October 30, 2004

Aryan Nations/Church of Jesus Christ Christian was one of the country's best-known enclaves of anti-Semitism and white nationalism. While founded as a Christian Identity outpost, the organization also incorporated neo-Nazi themes; its founder and longtime leader, Richard Girnt Butler, openly adulated Hitler.

Recent years have not been kind to Aryan Nations. Bankrupted by a lawsuit from a mother and son who were assaulted by Aryan Nations guards, the group lost its Idaho compound in 2001. Though he continued to serve as Aryan Nations’ leader, Richard Butler suffered the effects of age and ill health, and the group splintered into factions in 2002. Butler claimed to be reorganizing Aryan Nations but died in September 2004, leaving the group’s future as uncertain as ever.

Read the full report, Extremism in America: Aryan Nations/Church of Jesus Christ Christian (PDF).