Silent Brothers: The Murder of Alan Berg and the Story of The Order (Part 2)

Continued from Part 1


February 13th, 1984, was a regular work day for Alan Berg. As usual, he started off his show daring anti-Semites and racists to call in and debate him so he could tear them apart live on the air. Berg expected to get a lot of calls that day; he was planning to talk to two neo-Nazis that afternoon - former US army colonel and Christian Identity publicist Jack Mohr and Christian Identity pastor Pete Peters.

"Woah!", declared Berg that morning. "Let me tell you, there's a LOT of anti-Semitism cooking today! I can smell it!"

That afternoon, Colonel Jack Mohr and Pastor Pete Peters called in to Berg's show to begin the "debate". As usual, they found themselves the target of Berg's blunt jeers and witty jokes.

"Ah, so, you apparently feel that the Jews are part of a communist conspiracy, is that correct?" Berg asked Mohr during the call.

"Well when I began my study of communism I found that all the major communist leaders were Jewish", replied Mohr.
"I have been on programs like this many many times before", continued Mohr, "and I've run into fellows like you that interrupt and try to stop..."

"Hey, you haven't been interrupted so far, Jack!", retorted Berg with a laugh, "so don't give me that! Don't give me that garbage! You haven't been interrupted at all, man!"
"Hey! Don't interrupt me! I'm talking!", Mohr snapped back.
But Berg, as usual, had found a way to get Mohr flustered, and he pressed on.

"You don't make up the rules on my show!", he yelled angrily. "Do you want to end it right here?"

Mohr began to sputter. "I'll hang up on you if you, if you, if-if..."
Again, Berg seized on the opportunity. "Yes, go ahead! Both of you hang up, cowards!", he taunted Mohr and Peters. "Go bail out right now!"
After a few more seconds of taunting, Mohr disconnected the line, frustrated beyond his limit.

"Well, he's gone!", laughed Berg. He checked the other line to see if Pete Peters was still on the phone. "Aw, he hung up, too!", he remarked. "OK, that's it folks", he told his audience. "All I can say is if they think they can come on the air here and throw their anti-Semitic garbage uninterrupted, without any challenge, that ain't the way I do business!" He moved on to the next caller. "OK, our number's 861-TALK! That's 861-8255!"

Later that day, another racist listener phoned into Berg's show to declare his support for Mohr.
"I think the Jews are still firmly in control of the Soviet Union and I think they're responsible for the murder of 50 million white Christians", the caller said.
Berg laughed. "Oh, you think so, huh?"
"Yes, I do...", the caller began to respond. But Berg interrupted him.
"I think you're sick, I think you're pathetic," he mocked, "and I think your ability to reason and use any logic is fragile!"
"Why don't you have a Nazi on your program and then you'll have somebody to talk to!?", yelled the caller.

"Sir, you are a Nazi by your very own admission!", laughed Berg as he hit the red button to disconnect the call. "Thank you so much!"

 A recording of Berg's confrontation with David Lane

Berg didn't know it, but that caller was none other than David Lane, one of the founding members of The Order who served as Robert Mathews' confidant. Lane's humiliation at the hands of Berg ultimately led Mathews to select the Jewish radio host as his next target for murder.

The Hit List

Robert Mathews had spent months compiling a list of targets that The Order would assassinate, most of them government officials or anti-racist activists.
At the top of the hit list was Morris Dees, the founder and president of the Southern Poverty Law Center, a civil rights organization that was well known for suing hate groups such as the Ku Klux Klan, often driving them into bankruptcy. Dees was currently involved in litigation against the Aryan Nations, which made him a prime target for The Order.

Second on the list was Norman Lear, a Jewish-born television producer who had created numerous family sitcoms such as All in the Family, which mocked racists and included an interracial cast. In addition, Lear had founded anti-racist liberal activist groups such as People for the American Way (PFAW).

The third name on the list was Alan Berg. Berg was not nearly as famous as the other two names on the list, nor did have nearly as much influence and power as Dees or Lear did. The only reason he was on the list was because he was a Jew, a Jew who had humiliated a member of The Order and made his living mocking racists and anti-Semites.

Berg, decided Mathews, would be the first target The Order would assassinate. After having several Order operatives, including Zillah Craig's mother, Jean Craig, conduct an "intelligence gathering" on Berg, which included surveillance of his house and place of work, Mathews put together a four-man hit team which included himself, Bruce Pierce, David Lane, and Richard Scutari, to drive to Denver, Colorado, where Berg lived, and murder the radio host outside his home.

On the morning of June 14th, 1984, Mathews, Pierce, Lane, and Scutari drove from Washington down to Colorado to carry out the assassination. The plan was for Scutari and Mathews to act as lookouts while Lane would drive the getaway car. Pierce was selected to be the triggerman to murder Berg.

The weapon Pierce chose to use was a .45-caliber Ingram MAC-10 pistol, illegally converted to fully-automatic fire and equipped with a homemade silencer. A MAC-10 can send a bullet clean through a cinderblock wall, and fires at an extremely fast rate. It was the perfect tool for an assassination.

Berg's last day

June 18th, 1984, was another wild day of work for Alan Berg. He had a whole variety of topics he wanted to cover on his show that day. Early that morning, he had seen a newspaper with the headline "Pope Says Sex for Pleasure is Sinful". It was a perfect topic for Berg to cover; controversial, offensive, and salacious.

At 9:00 AM, Berg started his show at KOA and immediately began talking about the Pope.
"Can you figure any way as a man that you could have sex without pleasure? I'm just curious now, because I can't come up with any idea", he joked.

"You have to wonder:" Berg continued, "If you hold onto this sort of dogma, how long can people cling to a religious following that advances this kind of dogma? Does it say anywhere in the Bible that you couldn't have pleasure while you're having sex? I guess it doesn't matter to me, since I'm Jewish."

After spending an hour joking about the Pope and the Catholic Church, Berg interviewed Colorado governor Richard Lamm, and then spent the rest of the afternoon taking calls, arguing, and joking with his listeners.

Finally, at 2:00 PM, Berg wrapped up his show and prepared to have dinner with his ex-wife, Judith, with whom he was trying to reconcile. He told his listeners to tune in to KOA the next day - he had an interesting topic to discuss. But Berg had no way of knowing that he would never host another show again.

Ironically, the topic that Berg was to discuss the next day was gun control.

Murder in Denver

After having dinner with Judith that night, Berg decided to stop by a 7-11 to pick up groceries and some dog food for his pet Airedale, Fred. He then dropped Judith off at her house, gave her a quick goodbye kiss, and headed for his home, a small townhouse at 1445 Adams Street in downtown Denver.
He had no way of knowing that another car was already there, patiently awaiting his arrival.

At 9:21 PM, Berg's black Volkswagen Beetle pulled into the garage of the townhouse. As Berg prepared to exit his car, another vehicle pulled across the driveway, blocking his only avenue of escape. The passenger door opened, and a tall man emerged and began walking towards the open garage.

Berg, a lit cigarette dangling from his mouth, was exiting his car, struggling to carry his grocery bags, when, out of the corner of his eye, he noticed the man walking up his driveway towards him.
As Berg began to turn, the man raised a MAC-10 machine pistol and pulled the trigger.

In an instant, 13 shots exploded from the gun's barrel. The rounds tore through Berg's back, chest, and head, with some bullets lodging in the garage door behind him. Berg slumped to the ground, dropping his grocery bags as he fell. A can of dog food rolled out of one of the bags and came to rest by the curb.

An autopsy later revealed that Alan Berg was killed instantly, and probably never knew what hit him.
Although he was shot a total of 13 times, Berg's body sustained 34 bullet wounds as the rounds ricocheted off his bones and fragmented in his body.

Alan Berg lies dead in his driveway, shot by members of The Order

Bruce Pierce had just carried out The Order's second, and most heinous, murder. He sprinted back to the car and jumped inside. "I didn't know he lived in such a sleazy neighborhood!", Pierce remarked to Mathews.

As the hit squad drove away, Pierce began bragging about the killing. "Did you guys see how he went down? It's like we pulled the goddamn rug out from under him!", the killer beamed.
Pierce noticed that his MAC-10 had jammed on the 14th round. "Aw, I thought you said this thing wouldn't jam!", he complained to Mathews. But Mathews saw it a different way. To him, the fact that the gun had fired 13 rounds before jamming must have been a sign from God. 13 rounds for each of the 13 colonies that fought in the American Revolution. This was proof, Mathews said, that Yahweh was on their side.

Within minutes, other neighbors who heard the gunfire called police, and hordes of investigators and news reporters descended upon Adams Street.

Examining the scene, Denver homicide investigator Don Mulnix could tell that this was no random act of violence. "It's pretty obvious this was no mugging", he told his colleagues. "Someone wanted to send a message with this one."

"Who do you think did it?", asked another detective.
 Mulnix sighed. He knew Berg had made a whole host of enemies through his provocative radio business. "Open a phone book and take your pick", he remarked.

Martyrdom

The following day, Berg's murder was splashed across the newspaper headlines and TV stations of the national news. The murder left everyone in shock. Everyone knew that Berg had many enemies, but none had ever thought it would lead to murder. Even some of Alan Berg's most hard-line critics believed that killing was a step too far.

The Order's murder of Alan Berg made headline news across America

June 19th, 1984, was a day of mourning for the staff at KOA. In the place of Berg's show, fellow KOA radio host Ken Hamblin hosted a memorial broadcast in his friend's honor.
"I want to talk to you this sunny Colorado morning about a friend I once had", said Hamblin. "His name was Alan Berg. Last night he was gunned down outside his home by an unknown assailant."
Hamblin stopped to wipe away tears. He was on the verge of crying.

After eulogizing his dead friend, Hamblin spoke to his killer. "You can kill a man, but you can't kill ideas. You can't kill words.", he declared. "I can feel your presence out there. You're a loser. If Alan Berg was anything before you blew him away, you have made him immortal!"

With tears running down his cheeks, Hamblin continued. "Who are you? Who are you people?", he asked. "You reached out with all that power to kill him? No, you didn't show strength, sir. You didn't show strength."

A mourner left this note and flower on Alan Berg's bullet-riddled garage door

On June 25th, 1984, over 100 mourners gathered at a synagogue in Denver for Alan Berg's funeral. Dozens of friends, family, and colleagues shared happy memories of their time with Berg, laid flowers by his coffin, and paid their respects.

Mourners gather for Alan Berg's funeral on June 25th, 1984

Peter Boyles, a right-wing talk radio host, gave the eulogy for Berg, alternating between tears and happy memories of his friend. Although Boyles and Berg were on complete opposite ends of the political spectrum, they had been very close for years, and loved to debate one another. He was heartbroken over the death of his longtime friend, and, like Ken Hamblin, proclaimed that Berg's influence would transcend death and live on forever.

Radio host Peter Boyles cries as he reads his eulogy at Alan Berg's funeral

Alan Berg was buried at Waldheim Jewish Cemetery in his hometown of Chicago, Illinois. His gravestone is etched with the picture of a baby deer and inscribed with the words "Run, Bambi, run!", a quote from his favorite childhood movie.

Alan Berg's grave at Waldheim Jewish Cemetery

While the citizens of Denver, Colorado, mourned the passing of Alan Berg, Robert Mathews returned triumphantly to Washington, where he boasted of the assassination to his fellow compatriots.  The revolution was in full swing, he said. Further victories were inevitable.

Mathews didn't know it yet, but what would happen next would eventually spell his downfall.

Martinez's Mistake

Back in Washington, Tom Martinez heard of the murder of Alan Berg. Even before Mathews told him of the murder, Martinez was convinced that The Order had carried out the killing.
When he saw Mathews again, Martinez decided to ask him about Berg. "Bob, that killing in Colorado", he said. "Was that you?"
"Yep!", Mathews responded with a smile. "That was us!"

"David, did you know about this?", Martinez asked David Lane, who was sitting nearby cutting a stack of counterfeit bills.
"Know about it!?", Lane laughed. "Hell man, I was the goddamn getaway driver! You should have seen how that Jew-kike went down! It was so good!"

Again, Martinez was overcome with fear. His best friends were now serial murderers. Again, he began contemplating leaving The Order, but Martinez's desperation for money and a sense of belonging again overwhelmed his conscience. He stayed loyal to Mathews and remained in Washington.

Before the hit squad had been sent out to kill Berg, David Lane had printed another batch of fake money after attempting to perfect his counterfeiting skills. These bills were more realistic, and could pass better than the previous batches.

Lane distributed the bills to several Order members, including Martinez, and told them to pass them around. However, Lane warned against going to the same store twice with the bills. He didn't want any more members to be caught like Pierce had been.

On June 28th, 1984, just ten days after the murder of Alan Berg, Tom Martinez returned to Pennsylvania with a pile of counterfeit bills The Order had printed. Martinez first went to the Beerland convenience store in Kensington, where he used a fake $10-bill to buy a 50-cent pack of gum.

Lane had warned Martinez to be cautious, but Martinez got too carried away with his audacity. He spent over $1500 dollars on the first day alone, buying candy, gum, jewelry, a lottery ticket, and a whole bunch of other items using the fake cash.

The following day, in violation of Lane's cautions, Martinez went back to the Beerland store to buy another lottery ticket. But the clerk, Carol Achuff, recognized the strange bill that Martinez handed her. She called over the store's manager, Jerry Stern.
"This feels like that ten we got yesterday, Jerry.", she told her boss. "It feels kind of funny".

Stern looked at the fake bill and then to Martinez. "Hey!", he yelled. "I remember you! You're that guy who gave me the counterfeit money yesterday! I'm calling the cops!"

"What?!? Are you crazy?!?", Martinez responded, feigning bewilderment. Terrified, he raced from the store, got into his car, and sped away.
Panicking, Martinez returned to his house and began gathering all of the counterfeit money, stuffed them into a trash bag, and put the bag in a trash barrel by the curb. He was desperate to destroy all evidence linking him to the crime.

Later, Martinez returned to the Beerland store with a real $10 bill. "I'm sorry about what happened this morning.", Martinez said to Stern, placing the bill on the counter. "I didn't know it was bad money. My friend gave those bills to me."

"Why did you run, then?", said Stern, suspicious.
"I panicked.", said Martinez. "I thought you would call the cops."

"I already did.", said Stern. "I called the Secret Service. If you want to talk, I can give you the cards they left me." Stern fumbled around in his pocket and gave Martinez the business cards for Secret Service agents Alonzo Webb and Sean Gallagher.

Martinez sighed in defeat. "Keep the money anyway", he told Stern before leaving.
Still panicking, Martinez returned to his house and called David Lane to tell him about the incident.

"You fucking idiot!", yelled Lane into the phone. "I told you not to go to the same store twice!"
"I don't fucking care!!!", screamed Martinez. "I'm getting rid of the rest of the fucking money! I'm through with this shit!". He slammed down the phone.

Caught

That evening, while Martinez had dinner with his wife, daughter, and infant son, there was a knock on the door of his house. Martinez opened the door and was promptly swarmed by a team of police officers and agents from the Department of the Treasury. "You're under arrest!", yelled the officers, pinning Martinez against the wall and handcuffing him.

"What's going on, Tom!?", yelled Martinez's wife, Susan. "I don't know!", replied Martinez. "I don't know what this is about!" The agents ushered Susan and the children out of the room while Martinez was handcuffed and read his Miranda rights.

The agents drove Martinez to a nearby federal building, and he was placed in a bland interrogation room. Several other agents entered the room and began questioning Martinez.
"Where did you get the fake money?", asked an agent. "Tell us where you got it."
"Are you fucking crazy?!", replied Martinez, distraught. "Do you think I want to die!?"
"You know how long you can get for counterfeiting?", replied the agent. "Twenty years! You think your wife is going to stay with you after this? I don't think so!"
"How the fuck would you know!?", yelled Martinez. He was on the verge of tears.

The agents were perplexed. Martinez was acting much more distraught and frightened than usual for someone charged with counterfeiting. They suspected there was more to the story, but Martinez wasn't talking. The agents still had no idea that they had uncovered the first lead in revealing a massive terrorist conspiracy against the US government.

The following day, Martinez was released on bond. Immediately, he called Robert Mathews and asked him for help. He needed money, he said, to pay for an attorney.
But Mathews wouldn't oblige Martinez's requests. He told Martinez that he was planning a "big job" in the near future, and he needed every dollar available to fund it. "Just hang in there, buddy", Mathews told his friend. "I know you're in a tough spot now, but just sit tight. After this job, you'll have more than enough money for a lawyer."

Ukiah: The Beginning of the End

While Martinez remained out of prison on bail, Mathews continued to coordinate his violent revolution against the government. The "big job" he promised would help Martinez was an armored car robbery he intended to launch in Ukiah, California.

Mathews had just recruited two more members into The Order: Ronald King and Charles Ostrout. King and Ostrout were employees of Brink's, an international company specializing in armored transport service. King and Ostrout knew key details about the armored cars, delivery schedules, and cash shipments utilized by Brink's, and their knowledge provided Mathews and The Order with essential information for carrying out a massive heist.

Mathews promised his gang that this job would be their biggest yet. Millions of dollars, he said, would be taken in this job. They could finance an entire army using the funds from this robbery alone.

King and Ostrout told Mathews that Brink's was planning a major cash shipment on July 19th, 1984, in the city of Ukiah, California. Mathews decided to hit that armored car shipment and make off with the money.

However, there was a problem. The cash shipment was too heavily guarded at the pickup and delivery points. If the gang was to steal the money, they'd have to ambush the car while it was on the road. It would require careful planning and several different cars.

The Order purchased two used cars to use as getaway vehicles, and utilized a pickup truck to carry their weapons. The men decided to wear masks for this job rather than darken their faces.

Examining the route of the armored car, Mathews determined the truck would pass a narrow, winding road with a small access path leading out of a blind corner. It was a perfect ambush point.

The Order used this small access path along Orrs Spings Road as their ambush point during the Brink's robbery in Ukiah, California

The day before the heist, Mathews and 11 other members of The Order, including Bruce Pierce, Gary Yarbrough, Randy Duey, Richard Scutari, Denver Parmenter, Andrew Barnhill, Randy Evans, and Richard Kemp, arrived in Ukiah, California, in five separate cars, including two pickup trucks.

They were heavily armed with pistols, shotguns, rifles, and a fake bazooka. Yarbrough even carried the same MAC-10 pistol that Pierce had used to kill Alan Bergn the previous month.

One team, led by Mathews, parked two of their cars on the access path just off of Orrs Springs Road, patiently awaiting the arrival of the armored truck, while the third car, driven by Yarbrough, tailed the truck from behind, communicating with the other robbers through a radio. As they waited, Richard Kemp scattered a box of roofing nails onto the road, intending to deflate the armored car's tires when it arrived.

This box of roofing nails was recovered from one of The Order's getaway trucks

Shortly after noon, the armored truck lumbered up Orrs Springs Road, right into the jaws of Mathews' ambush. As the truck approached the access road, two pickups carrying masked Order members emerged, pulling in front of the armored car and forcing it to stop.

The Order members jumped from their trucks and trained their weapons on the dumbfounded Brink's guards driving the armored car. One held a sign that said "Get Out Or Die!"; the same sign the group had used during the Northgate robbery months earlier.

Denver Parmenter aimed the fake bazooka at the truck while Mathews ran over to the car's cab, banged on the window, and yelled at the stunned guards to get out.

When the guards refused to exit, Bruce Pierce fired three rounds from his HK-91 rifle at the cab. The bullets punched holes through the windshield, showering the drivers with shards of glass and metal.
As one guard reached for his pistol, Pierce fired a fourth round, blowing another hole into the windshield and inflicting a small cut on the guard's head.
"Hey, stop shooting!", Mathews yelled to Pierce. He was worried about being hit by friendly fire.

The two guards jumped out of the cab with their hands up. "Don't shoot!", one of them yelled. "We'll give you anything you want!" Mathews ordered the guards to lie on the ground with their hands on their head.

One guard, however, remained in the back of the truck, refusing to come out. Randy Evans whacked his shotgun on the side of the truck. "Come out of there!", he yelled to the female guard inside through a back window. "Give up and we won't hurt you!" When she still refused, Evans aimed his shotgun and fired a blast through the window, shattering the glass and showering the inside of the truck with buckshot pellets.
Terrified, the guard emerged from the truck with her hands up and surrendered.

The bullet-riddled Brink's armored truck after the robbery

Mathews climbed into the back of the truck and began scooping up bags of money and throwing them to his comrades, who carried them to the pickup trucks.
By this time, there was a sizeable traffic jam behind the bullet-riddled truck, and Mathews became worried that it wouldn't be long until the police were notified.

Randy Evans shot out this side window of the Brink's armored car in order to force a guard to surrender

After removing as much loot as he could from the armored truck, Mathews scrambled out and yelled "All right! Let's go!" The men scurried back to their trucks and threw their weapons and the cash into the flatbeds. As they did, Pierce noticed the female guard starting to get back up off the ground. He quickly fired another shot at her, forcing her back down, before climbing into his own truck and speeding away. The robbers abandoned their getaway cars in a nearby parking lot, changed their clothes, got into their own vehicles, and began heading back to Washington.

The three getaway cars abandoned by The Order in Ukiah, California, following the Brink's robbery

This robbery netted The Order more money than any of the previous heists combined. Counting the money back at headquarters, Mathews found that the group had stolen an incredible $3,600,000 in cash from the armored truck. At the time, it was the largest cash robbery in United States history, and wouldn't be surpassed for another nine years.

But Mathews made a critical mistake during the Ukiah robbery; one that would eventually lead to his downfall. While scooping up the money bags, he accidentally dropped his pistol onto the truck's floor and forgot to pick it up.

When the FBI recovered the pistol, they traced the serial number to Order member Andrew Barnhill, who was already a known white supremacist. The FBI had their first lead on The Order. It was the beginning of the end for Robert Mathews' revolution of hate.

But Mathews' greatest threat wasn't from the FBI. The greatest threat to his revolution was coming from his own ranks, and it would be this threat that would ultimately spell his doom.

Turncoat

Back in Pennsylvania, Tom Martinez was still caught in an uncomfortable position. Busted for counterfeiting, he faced two options: Remain silent and go to prison for 20 years, where he would probably die, or tell the FBI about The Order, risk his own life and the lives of his family, and become an informant.

Martinez thought long and hard about what to do. He knew he had gotten himself in trouble. He knew that there was no easy way out of this situation. If he remained silent, he'd go to prison and lose his family in the process. But, if he talked, The Order would certainly brand him a traitor. He'd be killed, and his family would likely die as well.

But Martinez also knew there was more at stake than his own life. Mathews had already ordered the murders of two people, and that was just the beginning. Mathews had talked with Martinez about the next target they intended to kill: Morris Dees, the head of the Southern Poverty Law Center.
Mathews planned to kidnap Dees, torture him for information, kill him, and then pour caustic soda onto his body.

Furthermore, Martinez knew Mathews intended to carry out devastating acts of sabotage against government infrastructure, such as blowing up gas lines, destroying dams, poisoning water supplies, and bombing power stations. Martinez knew thousands of people could die if he didn't do something. Was that something he wanted to have on his conscience?

Finally, on October 1st, 1984, just a month before his trial was scheduled to begin, Martinez made the difficult but brave decision to talk to the FBI. He was willing to risk his life to become an informant for the government and put an end to Robert Mathews' evil revolution of hate.

Martinez met with the US District Attorney in Pittsburgh, and told him that he was willing to cooperate. Martinez said he would consent to having his phone lines tapped, but he refused to wear a wire. Mathews often inspected his fellow Order members for such devices, and had promised to instantly kill any informant he discovered.

"Now, Tom, what can you tell us?", asked the attorney.
Martinez sighed. "I know things.", he began, tears welling in his eyes. "I know who robbed the Ukiah armored car, and I know of other robberies. I know of a dam that's going to be blown up. And I know who killed Alan Berg, and of another person who's going to be murdered. I know all of these things, and much more." Martinez, overcome with emotion, began quietly sobbing.

"What you're doing, Tom, is right. This takes a lot of courage", said an FBI agent.
Martinez continued crying. "I love my family", he sobbed. "I love my kids. I don't want them to be hurt."
"You're going to be all right", an FBI agent comforted Martinez. "No harm will come to you or your family. We promise you that."

Finding the Gun

The day after Martinez broke down, Zillah Craig gave birth to Robert Mathews' daughter inside a trailer in rural Idaho. Mathews was overjoyed, and proclaimed her to be "the future of our race". He named her Emerant.
However, the celebration was soon interrupted when Mathews spotted what he believed to be an FBI agent outside. His intuition was correct; the FBI had started surveillance of Mathews after Martinez agreed to become an informant.

Immediately, Mathews ordered Zillah Craig to hide. He got into his car and drove away as fast as he could from the area. The FBI tailed him for several miles, but soon lost him in the fog.
Mathews fled to the tiny town of Encampment, Wyoming, where relatives of Zillah Craig were living. He waited there for several days to plot his next move. Mathews wasn't sure how the FBI had found him, but he didn't think anyone in his group could have ratted him out. He never suspected that Tom Martinez, his best friend and one of his closest confidants, had turned on him.

In the meantime, an FBI team led by agent Wayne Manis was conducting surveillance on Gary Yarbrough outside his home in Sandpoint, Idaho. After tracing the gun left by Mathews at Ukiah, the FBI had tied Barnhill to The Order, and were now opening a full investigation into the group's activities. They had a possible racketeering case on their hands.

The FBI had followed up on Martinez's lead that The Order was involved in coordinating heists and terrorist activities, so they conducted surveillance on Order members and the Aryan Nations compound. They learned that Yarbrough was the Aryan Nations' chief of security and had a fascination with weapons. They also noticed that he was spending very heavily, which they found odd, since Yarbrough's job only paid about $10 an hour. Perhaps, they reasoned, Yarbrough had been involved in the string of robberies Martinez had told them about.

Yarbrough quickly became aware of the FBI surveillance. At first, he found it amusing, but, as the days progressed, he soon became frightened that the government was on to him.

On the morning of October 18th, 1984, after two weeks of watching Yarbrough, Manis and his fellow agents decided to pay him a visit. They dressed as forest agents and approached Yarbrough's home on foot.

But Yarbrough had already caught on to their surveillance. He grabbed a .45-caliber pistol, raced outside, and fired three shots in quick succession at the agents, missing both of them. Yarbrough's gun jammed on the fourth round, and he immediately took off running as one agent fired a shot at the fleeing terrorist, barely missing him.

Manis heard the gunfire and immediately keyed the radio. "Hold your fire!", he demanded. "We need him alive!" The agents held their fire, but lost sight of Yarbrough. He was barricaded inside the house preparing for a showdown.

It would be another eleven hours before the FBI decided to attempt another entry onto Yarbrough's property. Although they didn't have a warrant to search the property, Manis assured the agents that the shootout with Yarbrough gave them probable cause to search the house anyway. At 8:00 PM, a 30-man FBI SWAT team approached Yarbrough's house, armed with shields, submachine guns, and assault rifles. In the dark, they failed to notice Yarbrough slink out the back of the house with his gun and flee into the woods on foot.

The FBI SWAT team breached the house's door with a battering ram, and, immediately, they came across a trove of evidence. Weapons, ammunition, stolen cash, knives, explosives, and neo-Nazi paraphernalia littered the house. In Yarbrough's bedroom, agents found a Nazi flag and an altar-like shrine to Adolf Hitler, with a giant poster of the Fuhrer's face pasted next to a portrait of Jesus Christ.

Gary Yarbrough's bedroom was littered with weapons, explosives, and neo-Nazi paraphernalia

Most frightening, however, was a list the agents found in Yarbrough's bedroom which contained the names and personal information of numerous law enforcement officers. The first name on the list was the SWAT team leader who had led the entry into the house.

This cache of weapons was recovered from Gary Yarbrough's house in Sandpoint, Idaho

In a shed behind the house, agents made an interesting discovery. A .45-caliber MAC-10 machine pistol with a homemade silencer was propped against a wall. Immediately, Manis thought of Alan Berg. He had been murdered with a .45-caliber automatic weapon. It seemed to fit the description of the MAC-10.

FBI agent Wayne Manis holds the MAC-10 machine pistol found at Gary Yarbrough's house.
It was the same gun used by Bruce Pierce to kill Alan Berg in Denver, Colorado.

The pistol was sent to the FBI ballistics labs in Washington, DC, and a positive match was confirmed. The MAC-10 found at Yarbrough's home was the very same weapon that had been used to murder Alan Berg. The agents now had the murder weapon. All they needed now was the murderer.

Portland

Following Yarbrough's shootout with the FBI in Sandpoint, Mathews realized his revolution was now in serious danger. The entire federal government was on to him. He immediately decided to have the other members of The Order gather in Oregon to regroup and plan their next move.

A few weeks after the raid on Yarbrough's home, Mathews phoned Tom Martinez, who was still in Pennsylvania, and asked him to come and meet him and Yarbrough in Portland, Oregon, so they could plan their next move. Mathews was still hell-bent on launching his racist revolution against the "Zionist Occupation Government", and he was not going to give up.

Mathews had no idea that the FBI was listening in on the phone conversation. Mathews' call gave the FBI the perfect set of circumstances to apprehend the terrorist leader. Martinez could meet Mathews at the Holiday Inn in Portland, along with a team of FBI agents, and have him arrested. With Mathews gone, the FBI reasoned, The Order would collapse for good.

The FBI rented a room for Martinez in the Holiday Inn, rigged the room with bugs, and set up a command center in the hotel's office. The plan was for Martinez to invite Mathews and Yarbrough into his room, get them to discuss details of the crimes on tape, and then have the FBI come in and arrest them.

On November 21st, 1984, Tom Martinez boarded a flight to Portland, Oregon, to meet Mathews. Accompanying Martinez were several undercover FBI agents, assigned to follow Martinez and Mathews back to the Holiday Inn and set up a command post. They had to be careful. Mathews already knew the FBI were on his tail, and he would be very careful about spotting surveillance. If Martinez's cover was blown, there was little doubt that Mathews would kill him.

When Martinez arrived at the airport, Mathews was there waiting for him. "Hey, buddy!", he smiled, patting Martinez on the shoulder. "It's good to see you again!"
Mathews quickly glanced around, checking to see if Martinez had any company with him. Luckily, he didn't spot the undercover agents carefully observing the situation.

Mathews led Martinez to his car, where Gary Yarbrough sat waiting. Martinez had never met Yarbrough before, so Mathews introduced the pair.
Noticing Martinez become alarmed at the sight of the burly, tattooed man, Mathews laughed. "Don't worry, Tom, this guy's one of us", he chuckled. 
"His name is Reds", said Mathews, referring to Yarbrough by his codename, "but you can call him Sam."
"Hope he's not like the Son of Sam!", Martinez nervously joked.

When Mathews pulled the car out of the airport's parking lot and onto the highway, he noticed a silver car following him. "There's some car following us", he told Yarbrough. "I'm gonna pull off the highway and see if he follows." Mathews placed a gun on his seat and took a turn off of the highway onto a dead-end dirt road. "If he comes, you know what to do", Mathews told Yarbrough, who silently nodded.

Martinez began to become extremely nervous. Sweat rolled down his back and his heart began beating more and more rapidly. Had the FBI blown his cover? Did Mathews realize he was an informant? Was his life going to end right there?
But the car passed without following them down the road. If it was an FBI tail, they probably realized what was going on, and decided not to risk Martinez's life any further.

Martinez and Mathews each breathed a sigh of relief (albeit for different reasons) and continued down the highway towards downtown Portland.
"I have a room at the Holiday Inn for us", Martinez told Mathews.
"Forget that", replied Mathews. "We have a room for you down at the Capri Motel where we're staying. It'll be better for us to be together."

Martinez suddenly found himself in a pickle. The FBI had no idea that Mathews was going to the Capri Motel instead of the Holiday Inn. Worse, if something happened to Martinez, there would be no way the FBI could save him. The entire plan, and Martinez's life, seemed to suddenly be in jeopardy.

The Capri Motel in Portland, Oregon

Now, Martinez had to figure out a way to inform the FBI of the change in plan without alerting Mathews. But that would be difficult. Mathews was paranoid about FBI surveillance, and, knowing that Martinez was still out on bail for counterfeiting charges, it was likely he suspected Martinez could be an informant.

The Traitor in Room 14

Mathews, Martinez, and Yarbrough arrived at the Capri Motel in Portland, Oregon, late in the afternoon on November 21st, 1984. After checking in (under a false name), Mathews gave Martinez the keys to his room. "You're in Room 14", he told Martinez. "Gary and I will be in Room 42".


"Listen, Tom", said Mathews. "I want to talk to you for a minute. Come up to my room".
Once they settled down in his room, Mathews laid out his plans to Martinez. "OK, buddy, here's what's going to go down", he told his friend. "You're going to be part of the hit squad to kill Morris Dees. We're going to kidnap him and torture him for information."

"Torture him?", Martinez responded in surprise.
"Yeah", said Mathews. "We'll peel that Jew fucker's skin right off his bones. Then we'll kill him and bury him and pour lye on his body."

It was at that moment that Martinez saw what had truly become of Mathews. Far from the fresh-faced, friendly family-man that Martinez had known four years earlier, Mathews had turned into a sadistic, violent, and vindictive terrorist.

After spending several hours with Mathews, Martinez finally managed to slip out of the hotel with the excuse of buying cigarettes. He had to inform the FBI of where he was.
As he walked to a nearby bar, Martinez noticed a black van tailing him. He had no idea if it was the FBI or another member of The Order sent to follow him.

Ducking into the bar, Martinez ran into two undercover FBI agents waiting for him. "How did you find me?", asked Martinez.
"We lost your tail on the highway", answered one agent, "so we checked all hotels in the area until we found your car."

"Listen", said Martinez. "Mathews is in the Capri with another guy. I'm in Room 14 and they're in Room 42. They put in a 7AM wakeup call and are leaving for a 9AM flight tomorrow morning."
"Who's the second man?", asked the agent.
"Gary Yarbrough", replied Martinez.
 "Ok", responded the agent. "Go back to your room and don't leave for any reason."
Before leaving, Martinez begged the agents not to hurt Mathews when they arrested him. He still loved his friend like a brother.

"Don't worry about it", answered the agent. "We'll handle everything".

Shootout

At 7AM the following morning, Mathews and Yarbrough awoke as planned and prepared to depart the motel for the airport. After taking a shower, Mathews called Martinez's room to tell him to get ready. "Get your stuff together", he told Martinez. "We'll be right down".

Meanwhile, outside the motel, dozens of FBI agents, snipers, and observers were stationed all over the place, prepared to ambush Mathews when he exited his room. They had established a command post in the motel's office, and had ordered all residents to remain in their rooms. The FBI wanted to get Mathews when he was out of his room, away from his weapons and unable to barricade himself inside.

At 8:40 AM, Mathews exited his hotel room and looked around the parking lot. Right away, he noticed something was wrong. The motel was eerily quiet. None of the cars in the lot had left. As Mathews scanned the area, he caught sight of a man in an FBI jacket hiding in the bushes.

"Gary! Watch out!", yelled Mathews as he bolted down the stairs towards the parking lot.
A female FBI agent fired a shot at Mathews as he fled, but missed. The bullet pierced through a window, shattered a coffee pot and struck a hotel employee in the shoulder.

As Mathews ran into the parking lot, FBI agent Arthur Hensel, emerged and began chasing after him. "Mathews! Stop! Halt!", yelled Hensel as he pursued the terrorist leader. But Mathews refused to stop. He bolted out of the parking lot and began running down the sidewalk. Another agent, Ken Lovin, joined the pursuit.

Meanwhile, Gary Yarbrough had heard Mathews' warning, and was now trying to escape out the window. As he climbed out of his room and hung on the windowsill, Yarbrough immediately found himself in the middle of a swarm of FBI agents, all training guns on him.
Yarbrough noticed that one of the agents was female. "You fucking slut!", he screamed at her as he fell to the ground. "You white whore! You fuck niggers! I'll remember your face bitch! I'll remember you!" She ignored him and handcuffed Yarbrough as he lay on the ground.

Gary Yarbrough makes a white supremacist gang sign as FBI agents escort him from the Capri Motel

Meanwhile, at the back of the motel, Mathews, still being chased by the two FBI agents, took cover behind a cinderblock wall and pulled a .45-caliber pistol from his waistband. He was determined not to go down without a fight.

Mathews emerged from behind the wall with his pistol and took aim at Hensel. "Mathews! Freeze, you bastard!", yelled the agent, unaware of the impending danger.

Lovin saw Mathews aiming at Hensel. "Look out, Art!", he yelled. Hensel spotted Mathews aiming his gun at him. Instinctively, he immediately fell on his back as Mathews fired a shot at him.
The round struck Hensel in the shin right below his knee and ricocheted into the air. Henself quickly squeezed off two rounds back at Mathews from his own revolver, but missed.
Mathews lowered his aim and fired a second time at Hensel, striking the agent in the shoe and wounding him in the left foot.

As Agent Hensel lay wounded on the ground, Agent Lovin fired a shotgun blast at Mathews, striking him in the hand and sending his pistol flying into the air.
Mathews decided to abandon the fight. Jumping over a nearby fence, Mathews ran from backyard to backyard, desperate to outrun the agents.

Rather than pursue Mathews, Agent Lovin decided to tend to the wounded Agent Hensel. Several blocks away, Mathews broke into a home and stole some gauze to wrap his hand in. He then flagged down a passing car. "I was trying to fix my radiator and my hand got caught in the fan", Mathews lied. The driver let Mathews inside and the terrorist quickly vanished into the surrounding traffic.

Mathews and Yarbrough stayed in Room 42 at the Capri Motel. This is an FBI photo of the room taken after the November 22nd shootout

Inside Room 42, FBI agents found neo-Nazi paraphernalia and numerous weapons, including a live hand grenade. But the main target of the raid, Robert Mathews, was nowhere to be found. The FBI now had a dangerous fugitive terrorist on the run. Mathews was armed and had already wounded a federal agent. It was clear that he would never be taken alive.

Whidbey Island

Over the next few days, Robert Mathews hitchhiked his way back north to Washington State, always staying one step ahead of the authorities. Mathews was now a wanted man. His revolution was crumbling before his eyes. His dream of a "White American Bastion" was fading rapidly. But, even now, with his rebellion in its death throes, Mathews was still determined to continue his war against the government he hated.

On November 25th, 1984, Mathews took a ferry to Whidbey Island, an island in the middle of Puget Sound in Greenbank, Washington. There, he rented a remote lakehouse at 3306 South Smuggler's Cove Road, where, along with Order members Bruce Pierce, Frank Silva, Richard Scutari, Randy Duey, Robert Merki, Sharon Merki, and Randy Evans, he prepared for a final showdown with the FBI.

While he was on Whidbey Island, Mathews and the other members of The Order drafted a "Declaration of War" against the United States government:

"It is now a dark and dismal time in the history of our Race. All about us lie the green graves of our sires, yet, in a land once ours we have become a people dispossessed. Our heroes and culture have been insulted and degraded. The mongrel hordes clamor to sever us from our inheritance. Yet our people do not care.

Throughout this land our children are being coerced into accepting nonwhites for their idols, their companions, and worst of all for their mates. A course which has taken us straight to oblivion. Yet our people do not see. Not by accident but by design these terrible things have come to pass. 

It is self-evident to all who have eyes to see that an evil shadow has fallen across our once fair land. Evidence abounds that a certain, vile, alien people have taken control of our country. How is it that a parasite has gained dominion over its host? Instead of being vigilant our fathers have slept.

What are we to do? How bleak these aliens have made our children’s future. All about us the land is dying. Our cities swarm with dusky hordes. The water is rancid and the air is rank. Our farms are being seized by usurious leeches and our people are being forced off the land. The capitalists and communists pick gleefully at our bones while the vile, hook-nosed masters of usury orchestrate our destruction.

We hereby declare ourselves a free and sovereign people. We claim a territorial imperative that will consist of the entire North American continent north of Mexico. As soldiers of the Aryan Resistance Movement (ARM) we will conduct ourselves in accordance with the Geneva Convention.

We now close this Declaration with an open letter to congress and our signatures confirming our intent to do battle. Let friend and foe alike be made aware: This Is War! We the following of sound body and mind under no duress, do hereby sign this document of our own free will, stating forthrightfully and without fear that we declare ourselves to be in a full and unrelenting state of war with those forces seeking and consciously promoting the destruction of our Faith and our Race. 

Therefore, for Blood, Soil and Honor,  for the future of our children, and for our King, Jesus Christ, we commit ourselves to battle. Amen."

To the back of the "Declaration of War", Mathews stapled an "Open Letter to Congress", in which he threatened that the government would face "daily firefights and bombings" at the hands of the "White American Revolutionary Army".

The letter closed: "When the time comes, we will not ask whether you swung to the right or whether you swung to the left; We will simply swing you by the neck! THIS IS WAR!"

Mathews also included a threat to Tom Martinez, the man who had betrayed him to the FBI.

"As for the traitor in Room 14, we will eventually find him.", he wrote. "If it takes ten years and we have to travel to the far ends of the earth, we will find him. And true to our oath when we do find him, we will remove his head from his body."

Mathews also referenced Martinez in a letter he wrote to Zillah Craig.
"It appears now that all of the problems we have suffered since the birth of our daughter arise from the direction of one vile traitor", Mathews wrote. "Tom Martinez sold his soul to ZOG and betrayed all he believes in, his brothers, and himself. What a low, miserable, wretched creature he has become!"

While Mathews recovered at Whidbey Island, Richard Kemp suddenly got cold feet. Unwilling to go down in a blaze of glory like Mathews intended to, Kemp packed up and left Whidbey Island for good. Once he heard that Kemp had left, Mathews had an Order member phone him and play a recorded message.

"This, unless you change your mind, will be the last time I ever talk to you", said Mathews. "I hope you know what you are doing."
Mathews closed the message with an ominous statement: "As for myself, I will never submit, nor surrender. My conscience is clear.  Goodbye, kinsman."

Robert Mathews' recorded message to Richard Kemp

Those were the last recorded words of Robert Mathews. In less than two weeks, everything would come to a close. At dawn on December 7th, 1984, an anonymous caller who has never been identified phoned the FBI and told them where Mathews was located.

Now, there was no escape for Mathews. His revolution of hate would come to a fiery end.

The 11th Hour

On December 7th, 1984, all of Whidbey Island went into lockdown. Boats were docked, all aircraft were ordered grounded, and a team of 150 FBI agents and 75 SWAT officers from the FBI's Hostage Rescue Team gathered outside Smuggler's Cove Road. They had Mathews cornered with nowhere to run. The game was up.

There were three targets for the FBI to hit. The first was the house where Robert and Sharon Merki were holed up. The second was where Randy Duey was hiding. The third, and most dangerous, target was the house at 3306 Smuggler's Cove Road, where Robert Mathews was barricaded, heavily armed and preparing for a showdown.

First, the SWAT team decided to effect the arrest of Randy Duey. They surrounded the house and broadcast a demand for the terrorist to come out with his hands up.

Almost immediately, Duey burst out of the house, brandishing an Uzi submachine gun in one hand and a pistol in the other, and began sprinting towards the SWAT team. Just before he was about to be cut down in a hail of gunfire, Duey skidded to a halt, and found himself staring down the barrels of numerous assault rifles. Looking at the SWAT officers, Duey gasped "You're all white men!", and promptly surrendered.

Secondly, the SWAT team decided to raid the Merki house. As they approached, they saw smoke billowing from the chimney. Robert and Sharon Merki were attempting to burn crucial evidence linking The Order to numerous crimes.

The SWAT team surrounded the house and ordered the Merkis to surrender. After waiting for over an hour, both Robert and Sharon Merki emerged from the house with their hands up. Both were immediately taken into custody.

When agents entered the house, they found numerous documents burning in the fireplace, but quickly extinguished the flames and recovered almost all of the evidence, including an incriminating audio tape.

Robert Merki surrenders to the FBI following an hour-long standoff on Whidbey Island, Washington

Finally, a 75-man FBI SWAT team led by Wayne Manis and fellow SWAT commander Danny Coulson surrounded Robert Mathews' hideout at 3306 Smuggler's Cove Road. The agents used a bullhorn to demand that Mathews surrender, but received no response. The agents decided not to attempt an entry into the house. They heard rumors that Mathews had stockpiled an arsenal of weapons, including rocket launchers.

FBI agents begin to surround Robert Mathews' hideout on Whidbey Island

Instead, the agents called over Robert Merki to try and coax Mathews into surrendering. Using an agent's bullhorn, Merki began speaking to Mathews. "Bob, it's me, Noah", said Merki, using his codename. "If you can hear me, give me some sign."

A window shade went up and down twice.

"Bob", continued Merki, "if your answer is yes, raise the shade once. If the answer is no, raise the shade twice. Okay?"

The shade went up and down once.

"Bob", pleaded Merki, "you've got to give up. This place is crawling with feds. This isn't the place to die. Come on out."

The shade went up and down twice.

"Bob, they won't hurt you", Merki continued to plead. "Me and Sharon are fine. They could have shot us but they didn't. Come on out!"

Again, the shade went up and down twice.

Randy Duey also attempted to convince Mathews to surrender.
"Bob! It's Randy!", he yelled into the bullhorn. "Come on out, please! We need you to fight another day! The movement needs you!"

Yet again, the shade went up and down twice.

"This is going nowhere", Manis remarked to Coulson. He turned to Duey. "Ask him if he'll let us give him a field phone."

"Bob!", Duey announced. "They want to give you a field phone. Is that all right?"

The shade went up and down once.

An FBI agent quickly sprinted to the house's back door, left the phone on the doorstep, and immediately sprinted back to the police barricade. Mathews quickly opened the door, snatched the phone, and went back into the house.

The rented Whidbey Island lakehouse where Mathews made his last stand against the FBI

A few minutes later, Mathews phoned the lead FBI negotiator to discuss terms of his surrender.
Mathews' demands were far beyond feasible. "I want parts of eastern Washington, Idaho, and Montana set aside as an Aryan homeland", he said, "where my kinsmen will be free to live as they choose".
"I also want all blacks to be put on boats", Mathews demanded, "and shipped back to Africa".

Shortly before midnight, Mathews phoned the command center and told them one of the house's occupants wanted to surrender.

Minutes later, Robert and Sharon's teenage son, Ian, exited the house, carrying a bag filled with $40,000 in cash. He was immediately taken into custody by the FBI agents. When asked if Mathews had anyone else in the home, the boy refused to respond.

After Ian surrendered, Mathews refused to talk anymore. He hung up the phone and refused to answer any further calls.

At 11:30 PM, a single shot exploded from the house, followed by a dull moan.
"He killed himself!", yelled agent Coulson.

But Manis wasn't so sure. He knew Mathews to be a deceptive trickster, and for all he knew this could just be a trap by Mathews to lure agents into an ambush.
Still uncertain whether Mathews was dead or alive, the FBI decided to wait until daylight before entering the house. If Mathews was alive, they didn't want a shootout to occur in the dark.

Revolution's End

By the following morning, on December 8th, 1984, the FBI decided the waiting game had gone on long enough. It was time to storm the house and apprehend Mathews, dead or alive.

A plan was made to launch an assault on Mathews' hideout. Two FBI SWAT teams would be involved. The first would storm the ground floor and saturate the area with tear gas. The second team would enter the second floor through a staircase at the back of the house.

At about noon, an FBI agent fired six tear gas rounds from an M79 grenade launcher into the house. The agents didn't hear any coughing coming from the building. If Mathews was still alive, he was probably wearing a gas mask.

At about 2:00 PM, the FBI SWAT teams were given the authorization to enter the house. An agent hurled a flashbang grenade through a window to stun any possible occupants, and then the FBI's Hostage Rescue team, led by agent Manis, advanced towards the building.

The FBI's Hostage Rescue Team is one of the most elite law enforcement agencies in the world

Manis smashed open a window with the butt of his MP5-K submachine gun and entered the house's family room, with the SWAT team following closely behind him.
Manis scanned the room, but could see no sign of Mathews. He had no idea that the terrorist was indeed alive, heavily armed, and wearing a gas mask, waiting just one floor above him.

Suddenly, Manis heard fellow agent Jon Uda yell a warning from the woods. "Look out! He's in the window above your head!"
Immediately, Manis dropped to his knees as Mathews opened fire with a fully-automatic M16 assault rifle. Rounds splintered through the ceiling and riddled the dirt floor around Manis as he struggled to return fire. As Manis scrambled to safety, Mathews continued to shoot, blindly firing his rifle in a zigzag pattern across the floor.

As Mathews stopped firing to reload, an FBI agent shot a single 9mm round from his MP5 submachine gun up through the ceiling at Mathews, but the gun jammed on the second round. Immediately, Mathews fired another burst of machine-gun fire through the floor, shredding a plywood wall and barely missing the agent, who ducked out of the way just in time.

The other SWAT team outside the house immediately laid down a barrage of automatic gunfire towards Mathews, forcing the terrorist to retreat further indoors. Nevertheless, the terrorist continued to blindly spray a barrage of shots at the FBI SWAT team, pinning the agents down.

After exchanging fire with Mathews for fifteen minutes, Manis ordered the SWAT teams to fall back into the woods. Mathews held his fire as the agents retreated.
Amazingly, despite the intense gunfire, not a single agent had been hit by gunfire.

Mathews, however, hadn't been hit either.

As nightfall approached, the FBI activated giant spotlights to illuminate Mathews' hideout. Unfortunately, the inside of the house still remained dark.
It was determined that sending another SWAT team into the building would be too dangerous, so the FBI decided to send in a police helicopter to hover over the house. The thought was that the loud noise of the aircraft would intimidate Mathews into surrendering.

Within minutes, an FBI helicopter appeared, shining a giant searchlight, and descended onto the house, hovering barely three feet above the roof. The helicopter was so close to the house that the propellers began to blow shingles off of the roof. The goal was to unnerve Mathews and scare him into surrendering.

But Mathews was determined not to give up. He immediately shifted his aim upward, and began firing his machine gun through the roof of the house. The helicopter banked away from the house to avoid the gunfire, and, as it did so, Mathews again began shooting at the FBI SWAT team. They returned fire, forcing Mathews to again take cover inside the house.

Within seconds, Mathews again emerged. Spotting Wayne Manis and two other FBI agents standing by the woods, Mathews aimed and fired another volley from his machine gun. The bullets whizzed over Manis' head and slammed into the tree behind him.

Immediately, Manis raised his MP5 submachine gun, took aim at the muzzle flash of Mathews' gun barrel, and shot five bursts of gunfire at the terrorist leader, emptying his entire 30-round magazine. Mathews abruptly stopped firing as Manis reloaded his weapon. For a second, Manis believed he had hit his target.

But just seconds later, Mathews again began firing his machine gun out the window at another FBI SWAT team to the south side of the house. Frustrated by his agents' careful, controlled return fire, the team leader, Myron Hitch, stepped forward, brandishing two pistols in each hand, and began crazily blasting away at Mathews. "Take that, you son-of-a-bitch!!!", the agent screamed.

By now the darkness of night had made visibility difficult. The decision was made to fire flares into the safehouse to illuminate the downstairs floor.
At about 6:30 PM, an FBI agent used an M79 grenade launcher to fire three white-phosphorus "Starburst" flares into the house, attempting to light up the interior and make it easier for the agents to locate Mathews. One of the flares, however, burned through the house's floor, landed in the family room, and set a couch on fire.

Within minutes the bottom floor of the house was engulfed in flames. The fire spread rapidly through the building and soon began to ignite a cache of ammunition Mathews had stored inside.
The agents used a bullhorn to make one final attempt to convince Mathews to surrender, but, as usual, they were met with another barrage of machine-gun fire.

Fire engulfs Robert Mathews' safehouse on Whidbey Island during the FBI shootout

 For another five minutes, Mathews and the FBI continued to trade automatic gunfire as the raging inferno spread to the house's second floor. At 6:45 PM, the blaze reached a cache of hand grenades that Mathews was storing, igniting the munitions in a gigantic, fiery explosion.
For another 20 minutes, the house became completely engulfed in a raging inferno of flames, illuminating the sky with an eerie orange glow. The fire was so strong that Manis could feel the heat singe his face from 25 feet away.

Nevertheless, Mathews continued to spray gunfire out of the house as it burned. Finally, at about 7:10 PM, the burning house caved in on itself. Only then did the gunfire from Mathews finally cease.

Mathews' burning safehouse collapses

The following day, on December 9th, 1984 agents and investigators combed through the smoking wreckage of the hideout, searching for anything of value to the investigation. The entire house had been reduced to little more than a pile of charred wood and smoldering ash. Any evidence that was in the house had burned up with it.

FBI agents scour the charred rubble of Mathews' house following the fiery shootout on Whibey Island

Underneath a ceramic bathtub in the corner of what remained of the foundation, agents found a badly charred body, with the burnt remains of a rifle and pistol still clutched in its hands.
Dental records would later confirm what the agents already knew. 31-year-old Robert Jay Mathews' violent revolution of hate and terror had ended with a third death: his own.

The badly burned remains of Robert Mathews were found in the rubble of his safehouse on Whidbey Island. True to his word, Mathews had kept his vow to never be taken alive.

Inside what was left of Mathews' chest cavity, investigators found a badly warped, melted piece of gold. It was the terrorist leader's prized Order medallion.

An agent holds Robert Mathews' Order medallion, partially melted from the heat of the inferno

Tom Martinez, who was now hiding in an FBI safehouse, was the first to be notified that Mathews had been killed in the standoff. Devastated, he locked himself in the bathroom and began to cry.

"Why?!", Martinez yelled to himself, punching the wall in a mix of anger and grief. "Why did you have to kill him!?"

"I thought of him, burning in that fire", Martinez would later recall, "and I remember thinking it was my fault that he was dead."

But, even with Mathews dead and most of its members in custody, The Order was not yet a spent force.

Operation Clean Sweep

Following the death of Robert Mathews, the remaining members of The Order scattered in different directions. Their primary goal was to avoid capture, but that was not easy. The FBI launched a massive nationwide manhunt for fugitive members, codenamed "Operation Clean Sweep". Wanted posters of Bruce Pierce, David Lane, Richard Scutari, Denver Parmenter, David Tate, and others were distributed to police stations and FBI offices across the United States.

But The Order would take one more life before finally dying out.

David Tate

On April 15th, 1985, Missouri State Trooper Jimmie Linegar and his partner Allen Hines, stopped a suspicious van near the Missouri/Arkansas border. The van had an invalid license plate, and the driver was acting very nervous.

When Linegar asked the driver for his ID, the man gave him a license with the name "Mark Samuels". Linegar returned to his car to run the name through his computer. When he did, he got a hit: "Mark Samuels" was an alias for David Tate, a member of The Order wanted by the FBI.

Linegar immediately ordered Tate to exit the van with his hands up, but Tate emerged brandishing a fully-automatic MAC-11 pistol and shot a burst of gunfire at Linegar, striking the state trooper four times in the chest and neck. As Linegar fell to the ground, Tate shifted his aim across the hood to Hines and fired another volley of shots down the side of the van, hitting Hines three times in the torso and arm.

As Hines fell backwards, he managed to draw his revolver and fire two shots at Tate, forcing him to take cover behind the van. Rolling on the ground, Hines took aim at Tate's feet under the car and fired another two rounds. "Shit!", Tate yelped as the bullets skidded around his feet. He jumped up on the van's bumper and then took off running down the highway. Hines leaned up from behind his patrol car, aimed his revolver at Tate, and fired his last two shots at the fleeing gunman before turning to tend to his fallen partner.

Trooper Jimmie E. Linegar was the last victim of The Order.

Allen Hines would survive his injuries. Jimmie Linegar would not. David Tate had just committed The Order's third and final murder.

It was later revealed that David Tate had been trying to flee to the compound of The Covenant, The Sword, and the Arm of the Lord, a white supremacist militia in Arkansas that had supplied The Order with ammunition and weapons. The homemade silencer used on the MAC-10 that had killed Alan Berg, it was later revealed, had been manufactured at the CSA's workshop.

David Tate's van, abandoned following the April 15th shootout

Coincidentially, the CSA was itself the subject of another FBI investigation. On April 19th, 1985, a massive force of FBI and ATF agents raided the compound and arrested its leadership for firearms violations and racketeering. Inside the compound, the FBI discovered and arrested two more fugitive Order members hiding from the authorities. David Tate himself was captured without incident just three days later, hiding in a park a few miles away.

A few months after David Tate was captured, the FBI got a lead on the location of Bruce Pierce. The terrorist was hiding in Georgia with his wife, and he had openly boasted to friends that he would shoot any FBI agent who tried to arrest him.

But, when Bruce Pierce left his hideout one day to pick up his mail at a post office box, an FBI SWAT team was waiting for him.
As Pierce entered the post office, a FBI SWAT officer grabbed him and placed the barrel of a .45-caliber pistol against his chin. "I hear you're the guy who wants to kill FBI agents!", the agent sneered.

Pierce was so terrified that he wet his pants. News cameras captured him being led from the post office into a police car to be transported to federal prison.

Justice

Over the next few months, FBI agents rounded up the remaining members of The Order, and charged them with numerous crimes ranging from murder, to robbery, to arson, and to racketeering and conspiracy.

The last member of The Order to be captured was Richard Scutari, who was apprehended in 1986 after being placed on the FBI's Ten Most Wanted Fugitives list.

In the end, ten members of The Order were tried and convicted in federal court on charges of racketeering, conspiracy, armed robbery, and other crimes. Tom Martinez bravely testified in court against his former comrades, and helped seal the government's case against the terrorists.

Richard Scutari, Andrew Barnhill, Randy Evans, and Frank Silva were each sentenced to 40 years in prison for their crimes. Silva, Barnhill, and Evans have all been released on parole; however, Scutari remains incarcerated, and is not scheduled for release until 2025.

Gary Yarbrough and Randy Duey were both convicted of conspiracy, racketeering, and armed robbery for his role in The Order's crimes. They each received a 60-year sentence.
Yarbrough died in prison in April, 2018, following a long battle with cancer. Duey remains in prison, and is scheduled for release in 2047.

Gary Yarbrough flashes a "thumbs-up" sign to a cameraman as he is escorted from federal court.

Richard Kemp was never charged with the murder of Walter West, as his body was never found, but he was convicted of the other crimes he had participated in. Kemp was sentenced to 40 years in prison and ultimately released in 2010.

The state of Colorado never pressed murder charges for the killing of Alan Berg, but Bruce Pierce,  David Lane, and Jean Craig (the mother of Zillah Craig) were charged in federal court with violating Berg's civil rights.

Jean Craig was acquitted of civil rights violations in Berg's murder but was found guilty of conspiracy. She was sentenced to 40 years in prison and died in 2001 while still incarcerated.

Bruce Pierce, the triggerman in the assassination, was convicted of all charges and sentenced to 252 years in prison. He died in 2010 while serving his sentence. To the end, he never admitted being involved in the murder.

David Lane, the getaway driver, was likewise convicted for his role in the killing of Berg, and was sentenced to 190 years in prison. While incarcerated, Lane continued to serve as a spokesperson for the American neo-Nazi movement, and published numerous racist books from prison. It was Lane who coined the white supremacist slogan "14/88" - 14 standing for the "fourteen words" ("We must secure the existence of our people and a future for white children"), and 88 standing for "HH", or "Heil Hitler".

David Lane speaks to a reporter during a prison interview in the early 2000s

Lane finally died of an epileptic seizure in 2007, but, unfortunately, his legacy lives on among the American neo-Nazi movement. After his death, Lane's body was cremated and, in reference to his slogan of hate, his ashes were put in 14 separate urns and sent to different white supremacist leaders across the United States.

David Tate was the only member of The Order to be charged with murder. In 1986, he was convicted of the murder of trooper Jimmie Linegar and the attempted murder of trooper Allen Hines. Missouri state prosecutors intended to send Tate to the gas chamber for killing trooper Linegar, but a jury instead sentenced Tate to life in prison without parole. He remains incarcerated and is still devoted to the neo-Nazi movement.

The chief members of The Order and the sentences they received for their crimes

The Redemption of Tom Martinez

As for Tom Martinez, who made the brave decision to become an FBI informant and, in doing so, put an end to The Order's crime spree, he was spared any prison time due to his cooperation. Martinez was sentenced to five years of probation and released. His actions undoubtedly saved dozens of lives, including that of Morris Dees, who has gone on to expand the Southern Poverty Law Center into one of America's most prominent and successful civil rights organizations.
"Thomas Martinez is a man of great courage", Dees later told a reporter. "I owe him my life".

Following his work with the FBI, Martinez joined the Anti-Defamation League and wrote a book chronicling his experience within The Order, titled Brotherhood of Murder. For years, he gave speeches to high schools across the country, warning them of the dangers of hate groups.

Tom Martinez gives an interview to a Pennsylvania television station in 2009. His face is in shadow to protect his identity.

Unfortunately for Martinez, his decision to become an informant forever made him a marked man. The Aryan Brotherhood later put out a contract on Martinez's life, and a zealous Aryan Nations member later tried to behead him. Because of the threats to his life, Martinez changed his name and went into hiding, where he remains to this day.

Martinez and his family now live under assumed names somewhere in the United States.

Author's Note: A Word of Gratitude

The story of The Order is one of the most complex and intricate cases I have ever studied in my lifetime. There are so many different messages to take away from this that to address them all here would be impossible. But there is one message I do wish to convey, and that is how much this case has affected me personally.

As I stated earlier, I consider Alan Berg to be my personal hero and role model. His wit, humor, intelligence, and persona are all things I admire and strive to emulate.
Now, chances are I never would have heard of Berg had The Order not murdered him. In an ironic sense, The Order didn't silence Berg by killing him; rather, they immortalized him. Berg's life and influence transcend his death, and he continues to serve as a poster child not only for victims of hate crimes, but also for the First Amendment and the dangers members of the media face on a daily basis exercising their right to free expression.

But there is another unspoken hero in this story, and that is Thomas Allen Martinez. In a way, it is because of him that I am the person I am today.

You see, I first came across the website of the Southern Poverty Law Center in early 2014, and it was there that I first learned about Alan Berg and The Order. The SPLC was the primary driving force behind by subsequent interest in extremism and crime, and is how I came to regard Berg as my personal role model and start writing about such topics.

But none of that would have happened had Tom Martinez not become an informant.

When Martinez became an informant for the FBI against The Order, he thwarted Robert Mathews' plot to assassinate Morris Dees. Had The Order killed Dees, the SPLC's influence would never have grown to where it is today. The SPLC would have never published their website, and I would never have come across it, learned about Alan Berg, or become interested in crime and extremism.

If Tom Martinez didn't take that courageous step to stand up for what he knew was right, I would be a very different person today.

So, in a certain way, I owe my own life to Tom Martinez as well. It is because of his bravery and courage that I am the person I currently am. Without him, I probably would have never started this blog in the first place.

For nearly five years, I have tried to locate and contact Tom Martinez, not just to interview him but to personally thank him for what he has done. Unfortunately, despite my repeated attempts to locate him through the ADL, I have never received a response. And it is a shame, really, because there is so much I want to thank Tom Martinez for. His courageous actions saved a lot of lives, and changed countless more for the better.

So, in the event that Martinez ever reads this article, I just want to say this to him:

You have affected people in ways you could have never imagined. The bravery, courage, and fortitude you showed on October 2nd, 1984, when you decided to become an informant for the FBI, saved countless lives.

You, Tom Martinez, are a major reason I am who I am today. Your actions influenced me to become a writer and studier of domestic terrorism. Everything I have done on this blog, all those long hours of writing and creating articles about the dangers of extremism, all those books I bought on the subject... all of that is because of you.


Thank you for everything you have done, Tom Martinez, not just for me but for all the countless innocent lives you helped save when you helped put an end to the most dangerous domestic terrorist group in history. I owe you an everlasting debt of gratitude.