I revisited this book recently and listened to a podcast with one of the authors, Burkey, that was recorded in the wake of Charlottesville—similarities are noted throughout the podcast, which isn't too surprising. After all, that was the rally when Tiki torch neo nazis chanted the literal nazi slogans, "Blood and soil," and "Jews will not replace us," in a horrific display of bigotry by a crowd then- and now-incoming-president trump called "very fine people."
The gist of Into the Devil's Den can be summed up in its subtitle: How an FBI Informant Got Inside the Aryan Nations and A Special Agent Got Him Out Alive. Which, if you're like me, is difficult to resist picking up to learn a bit more about.
Dave Hall, busted on a marijuana charge and trying to stay out of prison, ends up being shanghaied into a very disproportionate undercover assignment that leads him through a hellish experience joining the Aryan Nations, getting close to leadership, and ultimately succeeding in preventing a murky but sinister plot: what appeared to be an attempt at a second bombing like Oklahoma City and the assassination of Morris Dees, the lawyer who was instrumental in founding the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) and suing extremist organizations into bankruptcy.
The journey is anything but smooth and, while Hall has biracial nieces and nephews that keep him willing to engage in the investigation and aid law enforcement even after he could have walked away, the Nietzschean aphorism about the void looking back into you rears its head and Hall finds the erratic tendencies and malevolent, bigoted thoughts of the group seeping into his own worldview. This leads to his own mental struggles, including difficulties with drinking and losing a relationship—struggles that, years later, Burkey would acknowledge he didn't notice as much as he should have.
Back in the nineties, white supremacists were considered law enforcement's number one domestic terrorist priority. Then 9/11 happened, everyone focused on Muslims instead, and now we have a problem with white supremacists in law enforcement that has even warranted FBI investigation, so we're really batting well in terms of "cleaning up instead of making a bigger mess," especially now that we have court decisions like Warren v. District of Columbia to let us know that whole "protect and serve" thing does not mandate police either protect or serve and actually they might just kick it while some dirtbag shoots up a school in Uvalde because it's scary out there and this isn't my job.
Not to mention a potential new FBI director who seems inclined to gut the agency and begs the timeless question: Quis custodiet ipsos custodes?
Thankfully, police don't need to trouble themselves with such ethical questions after they were reminded by their white supremacist colleagues that a great way to get out some of that stress is to slam around some meek person, preferably a minority, while screaming, "Stop resisting!" It's like something out of that book Pete Hegseth, Trump's pick for Secretary of Defense as of this post, wrote (and definitely masturbates to) about shooting up unarmed protestors.**
Gotta love the Thin Blue Line Wall of Silence.
Anyway, 90s and white supremacists: among these assorted and overlapping groups, you had the Aryan Nations. And these guys had ties to the worst of them, groups like the Order. Where I grew up, Whidbey Island is a beautiful little place I, unfortunately, never visited.
It was only recently I found out about the shootout there that took place there in 1984 and led to the death of a neo nazi leader who was involved with robbing banks and armored cars to fund further neo nazi militia movements. Anniversary of his death is actually on the eighth of this month, so if anyone knows where that grave is, I would highly recommend using it for a bathroom for at least those 24 hours in celebration.
What is it that makes Hall so unique and capable as an undercover agent, especially considering the guy only got busted for pot? After all, it doesn't take long until he's providing security and driving around Ray Redfeairn, another dirtbag and a leader of the Aryan Nations (who was living with his mother at the time, a fact Burkey finds enjoyment in pointing out—and, I admit, I do, too).
Despite how minor, in my eyes, his weed charge was (he linked buyer and seller, because he made the connection he got 'lumped in' for Conspiracy), he didn't want to go to prison and he had six months to provide valuable information to the cops or they might chuck him behind bars. Most of the information he gives is low-level stuff—but Hall's a biker, big guy, tatted up, thick with muscles, and he isn't a member but he hangs out at a bar frequented by the Outlaws.
As Hall points out when Burkey starts pressing him for Outlaw information: these guys kill snitches. Again, very disproportionate for some pot, but he agrees.
Also drinking at this Outlaw owned bar is, of course, one Ray Redfeairn. The first time he tries to recruit Hall, he gets rebuffed, a bit of 'playing hard to get,' the second time, Hall takes him up on the offer. Redfeairn having been the one who brought him into the group saves him from a lot of scrutiny and trust issues (though a rudimentary background check is done by the bigots, such as asking neighbors about Hall), and this is reinforced by Hall's general appearance, which is not at all what one would imagine from an FBI agent. He's got a reputation, the weight, the tattoos, the history, the resume—everything you can't fake.
And so we see his swift rise through the ranks and ending up working closely with Redfeairn.
After former soldier Kale Kelly joins the "church" (the Aryan Nations functioned ostensibly as a church/religious organization, while after "church," armed political groups would plot violence), things take a much darker turn: first comes an incident moving PVC pipes that sound suspiciously like bombs and then there's a tense meeting between Kelly and Redfeairn referencing the Cabell federal building in Dallas where, as the book progresses, it is hinted Kelly intends to assassinate Dees.
Fortunately, this does not work out—in fact, per Burkey, Kelly has reformed and turned his back on his former bigotry, even testifying against neo nazis in court. I hope that he's right and the guy really has moderated, given up he hatred, and become a better person.
Regardless, the immediate impact of Hall's work is a phenomenal success: the bombing and assassination are both thwarted. More grim, not too long after, in Idaho, a backfiring car leads to members of the Aryan Nations beating the Keenans, a mother and her son, and the SPLC is able to sue them into bankruptcy, a blow that financially, morale-wise, and in terms of personnel deals a crippling blow to the group, which faded into obscurity.
That last point about Kelly I raise due to another book I found myself reminded of as I revisited Into the Devil's Den, and that is Julia Ebner'sThe Rage. Like Hall and Burkey's book, the subtitle here does a lot of the heavy lifting for me: The Vicious Circle of Islamist and Far-Right Extremism.
This, too, is a book well worth reading but one of the big takeaways I remember is that quite often, we see Horseshoe Theory in action with radicals: instead of moderating and toning down their beliefs, they become attack dogs for the other side of the coin. This can be seen in violence and terrorism, as the book focuses on, or on a much, much smaller scale: look at David Brock going from being a right-wing attack dog to a liberal one.
In a way, it's hard not to see this as a lack of growth, as the person is indulging in the same desturctive behavior—just for a different team. And there's a better solution than that.
To borrow from Murrow, quoted in Sperber's biography I believe, about the importance of credibility and truth (in my eyes):
"If a deceived or confused public is betrayed into creating or allowing to be created an America in which it loses faith, democracy will not survive... If the people finally come to believe either that they cannot grasp or they cannot cope with America's problems, or that those who inform... and those who act are inert or malign or both, then distrust, dissatisfaction, fear, and laziness can combine to turn them in desperation to that 'strong man' who can take them only to destruction..."
—
*Also because, as I shamefully and darkly joke sometimes, it's the only book I've ever come across a family member in. Grandpa had three daughters from his marriage prior to grandma. One of his daughters, according to family, was married to one Pete J. Peters. I suspect the Peter J. Peters whose death warranted a page from the SPLC. He was a real piece of shit and I'm grateful I never had to endure meeting him in-person.
But this story has a bit of humor too: according to family lore, the police came to confirm his death when there wasn't a body and for whatever whacky-ass bigot reason, they buried him in the yard and parked cars over him to hide the body. Would've been funnier if they'd stuffed him in the septic tank, that seems like a amore fitting burial place, but being parked on is white trash enough, I guess.
Now, here's another whacky thing. His widow is still described as the "sweet one." And I guess she's like, soft-spoken. And fuckin' weird as shit, at grandpa's funeral she threw on Dancing Queen while giving a eulogy and started dancing, for instance, but I mean: she's a white supremacist. Of course she's missing a few marbles upstairs. Soft-spoken as she was in person, she also left us a letter that explained if we didn't convert to her views, we'd go to hell and burn for eternity. She actually drew the flames at the bottom of the page, she put in some serious effort.
Apparently at some point in the past, the rest of the family had the unenviable task of spending time with him and he was an incredibly unnerving person to be around. If I wasn't around when they met him, or was too young to remember, that would indicate they met him right around the time of the quotes included at the end—but probably around the early-to-mid 90s, when he was pretty heavily involved with some real nasty, evil figures.
Anyway, a significant chunk of what Aunt N. was telling us then about how we need to convert is republican mainstream politics now. Thanks, evangelical Christians, as you guys were apparently eager to lap up white supremacist nazi tirades after viewings of.The 700 Club because what goes better with a dose of Prosperity Gospel*** than some thinly-veiled Hitler?
Pat Robertson had all sorts of thoughts about Jimmy Carter's morality after giving the Playboy interview, but apparently lynching people and neo nazism is A-OK!
But hey, just like Aunt N. and, eventually, Peters: my family realizes that saying the quiet part out loud won't win any fans. Like her, they don't use those mean words and so they can pass as "the sweet ones" while yours truly—I still got that ticket to hell for being crass and vulgar. Ah, well. Heaven for the climate, hell for the company, amirite?
Relevant quotes:
(347-48, in the aftermath of Waco and the Branch Davidians, which of course Lyons and Beam were there to defend cause they're fucking scum neo nazis): "Lyons and Beam were among 150 ultra-right-wing leader who attended this session, which was hosted by Christian Idenity pastor Pete Peters. A tub-thumping white supremacist who claimed that the Bible justified killing homosexuals, Peters had encouraged members of the Order to embark upon their deadly crusade a decade earlier. Like Trochmann, Peters had since come to realize that neo-nazi sloganeering was counterproductive. "Peters packaged his message for the 1990s," explained former Aryan Nations member Floyd Cochran. "He doesn't espouse Hitler. He doesn't use the swastika or Klan robes. Instead, he uses the Bible and the American flag. Peters talks in a language we're used to hearing. His hatred is masked in God."
(361-362): "Another popular figure on the Liberty Lobby's LogoPlex was Pete Peters, the Colorado-based Christian Identity pastor who hosted the militia planning meeting hat Aryan Nations ambassador Louis Beam and attorney Kirk Lyons atended in October 1992. Despite his links to unabashed neo-nazis, Peters enjoyed increasing acceptance among conservative evangelicals thanks to the Keystone Inspiration Network, a self-described "family TV" available in 120 American cities. The Keystone network aired Peters's bigoted sermons along with Pat Robertson's The 700 Club and other religious Right programming."
**From that article:
"Hegseth tells readers... 'When local businesses declare ‘gun free zones,’ remember the Second Amendment, carry your legally owned firearm, and dare them to tell you it’s not allowed.'"
That line about "dare them," I can see this fucker from when I used to work at Freddy's right now with his pistol on his hip, always glancing and glaring, "What are you going to do about it?"
One particular time stands out in my memory. Guy was wearing a ratty white wife-beater and it was fall when he came in on a busy day. Guy was clearly in a bad mood, slammed right into a mom's cart, her baby's siting in the thing, lets out a startled cry, which gets mom to immediately respond.
And here's this big pretend tough guy, brushes his fingers past the gun as he looks back at her and "dares" her to say something. That's what that kind of shit leads to and it isn't patriotism, it's cowardice.
***Jesus was big into the prosperity gospel, as seen when he told all his followers to give to the poor and said, "Again I tell you, it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for someone who is rich to enter the kingdom of God.”
Another quote comes to mind, from an NPR article that's haunted me since I read it:
"It was the result of having multiple pastors tell me, essentially, the same story about quoting the Sermon on the Mount, parenthetically, in their preaching — "turn the other cheek" — [and] to have someone come up after to say, "Where did you get those liberal talking points?" And what was alarming to me is that in most of these scenarios, when the pastor would say, "I'm literally quoting Jesus Christ," the response would not be, "I apologize." The response would be, "Yes, but that doesn't work anymore. That's weak." And when we get to the point where the teachings of Jesus himself are seen as subversive to us, then we're in a crisis."
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