15 White Supremacists Indicted in 2 States : Some Charged in Berg Killing; Conspiracy to Overthrow U.S. Cited

Fifteen white supremacists were indicted Friday by federal grand juries in Arkansas and Colorado on charges varying from the anti-Semitic killing of Denver radio talk show host Alan Berg in 1984 to conspiracy to overthrow the U.S. government.

“These indictments show that we will not tolerate unjust activities by any group seeking to overthrow our system of government,” Atty. Gen. Edwin Meese III said.

The Arkansas indictments, in which 14 people were named, also charged that five of the defendants conspired to kill a U.S. District Court judge and a Little Rock FBI agent. The indictment went on to charge three of the five with the attempted murder of the two men.

In addition, 10 of the 14 in the Arkansas indictment were accused of armed robberies and counterfeiting to finance their efforts to overthrow the government.

The indictments said the suspects planned the assassinations of federal officials and plotted bombings aimed at ethnic groups. Other charges included plans to destroy public utilities, pollute water supplies, establish guerrilla warfare training camps, procure false identification and put counterfeit money into circulation to finance their operations.

The Denver indictment charged four of the men also named in Arkansas with a criminal civil violation in the death of Berg, the talk show host, saying they interfered with his federally protected rights, including religion, resulting in his death. Berg, who was Jewish and a vocal critic of the white supremacy movement, was killed by machine-gun fire on June 18, 1984, as he was was leaving his car in front of his apartment.

One Woman Indicted

The fifth person named in the Denver indictment was Jean Margaret Craig, the only woman named. A member of the white supremacist group known as The Order, she is now in a Pleasanton, Calif., federal prison, convicted of racketeering and conspiracy to racketeer.

Two Still at Large

Seven of the 15 charged were already in custody, and six more were arrested Friday. Ron Wolfe, a spokesman for the FBI in Little Rock, said federal agents are searching for the other two.

One still at large was Louis Beam Jr., 40, of Dallas, who has affiliations with the Ku Klux Klan and the Aryan Nations Church of Jesus Christ Christian. He is charged with conspiring to overthrow the government. The other is Ivan Ray Wade, 34, of Smithville, Ark. Wade and his father, William H. Wade, 68, are charged with conspiring to murder U.S. District Judge H. Franklin Waters and FBI agent Jack D. Knox.

‘Racist Revolutionaries’

David Leher, the regional director of the Anti-Defamation League of B’nai B’rith, applauded the indictments, calling those charged “racist revolutionaries who lead some of the most extreme hate groups in America.”

Besides Craig, Beam and the Wades, the indictments named 11 others. Nine of them were accused of conspiracy to overthrow the government. Among them were some of the top names in the white supremacist movement.

They include:

--Richard G. Butler, 69, the head of the Aryan Nations Church of Jesus Christ Christian in Hayden Lake, Ida. Butler, a former Lockheed engineer, moved from Southern California to northern Idaho in 1973 and his compound has been the site of annual Aryan Nations congresses.

Affiliation With Klan

--Robert Edward Miles, 62, the leader of the Mountain Church of Jesus Christ the Savior in Cohoctah, Mich., who also has been affiliated with the Ku Klux Klan.

--David Eden Lane, 48, now in federal prison in Marion, Ill. A member of The Order and the Aryan Nations Church of Jesus Christ Christian, he was convicted in 1985 of racketeering and conspiracy to start a race war against blacks and Jews. He was named in the Denver indictment for the killing of Berg.

--Ardie McBrearty, 59, a member of The Order, now imprisoned in El Reno, Okla., for seeking to overthrow the government. In 1985, he was arrested in Arkansas and charged with racketeering and conspiracy in connection with the 1984 robbery of a Brink’s armored truck in Ukiah, Calif.

Sentenced to 100 Years

--Bruce Carroll Pierce, 32, now imprisoned in the Leavenworth, Kan., federal prison. He has been affiliated with The Order and the Aryan Nations Church. In 1986, he was given a 100-year sentence for racketeering, conspiracy to racketeer, robbery and his role in attempting to overthrow the government. He was named in the Berg killing.

--Richard Joseph Scutari, 39, also in Leavenworth. In 1986, he pleaded guilty to participation in the Ukiah Brink’s robbery, in which $3.6 million was stolen. He also is named in the killing of Berg.

--Andrew Virgil Barnhill, 30, imprisoned in Lewisville, Pa., and a member of The Order. In 1986, he was sentenced to 40 years in prison after he and four other Order members were convicted of a series of crimes, including murder and armed robbery.

--Richard Wayne Snell, 56, a member of the survivalist group called the Covenant, the Sword and the Arm of the Lord. He is serving a life sentence in Texarkana, Tex., for the murder of a state trooper.

Two others are accused of plotting and then attempting to murder the federal judge and the FBI agent. They are Lambert Miller, 36, of Springfield, Mo., and David Michael McGuire, 24, of St. Louis. The indictment said both were affiliated with the Covenant, the Sword and the Arm of the Lord. Robert Neil Smaley, 32, of Fort Smith, also was charged with sedition.