National Geographic: Aryan Brotherhood

                National Geographic’s documentary on the Aryan Brotherhood has been featured in my blogs before. Short clips that I had found online, facts, etc. have been used numerous times. However it took me until this week to finally sit down and actually watch the whole movie from beginning to end. I’m glad I did though. The documentary delves into the woodworks behind the notorious prison gang, its key figure members, and what really goes on behind bars today.

                The Aryan Brotherhood is known for being one of the most violent prison gangs in American history. With the gang taking up less that .1% of the population, it’s a shock to learn that they make up around 20% of prison murders. It is an extremely exclusive group, and rather than seeking numbers like most may, members are sought out and invited to join upon whether or not the leaders thought them suiting. The Brotherhood, although just scratching the surface may appear to be a white supremacy based gang, they actually don’t weigh much on the race of members. Michael Thomson, once a key figure in the gang, is Native American. He joined because the original leaders, Barry Mills and Tyler Bingham, told him that the Brotherhoods main agenda wasn’t white supremacy. It didn’t matter his race, they wanted him for his wit and willingness to kill. Tyler Bingham himself is part Jewish, bearing a Star of David on one arm with a swastika on the other. Racism, as they claim, is prevalent, but not necessarily the driving force.

Mills (Right) with a Star of David tattoo on his right arm

                The Brotherhood uses white supremacy as a way to influence members who are wanted into joining. As the movie states, the gang uses white supremacist political ideals and literature to bringing new recruits in. They show that they could join the “family” and find a place where lost souls can belong. But with white supremacy not being their main agenda, then what is?

Behind the scenes the Brotherhood is involved in an incredible amount of drug trafficking in prisons. With most drugs such as heroin, cocaine, or marijuana being valued at around 3-4 times its street price, it’s no wonder the gang is thought to be involved in a multi-million dollar operation. Below is an excerpt from the documentary of a more obvious drug scam in prison between an inmate and a visitor. Such are typically caught, while who knows how complicated other various methods to get drugs behind bars may be.

 

Drug Smuggling in Prison

                On the surface, the AB’s main objective is to be more terrifying and extreme than everyone around them. In order to “make your bones”, or join the group, you must kill. To further emulate the bond, the only way out without being seen as a traitor is to die. Blood in, blood out. When a member defies such a strict outline, such as Michael Thomson has, he is put “In the Hat”, meaning on the hit list. Thomson, a former leader, defied the Brotherhood and quit the gang when he realized murders called upon by Mills and Bingham were going on outside the prison walls. Families of transgressing members were being murdered, and this disturbed him enough to want to quit. He is known as the “Ultimate Defector” and is the number one target of the Brotherhood.

Letter to Mills asking permission to kill

                All kills must be approved by Mills and Bingham, and one may wonder how this could go about from the enclosed walls of a prison cell. However, there is an incredibly complicated code that the Brotherhood has mastered, one originally invented by Sir Francis Bacon called Bacon’s Cipher, and then topped by another Binary Code. As shown above, a simple letter talking about how the writer had recently became an uncle can be translated using these codes into a question asking Mills whether to go through with a murder or not.

Bacon's Cipher

Binary Code

                The complexity of this gang is incredible and this documentary really opened my eyes about how deep it really runs. It’s interesting to learn more of the behind the scenes things, however much information about the realities of the Brotherhood are yet to be known by non-members. The reality of what truly goes on behind bars and in the minds of Barry Mills and Tyler Bingham may never be uncovered to those on the outside.