if the weap­ ons were among those stolen from gunsfro m murdered Arkansas gun dealer Wil­ liam Mueller. these people Firearms and military surplus supplies taken from Mueller were and we're brought to Spokane by the Kehoes and stored at the Shadows Motel & still not RV Park, court records say. certain where At the same time, authorities say, the Aryan Republican Army used they all came bank robbery money to record an * 51 anti-Semitic rock music CD. y rom. Chevie Kehoe was a friend of the skinheads who recorded the CD, Michael Schwartz their associates claim. The CD was dedicated to Vicki and Sam U.S. Attorney Weaver, who were killed in the Ruby Ridge siege, and an Arkansas racist executed for murder. The Kehoes met Aryan Republican Army members at Elohim City, a white supremacy-survivalist compound in eastern Oklahoma. Chevie Kehoe and at least two members of the Aryan Republican Army — known as the ARA — also visited the Aryan Nations compound in North Idaho between 1993 and 1996. Assistant U.S. Attorney Michael Schwartz, who prose­ cuted ARA members for bank robberies staged between 1994 and 1996, said last week he just learned of the group’s connection with the Kehoes. “I can confirm that members of the Aryan Republican Army did get firearms from the Kehoes,” said Schwartz, of Philadelphia. Chevie Kehoe, Faron Lovelace and skinhead Danny Continued Kehoe connection/A11 Kehoe connection: Two groups used The Order as their model Continued from A1 lying. TTie link between the Aryan Re­ Lee are accused in a federal racke­ publican Army’s six members and the teering indictment of forming their Kehoe family wasn't confirmed until own group, the Aryan Peoples Re­ a few weeks ago, as the ARA mem­ public, after meeting at Elohim City. bers awaited sentencing. Both the Kehoe group and the The lead came after a Spokane ARA were caught with clothing and skinhead told The Spokesman- badges that would allow members to Review that Chevie Kehoe was a impersonate FBI agents or federal friend of ARA members who pro­ marshals. Both groups also possessed duced the skinhead music CD. hand grenades and machine guns for Produced by “White Terror Pro­ their planned overthrow of the gov­ ductions,’’ the CD is dedicated to ernment, authorities say. Sam and Vicki Weaver, and Richard Chevie Kehoe, Lovelace and Lee Wayne Snell. await trial in Arkansas for robbing Snell was convicted of two racial and murdering the Arkansas gun murders before being executed in dealer and his family on Jan. 11,1996, Arkansas on April 19,1995, the same and transporting stolen firearms to day Timothy McVeigh bombed the Spokane. federal building in Oklahoma, claim­ ing 168 lives. Many of the stolen guns were Some people, including a few fed­ traded or sold at gun shows through­ eral investigators, believe Snell’s exe­ out the United States. File/Associated Press cution triggered the conspiracy to FBI agents display guns and pipe bombs seized after a shootout in Columbus, Ohio, The case is being investigated by blow up the federal building. agents of the Bureau of Alcohol. in January 1996. The FBI is now saying the weapons were supplied by accused Snell, viewed as a martyr for the murderer Chevie Kehoe and his father, Kirby. Tobacco & Firearms. white supremacy movement, is ATF investigators and other offi­ buried at Elohim City. firearms from the Kehoes, the Justice nine states before being arrested in cials are prohibited by a judge’s gag “We seized an awful lot of guns Department source said. 1996. order from discussing Jh e case or from these people (the ARA) and Kirby and Chevie Kehoe and their Federal investigators now say both Kehoe connections with the Aryan we’re still not certain where they all families lived in Colville, Spokane the Aryan Republican Army and the Republican Army. came from.’’ U.S. Attorney Schwartz and Yaak, Mont., but they also Aryan Peoples Republic were follow­ Kirby Kehoe is charged with pos­ said. traveled frequently to Oklahoma and ing a model established more than a sessing a handgun stolen from the Kevin McCarthy got a Glock Arkansas and often stayed at Elohim decade ago by Robert J. Mathews. Arkansas gun dealer and with pos­ .45-caliber handgun from Kirby Ke­ City. Mathews, of Metaline Falls, Wash., sessing an illegal machine gun. hoe, and the weapon was used in the “They armed a whole lot of people attended the Aryan Nations, then Chevie Kehoes attorneys, John bank robberies, he said. down there at Elohim City,’’ said a moved on to form a band of neo-Nazi Wesley Hall and Mark Hampton, of Another Justice Department federal agent. revolutionaries he called The Order. Little Rock, Ark., did not return source said the gun was used in 1995 telephone calls. bank robberies by the ARA in The half-dozen members of the The group robbed armored cars, Interest in Chevie Kehoe intensi­ Bridgetown, Mo., Madison, Wis., and Aryan Republican Army wanted to printed counterfeit money, com­ fied last weekend when he was ac­ Sylvania, Ohio. trigger a race war and overthrow the mitted murders and carried out cused by his brother, Cheyne Kehoe, A second .45-caliber pistol once government. bombings in the mid-1980s, before of bombing Spokane’s City Hall in owned by Kirby Kehoe also was They paid for their revolution with Mathews was killed in a shootout April 1996. Cheyne Kehoe also claims traded to McCarthy, who later traded the bank robberies, beginning in with the FBI. The Order followed the his brother was involved in “the it to Mark Thomas, the East Coast January 1994, and quickly rose to the plot in the novel “Turner Dairies.” bombing of a federal building." leader for Aryan Nations. top of the FBI’s domestic terrorism Authorities say McVeigh followed Chevie Kehoe, in prison for shoot­ Michael Brescia, another Aryan list. the same book in planning the Okla­ ing at Ohio police, says his brother is Republican Army member, also got ARA members robbed 22 banks in homa City bombing..