Brotherhood of Hate | FULL EPISODE | The FBI Files

deep in the hills of arkansas an army of extremists plot to overturn the u.s government they spread a doctrine of hate murder and genocide launch death rates on churches and synagogues bomb public utilities and gunned down a state trooper federal agents must dismantle the radical renegades without inciting a bloody war [Music] [Music] in 1984 a tragic murder led agents into the frightening world of domestic terrorism law enforcement vowed to dismantle the violent faction that claimed responsibility i'm jim caldstrom former head of the fbi's new york office the radical group pursued a doctrine of racial cleansing an attack on basic american freedoms the fbi's quest for justice escalated into a brutal showdown pitting agents against terrorists fueled by hate june 1984 sevier county arkansas a rural area along the oklahoma border winona bryant drives south on u.s highway 71. winona is a teacher at a local high school she's traveling with her children and her nephew to meet her husband for lunch he is lewis bryant an arkansas state trooper he patrols this stretch of highway along the way winona spots a police cruiser on the side of the road she recognizes the id number that's dad's car louis is nowhere in sight something's wrong winona tells the children to stay in the car then she sees him covered with blood winona struggles to stay calm as she uses the police radio to call for help she tells the dispatcher that lewis is unconscious it looks like he's been shot the arkansas state police dispatcher alerts all police frequencies that an officer is down north passing motorists winona can feel a faint heartbeat but her husband isn't breathing she administers cpr until county [Music] authorities [Music] paramedics rush bryant to a nearby hospital where he is pronounced dead trooper lewis bryant was a respected veteran of the arkansas state police he leaves behind his wife winona and their two children within minutes of the shooting the queen arkansas sheriff's department receives a frantic call a driver on highway 71 reports seeing a brown and white van leaving the scene i was pulling a homemade trailer [Music] police in broken bow oklahoma spot the van heading west the driver refuses to stop but police force him to the side of the road as officers converge on the van the driver pulls out a rifle and starts shooting [Music] police strike the suspect in the shoulder he pulls out a 45 caliber pistol and continues firing officers hit him four more times finally forcing him down police search the wounded suspect and find a driver's license identifying him as richard wayne snell of stephenville texas [Music] at a nearby hospital police questioned snell the suspect confesses to shooting the state trooper snell tells police he has outstanding warrants in texas and he was trying to escape arrest as bryant approached the car and snell opened fire agents from the oklahoma state bureau of investigation search snell's van they discover a metal box containing a 22 semi-automatic pistol and a grenade also find suspicious wires attached to the underside of the steering wheel column leading to the air conditioner they fear the van is booby-trapped investigators call in a bomb squad from the oklahoma highway patrol technicians carefully examined the vehicle after several tense moments they conclude the van is not rigged to explode [Music] the search of the vehicle resumes investigators find several more weapons including a mach 10 machine pistol [Music] they also find literature printed by a group of white supremacists called the csa the covenant the sword and the arm of the lord [Music] the group advocates the violent overthrow of the united states government in their literature they call for the murder of government agents and the extermination of jews and blacks police call in agent bill buford of the atf along with other federal investigators buford has been trying to establish a criminal case against the csa for nearly two years looking for evidence beaufort makes a chilling discovery in the van was a briefcase and in the briefcase was a lot of notes that this individual had put together different maps and one of the things that i noticed immediately was a map apparently of my house the street it was on the different houses that surrounded my place [Music] and that caused me a little concentration to say the least it was later established that they had also been doing surveillance on a federal judge a u.s attorney an fbi agent for whatever reason whether they just wanted to know where we lived or whether they were anticipating retaliation for sub whatever that's just left up to one's own imagination i guess [Music] buford examines the weapons retrieved from the van one of the things that came to my attention almost immediately was that the mac 10 had a silencer on it the silencer is homemade but sophisticated bill buford believes he has seen one just like it confiscated just three months earlier [Music] in early april missouri police caught three men stealing a flatbed trailer in their possession were three 45 semi-automatic pistols [Music] one sawed-off shotgun and one mac-10 converted to fully automatic with a homemade silencer according to an informant all three men are members of the csa [Music] the two silencers looked exactly the same and i felt like this might be a break if we could determine that these two silencers were made by the same people and were able to establish that they had come from the csa compound five days after the shooting on july 5th 1984 trooper lewis bryant is laid to rest the funeral is attended by then governor bill clinton hillary clinton and over a thousand police officers [Music] governor clinton makes the investigation of extremist groups a priority is to set up a group comprising members of both districts under the chairmanship of colonel google to work on these cases state and federal agents probe deeper into snell's connection to the csa the murder weapon in the bryant case was a 45 caliber cult commander 18 months earlier the gun had been stolen in a deadly pawn shop hold up in texarkana arkansas the owner had been shot three times in the back of the head ballistics analysis shows a bullet recovered from the victim had been fired by a 22-caliber ruger the same 22 ruger found in snell's van according to records the leader of the csa purchased that ruger four years earlier agents now have enough evidence to subpoena the leader of the csa to appear before a federal grand jury on gun charges bill buford heads to mountain home arkansas to deliver the subpoena to the csa leader at his 200-acre compound informants and surveillance indicate that the compound is heavily fortified several structures dot the surveillance photos [Music] agents know the compound is inhabited by the csa leadership and approximately 65 men women and children they know little else entries out about in front of it stop us do our checking atf investigators had become aware of the csa several years earlier the organization had evolved from a religious group into a violent right-wing militia when atf began to really think that this was more than just a bible study group was when we uh were aware of the large number of right-wing organizations that were coming in and doing the paramilitary training there about another 150 yards according to informants extremist groups such as the aryan nation the posse comitatus and the order frequently visited the compound they're watching us type so a few low-level members of the csa had been arrested for firearms violations but the leadership of the group had always managed to evade prosecution for all but misdemeanor offenses buford hoped today would mark the beginning of the end for this dangerous organization agent buford meets a man at the front gate who identifies himself as carrie noble the group's second in command he went into the compound and a short time later he came back and said well the leader of the group will meet with you but only you and you have to go down unarmed and i have to search you to make sure you haven't got a gun on you buford agrees to turn his weapon over to another atf agent he allows himself to be searched he knows that going into the compound alone and unarmed is dangerous but there's no other choice if one of the people that was working for me or one of the agents that in my supervision had wanted to do it i wouldn't let him do it but at the time it seemed like the right thing the stakes are too high the group is too dangerous buford needs to show the csa that federal agents will not be intimidated [Music] in arkansas state trooper louis bryant is gunned down during a routine traffic stop [Music] investigators discover weapons connecting brian's killer to a group of violent white supremacists calling themselves the covenant the sword and the arm of the lord atf agent bill buford enters the group's heavily fortified compound to deliver a subpoena ordering the group's leader to appear before a federal grand jury the atf agent enters alone and unarmed [Music] it was kind of an awesome sight at first glance it looked like just a community there with a number of buildings but as you looked closer you saw that these buildings were all rock structures very well made if you look closely you could see that there were bunkers dug around the compound itself [Music] buford confronts the csa leader face to face i explained to him that i had a subpoena from federal grand jury in muskogee oklahoma and uh that he would need to appear on the date on the subpoena the subpoena concerns weapons involved in the murder of a state trooper investigators have traced some of the weapons back to the csa [Music] he asked if he would be arrested i assure him that grand jury appearance was all this was that was not an arrest warrant that he wouldn't be arrested the leader takes the subpoena his men escort buford out of the compound when the csa leader eventually appears before the grand jury he denies knowing richard wayne snell the man who confessed to the murder of trooper lewis bryant he also claims no knowledge of how weapons traced to him ended up in snell's possession [Music] on november 1st 1984 richard wayne snell is found guilty of capital murder in the shooting death of state trooper lewis bryant [Music] he is sentenced to life imprisonment without the possibility of parole on the same day snell is charged with the murder of a pawn shop owner in texarkana arkansas in the winter of 1985 the fbi the atf and the arkansas u.s attorney's office turn up the heat on the csa fbi special agent jack knox has developed a key informant who claims the csa is involved in acts of domestic terrorism he outlined what he referred to as road trips in which he and two other members of the csa were assigned by the leader of the csa to take in search of businesses or establishments to plunder or jewish establishments which they might attack according to the informant two years before the murder of the arkansas state trooper several csa members had set fire to a jewish community center in bloomington indiana [Music] [Music] the informant claimed that at about the same time the csa firebombed a church in springfield missouri that welcomed gay [Music] members he also claimed that three months later the csa attempted to bomb a major natural gas pipeline in fulton arkansas to disrupt supplies across the midwest they were unsuccessful the pipeline was not damaged but assistant u.s attorney steve snyder could see a dangerous pattern emerging [Music] there were what appeared to be random acts of violence after this individual talked they no longer became random acts of violence they became part of a plan to strike out against the united states and attempt to disrupt the activities of the united states and its citizens the csa had evolved from a religious cult into a group of domestic terrorists that had declared war in the united states in march 1985 a second informant a former member of the csa provides more information about the organization he gives details about firearms and explosives being manufactured and used by the group he tells investigators there is a machine shop in the compound where the csa makes grenades and silences and illegally converts semi-automatic weapons to fully automatic he also claims the group has obtained a powerful anti-tank rocket commonly called a law the fbi informant reports that the csa is building an armored tank and that landmines have been placed around the perimeter of the compound he also provides a laundry list of interstate offenses committed by the group including transportation of stolen vehicles mail fraud and theft of government property based on the informant statements the u.s attorney pursues a warrant to search the csa compound for illegal weapons and explosives u.s attorney snyder intends to use rico a federal racketeering statute to prosecute the csa the statute enables authorities to arrest and convict leaders of criminal organizations based on a pattern of illegal activities the ricoh statute carried a statutory maximum penalty of 20 years as opposed to the weapons and firearms violations which carried a lesser penalty so it was a more severe uh crime if i can show you this bigger map investigators discuss how to best serve the warrant bill buford opposes a kick in the door approach it was obvious to me that we were dealing with a very militant organization they were not in fact going to just roll over if we walk in and say hey we're the federal government we're here to look at your compound they weren't going to allow us to do that to reduce the risk of a violent battle the fbi would employ the newly formed hostage rescue team to serve the warrants [Music] the hrt was established in 1982 as a counter-terrorism unit to work both inside and outside the borders of the united states in 1985 special agent danny coulson is the commander of the hrt the hrt basically are assaulters it's their job to go into a crisis point and neutralize terrorists and rescue hostages but this was not that type of situation these people are very well armed they were very formidable and we wanted to avoid a shootout colson establishes a command post in nearby branson missouri the hrt is composed of two elite teams basically you had a sniper element and you had an operator element the snipers were responsible for gathering intelligence to give cover to the operators and the bulk of the team was made up of operators agent buford who's been inside the compound briefs coulson on the layout the main gravel access road the front gate and where the property borders the shore of a man-made lake now in this case the first phase of the operation is a reconnaissance mission you cannot command to control a crisis situation unless the commander's done a recon he has to go in and see the ground he has to know what the structures are like where they are relative to each other and what the best avenue approach to get there in the shortest period of time tonight colson and his team will be the uninvited guests of the csa [Music] in arkansas local and federal authorities believe an extremist group is involved in domestic terrorism [Music] they call themselves the csa the covenant the sword and the arm of the lord the fbi's hostage rescue team prepares to enter the terrorist's heavily fortified compound compound hrt commander danny coulson briefs the reconnaissance team before they go in the recon team's job is to gather intelligence on the group's infrastructure its buildings manpower and weapons while avoiding the csa's armed patrols atf agent bill buford will act as the hrt's guide he's been inside the compound and knows the layout i had been doing so much work on the csa and it spent so much time in the woods out around the compound that i had a good idea of the terrain the fortifications on the compound and had drawn up a raid plan myself as to what i felt should be done in order to execute the safely fbi special agent danny coulson knows the csa is well armed and dangerous these individuals had assault rifles they had night vision capability they had an excellent communication system they were well trained they practiced their tradecraft which means marksmanship still coulson has every faith in his team the hrt has excellent patrolling skills and it was just a matter of relying on our training you move very quietly you move very slowly [Music] you crawl in your stomach you stop and you listen you look and you rely on your senses we would send a person on point he would scour the area and glass it with the thermal imaging gear you listen to the noise of the forest if something interrupts that you know somebody's there it's not supposed to be the team spots csa guards patrolling the compound they're armed with assault rifles [Music] [Music] we finally signaled it was safe and we moved the rest of the patrol in and we started leapfrog in and out we had a rear guard to be sure that we came around behind us the thing that was concerned most about of course is the law of rocket you don't have to be a real good shot with a law of rocket to kill a lot of people it'll take out a light tank or a bunker fired him to my perimeter could have killed my agents the recon team finally makes its way to the main compound csa members as well as their families are asleep inside some of the buildings the assault team leader you need to know what the structures look like in case we had to breach them so you have the possibility that there could be a suicide pact with these people they might start killing their children that's happened before it's happened since then and so we had to be prepared to go on there to rush in and save innocent lives from the reconnaissance missions coulson now knows exactly how the csa compound is laid out and what needs to be done well the thing that the recon really reinforced was that we don't want to assault these guys if we had to we could do it but there would be great loss of life on their side and possible on our side the compound sits on over 200 acres of land if coulson hopes to resolve this without bloodshed he'll need a lot more men after we saw how expansive this facility was there i knew 50 men could not hold that perimeter colson calls for an additional 200 fbi agents from field offices across the country he needs to sneak them into the small community without tipping off the csa knowing mountain home arkansas is famous for its sports fishing fbi agents disguise themselves as fishermen they check into fishing camps located along the river the plan is to use fishing boats to approach the compound at its weakest point from the lake as agents prepare to move on the compound coulson briefs special agent clint van zandt of the fbi's hostage negotiation unit you've got about five options in any type of situation you can contain isolate and negotiate you can contain and demand surrender you can use snipers you can use tear gas or you can use a direct tactical assault and just overwhelm them with manpower and fire power in these last three people die the decision is made to contain isolate and negotiate danny coulson is the point man on all three phases of the operation i came to believe rather quickly that the leader of csa is not going to want to negotiate with a lower ranking fbi negotiator he's going to want to talk to his tactical equivalent in this case it's going to be danny coulson and i wasn't comfortable with that i'm a tactical person i had been a sniper and i've been a swat team member and a swat team leader and trained as an operator and i was not trained to be a negotiator and i didn't know that i could pull that off i had much more comfortable going in after the guy than trying to talk him out but van zandt convinces coulson that he's the right man for the job i viewed a lot of negotiations i mean every time the tactical team is deployed and negotiators deployed with them so i'd seen it done and basically clint manzant taught me some negotiation strategies and techniques after 10 days of reconnaissance and planning special agent danny coulson and the fbi hostage rescue team are ready over 200 law enforcement agents prepare to surround one of the most dangerous and heavily armed outlaw militias in the country in 1985 the fbi closes in on the csa a paramilitary organization in arkansas members of the group are suspected of domestic terrorism and murder over 200 agents led by the fbi's hostage rescue team make their move hrt snipers and operatives deploy across a lake that borders the compound their mission is to establish a rear perimeter additional hrt units fan out in the woods flanking the main compound [Music] the atf along with the arkansas state police in the missouri highway patrol set up roadblocks their job is to prevent any csa supporters from entering or leaving the compound overhead an fbi surveillance aircraft called the night stalker cruises at an altitude of 50 000 feet the plane's onboard thermal imaging system monitors movement throughout the compound [Music] fbi special agent danny coulson you could see everything going on in the ground we saw csa people standing and talking to each other in little groups around the compound we could see every animal every deer every coyote rabbits running around on the ground which gave me a tremendous tremendous advantage because i could use this vehicle this airplane to help me set my perimeter they could maneuver my people around listening posts they could maneuver my people around patrols colson directs the mission from a command and control vehicle near the front gate of the compound special agent clint van zandt an fbi hostage negotiator advises coulson it was very prudent to go in at night and to have them wake up the next morning and find that we had walked literally right up to them without them knowing it we could have come all the way in but we didn't do it because we want to resolve this peacefully hrt snipers surveil the compound from positions inside and near the main gate [Laughter] within 10 minutes they report that two men are exiting the compound and approaching their position instructions please i have individuals coming out of the compound gate standby and i radioed back and said do they know you're there he said no they haven't seen us yet the sniper tells coulson that one man has an assault rifle the other has a sidearm go back inside individuals getting closer command posts instructions please colson instructs his men to confront the csa guards i said you hail them you yell at them and tell them you're the fbi tell them to go back inside your copy the message it sounds is that we could have got you [Music] but we chose not to do it basically we we are here in force but we come in peace [Music] wanted to get in a habit of following my orders or the orders of my team and to show them that we weren't there to hurt them [Music] we're hearing from the tactical agents that there are lights at their activities within the compound we'll go with you now you better stay back here moments later another man walks out of the who's compound here i instructed to let him get close and i wanted two operators to take him into custody that vi i didn't order him back in because i want to start the dialogue it's time to talk now sometimes one of the most difficult things about a standoff situation is finding somebody to talk to you don't always get them to talk to you initially the man identifies himself he's carrie noble the deputy commander of the csa the first thing i said to him is we need to start a dialogue and talk about resolving this thing peacefully we're not here to hurt anybody but you're not getting out if you start a war we're going to end it noble says he will convey the fbi's request to talk with his commander at daybreak federal agents and local police have completely surrounded the compound the news media somehow gets hold of the story and converges along access roads agents establish a direct telephone line into the compound [Music] a short time later agent coulson receives a call the operator called me over and said it's uh it's him and it was the leader [Music] that's right essentially said the same thing that i'd said to his deputy is that it is the fbi my name is danny coulson we have a warrant for your arrest the leader agrees to come out and talk on one condition that he will not be arrested otherwise his people will put up a fight [Music] as an expert in behavioral science van zandt believes the csa leader will only respond to another commander as a military commander i said you wouldn't be carrying a long gun a rifle in this type of meeting but you'd have your nine millimeter pistols you'll meet his expectation as to what our fbi tactical commander should look like he'll be more open to dialogue more open to negotiations coulson approaches the main gate you should always look like you're in charge but also you have to to bring him out you have to get him to talk it's not just you walk up and give demands you get him to talk to you tensions mount for a possible violent confrontation fbi snipers trained their sights on the csa leader and his guards and you have to understand that this is a man who thought we were literally from the devil that we were agents of the devil so trying to create a bond of trust on a road with two armies facing each other with awesome firepower as a difficult thing to do colson tells the csa leader that the fbi is there to confiscate grenades assault rifles the law anti-tank rocket all illegal weapons stored in the compound and eventually i really didn't describe the forces i just said we're here we've been here we know what's going on in there and at this point i wanted to remain the faceless enemy what i got from him was dialogue which is the most important thing but what i didn't get was capitulation he didn't agree to do anything he just agreed that they would go back in and pray about it well i respect that we'd agreed earlier if he came out that he could go back in and that's very important you have to keep that trust coulson and vanzant have no choice but to honor their agreement they allow the leader to go back inside the compound the first day and night of the siege passes without incident or resolution [Music] on day two of the siege the csa commander requests another meeting this time he appears in full battle dress changing clothing is a big deal when the leader of csa puts on tactical clothes he's taking the presence of a tactical commander the leader of the csa tells coulson that there are people inside the compound who are prepared to launch an assault and break out my patience was wearing really thin this time and i said to him who are you going to fight you've not seen us you don't know where we are we are going to use deadly force on you if you come out with weapons and come onto my perimeter who are you going to shoot you haven't even seen us yet how are you going to shoot us it's like you're fighting ghosts and you won't even know who kills you you need to come out of there now you get in there and convince them to get out of here right now the leader tells coulson he is prepared to come out but he can't control everyone in the compound and he said to me i need help he said there's a man that's our spiritual leader and i need his advice and i need i need his help to convince people that's the thing to do to come out and i said who is this he said it's robert millar robert millar is a well-known figure in the secretive world of right-wing extremists it's an unusual demand but to van zant it's a turning point in the negotiation this situation was either going to be resolved by bullets or it was going to be resolved by trust bullets of trust what's it going to be for coulson it is the moment of truth he knows that if the shooting starts there is no telling when it will stop in the mountains of arkansas over 200 law enforcement agents surround an armed compound inside are a group of violent right-wing extremists the covenant the sword and the arm of the lord the leader of the csa demands to see robert millar their spiritual leader fbi special agent danny coulson decides to use millar to help persuade csa members to leave the compound this is something totally against fbi policy to bring in a confederate into a crisis situation not just to negotiate but to go inside and this is a huge risk and i thought it was worth taking given the risk that we were facing the fbi flies millar in from oklahoma special agent clint van zant tries to convince millar that it will be in the group's best interests if he helps bring the standoff to an end i said you know if you're able to do this if you're able to resolve this peacefully you'll be known as the peacemaker within your movement i said i don't say that to win you over i say to tell you that you've got a lot riding on this and you could see the wheels turning it was at that moment i thought he's flipped over on our side he's on our side he's going to do it this was all the chips we're saying we're going to bet on this guy that he's going to drive home the message that danny and myself and everybody else has been delivering for the last four days now he's got to close the deal [Music] and he called on the field phone and laura said well i'm in here talking to them but i really haven't gotten anything resolved they said okay you got another hour well really we couldn't control him what we going to do go in and grab him by the neck and rip him out of that compound where there's 50 people with guns inside so you had to be real careful of not you will be out of there because then it would have been apparent we were an empty suit we were paper tiger and we couldn't be perceived as that so had to be well i really need you out of there an hour and uh he called back an hour and he said i need i need more time with these folks i think i can do it i've got them come along but but i need more time and we just reconciled ourselves that he's going to stay there the night [Music] on the morning of april 22nd day four of the siege milar and the csa leadership exit the compound for the first time since the beginning of the standoff there are no armed men with the csa leader they came out they said we have an agreement that we will surrender we will come out and we'll give up our arms and walk out peacefully colson receives the news with guarded optimism and i said to them that's a great decision but i want you to understand that this better not be a ruse for an escape attempt because you will not survive it this better be a surrender coulson gives the leader 15 minutes to gather his people and bring them out and very shortly after i get a communication from my sniper team that they're coming they're coming out the snipers report that they're on civilian attire there's no camis there's no there's no battle gear there's no weapons they can see the siege is over not a single shot has been fired it was an ending that we had all prayed for and one that we were very fortunate that we had atf and fbi agents carefully searched the compound accompanied by the deputy commander of the csa kerry noble [Music] over the course of several days they recover hundreds of automatic weapons homemade hand grenades and land lines as well as detonator boxes and plastic explosives agents find a long anti-tank rocket near the leader's house they find 30 gallons of cyanide stored inside steel drums agents believe the csa intended to use it to pollute municipal water supplies investigators also find a steel-plated armored car equipped with a fully automatic machine gun at trial the leader of the covenant the sword in the arm of the lord is sentenced to 20 years in prison for federal rico violations kerry noble the csa's deputy commander receives a five-year sentence for firearm violations today he speaks publicly about the dangers of hate groups and destructive cults richard wayne snell already serving a life sentence for the murder of arkansas state trooper lewis bryant is found guilty of murdering a pawn shop owner he is sentenced to death [Music] on april 19 1995 at 9 16 pm snell is executed by lethal injection [Music] today the csa compact is little more than a collection of abandoned shacks stone ruins [Music] you

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Keywords: FBI, FBI Files, FBI Documentary, Documentary, Crime, Crime Documentary, Crime Patrol, True Crime, True crime daily, Unsolved, Crime Stories, Crime Documentaries Full Episodes, Full Episode, unsolved true crime, fbi files full episodes, we got him, mystery, solved, investigation, police, criminal, prison, jail

Id: XH6dZZqL1dI

Length: 49min 23sec (2963 seconds)

Published: Sat Jul 17 2021