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the Pacific Northwest. (Richard Girnt Butler, head of car robbery that renewed interest in the remnants of
Aryan Nations, said Mathews was “of the highest the new left terrorism.
idealism and moral character.”) At the Aryan Nations By the mid-1970s, the infamous group of armed
compound, Mathews began to form the inner circle white revolutionaries known as the Weather Under-
of what would become known, variously, as Bruder ground had split into bickering factions. One faction
Schweigen, the Silent Brotherhood, or the Order. advocated a return to more traditional forms of political
Mathews’s vision of the Order was inspired, in protest, while the other faction, which eventually took
part, by the violent crimes of the far left, such as the the name Weather Underground Organization (WUO),
1981 failed Brinks armored truck robbery in New continued to advocate terrorist activity in the name
York, attempted by members of the Black Liberation of black liberation and anti-imperialism. This struggle
Army and May 19 Communist Organization. The included bombings and potential assassinations of
Order was also modeled closely on the fictional orga- political figures.
nization in The Turner Diaries. On November 20, 1977, after infiltrating the WUO,
From 1983 to 1984, the Order counterfeited money the FBI sent several members to jail for plotting
and stole nearly $4 million to fund the coming race war. to bomb the offices of California State senator
Members of the group bombed a synagogue in Boise, John Briggs. Those who remained, including Kathy
Idaho, and a pornography shop in Spokane, Washington. Boudin, a founder of Weatherman, came together to
In June 1984, the Order murdered Alan Berg, a Jewish form the May 19 Communist Organization, named in
radio talk show host in Denver, Colorado. honor of the birthday of both Malcolm X and Ho Chi
By November 1984, authorities had caught up Minh. In New York, the May 19 Communist Organi-
with Mathews in Portland, Oregon, with the help of zation, comprising mostly white, middle-class
FBI informant Thomas Allen Martinez. Mathews was women, joined forces with the Black Liberation Army
wounded in a gunfight before escaping. In early (BLA), the violent offshoot of the New York Black
December, police located Mathews on Whidbey Panther Party. Their mutual goal was the establish-
Island, in Puget Sound. Two hundred officers sur- ment of a “New Afrika” in the southern United States,
rounded the house where Mathews held them at bay and the socialist overthrow of the U.S. government.
for 36 hours with a machine gun. On December 7, BLA planned to partly fund its mission by “expropri-
1984, Mathews died in a blaze set by a flare dropped ation of funds”—robbing rich American institutions,
from a helicopter by the FBI. For many on the racist such as banks, and giving the money to Third World
right, he died a martyr. peoples. The women of the May 19 Communist
Organization functioned as the effort’s public face,
See also THE ORDER; PATRIOT MOVEMENT; THE TURNER
renting and driving the getaway cars, securing safe
DIARIES
houses, and purchasing weapons, while the BLA took
Further Reading care of the violence.
On October 20, 1981, the two groups robbed a
Flynn, Kevin, and Gary Gerhardt. The Silent Brotherhood: Brinks armored car in Nanuet, New York. Several BLA
Inside America’s Racist Underground. New York: Free members, led by Mutulu Shakur (Jeral Wayne
Press, 1989.
Williams), seized $1.6 million and killed one guard
before escaping in a rented truck driven by Boudin and
MAY 15 ORGANIZATION. See 15 David Gilbert, another ex-Weatherman. When police
stopped the truck, the armed BLA members in the
MAY ORGANIZATION. back opened fire, killing two police officers. Boudin,
Gilbert, ex-Weatherman Judy Clark, and BLA member
Samuel Brown were immediately apprehended.
MAY 19 COMMUNIST The investigation into the Brinks robbery revealed
ORGANIZATION the link between May 19 and the BLA, as well
alliances with other radical groups, including the
Republic of New Africa and, subsequently, the FALN,
The May 19 Communist Organization, a clandes- the radical Puerto Rican independence group. May
tine Marxist revolutionary group with roots in the 19 members were suspected and later charged with
Weather Underground, participated in a 1981 armored assisting the prison escapes of two prominent