Aryan Brotherhood of Texas

Aryan Brotherhood of Texas

Aryan Brotherhood of Texas Logo
Founding location	Texas Prison System Texas, United States
Years active	1980's–present
Territory	Texas Prison System New Mexico Prison System
Ethnicity	White
Membership (est.)	Estimated 30,000 members in and out of prison
Criminal activities	Murder, assault, drug trafficking, extortion, racketeering, arms trafficking, inmate prostitution

Aryan Brotherhood of Texas (ABT)

According to the Anti-Defamation League and Southern Poverty Law Center, the Aryan Brotherhood of Texas (ABT) is one of the largest and most violent white supremacist prison gangs in the United States, responsible for numerous murders and other violent crimes.

Despite the similarity in their names, the Aryan Brotherhood of Texas is not affiliated with the “original” Aryan Brotherhood, the notorious prison gang founded in California in the 1960s and existing primarily in California and the federal prison systems.

Though the Aryan Brotherhood denied their request to found a Texas chapter, the ABT was nonetheless established in the 1980s, following the desegregation of Texas prisons and the dismantling of the "Building Tender", or Trusty system, an odious system in which prison officials used other inmates to help maintain order in the prisons. These major and more or less simultaneous changes created an atmosphere of uncertainty and a lack of control that proved fertile breeding grounds for black, Hispanic and white race-based prison gangs. These gangs soon became the top predators in the Texas prison system.

The various white gangs, with names like the Aryan Society and the Aryan Brothers, mostly adopted a relatively crude white supremacist ideology. In the early to mid-1980s, most of the members of these two gangs united to become the Aryan Brotherhood of Texas, while others left out of the merger later helped form the rival Aryan Circle prison gang. From its beginning, the ABT emerged as one of the most violent gangs in the Texas Department of Criminal Justice, committing 13 murders in 1984-1985 alone.

Ranking Structure

The Aryan Brotherhood of Texas is run by 5 Generals, collectively known as the "Steering Committee", or "The Wheel". Each General is given control over a number of prisons within the Texas Department of Corrections. Each prison unit with members is assigned a unit Captain, who in turn assigns a Senior Lieutenant and a Junior Lieutenant. The Junior Lieutenant is the lowest official rank within the ABT, though on larger units, the junior Lieutenant may appoint Sergeants to assist him in the day to day affairs of the gang on the unit.

Prospects

The Prospect, or prospective member is someone under the protection of the ABT, responsible for following any/all direct orders given by an active member, who is being considered for membership into the organization. While they technically do not have a voice in the organization, they are nevertheless treated with the same respect as active members by outsiders.

Typically, whenever there is "dirty work" to be done, such as an assault or murder, more often than not, prospects are used. When the prospect is utilized in such a way, it is often referred to as "earning one's bones".

See also

• Aryan Brotherhood
• Aryan Circle
• Aryan Nations
• Barry Mills (Aryan Brotherhood)
• European Kindred
• Ku Klux Klan
• Nazi Lowriders
• Neo-Nazism
• Public Enemy No. 1
• Volksfront