36 Aryan Brotherhood of Texas Members Have Pleaded Guilty
All 36 members of the Aryan Brotherhood of Texas (ABT) –– a white supremacy gang indicted in a precedent setting racketeering case brought in 2012 –– have now pleaded guilty, sparing courts millions in expensive legal costs.
The last defendant to plead guilty was Rusty Eugene Duke, 32, of Dallas, Texas, who pleaded guilty on Wednesday in federal court in Houston. Duke, identified as an ABT “captain,” pleaded to participating in a racketeering conspiracy.
“The Aryan Brotherhood of Texas launched its murderous and racist ideology within the Texas prisons, but unleashed a violent crime wave that jumped the prison walls and spread like a virus,” said Assistant Attorney General Leslie R. Caldwell of the Justice Department’s Criminal Division.
These “sweeping convictions will ensure that these ABT gang members, from generals to soldiers, spend their years in federal prison paying for their crimes, not committing new ones,” Caldwell said.
The violent, racist-based gang, operating in and outside of Texas prisons, was responsible for multiple acts of murder, robbery, arson, kidnapping and narcotics trafficking, according to the Justice Department. The guilty verdicts came as part of a multiple-count superseding racketeering indictment returned by a federal grand jury in October 2012 in Houston, Texas, that replaced initial charges filed in May of that year.
Initially facing potential death penalties, defendants started pleading guilty last year, falling like dominos and agreeing to testify against their co-defendants in exchange for lengthy prison sentences. Some of the defendants pleaded guilty straight-out, without agreeing to cooperate and testify against fellow ABT members.
In all, the case led to 73 convictions in five federal districts and “the decimation of the gang’s leadership,” the Justice Department announced Wednesday. The Justice Department dropped its effort to seek the death penalty as the cases moved forward, but has pushed for mandatory life sentences.
Those already convicted included six men identified as “generals,” or leaders of the gang: Charles Lee “Jive” Roberts, 69; William David “Baby Huey” Maynard, 44; Terry Ross “Big Terry” Ross, 57; Larry Max “Slick” Bryan, 53; Terry Glenn “Lil Wood” Sillers, 51, and James Francis “Skitz” Sampsell, 52.
U.S. Attorney Kenneth Magidson, of the Southern District of Texas, the jurisdiction that led the prosecution, said the prosecutions and convictions dealt “a significant blow to the ABT criminal activities.
“Only with a coordinated federal, state and local law enforcement effort, could these criminals’ extensive and heinous gang activities be brought before the bar of justice,” he said.
Many of the defendants will likely spend the remainder of their lives in prison.
Three ABT members already have been sentenced to prison, getting sentences ranging from 10 to 30 years in prison. The remaining defendants will be sentenced in October. Justice Department officials say that if any of the defendants had chosen to go to trial, there would have been substantial expenses likely reaching into millions of dollars related to those prosecutions, including for security.
The ABT, established in the early 1980s within the Texas penal system, blossomed to become what authorities described as one of the most-violent crime syndicates in the country. It modeled itself around the white supremacist philosophy of the Aryan Brotherhood, a California-based prison gang formed in that state’s prison system during the 1960s.
The ABT, promoting whites as the superior race and offering protection for white inmates, enforced its rules and promoted discipline among its members, prospects and associates through murder, attempted murder, conspiracy to commit murder, arson, assault, robbery and threats. Overtime, investigators say, the ABT became a criminal, for-profit enterprise, operating in and out of prisons.
New members took a “blood in” oath, drawing a sample of their blood, and committing to membership for life, calling fellow members “family” and living under the motto: “God Forgives, Brothers Don’t.” Members signed a “Blind Faith Commitment,” agreeing to do anything directed or requested by their superiors – without question. Failure to comply with those direct orders would result in severe beatings, known as beat-downs, or death.
Investigators say ABT meetings, called “church,” were held in locations where secrecy could be maintained.
Members and associates were required to follow the orders of higher-ranking members, often referred to as “direct orders.” Those members who cooperated with law enforcement were targeted for murder. Women weren’t allowed to become members, but aided and abetted criminal activity as “featherwoods.”
