1
00:00:13,759 --> 00:00:20,640
Gangs rule their territories through
ruthless enterprises, fear, and a strict code.

2
00:00:23,410 --> 00:00:31,339
Deviate from this code, or challenge
their power, and retribution soon follows.

3
00:00:33,859 --> 00:00:37,759
Especially at the hands
of the deadliest prison

4
00:00:37,759 --> 00:00:40,689
gang in America, the Aryan Brotherhood.

5
00:00:41,850 --> 00:00:46,030
From its beginnings in the
California prison system in

6
00:00:46,030 --> 00:00:50,679
the early 1960s to jails
all over the country today,

7
00:00:50,679 --> 00:00:55,320
here are three stories that build the
Brotherhood's terrifying reputation.

8
00:00:56,310 --> 00:01:02,149
First, one of its most feared members
takes on the national leader of a rival gang.

9
00:01:03,509 --> 00:01:05,980
He stabbed him more than 63 times.

10
00:01:08,349 --> 00:01:11,269
Next, the Brotherhood
breaks its own code and

11
00:01:11,269 --> 00:01:14,200
takes revenge on one of
their former members.

12
00:01:15,040 --> 00:01:17,430
The saying in prison is,
snitches get stitches.

13
00:01:19,150 --> 00:01:22,609
Finally, the gang's
leadership uses a secret message

14
00:01:22,609 --> 00:01:26,060
to launch an attack on
their biggest rival.

15
00:01:26,239 --> 00:01:30,590
He wrote this letter in urine so it was
invisible, ordering the war to begin.

16
00:01:31,769 --> 00:01:36,189
These are the stories from
inside the Aryan Brotherhood.

17
00:01:37,469 --> 00:01:40,129
This is Gangland Chronicles. 1964.

18
00:01:49,459 --> 00:01:51,780
Marin County, California.

19
00:01:53,359 --> 00:01:59,590
The state's oldest prison, San Quentin,
has recently desegregated its population.

20
00:02:00,129 --> 00:02:04,549
White and black inmates are
now doing time side by side.

21
00:02:05,189 --> 00:02:07,180
Tensions are running high.

22
00:02:09,370 --> 00:02:14,560
What was happening in the 60s,
the black marches, the beatings,

23
00:02:14,560 --> 00:02:16,919
that came into the prison.

24
00:02:18,620 --> 00:02:20,250
It didn't matter who you were.

25
00:02:20,930 --> 00:02:22,509
It was black against white.

26
00:02:23,430 --> 00:02:26,550
There were stabbings just
random because of color.

27
00:02:27,740 --> 00:02:29,219
It was out of control.

28
00:02:30,960 --> 00:02:34,699
Both groups formed gangs to
protect themselves from the other.

29
00:02:35,639 --> 00:02:39,650
A number of whites who were hardcore,

30
00:02:39,650 --> 00:02:44,789
ruthless killers decided to form
the White Protection Organization.

31
00:02:46,349 --> 00:02:49,590
They call themselves
the Aryan Brotherhood.

32
00:02:50,849 --> 00:02:56,900
They would only recruit the most
ruthless, willing-to-murder convicts.

33
00:02:57,840 --> 00:03:01,659
To join the gang,
recruits must commit to a

34
00:03:01,659 --> 00:03:05,060
deadly credo known as blood in, blood out.

35
00:03:05,969 --> 00:03:11,659
Blood in is that you must make a hit on
someone to get into the organization.

36
00:03:12,680 --> 00:03:17,310
And blood out is that the
only way to get out is to die.

37
00:03:19,129 --> 00:03:23,030
Once a recruit is accepted
into the Aryan Brotherhood,

38
00:03:23,030 --> 00:03:29,099
he must be ready to kill for the gang
anywhere, anytime, and without question.

39
00:03:32,120 --> 00:03:37,419
They quickly established a
reputation for being the most violent gang.

40
00:03:38,789 --> 00:03:42,389
During the 1970s, the
Aryan Brotherhood expands

41
00:03:42,389 --> 00:03:46,000
from California to
prisons across the U.S.,

42
00:03:46,000 --> 00:03:50,120
eventually setting up a three-man
national leadership commission.

43
00:03:51,159 --> 00:03:57,229
And they go from being a prison
protection gang to a major money-making enterprise.

44
00:03:57,979 --> 00:04:00,530
The Aaron Brotherhood was
mostly concerned about drugs,

45
00:04:00,530 --> 00:04:02,750
because that's where the real money was.

46
00:04:03,590 --> 00:04:07,629
The Brotherhood traffics heroin
smuggled in from the outside,

47
00:04:07,629 --> 00:04:10,319
generating huge revenue for the gang.

48
00:04:11,689 --> 00:04:13,169
There have been FBI estimates.

49
00:04:14,169 --> 00:04:20,000
In 1978, the Aryan Brotherhood took
$3.5 million out of Old Folsom alone,

50
00:04:20,000 --> 00:04:21,790
primarily because of drugs.

51
00:04:23,050 --> 00:04:26,120
The Aryan Brotherhood
also sells deadly weapons

52
00:04:26,120 --> 00:04:28,740
made from whatever they can scrounge.

53
00:04:30,189 --> 00:04:32,220
In the middle of a typewriter is a bar,

54
00:04:32,220 --> 00:04:36,060
and in the middle of that bar is a
little piece of metal like an ice pick.

55
00:04:36,439 --> 00:04:38,399
It was actually used to murder an inmate.

56
00:04:41,050 --> 00:04:45,430
For convicts who don't want to
get their hands dirty at all,

57
00:04:45,430 --> 00:04:47,250
the Brotherhood offers another service.

58
00:04:47,850 --> 00:04:54,100
The Aryan Brotherhood were hired by
other gangs to carry out prison murders.

59
00:04:54,939 --> 00:04:58,060
But prison murders breed retaliation.

60
00:04:59,060 --> 00:05:04,350
And in the early 1980s, one
Brotherhood contract killing will escalate.

61
00:05:12,920 --> 00:05:16,129
1982, Williamson County, Illinois.

62
00:05:17,189 --> 00:05:20,240
At this time, the
federal penitentiary in Marion

63
00:05:20,240 --> 00:05:23,300
is the most secure prison in the country.

64
00:05:24,199 --> 00:05:27,350
Marion had been built to replace Alcatraz.

65
00:05:28,370 --> 00:05:32,810
So they began sending the
worst of the worst to Marion.

66
00:05:33,689 --> 00:05:38,730
Among them is notorious Aryan
Brotherhood member Tommy Silverstein.

67
00:05:41,209 --> 00:05:44,709
Tommy Silverstein was an enforcer.

68
00:05:45,709 --> 00:05:49,459
He would kill without
hesitancy for the gang.

69
00:05:50,639 --> 00:05:55,329
Silverstein is doing life for the
recent contract killing of Robert Chappelle,

70
00:05:55,329 --> 00:06:01,399
a member of the D.C. Blacks, the
largest black prison gang in the country.

71
00:06:02,870 --> 00:06:06,769
Chappelle's death isn't
sitting well with D.C. Blacks

72
00:06:06,769 --> 00:06:09,709
national leader, Raymond Cadillac Smith.

73
00:06:10,120 --> 00:06:13,660
Cadillac Smith starts
calling out Silverstein.

74
00:06:15,560 --> 00:06:16,620
I'm going to kill you.

75
00:06:17,339 --> 00:06:18,490
You're going to be dead.

76
00:06:19,930 --> 00:06:24,810
So it's clear to the officers that
one of them is going to kill the other.

77
00:06:29,139 --> 00:06:34,930
September 27, 1982. The
federal penitentiary in Marion.

78
00:06:35,790 --> 00:06:39,120
Notorious Aryan Brotherhood
enforcer Tommy Silverstein has just

79
00:06:39,120 --> 00:06:45,839
had his life threatened by the national
leader of the D.C. Blacks, Cadillac Smith.

80
00:06:46,959 --> 00:06:50,420
Silverstein knows it's
now kill or be killed,

81
00:06:50,420 --> 00:06:55,600
but murdering Smith could spark a
mass conflict between the two gangs.

82
00:06:56,490 --> 00:07:00,430
In those days, when you're a
member of the Aryan Brotherhood,

83
00:07:00,430 --> 00:07:03,290
as long as they
weren't killing each other,

84
00:07:03,290 --> 00:07:06,870
they didn't have to get
permission to kill someone else.

85
00:07:08,189 --> 00:07:12,220
With help from Aryan
Brotherhood member Clay Fountain,

86
00:07:12,220 --> 00:07:16,250
Silverstein ambushes Cadillac
Smith in the prison showers.

87
00:07:18,149 --> 00:07:21,759
Fountain attacks, but
Smith is too fast for him.

88
00:07:23,699 --> 00:07:27,420
Cadillac Smith appears to
have Tommy Silverstein cornered.

89
00:07:28,540 --> 00:07:33,980
Silverstein, unarmed, throws himself
at Cadillac Smith, knocks him down,

90
00:07:33,980 --> 00:07:40,519
wrestles his shank away from him,
and begins plunging it into him.

91
00:07:44,769 --> 00:07:48,220
He stabbed him more than 63 times.

92
00:07:52,300 --> 00:07:55,439
Tommy Silverstein receives
yet another life sentence for

93
00:07:55,439 --> 00:07:58,980
the savage murder of the
DC Blacks national leader.

94
00:07:59,579 --> 00:08:02,079
But the fallout doesn't end there.

95
00:08:03,589 --> 00:08:06,709
This incident helped set off a war.

96
00:08:09,389 --> 00:08:12,139
These two sides are
constantly at war with each other.

97
00:08:12,939 --> 00:08:18,199
Over the next 15 years, the Aryan
Brotherhood will kill dozens of members

98
00:08:18,199 --> 00:08:23,069
of the DC Blacks and wound
countless more in prisons across America.

99
00:08:24,560 --> 00:08:27,069
Rather than fearing
punishment for killing another inmate,

100
00:08:27,069 --> 00:08:29,579
it would move them up in the ranks,

101
00:08:29,579 --> 00:08:33,039
it would give them a lot
more cred in the prison,

102
00:08:33,039 --> 00:08:35,230
so actually there's
almost sometimes an incentive

103
00:08:35,230 --> 00:08:37,429
for them to commit a violent crime.

104
00:08:38,309 --> 00:08:42,529
As the Aryan Brotherhood wages
war against the D.C. Blacks,

105
00:08:43,009 --> 00:08:46,690
The gang will become
involved in another explosive

106
00:08:46,690 --> 00:08:48,980
conflict within their own organization,

107
00:08:48,980 --> 00:08:53,570
and it will take their
brutality to a new level.

108
00:09:01,039 --> 00:09:04,419
1982, Chino Prison, California.

109
00:09:05,200 --> 00:09:07,500
The Aryan Brotherhood has a problem.

110
00:09:08,409 --> 00:09:10,870
His name is Stephen Barnes.

111
00:09:12,470 --> 00:09:15,629
Stephen Barnes went to prison for murder.

112
00:09:16,629 --> 00:09:18,230
He's a heroin addict.

113
00:09:21,210 --> 00:09:24,330
He was accepted by the Aryan
Brotherhood and eventually joined.

114
00:09:25,529 --> 00:09:28,000
And he was a good soldier for a while.

115
00:09:30,340 --> 00:09:35,350
Barnes sees the Aryan
Brotherhood's Blinky Griffin and Junior Snyder

116
00:09:35,350 --> 00:09:41,360
suddenly kill another member for
bad-mouthing the gang's ally, the Mexican Mafia.

117
00:09:44,159 --> 00:09:45,080
It was a brutal murder.

118
00:09:45,600 --> 00:09:51,090
They cut his throat and his jugular and
his windpipe, and they got away with it.

119
00:09:51,909 --> 00:09:56,220
The incident leaves Barnes
living in fear of his own gang.

120
00:09:57,580 --> 00:10:00,440
And so he defected from
the Aryan Brotherhood.

121
00:10:02,070 --> 00:10:04,529
He agreed to testify
against Blinky and Junior.

122
00:10:05,669 --> 00:10:06,850
He was a jailhouse snitch.

123
00:10:07,629 --> 00:10:12,649
In prison, there is nothing
inmates hate more than a snitch who

124
00:10:12,649 --> 00:10:16,840
cooperates with the law in
exchange for a reduced sentence.

125
00:10:17,500 --> 00:10:19,879
The saying in prison is
snitches get stitches.

126
00:10:21,269 --> 00:10:29,409
We're the Aryan Brotherhood, an inmate
who snitches deserves death and nothing less.

127
00:10:33,600 --> 00:10:35,740
The only good snitch is a dead snitch.

128
00:10:37,299 --> 00:10:40,850
The Aryan Brotherhood
wants Stephen Barnes dead,

129
00:10:40,850 --> 00:10:44,909
but he's already been
placed in protective custody.

130
00:10:45,889 --> 00:10:51,529
Determined to exact revenge, the
Brotherhood considers an unprecedented move.

131
00:10:52,610 --> 00:10:59,029
And they said, hey, if we can't get
Stevie, we'll get his mother and his father,

132
00:10:59,029 --> 00:11:03,850
anybody from his family that we
can reach, and we'll kill them.

133
00:11:06,210 --> 00:11:11,009
It's the perfect opportunity to
discourage anyone else from snitching on the gang.

134
00:11:12,509 --> 00:11:16,000
The idea is to assassinate
family members of individuals

135
00:11:16,000 --> 00:11:18,710
who were testifying
against the Aryan Brotherhood.

136
00:11:20,669 --> 00:11:26,250
Stephen Barnes will pay a
terrible price for betraying the gang.

137
00:11:31,789 --> 00:11:36,590
1982. The California
State Prison in Chino.

138
00:11:37,289 --> 00:11:40,169
The Aryan Brotherhood
is considering killing

139
00:11:40,169 --> 00:11:43,539
the family of former
member Stephen Barnes,

140
00:11:43,539 --> 00:11:48,340
but killing innocent family members
runs against the Brotherhood's code.

141
00:11:49,299 --> 00:11:51,100
You don't harm women.
You don't harm elders.

142
00:11:52,120 --> 00:11:53,299
You certainly don't harm children.

143
00:11:54,320 --> 00:11:57,840
It actually shocked me that
anyone would even consider that.

144
00:11:58,980 --> 00:12:00,980
The plan is put to a vote.

145
00:12:02,460 --> 00:12:04,230
I was the only individual who voted no.

146
00:12:05,210 --> 00:12:09,580
And ultimately what I got outvoted
on was the killing of his father.

147
00:12:12,120 --> 00:12:12,659
February 1983.

148
00:12:14,039 --> 00:12:19,580
The Brotherhood hands the task to
recently released member Curtis Price,

149
00:12:19,580 --> 00:12:25,610
who goes to the Los Angeles home of
Stephen Barnes's father, Richard.

150
00:12:27,429 --> 00:12:29,389
He went to where Richard Barnes lived.

151
00:12:31,070 --> 00:12:36,600
He hid in his closet, and
when Richard Barnes came home,

152
00:12:36,600 --> 00:12:41,620
Curtis Price shot him
in the back of the head.

153
00:12:44,360 --> 00:12:48,590
Stevie Barnes's father, who was a
completely innocent man, a good man,

154
00:12:52,580 --> 00:12:57,299
In the aftermath, Michael
Thompson leaves the Aryan Brotherhood

155
00:12:57,299 --> 00:13:00,450
and begins testifying against the gang.

156
00:13:02,690 --> 00:13:06,809
Curtis Price is convicted for the
murder of Richard Barnes in 1986.

157
00:13:09,509 --> 00:13:13,029
He dies on death row in 2021.

158
00:13:15,460 --> 00:13:20,299
Stephen Barnes escapes revenge at
the hands of the Aryan Brotherhood.

159
00:13:22,620 --> 00:13:26,000
But he never escapes his heroin addiction.

160
00:13:27,539 --> 00:13:29,909
He simply just could not handle life,

161
00:13:29,909 --> 00:13:33,639
bearing the responsibility in his
own mind for his father's death.

162
00:13:34,759 --> 00:13:38,820
Barnes contracts AIDS from
sharing needles and dies in 1992.

163
00:13:42,830 --> 00:13:46,470
Snitches aren't the only thing
the gang has to worry about.

164
00:13:47,590 --> 00:13:49,990
An old enemy is gaining strength.

165
00:13:50,950 --> 00:13:56,620
And to push back, the
Brotherhood must breach America's

166
00:13:56,620 --> 00:14:01,029
highest security prison
with a secret message.

167
00:14:03,519 --> 00:14:08,149
August, 1997, Florence, Colorado.

168
00:14:08,889 --> 00:14:14,370
It's home to what is now
America's most secure prison, ADX.

169
00:14:15,750 --> 00:14:19,730
It actually is a facility where you
are in a single cell 23 hours a day.

170
00:14:21,740 --> 00:14:23,220
You get one hour out of your cell.

171
00:14:23,899 --> 00:14:27,649
It is built specifically for
the inmates that the prison

172
00:14:27,649 --> 00:14:31,019
realizes they cannot handle
in a regular prison setting.

173
00:14:31,870 --> 00:14:37,529
Locked up here are two-thirds of the
Aryan Brotherhood's national leadership, T.D.

174
00:14:37,629 --> 00:14:41,210
Bingham and Barry the Red Baron Mills.

175
00:14:42,909 --> 00:14:45,889
Barry Mills, they call him the Red Baron.

176
00:14:48,399 --> 00:14:52,559
Because like the Red Baron of
Germany, he had killed a lot of people.

177
00:14:55,169 --> 00:14:59,210
T.D. Bingham is arguably the most
dangerous man I've ever met in my life.

178
00:15:00,950 --> 00:15:01,850
And TD was a fighter.

179
00:15:02,769 --> 00:15:03,450
He's a big man.

180
00:15:04,370 --> 00:15:06,820
And I think he probably still
goes by the handle The Hulk.

181
00:15:08,820 --> 00:15:12,649
It's been 15 years since
Tommy Silverstein sparked the

182
00:15:12,649 --> 00:15:16,490
war between the Aryan
Brotherhood and the DC Blacks.

183
00:15:19,909 --> 00:15:25,419
Violence between the two gangs in
East Coast prisons has been on the rise,

184
00:15:25,419 --> 00:15:30,139
culminating with the killing of a
Brotherhood member at Lewisburg in Pennsylvania,

185
00:15:30,139 --> 00:15:33,289
where the DC gang has strength in numbers.

186
00:15:34,929 --> 00:15:36,610
For the Aryan Brotherhood,

187
00:15:36,610 --> 00:15:41,669
that could not stand because then
you have to understand in prison,

188
00:15:41,669 --> 00:15:44,629
it's all about the projection of power.

189
00:15:49,200 --> 00:15:55,269
Back at ADX, Bingham and Mills are
fed up with reports about the D.C.

190
00:15:55,340 --> 00:15:58,509
Blacks at Lewisburg
and want the Brotherhood

191
00:15:58,509 --> 00:16:01,690
members there to do something about them.

192
00:16:02,899 --> 00:16:08,009
They decide that it's time
to take revenge and show the

193
00:16:08,009 --> 00:16:12,649
DC blacks that they're not
going to be pushed around.

194
00:16:14,830 --> 00:16:17,820
But how will they send a secret
message 1,500 miles from ADX?

195
00:16:21,330 --> 00:16:24,090
To Lewisburg Prison in Pennsylvania.

196
00:16:33,379 --> 00:16:38,399
1997. Aryan Brotherhood
leaders jailed in Colorado want to

197
00:16:38,399 --> 00:16:42,230
send a secret message to
Lewisburg Prison in Pennsylvania,

198
00:16:42,230 --> 00:16:47,340
ordering the Brotherhood there to
launch an attack on the DC Blacks.

199
00:16:48,179 --> 00:16:53,820
T.D. Bingham has a plan to get it past
the tight security at both facilities.

200
00:16:54,720 --> 00:16:59,679
He uses his own urine to write
in invisible ink on a letter.

201
00:17:01,799 --> 00:17:04,920
Urine, of course, the active
ingredient in that is ammonia.

202
00:17:05,599 --> 00:17:08,720
Once that dries, you can hold a
flame under that piece of paper.

203
00:17:09,670 --> 00:17:14,509
It acts with the ammonia so that the
message comes right out on the paper.

204
00:17:16,329 --> 00:17:19,170
With the invisible ink message complete,

205
00:17:19,170 --> 00:17:22,480
Bingham then writes an
everyday personal letter.

206
00:17:23,000 --> 00:17:25,880
There's always been a
censoring process of prisoner mail

207
00:17:25,880 --> 00:17:29,079
for anything in it that
it's not supposed to have.

208
00:17:30,019 --> 00:17:34,279
Bingham sends the letter via a
member working on the outside

209
00:17:34,279 --> 00:17:37,769
to ranking Brotherhood member
Big Al Benton at Lewisburg,

210
00:17:37,769 --> 00:17:40,490
who holds it over an open flame.

211
00:17:41,890 --> 00:17:45,390
And what does that letter say when
they hold it up against a match?

212
00:17:46,910 --> 00:17:47,390
It says...

213
00:17:51,599 --> 00:17:52,960
With DC blacks.

214
00:17:54,349 --> 00:17:58,829
The Aryan Brotherhood at
Lewisburg now has no choice but to

215
00:17:58,829 --> 00:18:03,309
plan a decisive blow to its
longtime rival at the prison.

216
00:18:07,900 --> 00:18:08,220
August 28, 1997.

217
00:18:10,420 --> 00:18:14,269
The Brotherhood launches
an unprecedented blitz-like

218
00:18:14,269 --> 00:18:17,980
shiv assault on the D.C. Blacks.

219
00:18:21,140 --> 00:18:24,880
Two men enter the cell
with knives in three cells.

220
00:18:25,900 --> 00:18:30,730
So that's six assailants
entering three cells, two on two.

221
00:18:32,390 --> 00:18:36,829
Six inmates are stabbed,
and two are killed in the

222
00:18:36,829 --> 00:18:39,930
most notorious attack
of the 15-year conflict.

223
00:18:41,450 --> 00:18:46,519
The incident will spur a nationwide
investigation into the Aryan Brotherhood.

224
00:18:48,839 --> 00:18:54,329
Five years after the Lewisburg
attack, 40 members, including T.D.

225
00:19:07,130 --> 00:19:12,190
Which means you didn't have to be at
a crime, but if you're a gang member,

226
00:19:12,190 --> 00:19:15,660
you were responsible for that
crime, just like a mafia kingpin.

227
00:19:16,359 --> 00:19:19,789
Prosecutors seek death
sentences for the ringleaders.

228
00:19:21,289 --> 00:19:23,980
Since all the leadership
of the Aryan Brotherhood

229
00:19:23,980 --> 00:19:26,680
are all doing life
without possibility of parole,

230
00:19:27,349 --> 00:19:30,279
If they got another life,
that would mean nothing to them.

231
00:19:31,740 --> 00:19:33,339
So we were hoping for the death penalty.

232
00:19:34,380 --> 00:19:39,140
In the end, the California
jury returns with 30 convictions,

233
00:19:39,140 --> 00:19:42,940
but the gang's leaders
avoid the death penalty.

234
00:19:43,690 --> 00:19:50,019
It didn't take the head off the snake,
which is Barry Mills, the Hulk Bingham,

235
00:19:50,019 --> 00:19:52,980
and other key members of the gang.

236
00:19:53,900 --> 00:19:56,640
Mills dies in prison in 2018. T.D.

237
00:19:58,299 --> 00:20:00,680
Bingham remains incarcerated in ADX.

238
00:20:02,849 --> 00:20:07,440
Today, led by Bingham, the
Aryan Brotherhood continues

239
00:20:07,440 --> 00:20:10,890
to inspire fear
throughout American prisons,

240
00:20:10,890 --> 00:20:14,339
with an estimated
20,000 members nationwide.

241
00:20:14,910 --> 00:20:20,579
There are very few prisons that don't
have some kind of Aryan Brotherhood affiliate.

242
00:20:21,480 --> 00:20:24,400
They're well organized, and
they're extremely dangerous.

243
00:20:25,349 --> 00:20:29,839
According to the FBI, Aryan
Brotherhood members make up less than

244
00:20:29,839 --> 00:20:33,920
one-tenth of one percent of the
nation's prison inmate population.

245
00:20:34,500 --> 00:20:40,430
Yes, they are responsible for 18
percent of all prison murders.

246
00:20:41,410 --> 00:20:44,650
They're responsible for
hundreds, hundreds of deaths.

247
00:20:45,750 --> 00:20:47,079
And they're still committing crimes.

248
00:20:48,720 --> 00:20:54,579
It's imperative both for the safety
of correction officers and the safety

249
00:20:54,579 --> 00:20:59,470
of other inmates to keep the
Aryan Brotherhood under control.