Federal inmate seeks distance from other white separatists, racists

A former member of the white separatist group The Order keeps getting passed over for early release from federal prison.

And, he blames other separatists, racists and white nationalists for the problem.

Gary Lee Yarbrough, 62, is facing about seven more years in prison on a 60-year sentence. In writings posted online by his wife, Susan Hillman, and in U.S. Parole Commission hearings, Yarbrough said websites supporting members of The Order and other separatist and racist causes are harming his attempts at being released.

“Well, intended or not, those websites did us more harm than good,” Yarbrough wrote in a letter dated November 2, 2017.

Yarbrough, who is scheduled for release from the SuperMax prison in Florence, Colorado, on October 28, 2024, is one of three surviving members of The Order who remains incarcerated.

The others, 66-year-old Randolph George Duey, and 70-year-old Richard Scutari, are scheduled for release from prison in 2043 and 2025, respectively.

The group funded operations by robbing banks and armored cars with the goal of dividing the United States along racial lines, with white people setting up a separate country in the Pacific Northwest.

The Order fell apart in 1984 after at least two associates became federal informants and the leader, Robert Jay Mathews, died in a gun battle with federal authorities that led to a fire that burned down the house where he was holed up. Multiple other members were sentenced to long stretches in federal prison for a multitude of crimes.

Frequently, federal judges, prison administrators and the parole commission will impose restrictions on co-defendants associating with each other, either behind bars or after their release.

The U.S. Parole Commission has cited Yarbrough’s presence on websites such as Stormfront and Resist! as evidence of Yarbrough’s links to the white supremacist and white nationalist world.

But, while Scutari and Duey are listed on the website www.davidlane1488.com, Yarbrough is currently nowhere to be found.

That, Yarbrough wrote in the November letter, is by choice.

“The authorities utilized those websites to erroneously claim that this group (The Order) still exists and is associated as an organization and affiliated with other groups,” wrote Yarbrough, who also complained about multiple health issues.

Yarbrough’s wife, Hillman, made a similar claim in a November 6, 2017, interview with RadioAryan. Hillman said it is the men’s beliefs, not their crimes that are keeping them in prison.

“It’s hard to find a reason,” Hillman said. “If Gary had converted to being a Muslim, he’d be out by now.”

But, Yarbrough still shows up as a rallying point for white supremacists and white nationalists. A December 2014 rally in Mississippi, put on by Shaun Patrick Winkler, protégé of Aryan Nations founder Richard Butler, aimed to raise money for Yarbrough’s legal defense.

What, exactly, Yarbrough believes now is somewhat uncertain. At a September 2016 U.S. Parole Commission Hearing, Yarbrough, the one-time security chief for Aryan Nations, described himself as “opposed to injustice,” and said The Order wasn’t a white supremacist group. Instead, Yarbrough told the commission, it was a “Christian Separatist” organization he joined while “young” and “impressionable.”

“I am not a white supremacist and I never believed such an odious concept,” Yarbrough said. “I am not anti-government.”

Photo Credit: AP Photo/Czarek Sokolowski