Late 2000 - 2001: Aryan Nations Split by Dissension, Crushed by Civil Judgment

After Aryan Nations leader Richard Butler (see Early 1970s) loses his compound to a civil judgment (see 2000), racist millionaire Vincent Bertollini buys him a house in Hayden, Idaho. Butler, beset by age and infirmity as well as the enormous financial burden of the civil judgment, will see the group eventually disintegrate, riven by dissension and rivalry among various members hoping to assume the mantle of leadership. Many Aryan Nations state chapters fold and the organization’s membership dwindles. The members of an Alabama chapter of the Ku Klux Klan, formerly affilates of the Nations, renounce their membership. Montana leader Charles Mangels leaves the organization after Butler accuses Mangels of trying to depose him; Mangels goes on to found a rival organization in Montana. Another rival, August Kreis, insists that he now leads the organization from his Pennsylvania power base. Butler names Neuman Britton, the organization’s California leader, as his eventual successor, but Britton dies shortly thereafter. Butler then chooses Ohio member Harold Ray Redfeairn as his heir apparent. Redfeairn (see Late 1990s) is a poor choice; a paranoid schizophrenic who served prison time for shooting a police officer, he and Kreis attempt to overthrow Butler in an internal coup, and Redfeairn leaves the group. He will return in 2003 and once again be named Butler’s successor, but will die shortly thereafter. [Southern Poverty Law Center, 12/2003; Southern Poverty Law Center, 2010; Southern Poverty Law Center, 2010]