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was used in the Berg assassination. At the Portland Further Reading
meeting, the FBI captured Yarbrough as he tried to
Flynn, Kevin, and Gary Gerhardt. The Silent Brotherhood:
climb out the back window of his motel room. Mathews
Inside America’s Racist Underground. New York: Free
managed to escape. Press, 1989.
Several members of the Order fled with Mathews Martinez, Thomas, and John Guinther. Brotherhood of
to Whitbey Island in Puget Sound, where they Murder. New York: McGraw-Hill, 1988.
composed a declaration of war on the United States Singular, Stephen. Talked to Death: The Life and Murder of
government. The FBI eventually tracked them to the Alan Berg. New York: Beech Tree, 1987.
island but not before most of them managed to escape.
Duey, Merki, and his wife Sharon, however, remained
there with Mathews and eventually surrendered to the ORDINE NUOVO
FBI. Mathews died after a two-day standoff when the
aka Armed Revolutionary Nuclei (ARN)
house he was in went up in flames from a flare.
Over the next several months, authorities captured
all but one member. Most were taken without inci- On December 12, 1969, a bomb exploded in the
dent, including Pierce and Lane who were captured in Banca Nazionale dell’Agricoltura in Milan’s Piazza
March and April of 1985. Tate, however, killed a state Fontana, killing 16 and wounding 90. Authorities
trooper during a traffic stop. Authorities believed Tate later determined that Ordine Nuovo, an Italian right-
was headed to the CSA compound in Arkansas, so wing neo-fascist group, was responsible for the
they laid siege to the compound. As it turned out Tate attack. The bombing marked the beginning of Ordine
was not there, but he eventually surrendered at a Nuovo’s “strategy of tension”—a series of public
park not far away. Four other Order members, how- bombings intended to destabilize Italy and diminish
ever, surrendered with the CSA after a four-day support for the Communist Party. The group’s terror-
standoff. Almost a year later, in March 1986, Richard bombing campaign would continue for more than
Scutari, the last Order member brought to justice, a decade.
was captured. The origins of Ordine Nuovo are still in dispute.
Eventually, 11 members negotiated plea bargains Among of the fiercest advocates for fascism in Italy,
and 10 were convicted of racketeering and conspiracy Ordine Nuovo was organized around 1960 by a jour-
in a trial that set legal precedent as it was the first time nalist named Pino Rauti; it was long mired in contro-
the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations versy over an alleged connection to the CIA.
Act (RICO) was used in a political case. Until then, it Informants have testified that Rauti and many other
had been used mostly to prosecute organized crime Italian fascists were actually “rehabilitated” Nazi col-
figures. Sentences ranged from 30 to 150 years. One laborators tapped by the CIA for a North Atlantic
member, Bill Soderquist, was granted complete immu- Treaty Organization “stay behind” anticommunist
nity for his cooperation. Martinez was sentenced to terror network, known as “Gladio.”
probation and was eventually paid $25,000 for his role Ordine Nuovo’s terror campaign began with the
in the investigation. 1969 Piazza Fontana bombing and continued with a
In the fall of 1987, Lane, Scutari, Pierce, and Craig number of similar attacks throughout Italy in the
were prosecuted for civil rights violations for their 1970s and early 1980s. In July 1970, Ordine Nuovo
roles in the Berg slaying. Lane and Pierce were con- bombed a Rome-Messina train, leaving six people
victed while Scutari and Craig were found not guilty. dead and nearly 100 wounded. Four years later, mem-
Then in 1988, fourteen people involved in the white bers of the group threw grenades into an antifascist
supremacist movement—including five members of march in Brescia, killing eight activists. Its most infa-
the Order—faced federal sedition charges in the fed- mous and horrific attack occurred on August 1, 1980,
eral government’s Operation Clean Sweep. All were when an offshoot of Ordine Nuovo, the Armed
acquitted in that trial. Revolutionary Nuclei (ARN), bombed the Bologna
train station. More than 80 civilians died.
See also COVENANT, THE SWORD, AND THE ARM OF THE LORD; On June 30, 2001, three members of Ordine
ROBERT JAY MATHEWS; RICHARD SCUTARI: THE TURNER Nuovo received life sentences for planting the Banca
DIARIES; WHITE SUPREMACY dell’Agricoltura bomb in 1969. Some prosecutors