Alan Berg

On June 18th, 1984, a prominent talk-show host was gunned down in front of his Colorado home. Almost immediately, investigators began to suspect someone who the controversial host had upset on his show; a theory that eventually led them to a group of violent white supremacists…

Published in 1978, the book "The Turner Diaries" would end up becoming one of the most important pieces of literature in American history. Despite very few Americans having ever read it, or even being aware of its existence, the book has a long-lasting legacy that continues to loom large over our day-to-day lives.

Written by William Luther Pierce - a white supremacist, neo-Nazi, and anti-Semite, who only agreed to publish the fictional book under a pseudonym - "The Turner Diaries" tells a bleak story that preys upon the fears of white nationalists. Set a century in the future, the story is set in a dystopian world where white people are subjugated by other races, forced to live in bondage and drowning in prejudice, before eventually rising as a collective force and declaring war on the non-white segments of the U.S. population (in an event that the book labels "The Day of the Rope"). This group of white Americans ultimately declares victory after driving all non-whites out of America through a sustained campaign of violence; which ranges from shooting opinionated talk show hosts in the streets, to - as you heard in the introduction - bombing federal buildings throughout the country.

Even though it's an objectively terrible book - not only in plot and substance but even its own clunky, archaic prose - the release of "The Turner Diaries" was a galvanizing moment for white supremacists living in the United States. It not only provided literary erotica for those that lived in fear of other races (and the "culture wars" that they feared were taking over the public discourse), but it also provided a blueprint of sorts for extremist groups to follow: what actions they could take in this proposed scenario of an armed insurrection, where armed and militant white supremacists would begin to declare war on the federal government - and through it, subjugate its minority groups before the same thing happened to them.

While some of you might already be aware of what this book is, you might be unaware of what kind of effect it had on our society. For example, Oklahoma City bomber Timothy McVeigh cited "The Turner Diaries" as one of his biggest inspirations before carrying out his terror plot (which resulted in 168 deaths in April of 1995 and McVeigh's execution in 2001), as well as some more recent examples of violence from right-wing extremists, who continue to cite the book as one of their main inspirations before carrying out mass shootings or other similar plots.

But all of these outbursts were preceded by a singular incident from Colorado: a planned execution by a white supremacist gang in the mid-1980s, which was meant to be the first shot in the race war prophesied by "The Turner Diaries". In fact, this real-world assassination scheme would unfold nearly-identically to a scene from the book, giving notice to other extremist groups throughout the United States to begin arming themselves for the conflict to come.

This is the story of Alan Berg.

Alan Harrison Berg was born in January of 1934 to his parents, Dr. Joseph Berg - a dentist - and Ruth Berg. He had one older sister named Norma and would grow up in a predominantly black and Jewish neighborhood in Chicago.

As a child, Alan would express a lot of dislike for his father, who he believed was ashamed of his Jewish heritage; often hiding it in social or public outings, and portraying himself as a gentile to his patients at the dental clinic he owned and operated. Given the era that Alan grew up in - the period corresponding with World War Two, when many Jewish people throughout America were being treated with hostility - this isn't very surprising. But this perceived betrayal of their faith would cause Alan to lash out at any perceived bigotry throughout his life, which would become an important facet of his personality later on.

However, Alan himself would later admit to feeling confused throughout his childhood. While other boys his age were into traditional boy hobbies like playing baseball and climbing trees, Alan admitted to being interested in more effeminate things, like ballet. Speaking about this years later, he recalled:

"I once admitted that to a friend and he said, 'You queer?' I wondered if maybe I was. Not in the sexual way, but just that I was a queer person. I didn't feel like I belonged anywhere, and to this day that feeling has never changed."

As a young adult, Alan would relocate to Denver, Colorado to begin attending college. He enrolled in the University of Colorado Denver at the age of 17, staying there for two years - during which time, he married an older woman very briefly, for about a month, admitting later on that the two only got married so that they could have sex. In the years that would follow, Alan would end up transferring to a number of other schools throughout the country: the University of Miami (Florida), DePaul University back home in Chicago, Northwestern University, and then finally back to DePaul, where he graduated from law school in 1957.

Alan Berg would become one of the youngest people to ever pass the Illinois state bar exam, at the age of just 22, and would begin practicing law shortly thereafter. But not before he married a young woman he had met back in Denver, Judith Halpern, who would become Judith Berg after their marriage in 1958 (one year after Alan's college graduation).

The two began settling into a comfortable life in Chicago, but Alan's life would quickly begin to unravel. While he initially found employment as a law clerk, he would quickly move into setting up his own law practice, where he became a defense lawyer known for representing several mafiosos and their enforcers. While the money was good, Alan began to feel his conscience slowly slipping away from him, and with it, his health. Alan had begun suffering from neuromuscular seizures as a young adult, and this - paired with his habit of overworking himself - resulted in him seeking solace in a longtime friend of his, alcohol. Over the next few years, his marriage would begin to splinter as he suffered from alcoholism.

In addition to growing dependent on alcohol to function in his daily life, Alan Berg had become self-destructive in other ways: in addition to overworking himself and depriving his wife of both love and attention, he started stepping out on her with other women. Alan would be the first to tell you that he was flawed, and he later reflected on this period of his life as one of his darkest chapters.

Judith eventually left him, returning to the state of Colorado where her family lived. In the hopes of salvaging their marriage, Alan followed her to Denver, seeking help for his alcoholism by entering St. Joseph's Hospital to begin rehabbing. He would dedicate himself to sobriety over the rest of his life, and it's been reported that he never had another drop of alcohol from this point forward. Over the next several months, Alan would work to try and atone for his wrongdoings and repair his relationship with Judith.

Now living in Colorado, Alan Berg would avoid subjecting himself to the same pitfalls as before, and would seemingly abandon his legal career in the process. He would end up working as a shoe salesman for a time, before deciding to open up his own clothing store, which he named The Shirt Broker. It was through this store that Alan met a man that would become an important friend of his, Laurence Gross.

Laurence Gross was a local talk show host who hosted a show on KGMC-AM (now known as KWBZ). Gross was impressed with how Alan was able to talk about almost any issue at the drop of a hat: not only articulately and passionately, but occasionally controversially. While he was calm and thoughtful to almost everyone he met, Alan tended to play devil's advocate, and could argue with anyone about anything - and Laurence Gross thought that Alan would make a great recurring guest for his radio show. He would end up asking Alan to appear on his show multiple times over the next couple of weeks, with Alan impressing everyone that listened in. His guest spots seemed to excite or incite those listening, depending on which side of the political aisle you were on, which was exactly what radio broadcasters were hired to provide for the networks, as it kept everyone engaged for one reason or another.

When Laurence Gross decided to take another job in San Diego, he requested that Alan Berg be given his time slot on KGMC. Soon enough, Alan Berg would become one of the most prominent talk show hosts in his time slot, but health problems would rear their ugly head yet again.

In 1976, Alan Berg would suffer from a severe seizure, which he was unable to get out of. It would be discovered shortly thereafter that he had a large brain tumor, which would require surgery. The surgery was successful, thankfully, and Alan was able to return to his normal self in no time at all, but the scars would remain... quite literally. Alan would grow out his hair, using the long and shaggy bangs to hide his surgery scars.

In 1978, Alan and Judith would end up finalizing their divorce, having separated months prior. However, they would remain in close contact over the next several years and would attempt to rekindle their romance years later.

Despite these setbacks in his personal life, Alan Berg would persevere with his radio career, eventually moving on from KGMC to KHOW (after KGMC rebranded to KWBZ). On KHOW, one of the more popular Denver-area AM stations to this day, Alan would end up becoming one of the most popular radio hosts in the region, with his divisive, controversial, and argumentative persona being perfected over several years, with Alan gaining nearly as many detractors as he did fans (if not more so). This divisive nature would lead to Alan being fired from KHOW in August of 1979, before briefly returning to KWBZ. Once there, however, the station would transition to an all-music format, leading to Alan becoming unemployed once again. However, he had now had time to build up his reputation in the radio world and was able to choose from various suitors. He would ultimately decide to sign with the largest radio platform in Denver, KOA-AM, but not before contemplating offers from large networks in Oklahoma City and Detroit.

On February 23rd, 1981, Alan Berg would debut his new program on KOA, where he would end up working until his death as the new daily host of the midday talk show. It was here that Alan would become the prototypical talk show host, a harbinger of what to come in the decades to follow, billing himself as "The Last Angry Man" - a moniker he enjoyed to use while on the air, but which those close to him say was almost entirely schtick. According to his ex-wife, Judith:

"He wanted people to look at themselves and be conscious of their thoughts - to take responsibility for their attitudes and decisions."

Despite being very passionate about his Jewish heritage, Berg was a devout atheist (if such a label exists) and a hardened liberal that was willing to take anyone to task regardless of age, ethnicity, gender, sexuality, political leaning, etc. He would go on lengthy, passionate rants about the daily issues, and would berate listeners who disagreed with them - hanging up if they didn't - or couldn't - respond to his argumentative tactics. This even went for people to called in to agree with him, who were treated to the same type of hostility.

For a good example of this, here's a brief segment from Alan's show, recorded in 1981.

According to Alan Berg himself, this divisive strategy was intentional on his part, as he wanted to use this contentious attitude to push the envelope by not only challenging his opinions but force others to question who they represented and what they believed in. As he later stated:

"The worst call I've ever received is when someone says, 'I agree with everything you say.' I don't always agree with myself, so how can they?"

While Alan Berg would typically harass and raze guests or callers on his show, he typically reserved an overwhelming amount of bile for those that showed bigotry towards other groups, getting incredibly defensive whenever someone attempted to attack another for their faith, sexual orientation, skin color, or political leanings. As an outspoken Jewish man, this often resulted in Alan lashing out against anti-Semites and other forms of white supremacists; this included those who went along with this hateful rhetoric, refusing to push back or speak out against bigotry when it presented itself. Not only were these people hateful, Alan argued, but they were lazy to boot.

According to Dr. Clarissa Pinkola Estes, the author of "Women Who Run with the Wolves", who wrote in a 2007 article:

"He didn't pick on the poor, the frail, the undefended: He chose... the groups who openly espouse hatred of blacks, Jews, leftists, homosexuals, Hispanics, other minorities and religious groups."

Alan would often invite those with hateful thoughts to call into his show so that he could argue with them over the airwaves in an attempt to court them to his style of thinking - or, at the very least, budge them from their current path with reason. On one broadcast from 1981, Alan extended an open invitation to anti-Semites to call in:

"I know that you're listening. I want you to call me and tell me why you don't like Jews. Let's not pretend this doesn't exist. Let's stir it up. You're anti-Semitic, and you know it, and you've got real feelings about this, and I want to find out what they are."

These people - anti-Semites and white supremacists - were the only groups that Alan seemed to express any real lasting disdain for. While he would argue with anyone about anything, he would dedicate time in several of his broadcasts to critiquing how silly the white supremacists' viewpoints were, when you broke it down into simple parts. In particular, he would spend a lot of time in 1983 and 1984 mocking the Christian Identity movement, which was/is a religious order that believes Christian Europeans are the true "chosen people" of God, while Jewish people are the descendants of Cain (therefore, belonging to a lower class of human).

This mockery of extremist viewpoints and ideals ended up attracting a lot of negativity to Alan, with the station he worked at (KOA) being constantly bombarded by these individuals and their supporters through phone calls and letters. Many of these were threats against Alan's life, which he seemed to downplay regularly, believing these individuals to be nothing but kooks or cowards. This was even after an incident from 1979, in the leader of a local Ku Klux Klan chapter, Fred Wilkins, arrived at the station with a gun and threatened Alan specifically. According to Mark Warren, the News Director for KOA, who spoke to the Daily Sentinel:

"He routinely got death threats in the mail and on the phone. It was just part of his life."

Despite that, Alan refused to back down from his brash attitude, having embraced his on-air persona as the self-proclaimed "man you love to hate."

By 1984, Alan Berg had become one of the most well-known talk show hosts in not only the Denver region but a large swath of the country, with his show being broadcast in more than thirty states. He had gained some additional publicity earlier that year, following a featured segment on CBS's "60 Minutes", as well as a short-lived television show he hosted on a Denver-area broadcast channel the year prior.

Well-known throughout the area, Alan lived alone in a townhome with a dog named Fred: an Airedale Terrier who - as noted by Daily Sentinel columnist Connie Clark - had fluffy hair just like Alan's. He was known to dote upon his canine companion, especially in the years following his divorce, when the two had moved into Alan's current bachelor pad, just outside of downtown Denver. Having been sober for over a decade, Alan was known to engage in his fair share of gambling and womanizing, but that Spring, he was attempting to reconcile with his ex-wife, Judith, with whom he had remained in-touch since their divorce six years prior.

On the evening of June 18th, 1984, Alan Berg was arriving home after having dinner with Judith. It was sometime after 9:30 PM - perhaps closer to 9:45 - when Alan pulled up to his condo along Adams Street, just east of downtown Denver. He parked his Volkswagen convertible in front of his house, in the driveway, and then stepped out of the car, carrying a paper bag containing dog food.

After stepping out of his vehicle, Alan was ambushed by at least one gunman, who fired at least a dozen shots at the radio talk show host, with at least nine hitting the 50-year-old's neck and face. Alan was found lying in the driveway to his townhome, already dead by the time that authorities arrived a short time later, just after 10:00 PM, his colorful life brought to a sudden end just feet away from his home.

Calls would begin flooding KOA, the station that Alan Berg had been employed at for the past several years. Nighttime talk show host Ken Hamblin was on the air at the time and would end up learning about Alan's death during his evening broadcast, turning his show into (what the Daily Sentinel would describe the following morning as) an over-the-air eulogy.

The murder of Alan Berg would come as a big shock to the entire Denver area, with coverage of the story making national headlines.

The investigation into this shocking death would be handled by the Denver Police Department, who would assign dozens of investigators to work on the case in its early days: most of whom worked during the day, as a part of a large task force, but a handful of others who pounded the pavement at night. They would begin compiling volumes of information and evidence beginning just minutes after the shooting and would conduct hundreds of interviews in the days that followed.

The morning after the shooting - Tuesday, June 19th, 1984 - a special investigative unit was formed to oversee the case, which would begin looking into the numerous threats that had been made against Alan's life in the preceding months. This included several people involved in white supremacist groups, who Alan sparred with over the airwaves, as well as others he had harassed on his show or incited through his colorful rhetoric. This unit would even begin to listen through months of Alan's prior broadcasts, in the hopes that a lead might be uncovered from within them, and would even begin to explore leads related to the roughly dozen or so complaints filed against Alan with the FCC.

Meanwhile, at the scene, investigators would find not only Alan's body deceased in his driveway but "several" .45-caliber shell casings scattered nearby as well as a brown paper bag containing cans of dog food - which indicated that Alan was just getting out of his car when he was ambushed by these assailants in his front yard.

It would later be confirmed during an autopsy that Alan had been shot at least twelve times in quick succession, but it was impossible to determine just how many bullets had been fired because of the angle at which they hit his body and the position his body fell after being shot. But because a cluster of shots had hit such a small, targeted area - mainly limited to Alan's face and neck - it was believed that an automatic weapon had been used. It was also theorized that the gunman had stood about five feet away from Alan when they opened fire, due to the angle at which the rounds entered his body; at least five of which had gone through the garage door behind him.

It was unknown what type of firearm had been used to carry out this crime, but it was initially theorized that 21 different models could have been used in the crime. Within days, investigators would narrow that list down to just 10. Unfortunately, they would be unable to lift any fingerprints from the abandoned shell casings, and there wasn't much in the way of additional evidence that could be found at the crime scene or the surrounding area.

The sound of gunshots had been reported by numerous witnesses, including many of Alan's neighbors, who recalled hearing the shots that night but had not seen much of anything. Hugh Dunn, who lived across the street from Alan, later recalled a loud noise that sounded "like someone dragging a chain over a fender in a junkyard," and Dunn's roommate, Larry Fowler, would state:

"It sounded like kids shooting off firecrackers."

Based on the number of shots fired - which was upwards of twelve - and the somewhat-muffled sound of the numerous gunshots (as reported by other witnesses), it was theorized that the killer(s) had used a silencer when carrying out this crime. This would indicate to police that this had been a planned killing. This was not an impulsive act carried out by a deranged individual but might have been a professional hit or some other form of staged killing.

While no one had witnessed the shooting itself, a couple of people in the surrounding area would recall seeing a couple of suspicious individuals that evening, including two Caucasian men that were seen sitting in the front seat of a dark-colored (maybe dark blue) sedan about three houses down from Alan Berg's condo between 9:10 and 9:20 PM (about 15-20 minutes before the shooting). Another witness would recall her and a friend being "almost ran over" by a vehicle speeding eastbound on 14th Avenue, just around the corner from Alan Berg's home, at around 9:45 (minutes after the shooting).

Days later, police would also announce a potential person-of-interest that they were looking for: a white man with sandy hair, who stood about six feet tall, who was seen walking near Alan Berg's home at around the time of the shooting, and according to Detective Division Chief Don Mulnix, "may have been the closest to the scene of the crime" when the murder happened. While this man was being sought after as a potential witness, Mulnix was quick to note that "everyone remains a suspect" - and while his colleagues and he had ideas on who might have carried out this crime, they had attributed no definitive motives to it.

Roughly one week after Alan's murder - Sunday, June 24th - Denver authorities would announce that they were reaching out to FBI to assist in creating a profile for the killer(s), who they had yet to identify. Meanwhile, the radio station that Alan Berg had worked at, KOA, would announce a $10,000 reward for information leading to an arrest, which was then doubled by a local TV station, KCNC.

As Alan Berg was laid to rest in a cemetery in his home state of Illinois, people throughout the nation continued to wonder who had killed him... and why?

Early on, investigators from Denver would travel to Illinois, where Alan Berg had grown up and spent his early professional life. If you recall, he had been a defense attorney in Chicago, where he had represented several unsavory characters, many of whom were linked to the mob. However, they were unable to find any link between his work there, decades prior, and his death a thousand miles away, in Denver, in June of 1984.

On Wednesday, June 27th - about a week after Alan's murder - an unknown female called into the station Alan had worked at, KOA, and told the person on the other end of the phone:

"I killed Alan Berg. One of you is next. And that's all."

Authorities would be unable to verify that caller's identity, and for that reason, were unable to verify if that threat was valid (or if this was just another crank, which KOA was familiar with). However, no harm would befall those employed at the station, leading authorities to believe that this was just a prank caller with no sense of humor.

However, a lead that investigators had stumbled upon pretty early on was a possible connection to white supremacy, for several reasons. Not only was Alan Berg an outspoken Jewish man - with progressive, atheistic thoughts that irritated the close-minded racists he argued with on his show - but he had attracted a lot of their hate and attention in the months before his death. Not only had he and the station received many death threats from white supremacists in the past, but a more recent connection was being made in the press.

In the book "The Turner Diaries", written by white supremacist William L. Pierce and published just a few years prior, a Jewish radio talk show host is gunned down in almost identical fashion: shot down by a hail of bullets in his own driveway, during what the book describes as "The Day of the Rope," the opening salvo in a pending race war. Alan Berg, one of the most prominent Jewish men in the region - and a talk show host, to boot - being killed in front of his house just seemed like more than a coincidence.

Almost immediately, police began to suspect the involvement of extremists in this murder, with Denver's Chief of Detectives, Don Mulnix, telling the press just days after Alan's murder:

"We are looking at paramilitary groups - the Klan, Nazis, any group of that type he's had problems with."

By the end of June, authorities would make a more definitive statement, with Captain George White, the head of the investigative task force, declaring this crime to be an "assassination" carried out for political reasons. He and others in the task force believed that a group of terrorists had been involved in this plot, and would ask the FBI to help them probe possible "interstate and international implications" - with the indication being that this murder had ties to right-wing extremist groups active outside of Colorado.

In 1983, a year before the murder of Alan Berg, a white supremacist named Robert Mathews had given a speech at a convention for National Alliance, a white supremacist political group founded by William Luther Pierce, the racist author of "The Turner Diaries".

In this speech, Mathews claimed that he was a big fan of the book, and encouraged other white supremacists to join him in the Pacific Northwest, where he was beginning to grow a community that he described as the "White American Bastion." This community would be based somewhat on Mathew's Mormon faith but would begin to call itself the "Aryan Resistance Movement" in the months to come, eliminating any doubt what its true intentions were.

While he wasn't able to recruit many for his cause, Mathews was able to lure some into his plan: including a handful from the Aryan Nations hate-group, as well as a few more that were involved in the political group National Alliance. These eight men would begin living together in Metaline - a blip on the map in northeastern Washington state - at a barracks that Mathews had constructed for this purpose. Here, they would begin to carry out a two-step operation.

First, they started committing crimes to raise money for their cause. This started out small - robbing adult bookstores, things like that - but would evolve into full-scale bank robbery by the following year, 1984. The second step of this plan was to begin recruiting other members, with the hopes of luring in a new generation of physically-capable young men to carry on the white supremacist cause for years to come. The ultimate goal of both was to begin waging a war of terror on non-white persons - including, but not limited to, African and Jewish Americans - and begin allocating the money they had stolen to causes they cared for (such as political groups like National Alliance or White Patriot Party). All the while, they would begin stockpiling weapons, ammunition, grenades, and other supplies while they prepared to cosplay as soldiers in a race war that would never come.

Drawing an additional influence from "The Turner Diaries", this group decided to name themselves The Order - a name taken directly from the novel, used to describe the (supposedly) heroic freedom fighters that indiscriminately murder black and Jewish men, women, and children.

On April 29th, 1984, members of The Order would carry out a bombing in Boise, Idaho, at the Ahavath Israel Synagogue, which was thankfully unoccupied at the time. While nobody was injured or killed in this bombing, the amount of property damage was extensive and would begin to put members of The Order on law enforcement's map for the first time. One of their members, though, was already a familiar face to law enforcement.

45-year-old David Eden Lane was sought after for involvement in the Boise synagogue bombing, having been spotted by witnesses in the area just days before the bombing. A prominent white supremacist, Lane had been involved in both the Ku Klux Klan and Aryan Nations in the past, as well as being a founding member of The Order (which investigators were just beginning to learn about in Spring of 1984). However, following the murder of Alan Berg in Colorado, it would come to light that Lane was also the sandy-haired man that investigators were looking for in Denver; the potential person-of-interest spotted in Alan's neighborhood shortly before his murder.

Not only did David Lane had a prior history of sharing white supremacist and anti-Semitic ideas in the Denver area, but he had a history with Alan Berg, having called into his show and verbally confronting him more than once. However, other than that, investigators would learn that Lane had stalked Alan Berg on at least two occasions; once in 1981 and another time as recently as February of 1984, just months before Alan's shooting death. The latter event had been reported to Denver Police, but they had decided not to notify Alan Berg of this alleged stalking, believing - at the time - that David Lane wasn't a genuine threat.

Now, in July of 1984, authorities would announce that they were looking for Lane in connection to the shooting death of Alan Berg as well as the synagogue bombing from Boise, Idaho. However, they would be unable to track him down, having to chase down old leads to unsuccessfully determine his whereabouts. By this point, Lane was already being sheltered by other white supremacist groups throughout the United States. He would then begin writing to Denver-area journalists via letter, claiming to have a supposed alibi for the night of both crimes but saying that he was unwilling to turn himself in to authorities.

Over the next several months, an investigation into David Lane and his associates would reveal a large network of white supremacist groups and individuals, who were all linked in some way to the crime spree being perpetrated by The Order. After one of their members came forward to the FBI and began offering up information, it quickly escalated the case against them, and federal prosecutors began putting together a RICO case that would ensnare everyone involved.

Authorities would move in to arrest The Order's founder, Robert Mathews, later that year. But by the time they descended upon his compound in eastern Washington, he had already fled the state - having encouraged his followers to scatter to other safe houses throughout the region. Mathews had fled to one of his own on Washington's Whidbey Island, but authorities would arrive just days later. On December 7th, 1984, FBI officials prepared to move in and arrest Mathews, but a shootout and standoff would ensue, which lasted for over 30 hours. That was until a flare fired into the house by authorities set off a stockpile of grenades and ammunition that Mathews had inside, burning down the house with Mathews inside of it.

The loss of Robert Mathews, the founder of The Order and one of the main lynchpins of the federal case, would prove to be costly, but investigators had already gathered a ton of necessary information at that point. They would begin making numerous arrests throughout the western United States, identifying members of this vast white supremacist network spread across nine states (including Washington, Idaho, Oregon, Montana, New Mexico, and Colorado). They would begin conducting search warrants at the homes and properties of each of the individuals involved, and this would lead to police finding a vital piece of evidence: at the home of a right-wing extremist living in Sandpoint, Idaho, authorities would find the firearm that had been used to murder Alan Berg.

Gary Lee Yarbrough was a friend of Robert Mathews, the now-deceased founder of The Order, and a noted white supremacist in his own right. He had been detained in November of 1984, following a shootout with FBI agents in Portland, Oregon. A search of his property had yielded several firearms, but one in particular - an RPB .45-caliber MAC 10 - would prove to be the gun used in the shooting from Colorado. According to Denver's Chief of Detectives, Don Mulnix:

"We are certain the weapon involved was the one used to kill Mr. Berg."

The weapon used to kill Alan Berg had been found in the home of white supremacist Gary Yarbrough, who was quickly named a suspect in the murder but denied any involvement - including denying that the weapon was his. Speaking to reporters, Yarbrough proclaimed:

"I know nothing about Alan Berg, except that he was a Jew."

In that same exchange, Yarbrough would add that he believed Jewish people to be the "enemy of God," but investigators would later state that they believed Yarbrough to be not guilty of the shooting; instead, theorizing that he had conspired with those who had, leading to him coming into possession of the submachine gun.

Federal agents began to publicly speculate that at least four people had been involved in the conspiracy to kill Alan Berg, all of whom had ties to the white supremacist group The Order. The four that were believed to have been involved in this plot were the group's (now-deceased) founder, Robert Mathews; Bruce and Gregory Pierce, brothers that would later be arrested in Georgia and New Mexico, respectively, and had been involved in the group since its founding; Richard Joseph Scutari, a suspected bank robber that would remain at-large until March of 1986; and finally, David Lane, the alleged bomber from Boise who was finally located in North Carolina and apprehended in 1985, after spending more than a year on the run. At least four of these individuals had been in the Denver area at the time of Alan Berg's murder, and it was believed that they had worked together to kill the talk show host in front of his home.

Not only had members of The Order interacted with Alan Berg on several occasions - not only through his show but as I explained earlier, David Lane had been noticed stalking Berg on at least two occasions spread out over years - but he had been featured on an execution list kept by the members of this white supremacist group, who kept a running tally of non-white people and their allies to murder. Due to his notoriety throughout the region as a very liberal and outspoken Jewish man who often mocked white supremacists and their ideas, he had earned the #2 spot on the list. And due to his rather low personal profile, he had become the most easily accessible to members of The Order (who were, at their core, unintelligent and lazy).

FBI Agent Don Wofford would tell reporters in the months after this major arrest:

"Our investigation, which includes confidential sources, indicates that David Lane and other members of The Order were responsible for the murder of Mr. Berg."

However, over the next several months, it seems like the investigation into Alan Berg's death would begin to take a backseat to the ongoing racketeering case, which was not only centered around this handful of men; rather, was built around linking dozens of white supremacists as part of a larger network. It was alleged that these dozens of individuals had been committing crimes and profiting off of its numerous illegal acts, in the process of recruiting more members and making money for those at the top of the pyramid. In the trial that would follow, nearly two dozen people would be charged with racketeering, and a small contingent of these individuals would be charged with staging the murder of Alan Berg, including Bruce Pierce, David Lane, Jean Craig, Robert Mathews (deceased), and Richard Scutari (who was charged in absentia).

Throughout the trial - which involved the testimony of hundreds of people and attempted to prove the guilt of the dozens of defendants involved - it would be alleged that this handful of individuals had carried out the assassination plot of Alan Berg. Prosecutors accused them of planning to carry out a wider range of killings - including targeting television producer Norman Lear, as well as Morris Dees from the Southern Poverty Law Center - but had settled upon killing Berg first and foremost because he made for an easier target than the other two.

Prosecutors would argue that four men had gathered in the Denver area in the days leading up to the murder. They alleged that Bruce Pierce was the alleged triggerman, Richard Scutari and Robert Mathews had been the lookouts, and David Lane had been the getaway driver, while other members of The Order aided and abetted them both before and after the crime occurred. They would provide evidence proving that these four had been in the Denver area at the time of the murders, offering up evidence like hotel receipts and witness sightings.

A former member of The Order, a man named Denver Daw Parmenter II, testified in court about the involvement of these men in the plot to kill Alan Berg. He had agreed to testify in exchange for a shortened sentence, and would explain to the court the group's plans to embed themselves into society while secretly planning racial violence:

"It is important that the enemy never find out that we exist. If he does, he must think we are toothless."

Of course, by "enemy," Parmenter meant "Jew." At least, that's what he would then explain, telling the court that those involved had carried out the plot to assassinate the outspoken radio talk show host, claiming that while he didn't know who had pulled the trigger, every member of the group was responsible in no small way:

"I was a member of this group, and regardless of whether I actually pulled the trigger, I am partially responsible."

Another member of The Order, Robert Merki, would testify to having heard Bruce Pierce - the alleged shooter of Alan Berg - discuss the murder plot with Gary Yarbrough (the man whose home the murder weapon was found in). The two discussed the gun jamming after twelve shots, which would fit in with the twelve gunshots discovered on Alan's body and other available evidence.

The trial would eventually come to an end in December of 1985, with all of the defendants involved being found guilty of racketeering and conspiracy, as well as charges related to those (theft, larceny, armed robbery, fraud, etc.). However, none would be found guilty of murder charges, with federal prosecutors having not pressed any of those throughout the trial, due to the jurisdiction of the murder case still belonging to local authorities.

Despite the defendants all being found guilty of racketeering and conspiracy - and being linked to violent white supremacist gangs - authorities in Denver would choose not to pursue murder charges in the months to come. It had become clear to local prosecutors that those responsible had fallen silent, and Denver's Attorney General Norm Early did not believe that he would be able to gain the cooperation of those implicated in the murder of Alan Berg. Due to the lack of physical evidence, he believed that it wasn't worth following up on. Early would be criticized heavily for this decision in the months to come but would refuse to budge from it when questioned.

U.S. Attorneys in Colorado would state soon thereafter that they were considering pursuing civil rights charges against the men responsible, and that would come to pass more than a year later, in April of 1987. That is when a group of 15 white supremacists was charged with a litany of crimes, including civil rights violations and sedition. Among them were four of the individuals involved in the original trial: Jean Craig, David Lane, Bruce Pierce, and Richard Scutari (who had since been arrested and sentenced in the RICO case). These were the same four implicated by federal authorities in the alleged murder plot, with the only person missing being Robert Mathews (the founder of The Order, who was believed to have conspired along with the other four but had died in a standoff with police in December of 1984).

In the end, however, only two would be found guilty: Bruce Pierce and David Lane, the alleged triggerman and getaway driver, who were each found guilty of violating Alan Berg's civil rights - but not of murder, which prosecutors believed there was insufficient evidence to prove. For this reason, murder charges were not pursued, but it was widely believed that these two had just been part of a larger plot to kill the Jewish talk show host.

U.S. District Judge Richard P. Match would tell the two white supremacists during sentencing:

"[Alan Berg] was killed for who he was, what he believed in, what he said and what he did. It strikes at the very core of the Constitution. I conclude a life sentence is not sufficiently severe in this case to condemn this crime."

Bruce Pierce and David Lane were each sentenced to 150 years in federal prison for this crime alone, with no less than 50 years required to be served before they would become eligible for parole. This was added onto their already decades in prior sentences, amounting to a life sentence in all but name - ensuring that both would die in prison.

However, after this date, no additional charges would be filed against anyone relating to the murder of Alan Berg, with Pierce and Lane being the only two people to ever be convicted of anything in this case; even though the case presented by federal prosecutors established that they were just a part of a larger group of anti-Semitic white supremacists that had conspired to carry out the crime. That remains unchanged to this day.

Despite the white supremacist group The Order dissolving in the wake of the arrests from the mid-1980s, none of its members were ever held accountable for Alan Berg's murder; likely due to the murder investigation taking a backseat to the larger federal investigation, which was aimed at not only nailing the members of The Order but other affiliated groups and individuals - ultimately evolving into a full-scale RICO case.

Any hopes of pursuing murder charges likely crumbled when the named conspirators in the Berg murder were sentenced for other offenses they had carried out, ultimately being sentenced to decades behind bars. Nonetheless, the ideas pushed by The Order would exist for long after their incarceration.

David Lane, who was alleged to have been one of the main proponents of the murder plot, would become well-known as one of the most influential white supremacists in American history. While in prison, he coined the infamous "14 Words" phrase of white supremacy that is repeated by most white supremacists today ("We must secure the existence of our people and a future for White children"). Lane would end up sharing his ideas through poorly-written literature while behind bars, before eventually dying in May of 2007 from epileptic seizures... proving, once and for all, that white people are not superior to other races, prone to the same health concerns as everyone else.

The other racist confirmed to have been involved in Alan Berg's death, Bruce Pierce would die a similarly insignificant death in 2010, passing away of natural causes at the age of 56.

Many other members of The Order and other affiliated groups have also died in prison, while some remain incarcerated today, unlikely to ever see the outside world again... at least, not in this lifetime.

Meanwhile, Alan Harrison Berg was turned into a martyr, who died for the rights of free speech and equality for all: virtues that we can universally agree on as being altruistic. While many disliked Alan for his work during his life, they had to admire his tenacity to fight for it and not run from the criticism; in fact, he embraced it, running headfirst into reproach at almost every single opportunity.

Alan was 50 years old at the time of his death in June of 1984 and was quietly buried in Waldheim Cemetery in Forest Park, Illinois, in the days after his death. Authorities and loved ones wanted to avoid his funeral service - or his grave, for that matter - from being disturbed by those that had killed him. While not made specifically about Alan Berg himself, the 1988 film "Talk Radio," written and directed by Oliver Stone, was heavily inspired by Alan's life and death.

In the years that would follow, those that had known Alan Berg would continue to remember him as the firebrand he had been in life. Dr. Kathy Morall, a forensic psychiatrist that had appeared on his show three days before his death, later spoke to Rolling Stone reporter Stephen Singular, stating:

"He was provocative, insulting, arrogant... He gave us every side of himself and didn't hide any of it. He didn't say, 'Everyone should be like Alan Berg.' He said, 'Let me provoke in you a different way of thinking. Let me shake you from your yawning passivity. Agree with me or disagree with me, but don't just sit there.'"

White supremacists throughout the nation continue to yearn for a time in America's recent history when minorities had no rights and women had no authority. In their quest to return us to this hate-filled era in U.S. history, they have embarked on a campaign of violence, leaving several people dead over just the last few years.

In January of 2018, an openly gay and Jewish man from the University of Pennsylvania was murdered while visiting family in California. Blaze Bernstein was killed by a former high school classmate of his, a member of the Atomwaffen Division (a neo-Nazi terrorist group), who was later charged with murdering Bernstein by stabbing him 20 times. Because of Bernstein's sexuality and Jewish heritage, his former-classmate was charged with hate crimes, and this was believed to have been just the fifth death linked to the neo-Nazi Atomwaffen Division over a 12-month period.

This was followed by a series of shootings at synagogues or other Jewish centers, including the October 2018 shooting at Pittsburgh's Tree of Life synagogue. This shooting left 11 dead and 6 wounded, becoming the deadliest attack against the Jewish community on American soil. While the assailant was apprehended at the scene (and is currently awaiting trial), the incident was seized upon by the white supremacist community online, who began responding to the alleged mass shooter's online ramblings, which were incredibly anti-Semitic in nature. In the two years since, members of these groups - extremists and accelerationists alike - have maligned the Tree of Life shooting as a false flag attack while attempting to portray the shooter as a hero (perhaps not realizing that both trains of thought run parallel to one another).

That same playbook has been used in a series of similar shootings, including the April 2019 shooting at a synagogue in California (which killed 1 and injured 3) as well as an October 2019 shooting in Germany (which left 2 dead and injured 3 - including the suspect).

Then there's the El Paso shooting from 2019, which killed 23 and injured another 23. While this incident didn't take place at a synagogue, the killer cited white nationalist viewpoints in a rambling manifesto (in particular, "The Great Replacement" conspiracy theory) and cited several far-right talking points, such as a fear of immigrants (the mysterious and nefarious "other" that is invading the country and stealing non-existent jobs).

In almost all of these cases, the shooters had been radicalized by white nationalist groups or literature, including "The Turner Diaries" (the book from the episode introduction, which continues to influence extremists to this day). Many of these killers have left behind manifestos or written explanations for their acts of violence, linking their crimes to anti-Semitic or white supremacist viewpoints.

These killers are - more often than not - happily encouraged by many of those on the far right. This seems to include our current president, Donald J. Trump, who has shown an overwhelming amount of support for white supremacist groups and ideals in the past, over a prolonged period dating back to before many of us were even born.

WATCH: @AriMelber has one question for voters - are you for or against this? pic.twitter.com/9T8ogQ4Zn3
— The Beat with Ari Melber on MSNBC 📺 (@TheBeatWithAri) October 28, 2020

Just recently, over the past few weeks, Trump has refused to condemn the Proud Boys, a neo-Fascist group that engages in violence, during a debate with Democratic Presidential Candidate Joe Biden. Then, just days after 14 white accelerationists were arrested for plotting to kidnap and kill Michigan's Governor Gretchen Whitmer, Trump held a rally in Michigan, where he incited the crowd into chanting "lock her up," before diverting blame from the real problem towards his favorite made-up boogeyman.

If you think I'm jumping to conclusions with any of this, here's what an actual armed militia believes, as reported by CBS just this week.

I know that some of you are going to be angry that I decided to end this episode in such a political way (that is if you've even made it this far), especially since I am making a pretty broad link between the subject in this episode (violence perpetrated by white supremacists) and our current president - but with our U.S. Presidential Election being just days away from the release of this episode, I'm hoping that this will have caused some kind of reaction from you. In the words of Alan Berg himself:

"Everyone here is dying to bust out, to feel. But I've really got to dig in there to get people worked up enough so there's some action... Anger is one of the greatest motivators in the world. Rage destroys, but out of anger has come a lot of my creativity."

If this story makes you angry, then do something about it. Speak up for yourself or those around you. Make some noise about the shit going on in the world. Call truth to power. Stop being so damn afraid of your own thoughts and opinions. At the bare minimum, just vote, and quit letting inactivity and apathy rule the world around you.

Agree with me or disagree with me, but don't just sit there.

Episode Information

Writing, research, hosting, and production by Micheal Whelan

Published on on November 1st, 2020

Producers: Roberta Janson, Ben Krokum, Gabriella Bromley, Peggy Belarde, Quil Carter, Laura Hannan, Damion Moore, Brittany Norris, Amy Hampton, Steven Wilson, Scott Meesey, Marie Vanglund, Scott Patzold, Astrid Kneier, Travis Scsepko, Aimee McGregor, Sydney Scotton, Sara Moscaritolo, Sue Kirk, Thomas Ahearn, Bryan Hall, Seth Morgan, Marion Welsh, Kevin McCracken, Jo Wong, Patrick Laakso, Alyssa Lawton, Meadow Landry, Tatum Bautista, Teunia Elzinga, Michele Watson, Ryan Green, Stephanie Joyner, Dawn Kellar, Elissa Hampton-Dutro, Ruth Durbin, and Sally Ranford