Aryan Brotherhood

The Aryan Brotherhood, also known as The Brand, the AB, or the One-Two, is a white prison gang and organized crime syndicate in the United States with about 15,000 members in and out of prison. According to the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), although the gang makes up less than 1% of the prison population, it is responsible for up to 18% of murders in the federal prison system. The AB has focused on the economic activities typical of organized crime entities, particularly drug trafficking, extortion, inmate prostitution, and murder-for-hire.

Organization at lower levels varies from prison to prison. For example, in the Arizona prison system, members are known as "kindred" and organize into "families". A "council" controls the families. Kindred may recruit other members, known as "progeny", and serve as a mentor for the new recruit. The group has an alliance with La Eme (The Mexican Mafia) as the two are mutual enemies of Black Guerilla Family. According to a federal indictment, the AB has partnered with Asian gangs to import heroin from Thailand.

Like most prison gangs, Aryan Brotherhood members mark themselves with distinctive tattoos. Designs commonly include the words "Aryan Brotherhood", "AB", SS, 666, sig runes, shamrocks, and other Nazi symbolism and Celtic iconography.

History
Until the 1960s, most prisons in the United States were racially segregated. As prisons began to desegregate, many inmates organized along racial lines. The Aryan Brotherhood is believed to have been formed by a group of Irish bikers in 1964 at San Quentin State Prison, but it may have been derived from or inspired by the Bluebird Gang. They decided to strike against the blacks who were forming their own militant group called the Black Guerrilla Family. By the 1990s the Aryan Brotherhood had shifted its focus away from killing for strictly racial reasons and focused on organized crime, such as drug trafficking, prostitution and sanctioned murders. They took on organized crime-like powers, and may be more powerful than the Italian crime families within the prison system. For example, while incarcerated in Marion Federal Penitentiary in 1996, after being assaulted, Gambino crime family boss John Gotti allegedly asked the Aryan Brotherhood to murder his attacker. Gotti's attacker was immediately transferred to protective custody and the planned retaliation was abandoned.

In late 2002, over 40 leaders of the gang were simultaneously rounded up from prisons all over the country and brought to trial under the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act (RICO). The intention was to bring death sentences for at least 21 of them, to cut off the leadership of the gang, in a manner similar to tactics used against organized crime. The case produced 30 convictions but none of the most powerful leaders received a death sentence. Sentencing occurred in March 2006 for three of the most powerful leaders of the gang, including Barry Byron Mills (born 1948) and AB "lieutenant" Tyler "The Hulk" Bingham, who were indicted for numerous crimes, including murder, conspiracy, drug trafficking, and racketeering and for ordering killings and beatings from their cell. Bingham and Mills were convicted of murder and sent back to United States Penitentiary Administrative Maximum Facility Prison (ADX) in Florence, Colorado where they are serving life sentences with no parole, escaping the death penalty.

Prosecuting the gang has been historically difficult, because many members are already serving life sentences with no possibility of parole, so prosecutors were seeking the death penalty for 21 of those indicted but have dropped the death penalty on all but five defendants. By September 2006, the 19 inductees not eligible for the death penalty had pled guilty. The first of a series of trials involving four high level members ended in convictions in July 2006.

On 23 June 2005, after a 20-month investigation, a federal strike force raided six houses in northeastern Ohio belonging to the "Order of the Blood", a criminal organization controlled by the Aryan Brotherhood. Thirty-four Aryan Brotherhood members or associates were arrested and warrants were issued for ten more.

Notable members
Barry Mills, Thomas Silverstein and Tyler Bingham are among three leaders of the gang. Former members include Michael Thompson, Casper Odinson Crowell, John Greschner and Bob Overton. Thompson was a high school football star, and is part Native American. Thompson was sentenced to multiple life sentences with no chance of parole and will spend the rest of his life in protective custody sections of California prisons.

Documentaries

 * Aryan Brotherhood National Geographic documentary
 * Ross Kemp on Gangs (2004–present)
 * Gangland: Aryan Brotherhood (History Channel)

Films

 * Felon (2008)
 * Death Race (2008)
 * The Death and Life of Bobby Z (2007)
 * Miami Vice (2006)
 * The Butterfly Effect (2004)
 * Lockdown (2000)
 * Animal Factory (2000)
 * American History X (1998)
 * Dead Man Walking (1995)
 * Higher Learning (1995)
 * Blood in Blood out (1993)
 * American Me (1992)
 * South Central (1992)
 * Ricochet (1991)
 * An Innocent Man (1989)

TV series

 * Explorer (2010)
 * American Gangs (2009)
 * Gangland (2009)
 * Sons of Anarchy (2008)
 * Gangland (2007)
 * Raines (2007)
 * Prison Break (2005–2009)
 * Law & Order (2004)
 * Oz (1997–2003)

Other

 * Hard Time (comic book; 2004–06)
 * The Suffering (video game; 2004)