David Lane (white supremacist)

David Lane
Born David Eden Lane
(1938-11-02)November 2, 1938
Woden, Iowa, U.S.
Died May 28, 2007(2007-05-28) (aged 68)
FCC Terre Haute, Terre Haute, Indiana, U.S.
Other names Wodensson
Occupation Real estate broker
Known for White supremacism, Wotansvolk, Fourteen Words, 88 Precepts, the White genocide conspiracy theory and membership in The Order
Spouse(s)
  • Mary Lou
  • Katja Maddox (m. 1994–2007)

David Eden Lane (November 2, 1938 – May 28, 2007) was an American white supremacist leader and convicted felon.[1][2][3] A member of the terror group The Order, he was convicted and sentenced to 190 years in prison for racketeering; conspiracy; and for violating the civil rights of Alan Berg, a Jewish radio talk show host, who was murdered on June 18, 1984. He died while incarcerated in the Federal Correctional Complex in Terre Haute, Indiana.[4]

Lane coined the best-known slogan of the American white supremacist movement, the Fourteen Words. He has been described by the Southern Poverty Law Center as "one of the most important ideologues of contemporary white supremacy."[1]

Early life

Lane was born as the third of four siblings in Woden, Iowa; he had a brother and two sisters. His father was an alcoholic migrant worker who was physically abusive towards his wife and children. Lane would later claim that his father forced his mother to engage in prostitution so he could obtain "booze money", and that his older brother was rendered with permanent deafness as a result of a "beating gone awry".[5] When Lane was four years old, his father abandoned his family. In 1944, his older brother was arrested after searching for food in a neighbor's trash bins, and he and his sisters were placed in foster care. Lane was soon adopted by a traveling Lutheran minister, which resulted in Lane being separated from his two sisters. Lane described his adoptive father as a "doctrinaire fundamentalist from the old school".[6] Bored with endless hours of church services, Lane rejected Christianity, and originally shared relatively pagan beliefs.[6] Lane claimed that he first noticed the beauty of the Caucasian race after befriending a blonde-haired girl in first grade to whom he was attracted.[5] Lane stated that while he reenacted battles with his foster brother as a child, he would portray a Nazi stormtrooper while his brother portrayed an American soldier.[5]

Travelling across the Midwestern United States with his adoptive family, Lane finally settled in Aurora, Colorado, where he attended Aurora High School. Originally aspiring to become a golf professional,[7] Lane worked as a real estate broker until his license was revoked because he "wouldn't sell homes to coloreds in white neighborhoods".[8]

Lane was briefly a member of the John Birch Society before joining the Ku Klux Klan, becoming the organizer of the Denver unit of the Knights of the Ku Klux Klan in 1979. In late 1981, Lane became Colorado State Organizer of the Aryan Nations.[8]

Lane met Robert Jay Mathews in July 1983 at the Aryan Nations world congress.[9] On September 22, 1983, Lane was among the nine founding members to be sworn into The Order, a white supremacist group which dedicated itself to delivering "our people from the Jew and bring total victory to the Aryan race."[10] The Order was accused of stealing over $4.1 million in armored car hijackings, killing three people (one of whom was Order member Walter E. West), detonating bombs, counterfeiting money, organizing militaristic training camps and carrying out numerous other crimes with the ultimate goal of overthrowing the "Zionist occupational government" they deemed in control of the United States and to "liberate the Pacific Northwest as a homeland for whites" in the process (see Northwest Territorial Imperative).[11]

Convictions and incarceration

David Lane
Known for Participant in the homicide of Alan Berg
Criminal charge
Criminal penalty Served consecutively:
  • 150-year federal prison term (violation of civil rights)
  • 20-year federal prison term (racketeering)
  • 20-year federal prison term (conspiracy)
Criminal status Died in prison
Allegiance The Order
Motive White nationalism, extermination of Jews
Conviction(s)
  • Violation of civil rights
  • Racketeering
  • Conspiracy to engage in racketeering

For his role in The Order's crimes, Lane was sentenced to consecutive sentences totaling 190 years, including 20 years for racketeering, 20 years for conspiracy, both under the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act (RICO), and 150 years for violating the civil rights of Alan Berg, a Jewish radio talk show host, who was murdered on June 18, 1984.[1][4][12] Berg was shot and killed in the driveway of his Denver home by three members of The Order.[13] David Lane was the getaway driver.[14] Lane was arrested on the evening of March 30, 1985 in Winston-Salem, North Carolina.[15]

Lane was also among 14 men prosecuted for seditious conspiracy in Fort Smith, Arkansas, but he was acquitted. Lane was considered extremely dangerous by the American justice system and was incarcerated at various times after his conviction in the United States Penitentiary, Marion, the United States Penitentiary Administrative Maximum Facility in Florence, Colorado, and the Federal Correctional Complex, Terre Haute.

While incarcerated, he had the Federal Bureau of Prisons ID # 12873-057.[16] Lane wrote books and articles about gematria and the demographic and sociopolitical status of the white race for white nationalist periodicals and websites. With his wife and Ron McVan, he ran a publishing company called 14 Word Press in Idaho to disseminate his writings.

He was featured in Nazi Pop Twins, a documentary aired on July 19, 2007, on Channel 4 in the UK.[17] In it he was shown speaking by phone with Prussian Blue (the music act from the documentary) and termed them "fantasy sweethearts" and that he viewed them like daughters.[18]

Lane's earliest possible release date from prison would have been on March 29, 2035 (at age 96). He died on May 28, 2007, in FCC Terre Haute due to an epileptic seizure.[3] On June 30, 2007, white supremacists held memorial demonstrations for Lane in cities across the United States, the United Kingdom, Germany, Russia, and Ukraine.[19]

Beliefs

Racial beliefs

Lane stated that his beliefs can be best summarized by a slogan called the "Fourteen words", a term that he coined: "We must secure the existence of our people and a future for White children." He also coined a second 14-word slogan: "because the beauty of the White Aryan woman must not perish from the earth."[5]

Lane authored the 88 Precepts, a collection of statements on natural law, which combine in white supremacist shorthand with the 14 words to "14-88" or "14/88".[20] In white nationalism, 88 is also a reference to "Heil Hitler".

Wotansvolk

Lane was one of the founders of the Wotansvolk movement, a racist, "neo-völkisch"[21] form of Odinism (or Wotanism) he formed with his wife Katja in 1995 to promote his ideology[1] which pursued a program of concerted outreach to prisons.[22] Wotansvolk combines an "Aryan call to arms" with an esoteric teaching, based in part on Jungian psychology, völkish philosophy, and National Socialism.[23] Lane distanced himself from universalist Odinists (including "folkish Asatru") who did not embrace "survival of the Aryan race" as a core part of the movement.[24] Lane argued with Stephen McNallen, then leader of the Asatru Folk Assembly when Lane was alive.[25] By 2017, McNallen came out with support for Lane's 14 Words quoting them verbatim.[21]

Aiming at a white revolution, Wotansvolk endorsed a "leaderless resistance" strategy popularized by Klan veteran Louis Beam, a longtime friend of the Lane family.[23] However, 14 Word Press and Temple of Wotan are now defunct as organizations and no longer have mailing addresses or websites, although Wotanism is still practiced by independent kindreds.

Lane also taught something he called the "Pyramid Prophecy", which included the concept that a Bible code was inserted by "Aryan adepts" within the King James Version of the Christian Bible. Lane was described by the code he deciphered as "the Man of prophecy".[22] Lane issued a declaration called "Moral Authority", as well, which calls the United States a "Red, White and Blue traveling mass murder machine" intent on committing genocide against white people. According to the declaration, "true moral authority belongs to those who resist" this purported genocide.[5]

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 "David Lane". Southern Poverty Law Center. Retrieved September 9, 2015.
  2. ↑ Kleg, Milton (1993). Hate Prejudice and Racism. SUNY Press. pp. 194–195. |access-date= requires |url= (help)
  3. 1 2 Flynn, Kevin (May 29, 2007). "White supremacist, talk show host killer dies in prison". Rocky Mountain News. Archived from the original on July 3, 2007. Retrieved August 17, 2007.
  4. 1 2 Boniface, Dan; Herdy, Amy (May 29, 2007). "Getaway driver in radio talk show host murder dies in prison". KUSA. Terre Haute, Indiana: Gannett Company. Archived from the original on July 3, 2012. Retrieved April 18, 2018. The getaway driver for the white supremacist group who murdered liberal Denver radio talk show host Alan Berg died in a Terre Haute, Indiana federal prison Monday. David Lane, a member of The Order, was 68.
  5. 1 2 3 4 5 "David Lane". Anti-Defamation League. Archived from the original on November 3, 2008.
  6. 1 2 Deceived, Damned & Defiant, pp. 7–12 (online "here". Archived from the original on May 28, 2008. Retrieved June 4, 2007. and "here". Archived from the original on May 28, 2008. Retrieved June 4, 2007. ). Also recounted in Goodrick-Clarke, p. 270.
  7. ↑ Flynn & Gerhardt (1990), p. 259.
  8. 1 2 Schwartz (1996), p. 64.
  9. ↑ Goodrick-Clarke (2003), p. 270.
  10. ↑ Gardell (2003), p. 193.
  11. ↑ "Jury Told of Plan to Kill Radio Host". The New York Times. November 8, 1987. Retrieved August 25, 2007.
  12. ↑ Turner, Wallace (February 7, 1986). "5 Neo-Nazis Get Stiff Sentences For Crime Spree". The New York Times. Retrieved August 25, 2007.
  13. ↑ "Witness in Racist Trial Identifies Gunman in Slaying of Radio Host". The New York Times. September 21, 1985. Retrieved August 25, 2007.
  14. ↑ Simpson, Kevin; Blevins, Jason; Auge, Karen (June 17, 2009). "The murder of Alan Berg in Denver: 25 years later". The Denver Post. Retrieved October 11, 2017.
  15. ↑ "Another Suspect Held In Radio Host's Death". The New York Times. April 1, 1985. Retrieved August 25, 2007.
  16. ↑ "David Eden Lane". Federal Bureau of Prisons. Retrieved May 25, 2010.
  17. ↑ "Nazi Pop Twins". Channel 4. 2007. Retrieved August 17, 2007.
  18. ↑ "The Gaede Bunch: 'A is for Aryan'". Hatewatch. Southern Poverty Law Center. August 8, 2007. Archived from the original on September 30, 2007. Retrieved August 17, 2007.
  19. ↑ "Terrorist, '14 Words' Author, Dies in Prison". Intelligence Report. Southern Poverty Law Center (Fall 2007). October 1, 2007. Retrieved December 16, 2016.
  20. ↑ "14/88". Anti-Defamation League. Retrieved August 12, 2018. 1488 is a combination of two popular white supremacist numeric symbols. The first symbol is 14, which is shorthand for the "14 Words" slogan. The second is 88, which stands for "Heil Hitler".
  21. 1 2 "Neo-Volkisch". Southern Poverty Law Center. Retrieved August 8, 2018.
  22. 1 2 Gardell (2003), p. 381.
  23. 1 2 Lewis, James R.; Petersen, Jesper Aa. (16 July 2014). Controversial New Religions. Oxford University Press. p. 456. ISBN 978-0-19-939436-4.
  24. ↑ "What Are the '14 Words' Everyone's Been Freaking Out About?". Haaretz. August 12, 2018. Retrieved August 12, 2018.
  25. ↑ Gardell 2003, p. 280.

Bibliography

  • Flynn, Kevin J.; Gerhardt, Gary (November 6, 1990). The Silent Brotherhood: Inside America's Racist Underground (Mass-market paperback) (Reprint ed.). New York: Signet Books. ISBN 9780451167866. OCLC 22700196.
  • Schwartz, Alan M., ed. (June 1, 1996). Danger: Extremism – The Major Vehicles and Voices on America's Far-Right Fringe (1st ed.). New York: Anti-Defamation League. ISBN 9780884641698. OCLC 980983202.
  • Gardell, Mattias (June 27, 2003). Gods of the Blood: The Pagan Revival and White Separatism (Paperback)|format= requires |url= (help) (1st Illustrated ed.). Durham: Duke University Press. ISBN 9780822330714. OCLC 849358349.
  • Goodrick-Clarke, Nicholas (July 1, 2003). Black Sun: Aryan Cults, Esoteric Nazism, and the Politics of Identity (Illustrated reissue ed.). New York University Press. ISBN 9780814731550. OCLC 1012939115.
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