Robert Jay Mathews

Black and white photograph of Robert Mathews

Robert Jay Mathews (January 16 1953 – December 8 1984) was the leader of an American neo-Nazi nationalist group called The Order. His life was fictionalized in the movie Brotherhood of Murder.

Early years

Robert Mathews was born in Marfa, Texas, 16 January 1953, the last of three boys born to Johnny and Una Mathews. His father, of Scottish descent, was mayor of the town and president of the Chamber of Commerce, and a businessman and leader in the local Methodist church. His mother was the town's den mother

His family moved to Phoenix, Arizona when he was 5 years old. An average student in grade school, he was interested in history and politics. At age eleven, he joined the John Birch Society. While still in high school, he was baptized into the Mormon faith. He became a staunch anti-communist and active in the Young Republicans.

He formed the Sons of Liberty, an anti-communist extremist militia whose members were primarily Mormons and survivalists. At its peak, it had approximately 30 members. After filling out his employer's W-4 Form claiming 10 dependents (reportedly as an act of tax resistance), he was arrested for tax fraud, tried and placed on probation for six months. After a falling out between the Mormon and non-Mormon members, the Sons of Liberty became moribund and Mathews withdrew from it.

After probation ended in 1974, he decided to relocate to Metaline Falls, Washington. Mathews and his father purchased 60 wooded acres, which became their new home and a provided the family with a fresh start.

Two years later, Mathews married Debbie McGarrity. He began to raise Scottish Galloway cattle. The couple adopted a son in 1981. Mathews later became a polygamist and had a daughter with a woman named Zillah Craig.

The Order

Main article: The Order

Mathews began to read history and politics. One in particular, Which Way Western Man? by William Gayley Simpson, profoundly affected him. Mathews agreed with its claim of dangers facing the white race, and in 1982 he began an effort to attract white families to the Pacific Northwest, which he called the "White American Bastion." He visited Richard Butler's Aryan Nations a few times and he began to draw a circle of friends around him who held similar beliefs.

In 1983, Mathews gave a short speech at a National Alliance convention, which was a report on his efforts around the White American Bastion and a call to action. It received the only standing ovation of the convention.

In late September of that year, at a barracks he had constructed on his property in Metaline, Mathews founded (with eight other men) the group that would come to be known as The Order, which he called the Silent Brotherhood." They included his friend and neighbor, Ken Loff, and a group from Aryan Nations: Dan Bauer, Randy Duey, Denver Parmenter, and Bruce Pierce. David Lane, Richie Kemp, and Bill Soderquist, recent recruits, rounded out the group. None had ever committed a violent crime before or had done prison time.

The first order of business, according to Mathews' plan, was to obtain money to support criminal and terrorist activity in the name of white separatism, and they carried out their first robbery (of a porn shop in Spokane) which netted them $369.10. They agreed that it was not worth the risks they had taken and so turned their attention to robbing armored cars and counterfeiting. They printed up some phony $50 notes and 28 year old Pierce was quickly arrested after passing a few.

In order to raise Pierce's bail, Mathews, acting alone, robbed a bank just north of Seattle. He stole almost $26,000. Some of The Order's members, along with a new recruit, Gary Yarborough, carried out more robberies and burglaries, which netted them over $43,000. A subsequent robbery yielded several hundred thousand dollars. Another recruit, Tom Martinez, was caught and charged for passing more counterfeit currency. Then in July, 1984, they finally used a dozen men to rob a Brink's truck of $3,800,000.

The robbers distributed some of the stolen money to various other criminal racist and terrorist organizations.

Final days

Last letter

Prior to his death Matthews wrote a long letter explaining his life and justifying his actions.

Last Days

Mathews and the other members of the Order were eventually given up by Martinez, who had come under pressure after his counterfeiting arrest. After he revealed information regarding Mathews' activities to the Federal Bureau of Investigation, Mathews and several others were eventually surrounded in a small cabin south of Coupeville, Washington on Whidbey Island by over 500 agents on December 8, 1984. (Various sources state numbers of law enforcement agents between 60 and 500.) Mathews refused to come out after an intense exchange of gunfire. The FBI then fired several M-79 Starburst flares inside the house, setting off a box of hand grenades, causing an explosion and killing Mathews.

Eventually over 75 people in eight trials were convicted of crimes connected to The Order. Charges ranged from racketeering, conspiracy, counterfeiting, transporting stolen money and armored car robbery. Ten people connected to the case, including Butler, Lane, and Pierce, were tried for sedition but were acquitted by the jury.

References

• Flynn, Kevin, and Gerhardt, Gary, The Silent Brotherhood ISBN 0-451-16786-4.

External links

• Robert Mathews at the NNDB
• Brotherhood of Murder - a Hollywood film about The Order, as told from Tom Martinez's view.