Southern Poverty Law Center - Racist Skinheads

Northwest jury convicts neo-Nazi of triple murder

rlenz — Tue, 21 Nov 2017 23:58:39 +0000

Hatewatch

Northwest jury convicts neo-Nazi of triple murder

A neo-Nazi skinhead with a lengthy criminal record has been convicted of three aggravated murders from 2016 in Washington.

Brent Ward Luyster

Brent Ward Luyster, 37, formerly of Vancouver, Washington, smirked as a Clark County jury left the courtroom Friday after rendering its guilty verdicts.

In addition to three counts of aggravated first-degree murder, the jury found Luyster guilty of attempted first-degree murder and one count each of first- and second-degree unlawful possession of a firearm.

He faces a mandatory life sentence, without the possibility of parole, when he is sentenced on Dec. 4. At that time, prosecutors will address a pending charge of attempting to escape from the Clark County Jail, the Vancouver Columbian reported

Luyster was arrested July 16, 2016, after an 18-hour manhunt begun when three people were found murdered the previous day at a home southeast of Woodland, Washington, where a Confederate flag flew over the crime scene.

The victims were identified as Joseph LaMar, 38, his companion, Janell Renee Knight, 43, and Zachary David Thompson, 36. The Vancouver newspaper described Thompson as the suspect’s “best friend.”

Thompson’s girl friend, Breanne Leigh, 33, was shot in the face but escaped. During trial, she identified Luyster as the shooter.

While the motive wasn’t entirely clear, prosecutors told the jury that Luyster was angry about the prospect of returning to prison if convicted of felony charges he faced in an unrelated case.

Lyster testified in his own defense at the trial, which began Nov. 1 and went to the jury on Nov. 15. He denied any involvement in the homicides or hearing gunshots when he was at the residence.

Luyster has long-held neo-Nazi and white supremacist beliefs, and has been in prison much of his life, but those details were deemed prejudicial and not divulged to the jury.

The defendant, who has “SS” lightning bolts tattooed on the side of his head, let his hair grow out for the trial and the multiple racist tattoos on his body were covered by clothing. But by the time the jury returned its verdict, Luyster was once again a shaved skinhead.

He has three large Nazi swastikas tattooed on his back along with “Rahowa,” a white supremacist and neo-Nazi reference to “racial holy war.” The word “Skinhead” is tattooed across his stomach and he has two elaborate head-profile tattoos, one of which appears to be Adolf Hitler.

Bill Morlin

November 22, 2017

Internet sleuths track down another bad penny from Charlottesville

dneiwert — Fri, 29 Sep 2017 06:37:26 +0000

Hatewatch

Journalist Shaun King leads effort to identify skinhead shown on video throwing punches who is now behind bars.

Internet sleuths track down another bad penny from Charlottesville

Video of Dennis Mothersbaugh Assaults Counter-Protesters at Charlottesville Event

Video via Facebook/Shaun King.

The long arm of the Internet finally caught up with Dennis Mothersbaugh.

Roaming the scene in Charlottesville, Virginia, during the violent “Unite the Right” rally on Aug. 12, the 33-year-old skinhead with a long rap sheet apparently felt anonymous enough to begin punching some of the counter-protesters who showed up to oppose him and his fellow white nationalists.

Video recorded at the protest showed the man lashing out and hitting first one protester as he came down a set of stairs, and then moments later punching a woman protester directly in the face, knocking her to the ground. He then was quickly surrounded by men defending the victim, and he walked away.

That recording, however, created the impetus for a search by Internet sleuths to unearth his identity. Led by Brooklyn-based freelance journalist Shaun King, the activists in short order figured out his identity in large part because of the unique tattoo on Mothersbaugh’s head, a quote from rock star Kurt Cobain which reads: “I am rather hated for who I am, than loved for something I’m not.”

Mothersbaugh's multiple mugshots from his years in Oregon as a skinhead.

Mothersbaugh, who currently resides in rural North Vernon, Indiana, has a long and violent record from the 2000s, when he resided in the Portland, Oregon, vicinity. Among his more noteworthy arrests was a 2005 bust in suburban Gresham for threatening three African-American men and attempting to assault them, as well as a previous 2003 for an assault on a black man.

He also sports a number of other tattoos indicating his membership in the Hammerskins skinhead organization, as well as the Inland Empire neo-Nazi prison gang.

Now Mothersbaugh is behind bars. Once identified, police in Charlottesville issued a warrant for his arrest on assault charges. Police in Indiana were notified, and once Charlottesville police issued a request for extradition, Mothersbaugh was arrested at his home by deputies.

According to a news release, he was being held in the Jennings County Jail. He will be extradited to the Charlottesville/Abemarle Regional Jail "in the near future.”

King has led previous successful efforts to identify the violent white supremacists involved in criminal assaults on people at Charlottesville, including the four men who attacked an African-American man, Deandre Harris, at a parking garage.

King thanked his readers on social media. “You helped make that happen. We identified him. Charlottesville issued the arrest warrant. The police in his hometown, who've been great by the way, wanted to arrest him, but Charlottesville had to request extradition.

“Well, they just did, and he is now in custody. He is the third white supremacist from Charlottesville that we have identified and lobbied for an arrest. Your hard work is paying off.”

David Neiwert

September 29, 2017

Skinhead Who Fired Shotgun in Racial Assaults Gets Prison

susy — Tue, 11 Apr 2017 20:39:52 +0000

Hatewatch

A California skinhead who twice fired a sawed-off shotgun as an exclamation point to his racial hatred was sentenced this week to 15 years in federal prison.

Skinhead Who Fired Shotgun in Racial Assaults Gets Prison

Justin Cole Whittington, 25, was convicted in December of using force to interfere with a person’s housing rights, use of a firearm during a crime of violence and lying to the FBI. He previously pleaded guilty to illegally possessing the sawed-off shotgun.

Identified in court documents as a member of the Peckerwood skinhead gang, on Dec. 19, 2012 Whittington fired a sawed-off shotgun at a Latino man—a total stranger—standing in his front yard in Oildale, California north of Bakersfield.

“The defendant shouted ‘f------ n-----,’ fired one round toward [the victim] from about fifteen yards away, and yelled ‘get the f--- out of Oildale,’” before driving away, Assistant U.S. Attorney Brian K. Delaney wrote in a sentencing memorandum.

The victim “heard pellets fly by his head, and believed for a moment that he had been shot,” the memorandum says, but neither he nor his wife, standing nearby, were hit by the shotgun blast.

“As a result of the shooting, the victim’s family was concerned about their safety, and moved from their home shortly thereafter,” the memo says.

If that wasn’t enough, Whittington then drove to a nearby convenience store owned by a man of Middle Eastern descent and fired the shotgun again, this time without leaving the vehicle.

“The blast left a large hole in the store’s glass door, and circles of missing paint on the metal gate in front of the store,” federal investigators said.

The victim of that attack provided Kern County Sheriff’s deputies with a description of the shooter’s car.

Deputies quickly located Whittington nearby standing outside the car. They recovered a sawed-off shotgun in the trunk of Whittington’s Crown Victoria, which was parked near the car used in the two shootings, authorities said.

“Whittington admitted to law enforcement … that he had been a member of the Oildale Peckerwoods, a white supremacist gang, and has gang tattoos, including a ‘P’ and a ‘W’ on his shins, for the Peckerwoods, and a ‘23’on his stomach symbolizing the 23rd letter of the alphabet—W— for White Power,” the sentencing memo says.

Whittington subsequently made false statements to an FBI agent when questioned about the sawed-off shotgun. He was indicted on federal hate crime charges in September 2015.

Earlier that year, Whittington was arrested when he was caught on a surveillance camera hitting his 3-year-old son in a Bakersfield convenience store. He pleaded no contest to a misdemeanor child abuse charge.

On Monday, U.S. District Judge Dale A. Drozd of the Eastern District of California sentenced Whittington to 15 years in prison for federal hate crimes—five years less than the sentence recommended by prosecutors.

“The sentence handed down today reflects the seriousness of hate crimes such as this, which cause not only the victims but entire communities to feel vulnerable and unsafe,” said U.S. Attorney Phillip A.Talbert.

“Our district is one that is rich in diversity, and my office is committed to investigating and prosecuting those who violate community members’ civil rights through acts of hate and intimidation,” Talbert said.

At the Justice Department in Washington, D.C., Acting Assistant Attorney General Tom Wheeler said the case demonstrates that “hate violence has no place in our society.”

“It harms individuals and entire communities by threatening their sense of security and freedom,” Wheeler said. “In this case, Whittington fired a shotgun at the victim, terrorizing him and his family, because of his Latino ethnicity. The Justice Department will continue to vigorously prosecute hate crimes so that all people, no matter the color of their skin, their country of origin, or how they worship, can live their lives freely and without fear.”

Bill Morlin

April 12, 2017

FBI’s Phony White Supremacy Gang Nets Arrest of Vinlander

rlenz — Mon, 28 Nov 2016 21:42:02 +0000

Hatewatch

Federal prosecutors in Florida are expected to ask a judge on Tuesday to detain a self-professed, violence-boasting white supremacist under indictment in a murder-for-hire plot.

FBI’s Phony White Supremacy Gang Nets Arrest of Vinlander

The arrest of Adrian “Skitz” Apodaca, who claims to be a founding member of the violent neo-Nazi Vinlanders Social Club, came after undercover FBI agents set up their own phony white supremacy gang and invited him to a meeting where he saw money change hands, newly filed court documents disclose.

The investigation was launched, the FBI said in court papers, “to mitigate any potential threats posed by Apodaca and to determine whether he was engaging in criminal activities.”

Since its formation in 2003, several members of the Vinlanders have been arrested for violent crimes throughout the United States. The neo-Nazi gang –– embracing a racist, pagan religion known as Odinism –– has a reputation for drinking, fist-fighting brawls and violent intimidation.

During the five-month FBI sting investigation, court documents allege, Apodaca made secretly recorded statements that he and other Vinlanders had “killed a lot of people” while posing as police officers and ripping off drug houses in Arizona.

Apodaca, 44, was arrested by the FBI on Oct. 28 at a motel in Valdosta, Ga., and was subsequently indicted by a grand jury in West Palm Beach, Fla., on federal charges related to murder-for hire; two charges of attempted drug possession with intent to distribute, robbery, possession of a firearm in furtherance of a crime of violence and possession of ammunition by a felon.

At Tuesday’s detention hearing before a U.S. magistrate judge in West Palm Beach, prosecutors will argue Apodaca poses a flight risk or is a danger to the community, or both, to seek his detention before trial, now set for January in Fort Lauderdale.

The case was put together when undercover FBI agents, posing as “affluent violent members of a criminal organization with white supremacy extremist beliefs,” held a secret meeting at a Miami-area warehouse and invited Apodaca, the court documents say.

During a meeting in September, court documents say, Apodaca said he wanted to do business with the group after he witnessed money exchange hands between the undercover agents acting as white supremacist criminals.

At a subsequent meeting at a Broward County trailer park with an FBI undercover agent posing as a higher-ranking member of the phony white supremacy group, Apodaca “related his involvement with the Vinlander Social Club in Arizona which he described as a skinhead group,” court documents say.

In a conversation secretly recorded by the FBI, Apodaca boasted that he and the Vinlanders had done “contract work, collecting debts” in Arizona and were involved in fighting with different criminal cartels, presumably for control of drug and weapons trafficking.

He related a story in which he and his Vinlander associates “hit a drug house, posing as cops, during which one of his associates mowed everybody down,'' and fled with a million dollars, court documents say.

Federal authorities have not disclosed if that claim has been related to unsolved crimes in Arizona.

Bill Morlin

November 28, 2016

Neo-Nazi Arrested for Killing Three, Wounding a Fourth in Washington State

eschlatter — Mon, 18 Jul 2016 14:05:07 +0000

Hatewatch

A neo-Nazi skinhead who faced the prospect of returning to prison was arrested Saturday in southwestern Washington state, a day after three people were found murdered at a home where a Confederate flag flew over the crime scene.

Neo-Nazi Arrested for Killing Three, Wounding a Fourth in Washington State

Brent Ward Luyster, 35, a former Vancouver, Wash., man with a lengthy criminal record and neo-Nazi tattoos covering much of his body, was arrested without incident after an intensive 18-hour manhunt involving multiple law enforcement agencies in the Pacific Northwest.

He was identified as the suspect after a fourth shooting victim -- a woman shot in the face and bleeding – somehow managed to escape the shooting scene late Friday at a residence at 4006 N.W. 417^th St. in Woodland, north of Vancouver, Wash. She remains hospitalized. Authorities haven’t disclosed her condition.

Triple homicide suspect Brent Ward Luyster

Police said three bodies were found at the rural residence where neighbors reported hearing rapid-fire gunshots shortly after 10 p.m. Friday, according to media reports.

After police SWAT teams determined the suspect was no longer at the crime scene, authorities used social media and media outlets to spread the word about the fugitive, described as armed and extremely dangerous.

“We are very pleased that Mr. Luyster was taken into custody without incident, without apparently harming anyone while we were looking for him,” Clark County Sheriff’s Sgt. Fred Neiman told the Vancouver Columbian newspaper.

“We were fearful that, given what we know of him, it might have been a different story,” the sheriff’s spokesman said.

Luyster was scheduled to stand trial Monday in Cowlitz County, Wash., on charges of pistol-whipping his ex-girlfriend at his home in Longview, Wash., on May 16.

If convicted of assault, harassment and illegal firearm possession, it’s most likely Luyster would have been returned to the Washington State Penitentiary where records show he served time more than a decade ago. His first brush with the law occurred when he was a 7-year-old child, the Columbian reported.

He has prior convictions for a drive-by shooting, taking a motor vehicle without permission, assault, rioting while armed, malicious harassment, malicious mischief, theft and other crimes.

Luyster pleaded guilty to the rioting charge in October 2014 and received 90 days in jail after he was accused of making “racially motivated threats” at a Vancouver, Wash., tavern in March 2013, the Oregonian reported. He allegedly threatened to kill an interracial couple at the tavern and threatened a black man with a pistol outside the bar.

The triple homicide occurred in Clark County, in the southwestern corner of Washington state, across the Columbia River, north of Portland, Ore. Luyster did not live at the property where the bodies were discovered, but knew all the victims, the Oregonian reported.

“A confederate flag flew from a barn structure on the tree-shrouded Woodland property,” the newspaper reported.

The Columbian newspaper in Vancouver, Wash., reported that the victims were two men and a woman, but didn’t provide names.

The incident was reported about 10:30 p.m. Friday when the woman with a gunshot wound to the face drove more than two miles to a convenience store to seek help, identifying Luyster as the suspect.

He was taken into custody at 4:15 p.m Saturday on the Ocean Beach Highway west of Longview by the Cowlitz County Sheriff’s Office and the Washington State Patrol, the Columbian reported.

Photographs of the suspect show he has three large Nazi swastikas on his back along with “Rahowa,” a white supremacist and neo-Nazi reference to racial holy war. The word “Skinhead” is tattooed across his stomach. He also has two rather elaborate head-profile tattoos, one of which appears to be Adolf Hitler.

Bill Morlin

July 18, 2016

Alleged Wisconsin Cop-Killer Had White Supremacist Past

Anonymous — Thu, 26 Mar 2015 21:51:31 +0000

Hatewatch

Alleged Wisconsin Cop-Killer Had White Supremacist Past

Before he allegedly robbed a bank, stole a pickup truck, killed a man and then got into a shootout that left him and a young state trooper dead in small town Wisconsin on Tuesday, Steven Snyder was reportedly a racist skinhead with ties to the National Alliance (NA), once the best organized and most dangerous neo-Nazi group in the country.

In 1996, when Snyder was 19, he was part of a group of skinheads, armed with pipes and baseball bats, that attacked a group of blacks and Latinos at their home in Fond du Lac, Wis., according to a Milwaukee television station.

When police arrived, most of the skinheads scattered, but Snyder was captured. Police then discovered, according to the station, that Snyder had white supremacist tattoos and was carrying printed cards promoting the NA. He later spent 50 days in jail for his role in the bloody brawl.

Fast forward 19 years to Tuesday afternoon when a man – later identified as the now 38-year-old Snyder – walked into a bank in the Village of Wausaukee, fired a shot into the ceiling and escaped in an bank employee’s pickup truck with an undisclosed amount of cash.

At 2:30 pm, about 30 minutes after the bank robbery, police were notified that a man, Thomas Christ, 59, had been found dead along the side of a road. Near the body was the stolen pickup truck, its motor still running. It appears Snyder stole Christ’s vehicle to continue his escape.

Slain Wisconsin State Trooper Trevor Casper

Three hours later in Fond du Lac, the site of the skinhead brawl, a Wisconsin state trooper, Trevor Casper, 21, spotted Snyder.

The trooper and the suspect exchanged gunfire and both men were killed.

Snyder lived in suburban Detroit, where he ran his own cement mason business. According to New Richmond News, the FBI says Snyder is a suspect in at least two bank robberies that bloody day and other unsolved robberies in and outside of Wisconsin.

Casper, the young state trooper who finally stopped Snyder’s rampage, had just graduated from the State Patrol Academy in December and had completed 12 weeks with a training officer, according to the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel.

Casper was the first Wisconsin state trooper to be fatally shot in the line of duty in nearly 43 years and just minutes away, the Journal said, from completing his first solo shift.

Don Terry

March 26, 2015

Suspect in Arizona Shooting Spree a White Supremacist Skinhead

Anonymous — Wed, 18 Mar 2015 20:27:59 +0000

Hatewatch

Suspect in Arizona Shooting Spree a White Supremacist Skinhead

The man reportedly arrested in the aftermath of a shooting spree in Mesa, Ariz., today sports tattoos that identify him as a neo-Nazi. What's more, a local retired detective says he is a longtime white supremacist skinhead associated with major racist groups.

Ryan Giroux, Arizona Department of Corrections

Ryan Giroux, who allegedly murdered one person and wounded five others earlier today and was arrested after a frenzied manhunt, was released from prison in Arizona in 2013. According to prison records, he has convictions for attempt to commit aggravated assault, marijuana, theft, and second degree burglary. Records indicate that he was sentenced to a total of about 14 years in prison.

The Arizona prison system's mug shot of Giroux shows his face covered in white supremacist tattoos: where his shaven eyebrows used to be, the words "SKIN" and "HEAD"; and on his left temple, the number "88," which is neo-Nazi code for Heil Hitler (because H is the 8th letter of the alphabet); and, on his chin, a "Thor's Hammer," a symbol used by adherents of Odinism, a pre-Christian faith that has been adopted by many white supremacists.

A retired Mesa Police detective who once infiltrated local skinhead groups told Hatewatch that he knew Giroux from previous encounters, and that Giroux was a member of Hammerskin Nation, a notoriously violent racist skinhead group, and an associate of the Aryan Brotherhood, a national prison gang with a long list of murders to its credit. "He's a violent guy," said the former detective, who knew Giroux as a young skinhead in the 1990s and early 2000s . "I think his time in prison contributed to that."

Giroux, 41, has been in and out of Arizona prisons since 1993, when he was arrested for burglary and marijuana possession. His most recent prison stint, for an attempt to commit aggravated assault, began in 2007 and ended in October 2013.

According to early reports, the rampage apparently began before 9 a.m. at the Tri City Inn, a Mesa motel, when three people were shot in a room by the suspect. One of those, a male, died at the scene; two women in the room were wounded by the shooter.

The suspect then apparently ran across the street to a nearby bistro café and shot a man there. That victim then ran across the street to the motel, where medical personnel had arrived to treat the first victims, and he received treatment there.

The shooter then hijacked a car from a woman at the parking lot of an adjacent technical school and drove down a nearby boulevard for about a mile, and then pulled into a large apartment complex. Once there, he apparently shot and wounded a man outside in the parking lot. He then crossed the street to a nearby apartment and broke into it. The occupant of the apartment he invaded was left unhurt.

About two hours after the rampage began, Mesa police successfully cornered Giroux and captured him with the use of Tasers. He was led away from the scene in a DNA suit designed to preserve evidence on his person.

During the search for Giroux, officials at nearby Adams Elementary School put the school on shutdown, and officials at nearby Pima Medical Center similarly locked down their facility. After his arrest, there was a flood of cars from the area as people who had been put under lockdown fled, and parents arrived to take their children home from the school.

Mark Potok

March 18, 2015

Skinhead Given 22-Year Sentence in Scissors Attack

Anonymous — Wed, 25 Feb 2015 20:05:17 +0000

Hatewatch

On the day he was sentenced, a 28-year-old neo-Nazi skinhead who viciously stabbed a black man in the head with scissors had an surprising epiphany.

Skinhead Given 22-Year Sentence in Scissors Attack

Ryan Zietlow-Brown.

“We have more in common than we don’t,” Ryan Zietlow-Brown told his victim in court, apologizing for the hate crime he committed in downtown Santa Barbara, Calif., in August 2011.

Zietlow-Brown was sentenced on Tuesday to 22 years and 4 months in prison after pleading no contest in early January to felony charges of attempted murder and mayhem with a hate crime motivation, the Santa Barbara Independent reported today.

Defense attorney Steven Andrade told the court that Zietlow-Brown had been awake for five days, high on methamphetamine, and that he suffered from a “brain irregularity” causing impulsive behavior. Andrade argued that the crime was more a consequence of Zietlow-Brown being “angry and out of control” rather than being racially motivated.

Prosecutor Kim Siegel said Zietlow-Brown was involved in multiple racially based fights prior to his arrest, showing “complete disregard for human safety and life,” the newspaper reported. She disagreed with a defense claim that the young man has given up his white supremacist affiliations.

Addressing the court, the defendant also apologized his mother, Shelya Rosenbaum — who is Jewish and of African-American descent — for his beliefs.

After sentencing, she told the newspaper she and her husband had spent tens of thousands of dollars on boot camps and therapy, but “no amount of treatment or money can overcome addiction.” She also apologized to the victim and gave him a hug as they left the courtroom.

Bill Morlin

February 25, 2015

Neo-Nazi Skinhead To Be Sentenced for Scissors Stabbing

Anonymous — Wed, 07 Jan 2015 21:50:22 +0000

Hatewatch

A neo-Nazi skinhead with a criminal record faces sentencing next month for a hate crime in which he used a pair of scissors to stab an African-American man in the head in Santa Barbara, Calif., in 2011.

Neo-Nazi Skinhead To Be Sentenced for Scissors Stabbing

Ryan Christopher Zietlow-Brown, left. Kenneth Richard Barber, right.

Ryan Christopher Zietlow-Brown, also known as Ryan Christopher Rosenbaum, pleaded no-contest Tuesday in Santa Barbara

Superior Court to felony charges of attempted murder and mayhem. He faces up to 22 years in prison.

As part of the plea, Zietlow-Brown, 28, acknowledged he committed the felonies as part of his skinhead gang affiliation and that the offenses were hate crimes as described by California state law, Senior Deputy District Attorney Kimberly Siegel told Hatewatch.

A “no contest” plea means the defendant acknowledges that he or she would be found guilty based on the facts of the case, if it were to go to trial.

According to court testimony, Zietlow-Brown encountered two men on Aug. 12, 2011, as they walked to a McDonald’s on State Street in Santa Barbara. The two co-workers – one black and one white – were singing a song by a well-known rap group.

Zietlow-Brown approached and asked the victim “if the boy [with him] was white.” When the victim replied, “Yes, why are you asking?” Zietlow-Brown responded, “Tell him to ….[expletive] start acting like it.” The victim told Zietlow-Brown to mind his own business and continued walking.

Minutes later, as the two men were walking back to work, Zietlow-Brown approached them again, now armed with a pair of scissors he had stolen from a nearby store, Siegel said.

Zietlow-Brown attacked the victim, stabbing him multiple times in the head before fleeing to the home of a female friend. He admitted the stabbing to her and she assisted in wiping blood from the scissors, Siegel said. Zietlow-Brown later was arrested based on descriptions of the attacker provided by eyewitnesses.

“The victim has recovered, but he still experiences pain,” the prosecutor told Hatewatch. “He does have some scarring, both emotional and physical, as a result of this attack.” He is expected to attend the sentencing hearing on Feb. 24.

The case against Zietlow-Brown has been delayed several times as investigators probed his connections to other neo-Nazi skinheads in the Simi Valley and in the state’s prison system, Siegel said.

Zietlow-Brown was an associate of Kenneth Richard Barber, 45, who was convicted in Santa Barbara County of attempted premeditated murder and assault with a deadly weapon for attacking fellow jail inmates, the prosecutor said. Barber is now serving a 40-year-to-life sentence at the California State Prison in Corcoran.

Bill Morlin

January 07, 2015

Hammerskins Gather to Remember Founder of The Order

Anonymous — Tue, 16 Dec 2014 15:57:32 +0000

Hatewatch

Hammerskins Gather to Remember Founder of The Order

It was a moment of remembrance for the racist right.

Last week, about three dozen racists gathered on Whidbey Island, Wash., to mark the 30^th anniversary of the death of Robert J. Mathews, who founded a band of white supremacist terrorists intent on starting a race war called The Order. Members of The Order had fled to the island after a gun battle days earlier with FBI agents at a motel in Portland, Ore.

At the cabin, Mathews refused to surrender to the FBI, which later fired flares into the building to force him out. Matthews refused to leave, and died in an inferno when the cabin caught fire.

Because of Mathews' unwillingness to surrender, he is widely regarded now as a martyr for white nationalists and racists, who annually visit Whidbey Island as part of a pilgrimage of sorts. This year was no different, attracting racists mostly from the Northwest Hammerskins, considered one of the most violent skinhead groups in the country.

A photograph posted on a white supremacist blog honoring Mathews and other members of The Order showed almost three-dozen attendees, their faces pixelated, beneath a Hammerskins crossed-hammers logo. The photo included the caption: “December 8th 2014 - NWHS and friends at Whidbey Island for Martyrs Day! Robert J Mathews!”

In the spring of 1985, just a few months after Mathews’ death, several members of The Order were indicted in nearby Seattle on federal racketeering charges, covering murders, armed robberies, counterfeiting and other crimes the neo-Nazi gang committed in its failed attempt to start a race war.

Bill Morlin

December 16, 2014