In Warning to Extremists, U.S. Indicts 23 in ‘Order’

With a tough warning for political extremist groups, the federal government Monday announced the indictment of 23 persons on charges of using armed robbery, arson, counterfeiting and murder--including the assassination of a Jewish radio talk-show host in Denver--in pursuit of their goal of a white supremacist society.

And, as authorities warned that six members of the group were still at large and described them as dangerous, a Missouri state trooper was fatally shot and another was seriously wounded after an encounter with a man identified as one of the six.

As night fell over the hilly and heavily timbered Ozark terrain near Branson, Mo., a massive search, including five airplanes, was under way for David Tate, 22, accused of murder in connection with the activities of the group called The Order.

The 93-page racketeering indictment against The Order issued by a federal grand jury here Friday alleges an extraordinary organized use of bank and armored car robberies to fund paramilitary training camps, “safe houses,” a cache of 150 weapons and a hoard of explosives for the group, which was also known as “Bruders Schweigen” (Silent Brotherhood) and “The Aryan Resistance Movement.”

“The organization is neutralized,” U.S. Atty. Gene S. Anderson declared to a news conference here.

Minutes later, Trooper Jimmie Linegar, 31, was making a driver’s license check on a man later identified as Tate. Tate, who was alleged to have participated in The Order’s counterfeiting operations, was also wanted on an FBI weapons warrant filed in Butte, Mont., on March 22.

Linegar had been fatally shot when a backup officer, Allan Hines, 35, arrived, police said. After reporting the shooting by radio, Hines was then shot three times and seriously wounded.

The scene was about 100 miles southwest of Shannon County, where, the indictment says, the group bought land for possible use as a training camp.

Prosecution of the 23 individuals under the far-reaching anti-racketeering laws, officials here said, will be swift and could allow confiscation of their property and other assets. It should also serve, they said, as a warning to fringe members of other groups.

‘We Can Reach Out’

“This is a warning message,” said Assistant FBI Director Bill Baker. “If a person on the fringe thinks he has only minor involvement, he should take another thought. You’re committing possible federal violations. With (anti-racketeering laws) we can reach out to some of those people on the perimeter.”

A seventh suspect not yet in custody has made arrangements to surrender, Anderson said. In addition, a racketeering criminal information was filed against a 24th person in California in connection with The Order’s activities.

The indictment is the first time that five Order members have been officially accused of the murder of Alan Berg, the Denver radio talk-show host who was machine-gunned outside his home last June 18.

And, although many of those indicted had previously been linked to various other crimes attributed to The Order, the racketeering indictment lists a total of 57 offenses by various members of the organization--the most detailed picture yet of the group’s alleged activities.

Counterfeited $50 Bills

The indictment depicts a story of more than a half-dozen men forming The Order in October, 1983, and soon afterward beginning the surveillance of possible robbery targets and the production of counterfeit $50 bills.

What then followed was a year of violence, ending in the death of the group’s founder in December, but peaking in the spring of last year with two armored car hold-ups, the Berg killing and another killing, the documents allege.

The indictment says Berg was stalked by Jean Margaret Craig, 52, of Laramie, Wyo., and then killed by Bruce Carroll Pierce, 30, of Hayden Lake, Ida.; Richard E. Scutari, about 30, of Florida; David Eden Lane, 46, of Denver, and Robert Jay Mathews, the group’s founder, who was killed in an FBI shoot-out last December.

The indictment says that Pierce was a leader of the group and sought to head an “assassination squad.”

Scutari is still at-large.

The indictment alleged one other killing, that of Walter Edward West, apparently a one-time Order member who had a falling out with the group and was killed last June in Idaho. The murder was attributed to Randolph George Duey, 34, of Spokane, identified in the indictment as “a leader” of The Order who “assumed the role of screening new recruits for the enterprise to determine their ideological acceptability.”

The indictment alleges that one purpose of the group was “to murder persons viewed as hostile” to it, including federal lawmen and other government officials. The group intended to advance the goal of white supremacy in political and economic areas by a variety of means, the documents contend.

Shoot-Outs With FBI

Shoot-outs between FBI agents and Order members occurred last Nov. 24 in Portland and on Whidbey Island near Seattle on Dec. 8, when Mathews was killed.

The group attempted also to destroy a synagogue in Boise last April 29, according to the indictment, and to set fire to the Embassy Theatre in Seattle.

And, along the way, the indictment says, the group used voice stress analyzers to detect informants and amassed computers, police radio scanners and an array of weapons, including machine guns.