Death in the Desert

Issue Number:

147

Fall

2012

Are American vigilantes murdering undocumented immigrants in Arizona?

In This Issue

Investigating Deaths of Undocumented Immigrants on the Border

By Ryan Lenz

The unsolved murders this April of two undocumented immigrants near Eloy, Ariz., coupled with four remarkably similar 2007 killings in the same area, have again raised the specter of a possible campaign by U.S. vigilantes to murder Latino border crossers. One recently retired police detective warns of “a lot of angry, militant white men on the border sitting like hunters waiting for these people to come across.”

Ten Years After Founder's Death, Key Neo-Nazi Group 'A Joke'

By Mark Potok, Senior Fellow

The National Alliance was once the most important hate group in America. Now, 10 years after the death of its founder William Pierce, the once-pow- erful Alliance has been reduced to nearly complete irrelevance, although that hasn’t stopped its recent recruits from engaging in at least a dozen mur- ders and a range of other crimes.

WorldNet Daily Continues to Pump Out Outrageous Propaganda

By Leah Nelson

For years, an extreme-right online “news company” called WorldNetDaily has been pumping out staggering vol- umes of baseless conspiracy theories, end-of-the-world predictions, and “birther” attacks on President Obama. But its truly defining moment may have come with the fairy-tale claim that soy- beans cause homosexuality.

Oklahoma Survivalist Claims Motor will Run on Anything

By Ryan Lenz

The case of Paul Pantone, an Oklahoman who says he’s invented a contraption that will run on virtually any liquid, illustrates the link between defiers of conventional scientific wisdom and radical rightists who violently distrust the government. In fact, Pantone’s alleged ties to radicals have both neighbors and law enforcement worried.

More Features

Editorial: Arizona, S.B. 1070 and the Enablers of Violence By Mark Potok, Senior Fellow In the end, it came down in line with prior precedent. The Supreme Court, ruling in late June on the Arizona law that set off a tsunami of ugly legislation aimed at undocumented immigrants, affirmed decades of settled law, saying the federal government — not states or cities — has the right to control immigration policy.	Robert Killian's Years of Posing as a Neo-Nazi Biker Cost Him Dearly By Heidi Beirich and Laurie Wood For seven years, Robert Killian posed as a neo-Nazi biker named “Doc,” working his way slowly into the inner sanctum of violent white supremacists as part of a wide-ranging undercover investigation in central Florida.
Wisconsin’s Institute of Science and Technology Fears Vatican Conspiracy By Leah Nelson Just outside the city limits here lies the Midwest Amusement Park and USA International Raceway, its vacant grounds and winter-worn buildings evoking the same kind of eerie feeling that makes off-season attractions such good settings for horror films.	Demonizing Homosexuality, Again By Ryan Lenz Elements of the anti-gay right have searched long and hard for logic to make condemnation of homosexuality resonate: Gay men are pedophiles, homosexuality causes God to send hurricanes to Florida and kill off blackbirds in Arkansas, and, perhaps most silly, the theory that an intricate LGBT plot — the so-called “radical homosexual agenda” — is on the verge of gutting Western civilization.
Two North Carolina Detectives Build Program for Dealing with 'Sovereign Citizens' By Heidi Beirich, Intelligence Project Director Detectives Kory Flowers and Rob Finch of the Greensboro, N.C., Police Intelligence Squad were both involved in tracking white supremacists when, a couple of years ago, a new threat started to show up on their radar.	Three States Act to Shield Officials from ‘Paper Terror’ Tactics By Leah Nelson For years, law enforcement agencies have been warning of the dangers of “paper terrorism,” a common tactic of members of the so-called “sovereign citizens” movement, comprised of people who believe that they do not have to pay taxes or obey most laws.

Briefs

American Front Members Accused of Violence, Planning for ‘Race War’ On a rural plot of land in central Florida, surrounded by barbed wire and guarded by two pit bulls, Marcus Faella prepared his small band of neo-Nazi skinheads for what he considered an “inevitable race war.”	Extremists React to Trayvon Martin Controversy The Feb. 26 shooting death of Trayvon Martin inflamed extremists of many stripes, as groups on both sides of the racial divide threatened armed protests and radical black separatist leaders suggested vigilante justice for the neighborhood watch volunteer who shot the unarmed 17-year-old in Sanford, Fla.	Judge Dismisses Case Against Seven Hutaree Militia Members The high-profile federal case against Michigan’s Hutaree Militia came to an abrupt end in March when a federal judge dismissed most charges against seven members charged with plotting to murder police officers in an effort to ignite a revolution against the federal government.
Prominent White Nationalists Fired from National Review After years defending itself from allegations that it pays academic racists for their writings, the National Review in early April fired two prominent contributors.	Alaska Militiamen Convicted in Conspiracy to Murder Officials Rejecting Schaeffer Cox’s claim that he was merely exercising freedom of speech when he spoke of killing a judge and law enforcement officials, a federal jury this summer convicted the boyish Alaska militia leader of heading a murderous conspiracy against the government.	White Nationalists Attacked at Family Restaurant in Chicago Lunchtime diners at a normally sedate restaurant in a Chicago suburb were treated to a rude shock on May 19 when 18 intruders, dressed in black and wearing masks, stormed in and began swinging steel batons, hammers and chairs. Their targets: white nationalists who were holding a strategy session.
League of the South President: Whites Endowed with Divine ‘Superiority’ It’s no secret that Michael Hill, president of the neo-Confederate hate group League of the South (LOS), is a racist with a deep-seated contempt for black people and a more-than-rosy view of his “Anglo-Celtic” landsmen.	Fearing Global Dictatorship, Alabama Passes Pointless Law The growing influence of far-right conspiracy theorists on mainstream politics has come into sharp focus this year with a spate of laws, ordinances and resolutions opposing Agenda 21, a non-binding plan for global sustainability seen by many antigovernment hardliners as a Trojan Horse for socialist global government.	Same-Sex Marriage Opponents Seek to Split Gays, Blacks It’s been a rocky year so far for the National Organization for Marriage (NOM), the nation’s leading opponent of same-sex marriage.
Hate in the Mainstream Quotes From the Right Remarkable quotes from people who ought to know better.

Southern Poverty Law Center