WEBVTT - A Klansman in Berlin: Dennis Mahon, Pt. 2 0:00:01.680 --> 0:00:10.600 Coo Zone Media. There was a little bit of snow 0:00:10.680 --> 0:00:13.560 on the ground as Rebecca Williams pulled her rental car 0:00:13.640 --> 0:00:15.720 up to a padlocked gate at the end of a 0:00:15.760 --> 0:00:20.079 gravel driveway near Big Sugar Creek State Park in southwest Missouri. 0:00:21.320 --> 0:00:24.040 She was already three years into living as Becca Stevens, 0:00:24.280 --> 0:00:27.680 an undercover informant for the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms, 0:00:28.400 --> 0:00:31.920 so she was no stranger to strange conversations with dangerous men. 0:00:32.880 --> 0:00:35.479 But she was flying without an Nette this time. The 0:00:35.520 --> 0:00:38.440 AGF agents were sending her in alone. 0:00:38.600 --> 0:00:39.280 They were very. 0:00:39.159 --> 0:00:41.440 Curious about what was going on at this two hundred 0:00:41.479 --> 0:00:45.159 acre compound in the Ozarks, but they couldn't get close. 0:00:46.080 --> 0:00:48.520 The area was so remote they wouldn't even be able 0:00:48.520 --> 0:00:51.760 to listen in during her visit, and wearing a wire 0:00:51.960 --> 0:00:55.000 was out of the question. Anyway. She'd be dead before 0:00:55.000 --> 0:00:57.960 the agents reached that locked gate if she was found out. 0:00:59.360 --> 0:01:02.160 Before she left her briefing that morning, an ATF agent 0:01:02.240 --> 0:01:05.479 clipped a small recording device to her keychain and tied 0:01:05.480 --> 0:01:09.000 a bright pink ribbon in her hair. The ribbon was 0:01:09.040 --> 0:01:11.960 so they could see her on aerial surveillance. They said 0:01:13.200 --> 0:01:15.679 it was January of two thousand and eight, when Rebecca 0:01:15.760 --> 0:01:20.040 visited that Missouri compound owned by Robert Joe's. He chatted 0:01:20.080 --> 0:01:22.319 idly about bomb making as he gave her a tour 0:01:22.360 --> 0:01:25.800 of his property, pointing out hidden entrances to the caves 0:01:25.800 --> 0:01:29.760 where he stored caches of weapons and survival foods. He 0:01:29.800 --> 0:01:33.279 told her that if anybody ever betrayed his confidence, they'd 0:01:33.319 --> 0:01:37.560 just disappear into one of those caves. As the ice 0:01:37.640 --> 0:01:41.320 crunched softly under her boots in the woods, Rebecca wondered 0:01:41.319 --> 0:01:43.480 if that pink ribbon in her hair was only there 0:01:43.520 --> 0:01:47.440 to help identify her body. This was her first of 0:01:47.520 --> 0:01:51.040 several visits with Robert Joe's, a man preaching a dangerous 0:01:51.080 --> 0:01:55.360 mix of apocalyptic Christianity and sovereign citizen anti government extremism 0:01:55.880 --> 0:01:59.680 from his compound in the Ozarks. In nineteen ninety four, 0:01:59.880 --> 0:02:02.320 of his followers shot a Missouri state trooper who had 0:02:02.400 --> 0:02:06.240 arrested Jo's on a misdemeanor charge. In two thousand four, 0:02:06.680 --> 0:02:08.680 the morning a bomb went off inside the Office of 0:02:08.720 --> 0:02:12.720 Diversity and Dialog in Scottsdale, Arizona, Robert Joe's was the 0:02:12.760 --> 0:02:16.560 first person the bomber called, and it was that bomber 0:02:17.000 --> 0:02:22.080 Dennis Mayhon who had introduced Rebecca to Robert Joe's as 0:02:22.120 --> 0:02:25.600 Becca Stevens. She'd developed a close friendship with Dennis Mayhon 0:02:25.680 --> 0:02:29.280 and his twin brother Daniel, so close, in fact, that 0:02:29.360 --> 0:02:32.840 Dennis had fallen desperately in love with her. He begged 0:02:32.840 --> 0:02:36.480 her to let his twin brother impregnate her. He was impotent, 0:02:36.720 --> 0:02:39.959 but he reasoned that if his identical twin got her pregnant, 0:02:40.520 --> 0:02:44.760 the resulting baby would still be his biological child. Over 0:02:44.800 --> 0:02:47.680 the years on this undercover assignment, the brothers had told 0:02:47.720 --> 0:02:50.040 her on several occasions that if things ever got bad 0:02:50.080 --> 0:02:53.520 for them, this is where they would go. They could 0:02:53.520 --> 0:02:55.480 hole up in those caves where no one would ever 0:02:55.560 --> 0:02:59.840 find them. Rebecca Williams was not the first ATF informant 0:03:00.080 --> 0:03:03.040 Dennis Mayhon had fallen in love with. It was his 0:03:03.120 --> 0:03:06.840 relationship with Carol Howe, a Tulsa debutante turned Nazi turned 0:03:06.840 --> 0:03:10.840 in foremant turned Nazi again that inspired ATF agent Tristan 0:03:10.880 --> 0:03:14.200 Morland to hire an exotic dancer to woo Mayhon into 0:03:14.200 --> 0:03:16.600 confessing to that two thousand and four bombing in Arizona. 0:03:17.800 --> 0:03:21.120 But unlike Carol Howe's testimony about Mahon's possible ties to 0:03:21.120 --> 0:03:26.000 the Oklahoma City bombing. Rebecca's work paid off. She put 0:03:26.040 --> 0:03:32.400 Dennis Mayhon in federal prison for building a bomb. I'm 0:03:32.400 --> 0:03:52.800 Molly Conger, and this is weird, little guys. When we 0:03:52.880 --> 0:03:57.240 left off last week, it was nineteen ninety. Dennis Mayhon 0:03:57.360 --> 0:03:59.760 was leading a clan splinter group called the White Knights 0:03:59.760 --> 0:04:02.720 of the Ku Klux Klan, and he was Tom Metzker's 0:04:02.800 --> 0:04:06.840 right hand man in the White Arean Resistance. After spending 0:04:06.840 --> 0:04:10.040 most of the nineteen eighties underground years he spent by 0:04:10.040 --> 0:04:12.480 his own account, carrying out minor acts of terror for 0:04:12.520 --> 0:04:16.840 the clan, bombing federal office buildings, abortion clinics, and synagogues. 0:04:17.640 --> 0:04:20.039 He'd emerged as a figure of some importance in the clan. 0:04:21.240 --> 0:04:23.600 He'd just won a legal battle against the city council 0:04:23.600 --> 0:04:26.200 in Kansas City over his right to broadcast a public 0:04:26.240 --> 0:04:31.599 access television show called Klansas City Cable, and public access 0:04:31.600 --> 0:04:34.200 television wasn't the only medium the White Knights of the 0:04:34.279 --> 0:04:39.280 KKK were using to reach people in Missouri. Mayhon's fondness 0:04:39.279 --> 0:04:41.960 for telephone hotlines will come up again a bit later. 0:04:42.560 --> 0:04:45.279 He was known to run a dial a racist operation. 0:04:46.880 --> 0:04:50.719 It's not an uncommon tactic, particularly in the pre internet days. 0:04:51.839 --> 0:04:53.839 Someone with a message she wants to get out can 0:04:53.880 --> 0:04:56.359 set up a voicemail box and pass out flyers or 0:04:56.400 --> 0:05:00.080 business cards with the phone number on it. Interested party 0:05:00.240 --> 0:05:03.880 call the number and listen to the recording. It's sort 0:05:03.920 --> 0:05:07.920 of like a private on demand radio show. The original 0:05:07.960 --> 0:05:11.520 podcast I guess it came up in the Very Black 0:05:11.560 --> 0:05:15.600 episodes back in October two. Black's clan hotline was used 0:05:15.680 --> 0:05:20.520 for clan announcements about upcoming events. But in October of 0:05:20.600 --> 0:05:24.080 nineteen ninety, Dennis Mayhon wasn't handing out his clan hotline 0:05:24.160 --> 0:05:26.599 number to white guys at bars that he hoped to 0:05:26.600 --> 0:05:33.040 recruit his organization. He was targeting children. According to his 0:05:33.080 --> 0:05:37.200 statement from the director of the Kansas City YWCA, students 0:05:37.200 --> 0:05:40.120 at area elementary and middle schools were given a number 0:05:40.160 --> 0:05:41.880 to call to hear a message from the host of 0:05:41.920 --> 0:05:46.880 a popular children's television show. Nothing I could find elaborated 0:05:46.880 --> 0:05:49.800 on that at all. It's unclear if flyers had been 0:05:49.839 --> 0:05:53.920 posted at or near schools or playgrounds, or if someone 0:05:53.920 --> 0:05:59.200 had actually physically approached elementary schoolers with this material. Either 0:05:59.320 --> 0:06:04.599 possibility unsettling, but however, they got it. The children called 0:06:04.600 --> 0:06:06.440 a number to hear a message from the host of 0:06:06.520 --> 0:06:13.120 Mister Rogers Neighborhood, Mister Rogers himself after a tiny rendition 0:06:13.279 --> 0:06:16.400 of the theme song from the TV show. The children 0:06:16.640 --> 0:06:22.200 did not hear the warm, familiar voice of Fred Rogers. Instead, 0:06:22.640 --> 0:06:26.839 it was a clansman imitating his voice and mannerisms, delivering 0:06:26.839 --> 0:06:31.440 a foul message of bigotry. In one message, this false 0:06:31.480 --> 0:06:36.160 mister Rogers mocks gay people, calling aid's divine retribution from 0:06:36.279 --> 0:06:40.440 God to punish them. In another, the voice tells a 0:06:40.480 --> 0:06:43.880 story about a young black boy on a playground. The 0:06:43.920 --> 0:06:48.000 message is riddled with racial slurs and racist stereotypes, and 0:06:48.120 --> 0:06:50.640 the story ends with the description of the little boy 0:06:50.720 --> 0:06:55.719 being lynched. It's a horrifying thought that a child would 0:06:55.760 --> 0:06:58.359 hear that at all, But if you're old enough to 0:06:58.400 --> 0:07:01.320 have watched Mister Rogers Neighborhood TV when you were a kid, 0:07:02.400 --> 0:07:05.720 you know that adds a whole extra layer to this. 0:07:07.880 --> 0:07:10.320 The show ran for over thirty years from the late 0:07:10.360 --> 0:07:15.200 sixties until two thousand and one. Generations of kids loved 0:07:15.240 --> 0:07:19.720 and trusted mister Rogers. The show talked to kids like 0:07:19.760 --> 0:07:23.720 they were people, tackling difficult subjects gently and in a 0:07:23.720 --> 0:07:26.880 way that was appropriate for preschoolers and older kids alike. 0:07:28.440 --> 0:07:34.239 Often through song, mister Rogers talked to kids about divorce, death, anger, grief, 0:07:34.360 --> 0:07:38.000 and friendship. And even if you've never seen the show, 0:07:38.120 --> 0:07:41.640 you've surely heard one of his more enduring lessons to 0:07:41.680 --> 0:07:46.480 look for the helpers, telling kids in uncertain times. When 0:07:46.480 --> 0:07:48.400 I was a boy and I would see scary things 0:07:48.400 --> 0:07:51.640 in the news, my mother would say to me, look 0:07:51.640 --> 0:07:55.080 for the helpers. You'll always find people who are helping. 0:07:56.840 --> 0:07:59.120 And he wasn't afraid to make waves in his own 0:07:59.400 --> 0:08:03.320 gentle way. In nineteen sixty nine, when public swimming pools 0:08:03.360 --> 0:08:06.320 in much of the country were still segregated in practice, 0:08:06.360 --> 0:08:10.040 if not by law, mister Rogers shared a waiting pool 0:08:10.080 --> 0:08:13.480 with Francois Clemons, one of the first African American actors 0:08:13.520 --> 0:08:15.800 to have a recurring role on a children's TV show. 0:08:17.440 --> 0:08:19.840 Oh there's offscer Clemens, high offser clements. 0:08:19.840 --> 0:08:20.080 Come in. 0:08:20.800 --> 0:08:21.600 How are you mine? 0:08:21.600 --> 0:08:22.360 Won't you sit down? 0:08:22.480 --> 0:08:22.680 Oh? 0:08:22.800 --> 0:08:23.800 Sure, just for a moment. 0:08:24.000 --> 0:08:26.760 It's so warm. I was just putting some water on 0:08:26.760 --> 0:08:27.160 my feet. 0:08:27.200 --> 0:08:28.080 Oh it sure is. 0:08:28.160 --> 0:08:29.200 Would you like to join me? 0:08:29.520 --> 0:08:32.160 It looks often enjoyable. But I don't have a towel 0:08:32.240 --> 0:08:36.800 or anything. Oh, you share mine? Okay, sure, I lie, 0:08:36.840 --> 0:08:38.240 I'll put some more water in here. 0:08:38.480 --> 0:08:45.040 Oh. Without mentioning race or segregation at all, Fred Rogers 0:08:45.040 --> 0:08:48.240 showed kids that there was nothing unusual about cooling off 0:08:48.280 --> 0:08:50.560 on a hot day with a friend whose skin isn't 0:08:50.600 --> 0:08:54.640 the same color as yours. The episode aired shortly after 0:08:54.640 --> 0:08:57.720 the show began filming in color, and the camera zooms 0:08:57.720 --> 0:09:01.439 in close on their bare feet, black and white, side 0:09:01.480 --> 0:09:05.280 by side in the blue wading pool. It doesn't sound 0:09:05.320 --> 0:09:07.959 like much now, but it was a significant barrier to 0:09:08.000 --> 0:09:12.319 break on TV in nineteen sixty nine. All that to say, 0:09:12.800 --> 0:09:16.200 Fred Rogers was probably very upset when he heard children 0:09:16.280 --> 0:09:21.080 were hearing hateful words in his voice. Within days of 0:09:21.120 --> 0:09:24.240 the story reaching the media, mister Rogers himself had filed 0:09:24.240 --> 0:09:27.679 a lawsuit against the clan. There was a press conference 0:09:27.720 --> 0:09:30.400 in Kansas City on a Friday afternoon, with local civil 0:09:30.480 --> 0:09:34.000 rights groups and faith leaders condemning the messages, and by 0:09:34.040 --> 0:09:37.280 Monday morning, an army of entertainment lawyers had descended on 0:09:37.280 --> 0:09:42.040 the Federal Court House in Kansas City. The ACLU didn't 0:09:42.080 --> 0:09:44.720 rush to the clan's defense. This time they were on 0:09:44.760 --> 0:09:48.400 their own. Had the Klan not used the theme song 0:09:48.480 --> 0:09:51.760 from Mister Rogers Neighborhood, this may have dragged on and 0:09:51.880 --> 0:09:56.240 become another battle over free speech. But the suit wasn't 0:09:56.240 --> 0:10:00.520 about the vile and offensive content of the messages. It 0:10:00.559 --> 0:10:05.160 was about copyright infringement. You can trick children into hearing 0:10:05.280 --> 0:10:09.400 violent racist propaganda, but you can't mess with the corporation's 0:10:09.400 --> 0:10:15.880 intellectual property. Klansman Edward Stevens, Fourth, Adam Troy Mercer, and 0:10:15.960 --> 0:10:21.600 Michael Brooks settled almost immediately. Dennis Mayhon wasn't sued by name, 0:10:21.880 --> 0:10:24.400 but he signed the settlement agreement as the representative for 0:10:24.440 --> 0:10:28.040 the White Knights. The court ordered the men to destroy 0:10:28.160 --> 0:10:30.480 all copies of the tapes they'd used to record and 0:10:30.520 --> 0:10:35.480 disseminate the messages. Not long after making that trip to 0:10:35.480 --> 0:10:38.040 the Federal court House in Kansas City to sign the paperwork, 0:10:38.640 --> 0:10:41.840 Dennis Mayhon appeared again in federal court, but this time 0:10:41.840 --> 0:10:44.640 it was in Tulsa, Oklahoma, and it wasn't for his 0:10:44.720 --> 0:10:48.320 own case. He took the stand as a character witness 0:10:48.400 --> 0:10:52.480 at a detention hearing for a friend. It isn't unusual 0:10:52.600 --> 0:10:54.800 to have someone testify on your behalf at this sort 0:10:54.800 --> 0:10:57.520 of thing. When the government wants to hold someone in 0:10:57.520 --> 0:11:01.040 custody before they go to trial, all party involved appear 0:11:01.080 --> 0:11:04.640 before a judge and make their case. The government explains 0:11:04.679 --> 0:11:08.120 why they think pretrialed attention is necessary, whether because they 0:11:08.120 --> 0:11:10.319 believe the defendant will fail to show up for court 0:11:11.040 --> 0:11:13.760 or because there's a significant chance they'll commit another crime, 0:11:15.000 --> 0:11:17.480 and the defendant's lawyer may put on a parent or 0:11:17.520 --> 0:11:21.360 an employer to vouch for him, offering testimony about their 0:11:21.520 --> 0:11:24.720 ties to the community, their responsibilities at home and work, 0:11:24.800 --> 0:11:28.920 and things like that. I'm not a lawyer. We've been 0:11:28.960 --> 0:11:32.480 over that, so maybe there's a strategy here that I'm 0:11:32.559 --> 0:11:36.559 just not getting. But if I were choosing character witnesses 0:11:36.640 --> 0:11:39.079 to convince a judge that I'm not a danger to 0:11:39.120 --> 0:11:43.800 the community, I wouldn't pick a prominent leader of the 0:11:43.880 --> 0:11:48.400 Ku Klux Klan. But that's just me though, because Daniel 0:11:48.480 --> 0:11:52.640 Rouche did. When Dennis took the stand in December of 0:11:52.720 --> 0:11:56.760 nineteen ninety, he called Daniel Ruche quote the most honorable, 0:11:57.160 --> 0:12:01.720 non violent, decent young man I've ever met in my life, 0:12:01.800 --> 0:12:05.400 and he said his friend probably would prefer not to 0:12:05.440 --> 0:12:10.400 live around minorities, but quote, I don't think he'd hurt them. 0:12:11.080 --> 0:12:13.520 Daniel Rouge was one of fifteen members of a Nazi 0:12:13.559 --> 0:12:16.559 skinhead group arrested in Oklahoma in nineteen ninety on hate 0:12:16.600 --> 0:12:21.320 crime charges. For years, the skinheads had been harassing patrons 0:12:21.320 --> 0:12:24.280 at Club Nitro, a punk club in Tulsa owned by 0:12:24.360 --> 0:12:28.679 Khaled Rahal, a Lebanese immigrant. In nineteen eighty nine, they 0:12:28.679 --> 0:12:31.000 waited in the parking lot until the bar closed and 0:12:31.080 --> 0:12:35.040 attacked Rahl, beating him with a brick. A month later, 0:12:35.120 --> 0:12:39.120 they set fire to the club with Molotov cocktails. Later 0:12:39.160 --> 0:12:41.439 that year, Rush and at least a dozen others jumped 0:12:41.440 --> 0:12:44.120 a patron in the parking lot, kicking him with their 0:12:44.160 --> 0:12:50.160 steel toed boots until the teenager lost consciousness. This particular act, 0:12:50.600 --> 0:12:53.360 a group assault with a heavy emphasis on kicking the 0:12:53.440 --> 0:12:58.400 victim in the head, is called a boot party, and 0:12:58.480 --> 0:13:00.400 the kind of guy who likes to have a boot 0:13:00.440 --> 0:13:05.200 party is sometimes called a boot boy, which is why 0:13:05.320 --> 0:13:09.520 Rouge's band was called the Midtown boot Boys, a name 0:13:09.559 --> 0:13:13.520 you may remember from last week. The Midtown boot Boys 0:13:13.520 --> 0:13:16.800 were the headline act at Aaryan Fest nineteen eighty eight 0:13:17.520 --> 0:13:20.480 that racist woodstock that Tom Metzger held on a farm 0:13:20.480 --> 0:13:24.800 in Oklahoma. And it turns out that concert in nineteen 0:13:24.840 --> 0:13:29.040 eighty eight wasn't a one off thing. When I mentioned 0:13:29.080 --> 0:13:32.080 it last week, it was really just because I saw 0:13:32.120 --> 0:13:35.080 it in an old issue of Metzger's newsletter, and I 0:13:35.120 --> 0:13:38.520 thought the name was funny. I didn't expect to spend 0:13:38.559 --> 0:13:42.440 all week learning about an OI band from Oklahoma, But 0:13:42.520 --> 0:13:47.199 apparently Metzger was a huge supporter of the Midtown boot Boys. 0:13:47.720 --> 0:13:51.320 A year after that inaugural riyan Fest, Metzger invited them 0:13:51.320 --> 0:13:55.439 to headline an event he was calling aryan Woodstock in Napa, California. 0:13:56.640 --> 0:13:59.479 The event ended a day early due to poor attendance 0:13:59.520 --> 0:14:03.640 and cold, and the band played Arianfest again a few 0:14:03.720 --> 0:14:08.640 months later. In nineteen eighty nine, issues of Metzger's White 0:14:08.640 --> 0:14:13.600 Arian Resistance newsletter offered the band's tapes for sale. In 0:14:13.679 --> 0:14:16.880 his cultural history of the Skinhead movement, professor Jack Moore 0:14:16.960 --> 0:14:19.760 describes a nineteen eighty eight recording of Metzger hawking the 0:14:19.800 --> 0:14:23.320 tapes in one of his weekly addresses, writing that Metzger 0:14:23.400 --> 0:14:28.720 sounds hopelessly square when he describes the album as a 0:14:28.840 --> 0:14:47.160 hot tape. A local paper in Tulsa noted in nineteen 0:14:47.200 --> 0:14:50.120 eighty eight that the Midtown boot Boys weren't just a 0:14:50.160 --> 0:14:53.720 punk band. They were the center of skinhead organizing and 0:14:53.760 --> 0:14:57.400 recruitment in the Tulsa area, and the skinheads they rolled 0:14:57.400 --> 0:15:02.640 with called themselves war Skins, denoting their affiliation with Metzgers 0:15:02.640 --> 0:15:07.520 White Arian resistance. That article refers to the local skinhead 0:15:07.600 --> 0:15:11.040 leader as a man named Rip, which was the pseudonym 0:15:11.200 --> 0:15:16.280 used by Daniel Rusche. The Oklahoma Separatist, a racist magazine 0:15:16.320 --> 0:15:21.120 published by Oklahoma clansman Joe Grego, named Daniel Rusche Racist 0:15:21.160 --> 0:15:24.240 of the Month in their July nineteen eighty eight issue, 0:15:24.720 --> 0:15:29.040 offering praise for his music, artwork, and propensity for violence. 0:15:32.440 --> 0:15:35.800 Rip works diligently in the field of skinhead recruiting. He 0:15:35.880 --> 0:15:38.400 is a longtime veteran of the Tulsa streets and is 0:15:38.400 --> 0:15:41.320 well known for his hard driven lifestyle. Rip support of 0:15:41.360 --> 0:15:45.120 the KKK War and the Aryan Nations have been exemplary, 0:15:45.480 --> 0:15:48.400 and yes, girls, he is a single man. We feel 0:15:48.400 --> 0:15:50.960 that his example is a fine one for others to follow. 0:15:54.360 --> 0:15:56.720 This mentioned in nineteen eighty eight of Ruche being a 0:15:56.840 --> 0:16:00.160 skinhead organizer who is also active in the Clan whit 0:16:00.240 --> 0:16:05.560 Aan resistance and the Aryan Nations is fascinating. You might 0:16:05.600 --> 0:16:08.680 just slide right over a description like that, lots of 0:16:08.720 --> 0:16:10.600 guys are in more than one hate group, what's so 0:16:10.640 --> 0:16:15.920 special about that? But this is unique, This silly little 0:16:16.280 --> 0:16:19.600 racist of the Month column actually captures a turning point 0:16:19.600 --> 0:16:24.240 in the movement. Tiffany Travis's History of the American Skinhead 0:16:24.280 --> 0:16:27.960 Movement notes that skinheads in Tulsa were the first to 0:16:28.080 --> 0:16:32.920 openly affiliate with paramilitary groups and the Aryan Nations. She 0:16:32.960 --> 0:16:36.280 doesn't name the Midtown boot Boys in particular, but she's 0:16:36.320 --> 0:16:40.240 talking about Tulsa in nineteen eighty eight. She's talking about 0:16:40.320 --> 0:16:45.360 Daniel Rusche. In nineteen eighty seven. Tom Metzker started trying 0:16:45.400 --> 0:16:49.960 to organize skinheads in California. The first chapter of War 0:16:50.040 --> 0:16:53.240 Skins started out there in nineteen eighty seven, and a 0:16:53.280 --> 0:16:56.240 year later we're seeing these local news reports in Oklahoma 0:16:56.320 --> 0:17:01.520 about Tulsa's Skins calling themselves war Skins. Travis's book credits 0:17:01.560 --> 0:17:04.840 Metzker as being the first big name white supremacist to 0:17:05.040 --> 0:17:08.440 embrace the potential of skinhead culture and welcome them into 0:17:08.480 --> 0:17:13.280 the movement. Metzger has quoted saying, I give them guidance 0:17:13.280 --> 0:17:15.679 on the law to stay out of trouble, and I 0:17:15.720 --> 0:17:19.600 give them our ideology. They have their own subculture and 0:17:19.800 --> 0:17:24.800 tampering with it would destroy it. Metzger helped skinhead groups 0:17:24.840 --> 0:17:27.639 set up post office boxes to use for recruitment and 0:17:27.760 --> 0:17:31.320 networking with other racist organizations, and he set up White 0:17:31.359 --> 0:17:36.000 Arean resistance phone lines in their cities. By the late eighties, 0:17:36.359 --> 0:17:39.400 leaderless resistance was the name of the game, and Metzger 0:17:39.440 --> 0:17:43.199 thought he could use Race's skinheads to his advantage. They 0:17:43.240 --> 0:17:46.960 would spread his message, attract rowdy, youthful audiences he could 0:17:46.960 --> 0:17:50.199 recruit from, and they would carry out acts of racist 0:17:50.280 --> 0:17:54.520 violence that wouldn't trace directly back to him. He quickly 0:17:54.560 --> 0:17:58.200 realized he'd made a mistake, though, In nineteen eighty eight, 0:17:58.440 --> 0:18:03.040 war Skins in Portland murder Mulagetta Sarah. By nineteen eighty nine, 0:18:03.160 --> 0:18:07.200 war Skins in California, Texas, and Oklahoma were committing hate 0:18:07.240 --> 0:18:10.480 crimes at an alarming rate, and the FBI was starting 0:18:10.480 --> 0:18:14.480 to round them up. He'd been trying to quietly extricate 0:18:14.560 --> 0:18:17.320 himself from the skinhead movement when a lawsuit brought by 0:18:17.400 --> 0:18:21.320 Mulagetta Sara's family took him for everything. He had a 0:18:21.440 --> 0:18:27.000 jury in Oregon didn't buy the leaderless resistance defense. Travis's 0:18:27.000 --> 0:18:31.320 book attributes this effort to organized skinheads directly to Metzger personally, 0:18:32.119 --> 0:18:36.440 and that's fair, it's accurate. It was being done at 0:18:36.480 --> 0:18:39.439 his direction, and when it started in California, he had 0:18:39.440 --> 0:18:43.959 a personal role in it. But the person actually directly 0:18:44.080 --> 0:18:48.600 responsible for organizing the Skins in Oklahoma was almost certainly 0:18:48.720 --> 0:18:55.439 Metzger's Midwest lieutenant Dennis Mayhon. By nineteen ninety, Dennis Mayhon 0:18:55.520 --> 0:19:00.399 had moved to Catusa, just outside of Tulsa, and all sudden, 0:19:00.440 --> 0:19:04.160 the local skinheads have ties to the clan, the Aryan 0:19:04.240 --> 0:19:09.320 Nations and White Aryan Resistance, just like Dennis. And when 0:19:09.359 --> 0:19:13.080 Tulsa's Skinheads got rounded up by the FBI, there's Dennis 0:19:13.280 --> 0:19:16.119 on the witness stand, testifying that he'd been friends with 0:19:16.240 --> 0:19:21.120 Daniel Rouge for years. In his own newsletter later that month, 0:19:21.359 --> 0:19:24.440 Dennis Mayhon said he was organizing local clansmen to sell 0:19:24.440 --> 0:19:28.720 their guns to raise money for Ruche's defense, but there 0:19:28.720 --> 0:19:32.600 would be no defense. Despite Dennis Mayhan's confident statements to 0:19:32.640 --> 0:19:35.760 the press that the case was pure persecution of the 0:19:35.800 --> 0:19:39.840 skinheads for their beliefs. Daniel Rushe entered a guilty plea 0:19:39.880 --> 0:19:42.639 in January nineteen ninety one and was sentenced to forty 0:19:42.680 --> 0:19:46.480 two months with time served in good behavior. He was 0:19:46.520 --> 0:19:50.680 released in November of nineteen ninety three. Unfortunately for the 0:19:50.760 --> 0:19:53.720 Midtown boot Boys, though they only got their basist back. 0:19:54.640 --> 0:19:58.040 The band's vocalist, Christopher Jones, received a slightly longer sentence, 0:19:58.119 --> 0:20:00.280 and he had to serve time for an assault brought 0:20:00.280 --> 0:20:04.000 by the state of Oklahoma first. One of the other 0:20:04.119 --> 0:20:07.560 skinheads sentenced alongside them, a man named Michael Lewis Lawrence, 0:20:08.240 --> 0:20:11.720 was given nine years on top of the four years 0:20:11.760 --> 0:20:14.320 he was already serving in Texas for a separate hate 0:20:14.359 --> 0:20:18.720 crimes case involving skinheads in Dallas. When Lawrence went to 0:20:18.760 --> 0:20:21.760 trial in Texas, one of his co conspirators testified that 0:20:21.840 --> 0:20:25.119 they had been attempting to re enact Christallnacht on the 0:20:25.160 --> 0:20:28.400 fiftieth anniversary of the nineteen thirty eight pograms in Germany. 0:20:29.880 --> 0:20:32.440 When the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals upheld the convictions 0:20:32.440 --> 0:20:36.240 in the Texas case, the opinion notes that Aryanfest eighty 0:20:36.240 --> 0:20:41.320 eight was a pivotal moment writing. After defendants attended an 0:20:41.480 --> 0:20:44.840 Aryan fest in June nineteen eighty eight, during which various 0:20:44.840 --> 0:20:48.399 speakers encouraged skinhead groups to become the backbone and foot 0:20:48.440 --> 0:20:52.040 soldiers of the white supremacist movement, the group became more 0:20:52.080 --> 0:20:57.200 determined to use violence to achieve its philosophical objectives. That 0:20:57.400 --> 0:21:02.960 speaker was Tom Metzker. At that hearing in nineteen ninety 0:21:03.000 --> 0:21:05.399 to determine if Daniel Rouge could be granted bond on 0:21:05.520 --> 0:21:09.399 charges of racially motivated assault, he admitted to the judge 0:21:09.400 --> 0:21:13.399 that he had written the lyrics quote throw a boot 0:21:13.480 --> 0:21:18.240 party for the left wing commie scum end quote we 0:21:18.359 --> 0:21:21.960 find a drunken n word and beat him black and blue, 0:21:23.440 --> 0:21:29.360 lyrics that do describe the crimes he's accused of. From 0:21:29.359 --> 0:21:32.280 what I can piece together of the band's discography, the 0:21:32.359 --> 0:21:36.760 track Tulsa Tonight, which seems to describe the crimes half 0:21:36.800 --> 0:21:40.800 the band went to prison for, was actually recorded after 0:21:41.200 --> 0:21:47.320 they served their time An Me Die Tonight. 0:21:48.119 --> 0:21:53.439 Their streets are off, shined up light to find the 0:21:53.520 --> 0:22:00.959 streets up all night, shine up light to find all 0:22:01.480 --> 0:22:01.720 of that. 0:22:08.480 --> 0:22:10.960 I may be a bit prejudiced in my assessment of 0:22:11.000 --> 0:22:15.280 the band's music in part because the lyrics are violently racist, 0:22:16.240 --> 0:22:19.159 but also I'm just not a huge fan of OI music, 0:22:19.760 --> 0:22:23.399 this particular subgenre of punk. It all kind of sounds 0:22:23.400 --> 0:22:27.400 the same to me. I watched several hours of footage 0:22:27.400 --> 0:22:31.240 from aran Fest nineteen eighty eight and nineteen eighty nine, 0:22:31.359 --> 0:22:35.800 and honestly, I couldn't actually tell which of the acts 0:22:36.040 --> 0:22:39.159 was the Midtown boot Boys because they all sound the 0:22:39.200 --> 0:22:43.439 same to me. Track listings for their tapes show songs 0:22:43.440 --> 0:22:49.320 with titles like blood Will Run and Downright Hateful. When 0:22:49.400 --> 0:22:52.679 Hitler's deputy fear Rudolph hess died, they honored him with 0:22:52.720 --> 0:22:57.280 a song called sleep Well Rudolph Hesse, and they praised 0:22:57.320 --> 0:22:59.600 the crimes of the Nazi terrorist group The Order in 0:22:59.640 --> 0:23:04.119 their song Free the Order. The band had to go 0:23:04.160 --> 0:23:07.639 on hiatus in nineteen ninety one because Daniel Ruche, the bassist, 0:23:07.680 --> 0:23:10.560 and Christopher Jones, the vocalist, both went to prison after 0:23:10.600 --> 0:23:15.040 pleading guilty to civil rights violations and hate crimes. When 0:23:15.119 --> 0:23:17.719 Rouche got out in nineteen ninety three, he and the drummer, 0:23:17.760 --> 0:23:21.240 a man named Stacy, started a metal band called Berserker, 0:23:21.760 --> 0:23:24.440 playing under that name until getting the Midtown boot Boys 0:23:24.480 --> 0:23:27.120 back together. When Jones was released in nineteen ninety six. 0:23:28.720 --> 0:23:32.880 It's not completely clear when Stacy became the band's drummer, 0:23:33.320 --> 0:23:36.480 but it must have been after their previous drummer testified 0:23:36.520 --> 0:23:41.240 against the Skinheads in Texas. As of twenty thirteen, Christopher 0:23:41.320 --> 0:23:44.560 Jones owed Daniel Ruche's sister more than sixteen thousand dollars 0:23:44.640 --> 0:23:48.200 in child support, and I can't find any information about 0:23:48.200 --> 0:23:51.159 whether or not her restraining order against Jones impacted the 0:23:51.200 --> 0:23:54.840 band at all. It really was a family affair, though. 0:23:56.320 --> 0:23:59.040 Shortly after Daniel Rusche got out of prison, he married 0:23:59.119 --> 0:24:03.560 Boot Boy's guitar as Tony Loretti's sister. But this is 0:24:03.600 --> 0:24:06.320 an episode about Dennis Mayhon, and I don't think Dennis 0:24:06.359 --> 0:24:09.720 Mayhon was ever in a punk band. In footage of 0:24:09.760 --> 0:24:12.960 the Midtown boot Boys set at arian Fest nineteen eighty nine, 0:24:13.680 --> 0:24:17.760 the camera pans slowly over a solidly middle aged looking 0:24:17.840 --> 0:24:23.679 Dennis bobbing his head slightly offbeat. I couldn't find the 0:24:23.840 --> 0:24:26.600 end of this thread, but it seems like Dennis Mahon 0:24:26.720 --> 0:24:31.000 didn't stay friends with the Skinheads forever. An article published 0:24:31.000 --> 0:24:33.400 by the Southern Poverty Law Center in nineteen ninety nine 0:24:34.080 --> 0:24:37.080 makes a passing mention of the time that Dennis Mayhon 0:24:37.240 --> 0:24:40.399 was beaten and stabbed by a group of skinheads in Georgia, 0:24:40.920 --> 0:24:59.119 but it doesn't say when that happened. In nineteen ninety, 0:24:59.400 --> 0:25:02.240 a young race assist in Germany wrote Dennis Mayhan a letter. 0:25:03.480 --> 0:25:06.520 Carston Sepanski was a twenty year old skinhead from Berlin. 0:25:07.640 --> 0:25:10.840 He was sharing an apartment with Andreas Pohl, a Nazi 0:25:10.840 --> 0:25:13.160 skinhead who'd spent most of the eighties as the drummer 0:25:13.200 --> 0:25:16.960 in one of Germany's oldest skinhead bands, Kraft der Freude, 0:25:17.880 --> 0:25:20.080 and by the early nineties Pohl was leading the German 0:25:20.160 --> 0:25:24.240 neo Nazi group Nationalist Front. It's not clear in any 0:25:24.280 --> 0:25:27.200 of the sources I could find exactly how Sepanski came 0:25:27.240 --> 0:25:30.640 to write to Mahon, but it's possible that Pole's connections 0:25:30.680 --> 0:25:33.320 with skinhead bands in Britain and the United States played 0:25:33.320 --> 0:25:38.240 a part. Soon after they began exchanging letters, Sepanski began 0:25:38.280 --> 0:25:42.439 publishing a clan style newsletter called Dos Feuerkreutz or The 0:25:42.520 --> 0:25:46.960 Fiery Cross. It had a bit of original material information 0:25:47.040 --> 0:25:49.760 about immigrants in Germany that would be of interest to 0:25:49.800 --> 0:25:53.280 a German neo Nazi, but it was almost entirely just 0:25:53.440 --> 0:25:57.720 translated articles taken from Dennis Mayhan's clan newsletter called The 0:25:57.760 --> 0:26:02.720 White Beret. This wasn't the first time American clan influence 0:26:02.720 --> 0:26:05.800 had reached Germany, but most of the earlier hotspots of 0:26:05.840 --> 0:26:09.320 clan activity in Germany connect back to American service members 0:26:09.359 --> 0:26:13.360