Aryan Brotherhood

Aryan Brotherhood

Founding location	San Quentin State Prison, California
Years active	1964–present
Territory	federal prison system, California, Texas, New York, Indiana, Ohio and Arizona
Ethnicity	White
Membership	Estimated 200-300 full members, with thousands of associates in and out of prison
Criminal activities	Murder, assault, Drug trafficking, Extortion, Racketeering, Arms trafficking, inmate prostitution, murder for hire and dog fighting[1]
Allies	Mexican Mafia, Nazi Lowriders, Public Enemy No. 1,[2] Hells Angels, Gambino crime family,[3] Philadelphia crime family,[3] Irish Mob.[4] Ku Klux Klan, European Kindred
Rivals	Black Guerrilla Family, Jewish Defense League, Bloods, Crips, Nuestra Familia. D.C. Blacks, Israeli mafia, Friends Stand United, MS-13, People Nation, Folks Nation, Los Angeles crime family, Russian Mafia

The Aryan Brotherhood, also known as The Brand, the AB, or the One-Two, is a white supremacist street gang and organized crime syndicate in the United States with about 20,000 members in and out of prison.^[5][6] According to the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), although the gang makes up less than 1% of the prison population, it is responsible for up to 21% of murders in the federal prison system.^[7][8] The AB has focused on the economic activities typical of organized crime entities, particularly drug trafficking, extortion, inmate prostitution, and murder-for-hire.^{[citation needed]}

Organization at lower levels varies from prison to prison. For example, in the Arizona prison system, members are known as "kindred" and organize into "families". A "council" controls the families. Kindred may recruit other members, known as "progeny", and serve as a mentor for the new recruits.^[9] The group has an alliance^{[citation needed]} with La Eme (The Mexican Mafia) as the two are mutual enemies of Black Guerilla Family. According to a federal indictment, the AB has partnered with Asian gangs to import heroin from Thailand.

Like most prison gangs, Aryan Brotherhood members mark themselves with distinctive tattoos. Designs commonly include the words "Aryan Brotherhood", "AB", SS, 666, sig runes, shamrocks, and other Nazi symbolism and Celtic iconography.^[7]

History

Aryan Brotherhood member's tattoo.

Until the 1960s, most prisons in the United States were racially segregated. As prisons began to desegregate, many inmates organized along racial lines.^[8] The Aryan Brotherhood is believed to have been formed by a group of Irish bikers in 1964 at San Quentin State Prison,^[6] but it may have been derived from or inspired by the Bluebird Gang.^[6] They decided to strike against the blacks who were forming their own militant group called the Black Guerrilla Family.^[10] In the early 1970s The Aryan Brotherhood had a connection with Charles Manson and the Manson Family. Several members of the Family, who were not in prison at the time, attempted to join forces. The Manson Family became split, the Comoites following former family member Kenneth Como, and the Mansonites following Manson. However, the relationship did not last long as the Aryan Brotherhood considered Manson "too leftist", and not racist enough for their group. ^[11]

By the 1990s, the Aryan Brotherhood had shifted its focus away from killing for strictly racial reasons and focused on organized crime, such as drug trafficking, prostitution and sanctioned murders.^[10] They took on organized crime-like powers, and may be more powerful than the Italian crime families within the prison system.^[10] For example, while incarcerated in Marion Federal Penitentiary in 1996, after being assaulted, Gambino crime family boss John Gotti allegedly asked the Aryan Brotherhood to murder his attacker. Gotti's attacker was immediately transferred to protective custody and the planned retaliation was abandoned.^[7][12]

In late 2002, 29 leaders of the gang were simultaneously rounded up from prisons all over the country and brought to trial under the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations (RICO) Act.^[10] The intention was to bring death sentences for at least 21 of them, to cut off the leadership of the gang, in a manner similar to tactics used against organized crime.^[10] The case produced 30 convictions but none of the most powerful leaders received a death sentence.^[10] Sentencing occurred in March 2006 for three of the most powerful leaders of the gang, including Barry Byron Mills (born 1948) and AB "lieutenant" Tyler "The Hulk" Bingham, who were indicted for numerous crimes, including murder, conspiracy, drug trafficking, and racketeering and for ordering killings and beatings from their cell.^{[6][13][13][14][15]} Bingham and Mills were convicted of murder and sent back to United States Penitentiary Administrative Maximum Facility Prison (ADX) in Florence, Colorado where they are serving life sentences with no parole, escaping the death penalty.

Prosecuting the gang has been historically difficult, because many members are already serving life sentences with no possibility of parole, so prosecutors were seeking the death penalty for 21 of those indicted but have dropped the death penalty on all but five defendants. By September 2006, the 19 inductees not eligible for the death penalty had pled guilty.^[8] The first of a series of trials involving four high level members ended in convictions in July 2006.

On 23 June 2005, after a 20-month investigation, a federal strike force raided six houses in northeastern Ohio belonging to the "Order of the Blood", a criminal organization controlled by the Aryan Brotherhood. Thirty-four Aryan Brotherhood members or associates were arrested and warrants were issued for ten more.^[8]

Notable members

Barry Mills (Aryan Brotherhood)|Barry Mills, Glen "ACE" Bolden and Jeremy "Boston" Goncalves are among three leaders of the Universal Aryan Brotherhood (UAB)gang. Former members include Michael Thompson. Thompson was a high school football star, and is part Native American.^[10][16] Thompson was sentenced to multiple life sentences with no chance of parole and will spend the rest of his life in protective custody sections of California prisons.^[14][15]

Media depictions

Documentaries

• Aryan Brotherhood National Geographic documentary^[17]
• Ross Kemp on Gangs (2004–present)
• Gangland: Aryan Brotherhood (History Channel)

Films

• The Experiment (2010)
• Once Fallen (2010)
• Felon (2008)
• Death Race (2008)
• The Death and Life of Bobby Z (2007)
• Miami Vice (2006)
• Lockdown (2000)
• Animal Factory (2000)
• American History X (1998)
• Dead Man Walking (1995)
• Higher Learning (1995)
• Blood in Blood out (1993)
• American Me (1992)
• South Central (1992)
• Ricochet (1991)
• An Innocent Man (1989)

TV series

• Explorer (TV series) (2010)^[18]
• American Gangs (2009)^[19]
• Sons of Anarchy (2008)
• Gangland (2007)
• Raines (2007)
• Prison Break (2005–2009)
• Law & Order (2004)
• Oz (1997–2003)

Other

• Hard Time (comic book; 2004–06)
• The Suffering (video game; 2004)
• The Exterminators (comic book; 2006–08)

See also

	United States portal
	Criminal justice portal
	Gangs portal

• European Kindred
• Ku Klux Klan
• Aryan Nations
• List of California street gangs
• Barry Mills (Aryan Brotherhood)
• Nazi Lowriders
• Neo-Nazism
• Public Enemy No. 1
• Volksfront

References

External links

This article's use of external links may not follow Wikipedia's policies or guidelines. Please improve this article by removing excessive or inappropriate external links, and converting useful links where appropriate into footnote references. (November 2011)

• "Mexican Drug Cartels and the Brand" on NewAmericanMedia.org
• "Aryan Brotherhood" on PrisonOffenders.com
• FBI file on the Aryan Brotherhood
• "The Brand" The New Yorker
• "America's most dangerous prisoner?" BBC
• http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/2532861.stm BBC
• Aryan Brotherhood trial opens in California by Dan Whitcomb and Tori Richards (Reuters)
• "Witness: Prison gang dreamed big" Orange County Register
• "Aryan Brotherhood's profile"
• People v. Price (1991) 1 C4th 324
• "Feds: Aryan gang played role in 2005 Causey killing"
• R. Scott Moxley's Monster's Ball: Feds, Aryan Brotherhood come to paint the OC courthouse white
• http://www.mysanantonio.com/news/local_news/Man_fatally_shot_by_officer_identified.html