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Deadly Aryan Circle Prison Gang Faces Heat
 
 

Aryan Circle
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Detectives in the town of West, Texas, believe that members of the neo-Nazi prison-based gang Aryan Circle carried out a pair of brutal attacks on the same Latino man last August.

Originally, it was reported that two of the 10 men and women who swarmed and assaulted the 28-year-old Latino victim twice in the same night had claimed they were all members of Aryan Nations, a completely different neo-Nazi group. But West Detective Kimberly Lucien told the Intelligence Report that 35-year-old Stephen Ray Chapman, who was arrested for allegedly leading the attacks, was confirmed to be a member of Aryan Circle while he was being processed into the McLennan County jail, where he was held in lieu of $1 million bond.

Investigators have since uncovered evidence that all the alleged attackers, including several juveniles, are Aryan Circle members or associates. Aryan Circle was founded in 1985 by white inmates in the Texas state prison system.

Chapman's arrest was his eighth in the state of Texas. Prior charges included burglary, robbery, drug possession and making terroristic threats. In the latest case, Chapman told police the Latino man was targeted after he made offensive remarks to a teenaged girl in Chapman's company. The 28-year-old victim was hospitalized for almost a week.

According to Aryan Circle literature, the gang's primary objective is to violently promote white nationalism "both in prison and in the world throughout." Last August, two Louisiana law enforcement officers were killed in a gunfight with a member of the gang who also was a suspect in the murder of two teenagers in Houston.

 
 
 
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The Year in Hate
Issue 129 | Spring 2008
 
EDITORIAL
Hope Amidst the Hate?
THE YEAR IN HATE
Active U.S. Hate Groups Rise to 888 in 2007
EL AÑO DEL ODIO
El Año del Odio
THE NATIVISTS
Profiles of 20 Anti-Immigrant Leaders
LOS NATIVISTAS
La Segunda Ola
THE TRANSFORMATION
Facing Trial, Racist Skinhead Claims Change
THE MISANTHROPE
Virginia Developer is USA’s Loudest Neo-Nazi
RUSSIAN ROULETTE
FBI's Use of Neo-Nazi Informant Knocked
THE MERCHANT OF GLENDALE
Arizonan a Major Racist Paraphernalia Dealer
THE DAUGHTER’S TALE
Anti-Catholic Cult Leaders' Child Recounts Abuse
BRAZIL NUTS
Massachusetts Brothers Lead Nativist Crusade
Locos por las Nueces de Brasil
'PATRIOT' GROUPS
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BRIEFS
Phoenix Day Labor Battle Heats Up
Fake 'Hate' Crimes Embarrass Far Right
Extremist 'Currency' Seized in Crackdown
Panther Leader Makes Hay With Case
Two Key Hate Groups Are on the Move
Bad Month for Large Anti-Immigration Group
Deadly Aryan Circle Prison Gang Faces Heat
Washington Times Cleans Out Extremists
Klan Leader Incompetent to Face Murder Trial
The Blotter: Updates on Extremism and the Law
Hate in the Mainstream: Quotes From the Right
Snapshot: Nationalist Movement Rally
INTERNATIONAL BRIEFS
Finnish School Shooter Had Nazi Beliefs
Duke Plugs His Book in Spain
EU Parliamentary Bloc Implodes
Canadian Racist Loses Job Certificate
BOOKS ON THE RIGHT
Revisiting the Ku Klux Klan
LEGAL BRIEF
Major Gun Rights Decision Looms
THE LAST WORD
Racists Active in Mixed Martial Arts