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Epilogue
- Syracuse University Press
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297 Epilogue Go out with joy and be led forth with peace. —Isaiah 55:12 Parts of the right-wing movement are slowing down while other parts remain very active. John Harrell of the Christian-Patriots Defense League in Illinois, now in his mid-70s, is reportedly broke and living on social security. He no longer holds meetings and it is said that one of his daughters has married an African American. KKK leader Robert Miles of the Mountain Kirk in Michigan died August 16, 1992. The wife of Aryan Nations’ neo-Nazi leader Richard Butler died in December of 1995. Butler’s health has also declined and no successor has been picked for him. It is assumed that once he dies, Aryan Nations of Idaho will also die. As the old dies, the new emerges. The rallying cry of today’s white separatists (no longer calling themselves “white supremacists”) is entitled , “The Fourteen Words”—“We must secure the existence of our people and a future for White Children.” In 1996 an almost-three-month standoff between the Montana Freeman militia group and the FBI ended with a peaceful surrender . But the year also gave us a pipe bombing at the Atlanta Olympic games with one person killed. In 1997 we saw a seven-day standoff between the Republic of Texas militia and Texas law-enforcement. That standoff also ended peacefully. Immediately before the standoff began, four members of a KKK group were arrested north of Fort Worth, Texas for allegedly conspiring to blow up a natural gas depot which they hoped 298 | Tablernacle of Hate would serve two purposes: killing up to 20,000 people in the county and diverting officials there long enough for Klan members to rob an armored truck carrying two million dollars, which would have been used to finance more illegal activity. The biggest deception in the violent extremist right is twofold. First, the individual believes that if law enforcement officers ever try to arrest him, he will “go down in a blaze of glory and take as many cops” with him as possible, willing to be a martyr for the cause. Yet 99% of all arrests of extremists end with no shots being fired and no one hurt. Secondly, the extremist group believes a federal raid on its group will be the final “rally cry” and other groups will come to escalate the war during any standoff. Yet time and again, other groups watch the standoffs on television, keeping a safe distance between themselves and law enforcement. Thus the individual and the group continue their criminal activity, all the while deceiving themselves in mutual seduction that they will make a difference—only to later discover that the only difference made is their incarceration, perhaps for life. Then, they watch in frustration as the movement forgets them, unless they continue to toot their own horns while in prison. Immediately after the Republic of Texas surrender, the trial for Timothy McVeigh began in Denver, Colorado, where Jewish talkshow host Alan Berg was murdered. In McVeigh’s copy of The Turner Diaries, he highlighted the following : “We will not shrink from spilling their blood.” On Monday, June 2, 1997, seven men and five women found Timothy McVeigh guilty of conspiracy to use a weapon of mass destruction, of using that weapon of mass destruction, of destruction with an explosive, and of seven counts of first degree murder in killing federal agents in the line of duty. Neither Richard Wayne Snell, Jim Ellison, Robert Millar nor Elohim City were implicated in the Oklahoma City bombing. However, Judge Richard Matsch would not allow McVeigh’s defense team to call Carol Howe—the ATF informant who lived at Elohim City for two years and who supposedly informed authorities in advance of a plot to bomb the federal building—as a witness. [3.145.156.46] Project MUSE (2024-04-17 20:51 GMT) Epilogue | 299 On Friday, June 13, the jury sentenced Timothy McVeigh to death by lethal injection. McVeigh, who sat emotionless and stone-faced during most of the trial, envisions himself a prisoner of war on trial for actions that he sees as the inevitable consequences of war. In The Turner Diaries, the hero does not flinch at the idea of dying for his cause. Indeed, in the book’s final pages he joyfully embraces his fate. “Brothers!” he says, addressing the Order, “When I entered your ranks for the first time, I consecrated my life to our...