includes: Racist Skinhead Movement History • Timeline ...

Skinheads Inlaw enforcement special report
America

Racists On The Rampage

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

Skinheads In AmericaA Publication of the Southern Poverty 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

2 intelligence report special edition

IN AMERICA

i. introduction ing-class counterpoints to foppish
The racist skinhead movement in the United mods, long-haired hippies, mohawked
States has entered its third decade. Since the punks and made-up goths.
first skinhead gangs surfaced in Texas and
the Midwest in the early 1980s, this racist The skinhead style first emerged
and violent subculture has established itself as part of a non-racist and multira-
in dozens of states from coast to coast and cial scene. White skinheads took on a
has authored some of the country’s most vi- persona that reflected admiration for
cious hate crimes in memory, from arson and kinship with a new generation of
to assault to murder. The racist skinheads’ working-class West Indian immigrants
trademark style — shaved head, combat into the United Kingdom. Like the Ja-
boots, bomber jacket, neo-Nazi and white maican immigrants of the time, the first
power tattoos — has become a fixture in skinheads were clean-cut, neat, and
American culture. sharp-looking compared to the shag-
gier youth styles of the period. (White
KEVIN SCANLON The scowling skinhead has joined the America have darkened with steady skinheads eventually lost their affinity
hooded Klansman as an immediately post-World War II immigration from for Jamaica as Rastafarian fashions
recognizable icon of hate. Africa, Asia, and the Middle East, a became ascendant, with their overtones
nativist backlash has appeared in both of black pride and pan-Africanism.)
Unlike the Klan, racist skinhead cul- mainstream and extremist forms. The
ture is not native to the United States. skinhead movement is the most violent Many early white skinheads were
And unlike the Klan, it is a truly global and ideologically crude form of this vaguely nationalistic and “proud to be
phenomenon, with skinhead gangs backlash. Depending on the country, British,” but their deepest loyalties lay
haunting major cities and towns in just racist skinheads may have shadowy with their childhood chums and the
about every white-majority country on ties to radical parties participating in local soccer team, not the “white race,”
earth. From Austria to Australia and electoral politics. Skinhead groups in as professed by today’s racist skin-
Argentina to America, working-class the U.S. lack such connections, but for heads. While known for their youthful
youths can be found dressed in some those unlucky enough to encounter aggression, petty criminality, and soc-
local variation on the skinhead theme, them on a darkened street, this does cer stadium violence, this activity was
espousing a crude worldview that is not make them any less fearsome. seen as borne out of economic hard-
viciously anti-foreigner, anti-black, anti- ship and a general spirit of bully-boy
gay, and anti-Semitic. In recent years, the ii. origins rebellion — not blind race hatred. In-
Internet and cheap international airfares The first skinheads emerged in the late deed, the first skinhead music was reg-
have allowed skinhead groups across 1960s as just one of the many distinct gae and ska, both black musical forms;
the planet to communicate and organize youth cultures that flowered in post- the earliest targets of white skinheads’
in ways that would have shocked the war Britain. Taking elements of Eng- anger and homemade weapons were
original skinheads of the 1960s and ’70s, lish “mod” and Jamaican immigrant each other and rival soccer fans.
whose vision and turf was limited to the fashion, these working-class London
East London neighborhoods in which youths crafted an identity in self-con- But a split between racist and non-
they grew up and lived. scious opposition to the middle-class racist skinheads was apparent and
“longhairs.” At various points in their began deepening soon after the style
The growth of the racist skinhead early development, English skinheads was born. By the early ’70s, skinhead
movement has mirrored the rise in positioned themselves as tough work- attacks on South Asian immigrants in
non-white immigration to the West. London — the infamous sport of “Paki
As the skin hues of Europe and North
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
then you hit them, and as they go down with violent racist attacks on immi- A major force behind this national
you give them a kicking, bash them with grants and blacks. growth spurt was Tom Metzger, a Fall-
an iron bar, and take their watches and brook, Calif.-based former Klansman
rings and things like that.” The most important skinhead gang in and longtime leader of the neo-Nazi
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
vandalism to Jewish-owned business. and chaotic youthful energy into build-
During the early to mid-’70s, Eng- The leader of CASH was an ex-con and ing smart, well-trained, and obedient
land’s skinheads went into temporary former member of the American Nazi street cells around the country. In
decline. They experienced a revival Party named Clark Martell. 1988, Tom Metzger organized the first
in 1976, when a new generation of skin- major hate rock festival in the U.S.,
heads started earning a fresh reputa- In the mid-1980s, Martell played the Aryan Fest, in Oklahoma. (The annual
tion for violence through attacks on role of a skinhead Johnny Appleseed, festival, now under the management of
punks, homosexuals, and immigrants. performing around Chicago with his Volksfront, a skinhead group based in
punk band Romantic Violence and pass- Oregon, remains a main event on the
Fueling these attacks and cementing ing out American Nazi Party newslet- annual skinhead social calendar.)
the new racist skinhead identity was ters and copies of National Socialist
increasing association with two neofas- Skinhead magazine between his band’s It was also in 1988 that Metzger’s
cist political parties, the National Front sets. Martell’s neo-Nazi recruiting efforts bore their most bitter fruit. In
and the British Movement. The latter, drive caught the attention of Chicago’s November, WAR Youth representative
founded by long-time neo-Nazi Colin numerous “traditional,” or non-rac- Dave Mazella visited Portland, Ore.,
Jordan in 1968, did the most to stamp ist, skinheads, including a number to train and guide members of a local
a swastika on the racist sector of the of African Americans. (According to skinhead crew, East Side White Pride.
skinhead movement. The British Move- Chicago punk lore, the city’s skinhead During this visit, a group of Portland
ment ran candidates in the 1974 U.K. scene was founded by black, non-racist skins under Mazella’s tutelage attacked
general elections who espoused neo- skins). Enjoying the advantage of vastly a group of Ethiopian immigrants in the
Nazi ideas and wore swastikas while superior numbers, anti-racist crews middle of a street with steel-toed boots
handing out party literature featuring such as Skinheads of Chicago (SHOC) and a baseball bat. One of them, gradu-
the image and words of Adolf Hitler. routinely ganged up on CASH skins at ate student Mulugeta Seraw, died from
In 1975, the British Movement gained shows and in the streets. “They grew out his wounds. Although Metzger would
a charismatic leader in the form of of what we are — the punk scene — so later lose a bruising $12.5 million law-
Michael McLaughlin, who reached out it’s up to us to combat them,” a member suit brought against his organization
to the racist skinheads and appealed to of the Chicago Anti-Racist Action (ARA) by the Southern Poverty Law Center
their sensibilities and skills by empha- skinhead crew told the Chicago Tribune. and the Anti-Defamation League — a
sizing violence and street-level hate. suit that effectively wrecked WAR
By the time Martell and the other five as an organization capable of putting
Between the arrival of Michael CASH skins were arrested for a grue- skinheads into the street — he contin-
McLaughlin in 1975 and the election some 1987 attack on a former member, ues propaganda efforts to this day from
of Margaret Thatcher as British prime CASH had been more or less beaten a new base in Indiana. But Metzger’s
minister in 1979, the first hardcore neo- into submission by anti-racist skins.
Nazi skinheads were born.

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,
Vander Jagt became the first American by participating in the white racial-
The murder of Mulugeta Seraw was police officer killed in the line of duty ist movement as it stands. We have
hardly unique during the American by a racist skinhead. attempted to change this movement
skinhead movement’s growth years. from within and have not succeeded.
Indeed, there were scores of brutal Hammerskin dominance failed to It is our opinion that a large number
skinhead assaults around the country outlast the decade, however. As early of the people involved in the greater
during the late ’80s and early ’90s, as 1999, Hammerskins around the movement are paid informants, social
including the cold-blooded murders country were complaining in private outcasts, and general losers in life.”
of black men in Birmingham, Ala., and and on message boards about the
Arlington, Texas. heavy-handed and “elitist” leadership The third decade of skinheads in
style of the organization’s top officers. America thus finds skinhead groups in
Those responsible for these mur- The number of HSN chapters dropped disarray but hardly in decline. The num-
ders included members of the dreaded off, with new regional groups rising ber of skinhead groups has trebled in the
Confederate Hammerskins, a confed- last four years, totaling some 60 by early
2007. These new groups are defined by a
The scowling skinhead has joined 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
eration of skinheads founded in Dallas up and loudly asserting their indepen- Along with exposure to extremist po-
in 1987. After spreading throughout the dence. Chief among these renegade litical parties and hate literature, music
South, Hammerskin-affiliated gangs skinhead groups were, first, the Outlaw has always been a key element in the
began appearing on the east and west Hammerskins, and then the Hoosier growth of the racist skinhead subcul-
coasts in the early 1990s. State Skinheads in Indiana and the ture. This is appropriate, as the original
Ohio State Skinheads, which in 2004 skinhead scene was based around clubs
It was out of these geographi- merged to form the Vinlander Social playing ska and reggae. The hard-driv-
cally disparate Hammerskin gangs Club, a.k.a. the Vinlanders. In 2005, ing rock-and-roll favored by today’s
that Hammerskin Nation (HSN) was the Vinlanders hosted the first Blood & racist skinheads both exploits and
formed in 1994. The idea was to unite Honour USA Council, a unity meeting channels the youthful energy of mem-
all of the regional Hammerskin groups of regional skinhead crews also known bers and potential teenage recruits.
into a national and even international as the Council of 28 (because B is the
force, with affiliated chapters in Eu- second letter of the alphabet and H The importance of music in building
rope. And for a while, the plan worked. the eighth), in Ohio. It is at this annual the racist skinhead scene was appar-
Hammerskin Nation established itself gathering that skins would, according ent by the late ’70s, when a hate-rock
as the most powerful skinhead organi- to the Vinlander web site, “meet yearly scene exploded alongside the punk
zation in the country during the mid- with other crews and exchange ideas rock movement, spreading lyrics that
and late ’90s. At its peak, HSN directed and debate direction and tactics.” And were anti-immigrant, anti-black, and
nearly 30 chapters and ran a success- drink lakes of beer, of course. anti-Semitic. Groups such as Skrew-
ful record label, publishing house, driver, Skullhead, and No Remorse
and website. The HSN symbol of two Incredibly violent, full of swagger, forged a common skinhead culture in
crossed hammers swept the skinhead and loathe to take orders from any- sweaty, beer-soaked, makeshift concert
scene. And an annual meeting and one, the Vinlanders were thought to halls, with lyrics professing broth-
concert, Hammerfest, was launched represent the future in a more decen- erhood among whites and violent,
in 1999, allowing HSN members from tralized skinhead scene. But in the first uncompromising antagonism to out-
around the world to meet and organize. weeks of 2007, Vinlander founder Brien siders of all kinds. The early hate-rock
Throughout this period of Hammer- James, a particularly violent racist, skinhead scene in Britain coalesced
skin ascendancy, the racist skinhead posted a notice on the group’s website around what were known as the “Rock
Against Communism” (RAC) concerts,
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 has also given rise to the phenomenon
currents in English culture. A sub- The first label to seriously challenge of the “internet Nazi” — young fellow
genre of punk that often veered toward the dominance of Resistance Records was travelers who are not part of organized
racism was known as Oi!, which soon Minnesota-based Panzerfaust, named af- skinhead gangs but who profess al-
became global (if not completely accu- ter a Nazi-era German anti-tank weapon. legiance to the movement’s code and
rate) shorthand for skinhead music. Before imploding amid a scandal involv- support purveyors of skinhead para-
ing the non-Aryan heritage of its founder, phernalia with online orders.
By the mid-1980s, a racist skinhead Anthony Pierpont, Panzerfaust was best
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- sands of active neo-Nazi skinheads, in-
Nazi iconography and paraphernalia The impact of U.S. hate rock is not cluding thousands in the capital alone.
had spread to Western Europe and limited to the United States. Since the In recent years, immigrants, students
North America. Although focused on a production, performance, and distribu- and even senior embassy staff from
skinhead gang in Melbourne, Australia, tion of such music is illegal in many Asian and African nations have been
the 1992 Russell Crowe film “Romper countries in Western Europe, the U.S., the victims of assaults and murders on
Stomper” paints a particularly vivid with its First Amendment guarantees of the streets of Moscow.
and well-researched picture of the day- free speech, has become a main provider
to-day life of skinheads immersed in of music to skinheads internationally As in Western European countries,
this culture. (A later film that explored (just as U.S. computer servers host most Russian skinhead violence often dovetails
the racist skinhead culture, this one European hate sites in order to keep with soccer hooliganism. A 2002 report
set in California, was 1998’s “American their owners clear of European anti- in The Nation described the trend:
History X,” starring Edward Norton.) hate legislation). This relationship was
built in part by the outreach programs of “In the past few years a curious syn-
The importance of music in grow- Resistance Records under George Burdi, thesis of the soccer hooligan and skin-
ing the worldwide skinhead movement who used to offer Eastern Europeans head movements has been observed
cannot be overstated. William Pierce, CDs at 90% discounts, as well as free steadily gaining strength in the city.
leader of the neo-Nazi National Alli- license to reproduce the music. It’s no longer uncommon in Moscow
ance until his death in 2002, under- to see crowds of 300-400 soccer fans
stood well the potential impact of hate- The center of gravity for hate-rock — dressed in the black bomber jackets
rock. “Music speaks to us at a deeper today is probably “RadioWhite,” an on- and black boots popularized by German
level than books or political rhetoric: line white power music Internet radio skinheads — loitering on the streets in
music speaks directly to the soul,” said station that maintains multiple 24-hour the city’s outer regions, and not always
Pierce, author of the seminal hate-lit music feeds. Other new media plat- on the same nights as soccer matches.”
novel, The Turner Diaries. forms — including social networking
sites like MySpace and video file-shar- Some of these skinheads, the article
Putting this insight into practice, ing sites like YouTube — are being used notes, have been seen wearing the
Pierce purchased the ailing hate- by racist skinhead groups to recruit and armbands of the neo-Nazi Russian
rock label and distributor Resistance expose others to their views. National Unity party, suggesting links
Records in 1999 and built the company between street hate and organized
into a major force in the world skin- v. the international scene political parties. Such links are sus-
head movement. Resistance Records The connections between racist skin- pected to be common in many Western
had been originally founded in 1993 heads in the U.S. and Europe are not European countries, where radical par-
by George Burdi, a young Canadian limited to hate-rock catalogs. With ties participate in electoral politics, in
skinhead who also started the band the rise of the Internet, groups scat- recent years with sobering success.
RAHOWA (an acronym for Racial Holy tered across the globe have been able
War), which was one of the most popu- to communicate and link up as never Across Europe, radical parties are
lar and influential hate-rock bands of before, transforming the skinhead on the rise, exploiting fears over im-
the period. Bernie Farber of the Cana- movement from an exclusively neigh- migration. In several of these coun-
dian Jewish Congress has described borhood-based phenomenon into a tries, associations have been traced
Burdi as one of the most effective global culture with common points of between skinhead gangs and parties
with representatives in regional and
6 intelligence report special edition national bodies. 

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

MCORTELWEYS

L 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-
mers 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 Picking a fight: By posting this photo
activity nationwide, which continues to intensify. At the be- on the Internet, members of the
ginning of 2002, there were 18 skinhead crews active in the Vinlanders Social Club were issuing a
United States, most of them under the control of Hammer- direct challenge to the waning power
skin Nation. That count has now more than tripled to 59 ac- of Hammerskin Nation.
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.
“They’re more violent, they’re more technically savvy than
before in terms of using the Internet to organize, and, while
they’re still motivated by race and politics, it’s also about
money now.”

Bloodshed and Retaliation be a “prospect” for one year, then a “probate” for six months.
All this time, and forever after, they were required to pay
The ongoing devolution of the skinhead scene began with $10 a month in dues to their local chapter, and $10 a month
what will live in infamy in skinhead lore as “the pool cue and to Hammerskin national leaders in Dallas, who asserted do-
blowtorch incident.” It happened in mid-1999, when Ham- minion over skinheads nationwide, portrayed Hammerskin
merskin Nation’s power was peaking, with about 600 Ham-
merskins distributed across five regional divisions. To be-
come a Hammerskin, a skinhead who wanted to join had to

RACIST SKINHEADS

a timeline of the movement

1C9IR6CA9 1E9AR8LY0s 1C9IR8CA2 1C9IR8CA6

The original skinhead subculture Racist skinheads begin to appear Romantic Violence, also known as
explodes among urban, working- in U.S. in significant numbers. CASH (Chicago Area Skinheads),
class youths in Britain, combin- takes form as one of the first true
ing style elements drawn from British skinhead scene factionalizes. Whitecorbis/bettman racist skinhead gangs in the United
white “Mods” and West Indian power skinheads develop a separate subculture States, followed in short order by
“Rudeboys.” Though tinged with based on the white nationalist music of “Rock
soccer hooliganism, traditional Against Communism” bands like Skrewdriver, the Confederate Hammerskins
skinhead culture is not racist in Dallas.
(to this day, there are black Skullhead, and No
“trad” skins). Remorse who opposed Former California Klan
the “Rock Against leader Tom Metzger forms
Racism” concerts of anti- the Aryan Youth Move-
racist skins. ment, a skinhead division of
his white supremacist group
10 intelligence report White Aryan Resistance (WAR).

Nation as elite, and enforced strict codes of conduct. level and nature of skinhead criminal activity in this country
Early that summer, these leaders issued a direct order to and abroad.

the members and two probates of the Indiana chapter of the The order was simple: Hammerskin leaders had deter-
Northern Hammerskins that set in motion a cycle of blood- mined that a certain Hammerskin was no longer worthy of
shed, retaliation, and dissent that continues to shape the 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
Hell’s Angels, working security at the outlaw biker gang’s
events (the father of Jeremy Maske, one of the founding
Outlaw skinheads, was the president of the Indiana chapter
of the Hell’s Angels at the time).

Within a few months, the Outlaw Hammerskins had

1988 ap wide world photo Members of the Confederate Hammerskins
patrol Robert E. Lee Park in Dallas, beating
Skinhead violence A flying chair breaks the nose any non-white they come across. The gang
erupts across the of television talk show host is ultimately linked to 40 crimes, includ-
United States, with Geraldo Rivera during a brawl ing the vandalism of a Dallas synagogue.
scores of violent between skinhead gang leaders Police foil a plot by armed Hammerskins
attacks and murders and African-American activists on the set of to destroy Jewish businesses on Nov. 9,
recorded over the next “The Geraldo Rivera Show.” the 50th anniversary of Kristallnacht, the
four years. Nazi pogrom also known as the “Night of
Broken Glass.”
Tom Metzger and son
John organize the Ethiopian immigrant Mulugeta Seraw is
first hate rock festival, beaten to death by members of East Side
Aryan Fest, which is White Pride, a Portland, Ore., gang with
held in Oklahoma. close ties to WAR.

intelligence report special edition 11

chapters across Indiana and Eastern Hammerskins member
Wisconsin. Their creed was “take Bob Himes, who runs a Pennsylva-
it to the extreme.” If another skin- nia tattoo shop, displays a body
head crew mocked them for being covered in skinhead iconography,
“whiggers” (white “niggers”), including the crossed hammers
Outlaw Hammerskins would beat (right) that symbolize Hammer-
them down. If attacked with fists skin Nation.
and feet, Outlaw Hammerskins would retaliate with bats
and knives. If a rival pulled a knife, an Outlaw Hammerskin Falling Hammers
pulled a gun.
On Memorial Day weekend 2000, less than a year after the
“We do remain open and hospitable to other racialists Outlaw Hammerskins formed, three vanloads of Outlaw
who pass through our cities and states. However, we do Hammerskin hooligans showed up at the Imperial Klans of
not tolerate disrespect,” they announced on their website. America compound, looking to start trouble at Nordic Fest,
“Meaning we don’t talk shit. There is no ‘next time.’ We’ll which at that time was heavily attended by Hammerskin Na-
light you up on the fucking spot.” tion skinheads. The Outlaw Hammerskins skins were heavily
armed, and when IKA security refused to allow them into

1991 1994 1997

In June, more than 60 Aryan Bruce Vander Jagt becomes the first American police officer
killed in the line of duty by a racist skinhead when he’s gunned
National Front (ANF) skinheads Regional Hammerskin factions unite down in Denver by 25-year-old racist Matthaus Jaehnig after
a high-speed chase. The next week, a
and Klansmen march through under the common banner of Hammer- dead pig bearing Vander Jagt’s name is
dumped outside a Denver police sub-
downtown Birmingham in a skin Nation (HSN). station, and Denver skinheads Nathan
Thill and Jeremiah Barnum murder a
dramatic show of force. West African immigrant they encounter
at a bus stop. Thill later tells a reporter
Skinhead gang leader Randall that he killed Oumar Dia because he
was “wearing the enemy’s uni-
1992 Lee Krager (left) forms form” — his black skin.
Volksfront in Oregon.
In April, members of the Nathan Thill
skinhead gang ANF murder a 1995

homeless black man in Birming- Southern California skinhead

ham, Ala., after attending a Randall Rojas beats a homeless

Hitler birthday party. black man to death behind a

fast-food restaurant.

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
only ally, the Portland, Ore.-based regional crew Volksfront.
The following year, Outlaw Hammerskins showed up in
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
elitism among working-class, anti-authoritarian racist youths. The largest statewide crew now active is the Keystone
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
active in the business side of organized hate. His most recent The Ohio State Skinheads, Hoosier State Skinheads, and
venture is manufacturing T-shirts for National Socialist Keystone State Skinheads are all also part of the Vinlander
Movement commander Jeff Schoep and National Alliance Social Club, a.k.a. the Vinlanders, a skinhead “warrior clan”
chairman Erich Gliebe; see related story, p. 11). devoted to drinking, fighting, and a racist variant of Odinism,
a form of ancient paganism once practiced by Vikings. Fair-
Rise of the Regional Crews burn, James, and other Hoosier State and Ohio State Skin-
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.

1998 1999 Shane McCormick 2001

Independent Nazi Skins Florida skinheads attack interra- 2000 Midland Hammerskin Shane McCormick
gang leader John “Polar cial couples, killing a woman and (above) stabs a black man in a Missouri
Bear” Butler ambushes a child in two separate incidents. While Hammerskin restaurant.
and kills two Anti-Racist Nation remains the
Action members in the Five ousted members of the nation’s largest skin- Hammerfest attendance drops to 220
desert outside Las Vegas Northern Region of Hammerskin head organization, as HSN’s elitist posturing and relentless
on the Fourth of July. Nation form a renegade outfit the number of HSN attempts to dictate the rules of skinhead
they call Outlaw Hammerskins. chapters drops from culture in the U.S. breed widespread
ap wide world photo 27 to 19. resentment.
Hammerskin Nation reorganizes
and throws its first Hammerfest, intelligence report special edition 13
the group’s signature hate rock
festival, in rural Bremen, Ga.
More than 600 skinheads from
across the country attend.

“Everyone [in Arizona] wants to be Vinlander now,” says patches, and other paraphernalia to countries where such
Detective Browning. “The Vinlanders have very quickly gone items are banned. But when the Outlaw Hammerskins broke
from a little skinhead group in the Midwest to a national away, they announced they would have nothing to do with
force with a great web presence. The bigger they become, the the shady business of hate rock or recruitment commerce.
more power they have, and they’re getting bigger.” With the exception of the Keystone State Skinheads, the
council crews had all followed suit.
On Oct. 22, 2005, on the Logan, Ohio, property of Ohio
State Skinheads member Kevin Kislingbury, the Vinlander So what changed their minds?
Social Club hosted the first official Blood and Honour coun- Perhaps the hate rock company representatives who also
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.”

The former Outlaw Hammerskins also reversed them-
selves on the issue of hate rock, according to the minutes,
deciding by majority vote to “explore the option of holding
events for the general public for profit.” This was a major
shift. Hammerskin Nation and Volksfront have a long his-
tory of organizing hate rock festivals to raise money and also
of channeling hate rock CDs and neo-Nazi flags, shirts, pins,

2002 2003

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

RACIST SKINHEAD GLOSSARY

JANET JENSON / [Tacoma, WASH.] NEWS-TRIBUNE attended the Council of 28 convinced 14/88: Common white supremacist Hammerskins: A nationwide skinhead
the skinhead leaders there that if they code. 14 stands for the “14 words” syndicate, also known as Hammerskin
would just put down their mead drink- slogan coined by David Lane, who is Nation, with regional factions and chap-
ing horns and pick up their thinking serving a 190-year sentence for his ters that once dominated skin subculture
caps, they could make serious money. part in the assassination of a Jewish nationwide.
“The Vinlanders have the backing of talk show host: “We must secure the
the hate rock record labels now, the existence of our people and a future for HSN: Hammerskin Nation.
labels are bringing money to the table,” white children.” 88 means “Heil Hitler,”
as H is the eighth letter of the alphabet. HFFH: “Hammerskin Forever Forever
2004 Hammerskin.”
28: Shorthand for Blood and Honour, a
Non-Hammerskin crews skinhead group. Hang-around: A young person who
continue to evolve and unify. associates with skinheads but is not yet
38: Confederate Hammerskins, the a probate (see below), akin to a gang-
Members of the Hoosier State southern faction of Hammerskin Nation banger “wannabe.”
Skins and Ohio State Skinheads (see below).
— including several former Outlaw Probate: A “member in waiting” who is
Hammerskins — form the Vin- Boot party: Beating a victim to the on probation for a set amount of time
lander Social Club, also known as ground then stomping and kicking him before he or she becomes a full-fledged
the Vinlanders, a skinhead “warrior or her with steel-toed boots. member of a skinhead crew.
clan” devoted to drinking, fight-
ing, and a racist form of Odinism, Braces: Suspenders. RAHOWA: Short for “Racial Holy War,”
a pagan religion once practiced by a slogan that originally came out of the
Norse Vikings. 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
wearer has shed blood for the skinhead
Curbing, curb job: Breaking a victim’s movement. Racist skinheads will often
jaw or neck by forcing his or her face randomly attack non-whites to “earn”
against a street curb and kicking the their red laces.
back the of the victim’s head; popular-
ized in the 1998 cult movie, “American Spider web tattoo: Racist skinhead
History X.” “badge of honor,” often worn on the
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
either red or white laces (see below). skins.

Homey sock: Pool ball in a sock wrapped Skinbyrd: Female skinhead.
in tape so it doesn’t split open when
used as a weapon. Straight-laced: A complex boot-lacing
system favored by racist skins who lace
Featherwood: Female skinhead. their boots in horizontal, straight lines
rather than X or cross patterns.
Five words: “I have nothing to say.”
Skinheads are exhorted to give this stan- White laces: Bootlace color identifying
dard response to any and all media and a skinhead as being “white power,” as
law enforcement inquiries. opposed to a non-racist (“traditional”) or
anti-racist skin.
Fred Perry: Brand of polo shirt favored
by skinheads. ZOG: Shorthand for “Zionist Occupation
[or Occupied] Government,” reflecting
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

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

2006
Skinhead resurgence parallels rise in
2005 skinhead-related criminal activity.

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

tghoedfathers

ONCE, RACIST SKINHEADS WERE REGARDED AS TOO EXPLOSIVELY
VIOLENT TO BE POLITICIZED. TWO FORMER KLANSMEN

CHANGED ALL THAT FOR GOOD

W hen young racists across the United ap wide world photo
States began emulating white-pow-
er British skinheads in the 1980s,
it soon became apparent they had
neither 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
“Operate like a Nazi submarine! Use your the Japanese American Citi-
own organization, White periscope! We have to infiltrate! Infiltrate zens League, a synagogue,

Aryan Resistance (WAR).

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. found that Campos had
Infiltrate law enforcement!” called the WAR hotline to
When the first domestic

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
by illegally possessing a firearm, and in sodomy charges involving a teenaged
And remember, he said, “You are 1985, again, for illegal possession of a boy, Riccio defended him, dismissing
not domestic terrorists. You are free- firearm, as well as marijuana. the accusations as false and obviously
dom fighters.” part of a law enforcement conspiracy
While Metzger benefited from the to defame the Klan.)
BILL RICCIO media attention and the revenue gener-
ated by his skinhead outreach, Riccio The lessons Riccio taught were not
“Send us your broken toys, and we’ll fix seemed to simply adore being adored. child’s play. Skinheads under his sway
them,” Bill Riccio said to the camera.
He didn’t profit from his skinhead fol- committed at least two murders
It was 1992 and Riccio, lowers — the WAR House was funded in Alabama. In one of those
then 35, was starring in the by his small auto-parts business — but cases, three skins were arrested
HBO documentary “Skin- he did enjoy their unconditional loyalty. for beating and kicking a home-
heads, U.S.A.” that detailed less man to death under a rail-
life inside the Aryan Youth “I wish Bill would have been my road trestle in April 1992, just
Front, a skinhead crew or- biological father,” one of the teenaged hours after attending an Adolf
ganized by Riccio and based AYF skins says in the HBO documen- Hitler birthday party at the
in Birmingham, Ala. Though tary. “He is my father. He’s all these WAR House. One of the killers,
he was not connected to youths’ father, every single one of us.” then 17-year-old Confederate
Metzger, Riccio had originally Hammerskin Mark Lane, had
called his loyal band of racist Riccio worked hand-in-hand with written on his application that
misfits White Aryan Resis- Alabama Klan leader Roger Handley. he wanted to join the move-
tance. He changed the name In November 1991, they co-hosted a ment “to benefit my race and
to avoid confusion, but kept huge skinhead and Klan gathering on help my brothers and sisters of
calling the backwoods shack Handley’s farm. The two co-organized the Aryan persuasion destroy
he rented “the WAR House.” a white power march by 150 skinheads all the scum and degenerates of
and Klansmen through downtown our land.”
The WAR House was
equal parts skinhead recruit- Four months later, in August
ing station, clubhouse, and 1992, the WAR House was
crash pad. It was where Ric- raided as part of multi-state
cio, a former Klan chaplain, sweep of white supremacist
kept his toy soldiers, who groups. Police found guns and
were white teenaged boys, grenades on Riccio’s property,
many of them runaways. He and arrested him again for il-
plied them with beer, and legal weapons possession.
systemically indoctrinated
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
back to the WAR House and
As Riccio explained in the renewed his devotion to the Klan, even-
documentary, his ultimate goal was to re- tually becoming Imperial Kludd, or
claim the South for pure Aryans. “Those national chaplain, of the North Georgia
nigger-loving race traitors can go move to White Knights of the Ku Klux Klan.
San Francisco or somewhere else where Today, Riccio still occasionally
they might feel more welcome among its shows up at Klan events with a detail of
large gay population,” he said. skinheads in tow, and some of the first
generation of broken toys he wound up
Though based in Birmingham, at and turned loose, who are now in their
the height of his influence, in mid-1992, mid-to-late 20s, remain active in the
Riccio was the de facto Nazi youth white supremacist movement.
troop leader of a network of at least As the judge who sentenced him in
70 skinheads in Alabama, Florida and 1992 put it: “It is [Riccio’s] apparent abil-
Georgia. (Riccio worked closely with ity to organize and mobilize disenchant-
the Confederate Hammerskins.) Skin- ed young white males even to acts of
heads from as far away as York, Pa., violence that makes him dangerous.” 
made pilgrimages to the WAR House.
By that time, Riccio had been convict- intelligence report special edition 19

Racist skinhead culture has long brimmed with violence and venom.

TENTWEHRORIFYBut there are thugs,and then there are thug’s thugs
The 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 carafa New Jersey) in the neo- locked door, Carafa punched
Nazi World Church of the through the store’s front
THE HATED this convicted drug dealer Creator (now known as the window, then yelled threats
has been a “governor” (the Creativity Movement) and and racial slurs, including
Never one for discretion, highest ranking member in a member of The Hated, a “let’s run this nigger over!”
Gabriel Carafa decided to skinhead crew active in New He served three years in
advertise his racist skinhead Jersey as well as Florida. prison for his crimes.
ideology by having “RA-
HOWA” (short for “Racial Carafa’s hate crime Upon his release in 2005,
Holy War”) tattooed across record includes convictions Carafa moved in with for-
his forehead in large gothic for bias intimidation and mer cellmate Craig Orler, a
script. The skin of Carafa’s making terroristic threats. fellow member of The Hat-
torso is riddled with crudely These stemmed from an ed who possessed a large
inked runes, swastikas, October 2002 incident in cache of weapons, some of
SS bolts, and the clear-cut which Carafa arrived at a them stolen. Carafa agreed
phrases, “Race War” and 7-Eleven in Seaside Heights, to help Orler find a buyer
“Kill Niggers.” N.J., to find the store closed. for the guns in exchange
When the store’s Hindu for a split of the profits. On
A former member of the manager refused to open the April 25, 2005, Carafa sold
Latin Kings whose gang
name was “King Shaggy,”

20 intelligence report special edition

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

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

22 intelligence report special edition

seig heil, as James did in In-james to exert total control over ment could not succeed “by an imposing figure whose
dianapolis in 2000. “I have kragerwhatever 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.”
boasted years later. “My of the brawn. Invariably so Krager has been involved
JTTF [Joint Terrorism Task far, the demands of his huge James and fellow mem- in the skinhead subculture
Force] file is a mile long.” ego have led James to even- bers of the Vinlander Social since at least 1989. That
tually split from his current Club took the comment year, when he was 15, Krag-
James began his gang crew to form a new gang, personally. They rushed er was arrested along with
career young, when he and with himself as its self-ap- Boswell immediately after several other skinheads
some childhood friends in pointed leader. his speech and beat him in and charged with racial
Knightstown, Ind., formed a 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,
the Outlaw Hammerskins (see profile, above). Austin Ibarra’s face as look- “Why aren’t you white?”
in 1999 in the first direct ing “like hamburger covered
challenge to the authority of In October of 2005, in bootprints.” Krager was sent to a
Hammerskin Nation. James helped convene a juvenile detention center.
“Blood & Honour” coali- Notch one more party
Online, James uses the tion of 17 white supremacist wrecked by Brien James The next year, he attend-
screen name “Hando2000,” groups in yet another direct and company. ed the civil trial of White
an apparent reference to the challenge to the de facto Aryan Resistance leader
character Hando, played by national leadership of the Randall Lee Krager, 32 Tom Metzger — who was
Russell Crowe in the 1992 Hammerskins. This chal- being sued by the Southern
cult film classic, “Romper lenge was also reflected VOLKSFRONT Poverty Law Center for
Stomper.” In the movie, in the creation by James, his role in encouraging the
Hando is the leader of a rac- Fairburn and others of the At 6-foot, 2-inches and skinhead murder of a black
ist skinhead gang in Aus- Vinlander Social Club, a 240 pounds, with “FEAR” man in Portland — and told
tralia. Like Hando, James coalition of regional skin- tattooed across the knuck- a reporter that Metzger was
has a reputation for trying head crews — including the les of his right hand and a a “cool guy … one of the nic-
Hoosier State Skinheads, large swastika stamped on est guys you’d ever meet.”
the Ohio State Skinheads, his thick neck, Volksfront
and the Keystone State founder Randall Krager is By the time Krager
Skinheads — that do not turned 18, police had en-
recognize the authority of countered him 28 times.
Hammerskin Nation.
That year, 1992, Krager
Tensions between the was sentenced to 27 months
Vinlanders and other neo- in prison for putting an
Nazi groups exploded in African-American man into
Kentucky at last May’s hate- a coma with a single punch.
rock festival known as Nor- During sentencing proceed-
dic Fest. The violence was ings, Krager reportedly
sparked by Missouri Nation- shouted “Fucking Jew pig!”
al Socialist Movement mem- at court officials.
ber Steven Boswell, who
started a speech touting Krager’s white suprema-
NSM accomplishments by cist beliefs were reinforced
telling his audience that the in prison. While inside, he
white supremacist move- networked with skinheads
outside, laying the ground-
work for his Volksfront neo-
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-
and policed by Volksfront, to four years in prison for racist skins. But Martell had
But Krager didn’t stay representatives of Krager attempting to firebomb the Ci- already proven he was ahead
out of prison for long. claimed to have purchased cero, Ill., home of a Hispanic of his time. When he first
Weeks after his release, he five acres of land in Oregon couple and their five children. started recruiting for CASH,
called a local anti-racist as the beginnings of a white He served 30 months. there were likely fewer than
skinhead and threatened homeland. Although Krager 200 racist skinheads in the
to kill him. Krager was ar- officially stepped down In the mid-1980s, Martell U.S. By 1989, when he was
rested and pleaded guilty to from his leadership position began performing around convicted of home inva-
first-degree intimidation. later in 2004, today he con- Chicago with his punk rock sion, aggravated battery, and
He served 14 months and tinues to control the group band Romantic Violence. robbery and sentenced to 11
was released in early 1995. from the shadows. Starting in 1985 or 1986, years in prison, there were
Martell passed out Ameri- more than 3,000.
Led by Krager, Volks- Clark Martell, 44 can Nazi Party newsletters
front maintained a highly between his band’s sets, along Martell was released
visible presence in Portland CHICAGO AREA SKINHEADS with copies of National So- in 1992 after an appellate
until 2001, when the gang In April 1987, six members cialist Skinhead magazine, for court overturned a different,
essentially went under- of the Chicago Area Skin- which Martell was a cartoon- prior conviction on which
ground, citing “police and heads (CASH), one of the ist. Martell corralled a follow- his lengthy sentence was
governmental pressure” to first racist skinhead gangs ing among young racist skins based. In 1997, new Martell
explain its disappearance. formed in the United States, eager to copycat their British cartoons appeared in the rac-
busted into the apartment of brethren, but his neo-Nazi ist skinhead periodical Right
Volksfront resurfaced a 20-year-old woman who’d recruiting drive also caught as Reina. That was the last
in 2001 and, to the amaze- quit the gang, and who the the attention of Chicago’s the skinhead world heard of
ment of many who knew CASH skinheads suspected numerous “traditional,” non- Clark Martell, though he’s
Krager, officially renounced of having black friends. racist skinheads, including a been neither forgiven nor
violence. “[K]icking in Once inside, the racist number of African Americans forgotten by anti-racist skins
someone’s head will not skinheads, including CASH (according to Chicago punk in Chicago and elsewhere.
make them our political founder Clark Martell, who lore, the city’s skinhead scene “I can clearly remember the
allies. … We know that was then 26, pistol-whipped was founded by black tradi- fearless leader of CASH writ-
violence created by stupid- the former skinbyrd, tional skinheads). ing all sorts of letters to punk
ity or machismo will and sprayed mace in her eyes, and alternative magazines
can destroy organizations,” and painted a swastika and Enjoying the advantage of sucking up to black people
read a notice on Volks- “Race Traitor” on her wall vastly superior numbers, non- once he spent about six
front’s website. with her blood. racist-turned-anti-racist crews months in [prison],” a punk
such as Skinheads of Chicago rocker using the screen name
In a blatant and brutal That assault came in the (SHOC) routinely ganged up SeattleTroll posted to the
violation of this supposed midst of an 18-month crime on CASH skins at shows and online punk rock discussion
policy — a policy that ap- spree by Martell and 15 to 20 in the streets. “They grew out forum finntroll.net earlier this
pears to have been a public followers that also included of what we are — the punk year. “Of course, he still got
relations gambit more than assaults on six Hispanic scene — so it’s up to us to his ass kicked by every Irish
anything else — Volksfront’s women, swastikas painted on combat them,” a member of SHOC skin when he got out
Washington state chapter three synagogues, and numer- the Chicago Anti-Racist Ac- of jail.”
leader, Kurtis William Mon- ous incidents of vandalism to tion (ARA) crew told the Chi-
schke, joined three other Jewish-owned business. cago Tribune. “We have more Kenneth Mieske, 41
racist skinheads in 2003 in responsibility than anybody
beating to death a home- Martell, who hailed from else to bring them down.” East Side White Pride
less man in Tacoma using Blue Island, Ill., about 20
baseball bats and rocks. miles south of Chicago, was a By the time Martell and The first inkling of the fury
But this mindless violence violent neo-Nazi years before the other five CASH skins that lurked inside Kenneth
hardly destroyed Volksfront. he was a skinhead gang lead- were arrested for the grue- Mieske came when he was
By 2004, Krager’s gang has some April 1987 attack on a
chapters in seven states.

24 intelligence report special edition

not quite three. One day, mieske 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 migrants. The skins begin the court on Miller’s behalf.
incident, the diaper-clad tot As a young adolescent in yelling at the other car to
took less than two minutes Portland, Ore., Mieske got move, flashing their head- “He did not impress
to strip the bed of sheets, into Satanism and began lights. When they realized me as a rabidly delinquent
tear down the curtains and using drugs. A friend later the race of those blocking or antisocial individual,”
upend a chest of draw- said that roughhousing their path, the night took Kevin Buckley argued after
ers. The toddler’s strength with Mieske was “like play- an irrevocable turn. The meeting with Miller. “He
stunned her, as did the force ing with a Doberman.” In Ethiopians and the skins certainly does not have the
of his anger. It was a rage, 1984, he began playing in both got out of their cars. character of a leader.”
Mieske’s mother told author local death metal bands. A Mieske smashed the tail-
Elinor Langer, that would fellow musician gave him lights and right rear win- That remarkable assess-
only build with time. the prophetic nickname dow of the Ethiopians’ car ment might have amused
“Ken Death.” with a baseball bat. Then Miller’s minions in the Ari-
As Mieske later wrote in he brought the bat down on zona Hammerskins, and no
his poem, “Senseless Vio- In 1986, when he was 21, Seraw’s head. Seraw crum- doubt would have surprised
lence”: “Victims all around Mieske went to prison for pled to the ground, where the targets of his violence.
burglary. Inside, he im- Mieske hit him again, then Superior Court Judge
me/I feel nothing but hate/ mersed himself in the hate- again, splitting his skull and Gregory H. Martin didn’t
Bashing their brains in/Is filled theology of Christian killing him. buy it, and when Miller was
my only trade/Senseless Identity. By the time he was convicted, Judge Martin
violence is the only thing I released in fall of 1987, the All three of the ESWP sentenced him to five years
know/Piles of corpses never skinhead scene in Portland skins — Mieske, Kyle Brews- in prison. Thus ended the
ending, watch them grow/ (and the nation) was on the ter (see blotter item, p. 9) explosive first phase of
Kill my victims for plea- rise, with established gangs and Steven Strasser — were Miller’s career as a skinhead
sure and for fun/Beat them whose numbers were grow- arrested and later pleaded gang leader.
over the head. Shoot them ing. Mieske joined East Side guilty to murder, assault,
with my gun/Line them up White Pride (ESWP), an and racial intimidation. Jimmy Miller’s associa-
against a wall. Shoot them. affiliate of Tom Metzger’s Mieske was sentenced to tion with the Arizona Ham-
White Aryan Resistance life in prison. In a subse- merskins had begun in the
(WAR). He also became quent civil suit brought by fall of 1989, around the time
lead vocalist of the death the Southern Poverty Law he dropped out of Scott-
metal band, Machine. In Center, a jury returned a sdale Alternative School.
September of that year, $12.5 million verdict against Within a year, he was sec-
Metzger sent Dave Mazzel- Metzger and WAR for en- ond-in-command in the or-
la, vice president of WAR’s couraging ESWP members ganization — the right-hand
youth arm, to Portland to to commit violence. man of the skinhead leader
spur ESWP on to commit and Tom Metzger protégé,
brutal assaults, a tactic that Mieske will be eligible Case Colcord.
culminated in the infamous for parole in 2018. Racist
November 1988 murder skinhead crews and neo- Miller and Colcord rev-
of Ethiopian immigrant Nazi websites still honor eled in organizing high-
Mulugeta Seraw. him as a “Prisoner of War.” profile media stunts that
doubled as recruiting tools.
Mieske and two other James Lee Miller, 33 Together, they led dem-
ESWP skinheads were onstrations in which they
drinking beer and party- Arizona Hammerskins displayed Nazi banners and
hopping on a Saturday chanted racist and anti-
night when they turned On Oct. 9, 1990, as 17-year- Semitic slurs. On Martin
onto a street they found old Jimmy “Soda Pop” Luther King Jr.’s birthday,
partially blocked by an- Miller awaited trial as an the two marched down
other car. Seraw, a graduate adult in Phoenix, Ariz., on Central Avenue in Phoenix,
chanting, “Nigger, nigger,

intelligence report special edition 25

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

26 intelligence report special edition

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

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 Hate rock label patch United Kingdom
distributor skinhead patch

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

28 intelligence report special edition

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

Fenris Wolf Pagan/ Northwest
SS lightning bolts tattoo Odinist symbol tattoo 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

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

intelligence report special edition 29

THE INTELLIGENCE PROJECT

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30 intelligence report special edition