‘Butch’ Redfeairn, 51; Led Splinter Aryan Nations Group
Harold Ray “Butch” Redfeairn, 51, who led a schism in the Aryan Nations white supremacist group, died Sunday in a hospital in Dayton, Ohio. He had been hospitalized for a heart condition about a month ago, but had since returned home.
Aryan Nations founder Richard Butler named Redfeairn as his successor in September 2001, a year after a civil rights lawsuit forced Butler to forfeit the group’s Idaho compound.
Three months later, Redfeairn and propaganda minister August Kreis announced they were forming a splinter group but keeping the Aryan Nations’ name and moving it to a remote corner of Pennsylvania, where Kreis lives.
But Redfeairn later renounced the move and the split among members nationwide. He fired Kreis in May 2002 and returned command to Butler, who said afterward that he thought Kreis was behind the power grab.
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