Five White Supremacists Get Long Prison Terms

Five members of the violent, white-supremacist group The Order were sentenced Thursday to prison terms of up to 100 years for their roles in a plot to overthrow the government and establish an Aryan homeland.

Bruce Carroll Pierce, 31, Randolph George Duey, 35, Gary Lee Yarbrough, 30, Andrew Virgil Barnhill, 29, and Richard Harold Kemp, 23, were sentenced by U.S. District Judge Walter McGovern.

McGovern presided over a 3 1/2-month trial that ended Dec. 30 with racketeering convictions for 10 members of the extremist group. The remaining five are to be sentenced today.

Lengthy Sentences

Pierce and Duey each received consecutive 20-year sentences on five separate counts for a total of 100 years. Duey also was sentenced to an additional 55 years, to be served concurrently.

Pierce was accused of firing at least 12 rounds from a machine gun on June 18, 1984, killing Alan Berg, a Denver radio personality who had drawn the wrath of Order members with criticism of right-wing extremists.

Yarbrough was ordered to spend 60 years in prison, concurrent with a 20-year sentence he is serving for illegal weapons possession.

Barnhill was sentenced to two consecutive 20-year terms, plus an additional 30 years to run concurrently, and Kemp was sentenced to three consecutive 20-year terms.

Trial Criticized

In a lengthy statement, Yarbrough criticized the trial as a “gross injustice” and denied he was a hate-filled neo-Nazi.

“These men are no more guilty than were their forefathers who participated in the Boston Tea Party,” he said. “If you think I would sacrifice my family for white supremacy, neo-Nazism or any other false doctrine, you are wrong.”

Yarbrough came near tears when he told the judge he missed his family and might never see one of his daughters again. One of his daughters is ill and undergoes kidney dialysis.

He also said his beliefs and those of his colleagues were shared by thousands throughout the country.

‘Blood Will Flow’

“There will be many more to follow,” he said. “The blood will flow, and it grieves me.”

Besides racketeering and conspiracy to racketeer, the men were convicted of separate offenses ranging from armored-car robberies to transporting stolen money across state lines to illegal weapons possession.

The federal Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act also allowed the government to seize cash, real estate, guns, vehicles and other items used in the racketeering enterprise. U.S. attorneys estimated the value of those goods at more than $800,000.

Prosecutors contend the group was formed in 1983 at the Metaline Falls, Wash., home of Robert Mathews, then embarked on an anti-government campaign to establish a “White American Bastion” without Jews and racial minorities.

The plot collapsed on Dec. 8, 1984, when Mathews died in the flames of his hide-out on Whidbey Island in Washington after a 37-hour standoff with FBI agents.