September 29, 2006
Two known members of the Texas Aryan Brotherhood, a racist prison gang, were charged on September 21, 2006, with capital murder in the death of a young Mansfield, Texas, woman. The victim was the girlfriend of the group's Dallas area leader, Jason "Trooper" Hankins, and was allegedly killed for saying bad things about the Aryan Brotherhood.
Both of the men accused of the crime have criminal records. Dale "Tiger" Clayton Jameton, 28, served six years in prison for burglary and drug convictions. William Chad Williams, 20, has prior convictions of attempted theft, car burglary, possession of a controlled substance and a weapons charge. A third man, not believed to be a member of the Aryan Brotherhood, was also charged. There is no information yet regarding the possible involvement of Hankins, who was recently arrested in Las Cruces, New Mexico, on capital murder charges in a related murder case. Jameton was also charged in connection with that case.
According to a Mesquite, Texas, detective, the victim was tortured, including having her genitals shocked by a car battery, sexually assaulted, and had acid poured on her body before she was strangled to death. "They put her body in a tub, poured concrete on top," said Detective Don Phillips of the Mesquite Police Department. The police say a witness claims to have seen the men dump the tub into Lake Ray Hubbard. FBI divers, assisted by Dallas Fire-Rescue, dredged parts of the lake but have not found her remains.
The Aryan Brotherhood is the largest white supremacist prison gang, with thousands of members. Texas offshoot began in the early 1980s and has more than 400 members. Federal officials estimate there are as many as 225 members in the Dallas-Fort Worth area.