Aryan Brotherhood of Texas

According to the Anti-Defamation League and Southern Poverty Law Center, the Aryan Brotherhood of Texas (ABT) is one of the largest and most violent white supremacist prison gangs in the United States, responsible for numerous murders and other violent crimes.^[1][2]

Despite the similarity in their names, the Aryan Brotherhood of Texas is not affiliated with the “original” Aryan Brotherhood, the notorious prison gang founded in California in the 1960s and existing primarily in California and the federal prison systems.^[3]

Though the Aryan Brotherhood denied their request to found a Texas chapter,^[4] the ABT was nonetheless established in the 1980s, following the desegregation of Texas prisons and the dismantling of the "Building Tender",^[5] or Trusty system, an odious system in which prison officials used other inmates to help maintain order in the prisons. These major and more or less simultaneous changes created an atmosphere of uncertainty and a lack of control that proved fertile breeding grounds for black, Hispanic and white race-based prison gangs. These gangs soon became the top predators in the Texas prison system.

The various white gangs, with names like the Aryan Society and the Aryan Brothers, mostly adopted a relatively crude white supremacist ideology. In the early to mid-1980s, most of the members of these two gangs united to become the Aryan Brotherhood of Texas, while others left out of the merger later helped form the rival Aryan Circle prison gang. From its beginning, the ABT emerged as one of the most violent gangs in the Texas Department of Criminal Justice, committing 13 murders in 1984-1985 alone.^[6]

History

On March 1985, prospect Virgil Barfield carried out an Aryan Brotherhood of Texas order to kill Calvin Massey. Barfield stabbed Massey 42 times. The violent attack was caught on camera. The video clip helped prosecutors to convict Barfield in the murder of Massey. Virgil Barfield was sentenced to life in prison.^[7]

On 2001, Mark Stroman received the death penalty for his killing spree on Middle Eastern people. He claimed it was a retaliation for the September 11 terrorist attacks. However all three people that he target were of South Asian decent.^[8][9][10]

On September 21, 2006, gangs members of the ABT, were charged in the death of a young woman named Breanna Taylor. According to investigations from the authorities, Taylor was tortured, sexually assaulted, and murder by ABT gang members. After she was killed by ABT gang members, they poured acid on her body, and then put her body in a tub, poured cement and dumped it into a river. Dale Jameton pleaded guilty and received a life sentence, and Jennifer McClellan was sentenced to 20 years in prison.^[11][12][13]

On 2011, Terry Sillers, a former General of the ABT gang, was arrested after leading police on a wild motorcycle chase near Fort Worth. In exchange for cooperating with authorities against a gang that he says betrayed him. He was sentenced to 10 years in federal prison.^[14][15]

Ranking Structure

The Aryan Brotherhood of Texas is run by 5 Generals, collectively known as the "Steering Committee", or "The Wheel". Each General is given control over a number of prisons within the Texas Department of Corrections. Each prison unit with members is assigned a unit Captain, who in turn assigns a Senior Lieutenant and a Junior Lieutenant. The Junior Lieutenant is the lowest official rank within the ABT, though on larger units, the junior Lieutenant may appoint Sergeants to assist him in the day to day affairs of the gang on the unit.^[16]

Prospects

The Prospect, or prospective member is someone under the protection of the ABT, responsible for following any/all direct orders given by an active member, who is being considered for membership into the organization. While they technically do not have a voice in the organization, they are nevertheless treated with the same respect as active members by outsiders.

Typically, whenever there is "dirty work" to be done, such as an assault or murder, more often than not, prospects are used. When the prospect is utilized in such a way, it is often referred to as "earning one's bones".^[17]

See also

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

References