Running With the Aryan Brotherhood: “You Have to Kill a Black to Get In”

The Aryan Brotherhood formed at San Quentin prison in the California Department of Corrections in 1967 to protect white convicts from the predatory gangs that were taking root in the system. It was a volatile time in the United States and this volatility was amplified a hundred times over in the man-made netherworld of chaos and violence. It was go hard or check into the hole like a punk.

“What really got them originated was the white boys had to come together for protection purposes. The blacks were acting like they ran shit, so the white boys got together to say you can run it, but you ain’t running us,” says Dog, a penitentiary veteran and long time AB associate. “They formed to take care of the whites in the California system because of the black prison gangs. It was a way for them to make money – a protection racket.”

The white supremacist group, which later adopted the moniker ‘The Brand’ due to the shamrock tattoo they used to signify membership, was made up mostly of prisoners with Irish, Scandinavian and German backgrounds. Convicts from 1950s biker gangs like the Diamond Tooth and Bluebirds formed the crux of the newly formed organisation. The Caucasian inmates consolidated under a neo-Nazi banner to watch each other’s backs, show unity and handle their business on the yard. They were representing for the white race and making sure that no white inmates were exploited on their watch. By 1975, the gang was prospering inside the fences of the CDC, making power moves, calling shots and protecting their own.
“In the beginning, the AB had one true purpose, to stop blacks and Mexicans from abusing whites. If you weren’t picked up by the AB, you were dead,” says an old-timer, who has done stints in both California and federal prison says. “The mentality back then was ‘kill whitey.’”

The 1960s were a radical time in America, with the black power movement in full swing and minorities marching for civil rights. Behind the walls of the CDC, where blacks, whites and Mexicans were crammed together like sardines, racial tensions were definitely over the top.

George Jackson, who legend holds formed the Black Guerrilla Family, wrote the celebrated prison memoir Soledad Brother. In his book he describes instances where black inmates would attack whites on the tier just because of the colour of their skin. The former Black Panther had an unhealthy hatred of the system and all things white. In the depths of America’s gulags black prison gangs were making a power move.

With the Black Panthers holding iconic status in the urban centres in the radical 60s, that mentality spilled over into the prisons, where race wars raged on unabated. The cauldron of hate created an atmosphere of tension at San Quentin, evolving into an all out melee that erupted across the whole Californian system. The end result was the rise of the big four prison gangs, divided along strict racial lines, which provided a measure of safety for their members. Another author, Edward Bunker, a con who went Hollywood when he got out (both as an actor and screenwriter, famously appearing as Mr Blue in Reservoir Dogs), wrote about life in the CDC in his book, Education of a Felon, which documented how whites came together to hold their
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