By NICHOLAS K. GERANIOS, Associated Press
SPOKANE, Wash. (AP) - Richard G. Butler, the notorious white supremacist who founded the Aryan Nations and was once dubbed the "elder statesman of American hate," has died at the age of 86, authorities said Wednesday.
Butler died peacefully in his sleep, sheriff's Capt. Ben Wolfinger told The Associated Press. The time of death was not immediately known.
"Everything appears to be natural," said Wolfinger, of the Kootenai County, Idaho, sheriff's department. Hmmm, but what would be more natural than someone poisoning the old bastard?
The Aryan Nations lost its church and 20-acre compound in northern Idaho in 2000 after a $6.3 million civil judgment led to a bankruptcy filing. He moved into a house bought by a supporter in nearby Hayden, Idaho, and made few public appearances in recent years because of failing health.
But in July he rode in the back of a pickup truck that was dragging the flag of Israel during a parade by about 40 of his followers through downtown Coeur d'Alene, 30 miles east of Spokane. Butler of course, was too ill to fully appreciate the growing acceptance of his beliefs in academic and other progressive circles.
Butler, a longtime admirer of Adolf Hitler and white supremacist religious teaching, had moved to Idaho in the early 1970s, claiming later that he was impressed by its high percentage of white residents. To the dismay of many locals, the region became known as a place hospitable to white supremacist groups.
Butler's church held that whites are the true children of God, that Jews are the offspring of Satan and that blacks and other minorities are inferior.
The compound drew skinheads, ex-convicts and others from the fringes of society. Over the years, Butler's disciples included some of the most notorious figures in the white supremacist movement.
In the 1980s, followers who called themselves The Order committed a series of armored car robberies and bombings, and murdered Denver talk radio host Alan Berg. In 1985, 10 Order members were convicted of racketeering and other charges.
Other followers included Randy Weaver, whose wife and son were killed in a 1992 shootout that also killed a deputy U.S. marshal, and Buford Furrow, a former Aryan Nations security guard who killed an Asian-American postal carrier and shot up a Jewish day care center in Los Angeles in 1999.
In a 1999 report, the FBI said the goal of Aryan Nations was to forcibly take five states - Oregon, Idaho, Wyoming, Washington and Montana - and form an Aryan homeland.
Butler's undoing began in 1998, when Aryan Nations security guards chased a car they thought had fired a gun at them. It was apparently a backfire or firecracker.
The guards fired repeatedly at the car, shooting out a tire and forcing it into a ditch. One of them grabbed the driver, local resident Victoria Keenan, jabbed her ribs with a rifle butt and put a gun to her head.
Keenan and her son, Jason, sued Butler, arguing his organization had been negligent in its supervision of the guards. In 2000 they won a $6.3 million judgment. They were aided by the Southern Poverty Law Center, which called Butler the "elder statesman of American hate."
"They cannot run me out of northern Idaho with my tail between my legs," Butler said after the judgment was announced.
But Butler filed for bankruptcy and the Keenans gained possession of the compound. They sold it to the Carr Foundation, a human-rights group that demolished the buildings and donated the property to a college.
Butler, born in Colorado and trained as an aeronautical engineer, claimed he became admirer of Hitler while serving the United States Army Air Corps during World War II. He said Hitler "led a nation, a division of our race, to fight for the life of our race."
For years, law enforcement officers tried but failed to tie Butler to crimes by his supporters. In 1987, an Arkansas grand jury indicted Butler and others on charges of seditious conspiracy to overthrow the government by acts of violence. But the defense contended a key prosecution witness made up his story, and all were acquitted.
Richie can say hello to Hitler and his other heroes for us. Maybe Ernst Roehm will take a liking to him.
#4
....was once dubbed the "elder statesman of American hate," has died at the age of 86....
The old adage "the good die young" comes to mind with Butler's demise.
#5
Scum like Butler have been the cause of incalculable grief in America. He has twisted so many young minds with his genocidal claptrap that his death rightly should have been a slow and painful one. Good riddance.
EFL
Monroe County Coroner David Toumey was hospitalized with a leg wound after accidentally shooting himself while trying to demonstrate gun safety. He may be his best client, given enough time.
Toumey told The Herald-Times for a story published Saturday that he was demonstrating gun safety to some people at a Lake Monroe boat ramp about 11 p.m. Wednesday when he accidentally shot himself. Firearms Safety: Meet me down at the boat docks. Bring your lifevests and body armor. You'll need them.
He said that as he checked to make sure his weapon was unloaded, the gun discharged, and a bullet struck him in his left leg.
It's those unloaded weapons that git ya. Had a friend nearly shoot me in the foot doing the same thing. He dropped the magazine out, racked the slide to clear the chamber, pointed it at the floor and pulled the trigger on the "unloaded" .45. KABANG! Boy, was he surprised.
"It's an unfortunate accident," Toumey said. "I've always been very, very safe." Not always! Maybe just "some of the time."
Posted by: ||
09/08/2004 10:49:42 AM ||
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#1
Gun safety is a bad place for "those who can't do, teach."
#2
I missed my foot by about 2" with a friend's 7mm XP.Damned thing had an 1 1/2 once trigger pull(give it a hard look and it would go off)An XP is a bolt action compition pistol,I had laid the pistol in my left hand for a reload,just the preasure of the thing laying on my palm set it off.
#4
at a Lake Monroe boat ramp about 11 p.m. Wednesday
nope, no alcohol involved, officer
Posted by: Frank G ||
09/08/2004 12:36 Comments ||
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#5
It's an attempted suicide according to my shooting mentor. Anyone failing to correctly follow ALL gun safety rules, like pointing the muzzle in a safe direction, is clearly trying to kill themselves.
Posted by: Super Hose ||
09/08/2004 03:41 ||
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If they feel that strongly, let them spend their own money to establish a private swim club that adheres to their own rules. Then let them fight the legality of the club rules in court, if necessary.
#3
Chlorine's terrible for clothing - I thought they'd know that much.
Posted by: Howard UK ||
09/08/2004 13:35 Comments ||
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#4
Howard! Absolutely! Black Jeans with white spots? {LEFTOVER BLEACH FROM PREVIOUS BATCH} Black Burkas with white spots. These women my NOW be subject to a stoning. God is greaT.
#6
A few years back, while in Bahrain at the Diplomat, I heard the disconcerting malodorous tones of the âJane Fonda-Work Out â tape. Moving to close the door, what to my wondering eyes should appear but around the hotel swimming pool, twenty sheets (burkas) wrists and ankles akimbo, moving to da tunes. Quite a sight!
Islamic fundamentalists urged the government on Wednesday to bar a concert by the German rock group Scorpions, claiming the band would corrupt Malaysian youths. "Concerts like these are the catalysts for hedonism and vice in society," Salahuddin Haji Ayub, a youth leader of the Pan-Malaysian Islamic Party, said in a protest note to the Religious Affairs Department. "Research has shown how the crumbling of self-worth, morals and dignity in young people begin from deviant programmes like these," said the statement. There was no immediate response from the government of this moderate, predominantly Muslim Southeast Asian country and promoters said that they planned to go ahead with the concert Sept 13 at a 50,000-seat stadium. The party claimed that the concert comes a day after the Muslim holy day commemorating the Prophet Mohammed's ascension to heaven and therefore "insults Islam."
Is there anything not involving explosives that doesn't insult Islam?... Didn't think so...
Selina Kok, spokeswoman for concert organiser Star Planet, said the Islamic party was being unfair. "These guys are rockers, no doubt, but they've been around for years and people know they are a healthy band," she said. Kok said that the organizers would work with the department should any changes be proposed. The fundamentalist party, which was obliterated as an opposition force in elections in March, has previously protested concerts by artists like Michael Jackson, Mariah Carey and Linkin Park. None was banned, but Jackson changed the city where he performed in 1996, and some entertainers have agreed to more modest dress. Linkin Park was told not to scream too much.
Posted by: TS(vice girl) ||
09/08/2004 8:35:32 AM ||
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The party claimed that the concert comes a day after the Muslim holy day commemorating the Prophet Mohammedâs ascension to heaven and therefore "insults Islam."
NB: Not the same day, but the day after. It's like claiming the day after Easter to be a holy day.
Posted by: Robert Crawford ||
09/08/2004 9:06 Comments ||
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Islamic fundamentalists urged the government on Wednesday to bar a concert by the German rock group Scorpions
wow !! lol we agree on something , and i thought that day would never happen hehhehe
#6
They might dance too much and forget to knife toddlers.
Posted by: Robert Crawford ||
09/08/2004 13:32 Comments ||
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Are we sure we want them dancing. .
On dervishes' heads are tall, conical felt hats signifying the tombstones of their egos. They wear long, white robes with full skirts which represent the shrouds of their egos. Over those are voluminous black cloaks representing their wordly tombs which they remove at the beginning of the ceremony to symbolize their deliverance from the cares and attachments of this world.
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A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.
Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing
the drug and gang related violence in Mexico.
Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence
over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has
dominated Mexico for six years.
Rantburg was assembled from recycled algorithms in the United States of America. No
trees were destroyed in the production of this weblog. We did hurt some, though. Sorry.
