Nazi from p 25 In 2001, Aryan Nations was licking its wounds. It had gone belly up on a $6.3 million lawsuit after armed guards at the Hayden, Idaho, compound shot Victoria Keenan and her son Jason in 1998. Bullets whizzed through the crisp Rocky Mountain air, repeatedly striking the family car until it crashed into a ditch. Klansmen held the mother and son at gunpoint until it was determined the Keenans were white non-Jews. As plaintiffs in the lawsuit, the Keenans alleged Aryan Nations founder Pastor Richard G. Butler and his organization were “grossly negligent in selecting and supervising the guards.” An Idaho District Court judge ordered Aryan Nations to surrender the 20-acre compound near the Canadian border to the Keenans, who had been driving home from a wedding. The traumatized family sold the property to a philanthropist who donated it to a local college. Both the group and its founder, Butler, were on the brink of death. Butler entrusted Gulett, then a bright-eyed 46-year-old Nazi, with lifting the organization off its deathbed. With the help of neo-Nazi protégé Shaun Patrick Winkler, the Aryan Nations Knights of the Ku Klux Klan resurrected the Idaho compound, complete with a church, guard towers, and several other buildings, in 2012 . It hosted cross-burning ceremonies there until 2019. Jerome Pollos / Stringer Rev. Richard Butler, one-time leader of the Aryan Nations, in the back of a truck at the beginning of the World Congress Parade in Coeur d’Alene, Idaho, in 2004. Nazi flags billowed from each side of a guard tower where robed sentinels watched for police and protesters around the clock. Another massive Nazi flag was painted on the roof. “I say this again today, that we need to look at the perspective of the Jews and look at what they’ve done to us to fire back,” Winkler said at the time, as quoted by the Southern Poverty Law Center. “We’re messengers, and Pastor Butler said the same thing. We don’t carry out deeds unless we feel the Holy Spirit moves us to do so. We’re generally a legal organization.” Winkler ran for sheriff in Bonner County, Idaho, but his bid tanked and he finished last among three candidates. After the loss, he tangled with anti- Aryan Nations protesters at a Mexican Restaurant in Coeur d’Alene, Idaho, calling one a “retarded Hispanic cunt” who “needed to leave his town because she was not welcome,” the Southern Poverty Law Center recorded. He was arrested, but the city prosecutor declined to pursue charges. Winkler could not be reached for comment. Then, Winkler and his circle of intimates dropped off the radar. Until recently. Gulett and Miner haven’t made much progress recruiting new members since relocating to the Valley. “We have some recruiting we want to do,” Miner told New Times. “The problem is that our members are getting arrested.” Gulett followed in the footsteps of his predecessor Butler as a career criminal. “Gulett has an extensive criminal history which includes shoplifting, aggravated assault, unauthorized use of a motor vehicle, homicide, felonious assault, possession of drugs, and receiving stolen property,” an FBI agent wrote in a 2005 affidavit, according to the Southern Poverty Law Center. In 1997, Gulett spent time in prison for ramming a police car in Dayton, Ohio. After his arrest in 2005 for conspiring to rob a bank, Gulett pleaded guilty to the charge and was sentenced to six years, finally getting out in 2010. His 40-year-old disciple hasn’t stayed out of trouble either. Miner was detained at a neo-Nazi event in Arizona last April that coincided with Hitler’s birthday. He harassed people at Chandler’s Eastlake Park, spouting profane racial slurs and destroying the flag of Israel. 26 APRIL 7TH– APRIL 13TH, 2022 PHOENIX NEW TIMES | MUSIC | CAFE | FILM | CULTURE | NIGHT+DAY | FEATURE | NEWS | OPINION | FEEDBACK | CONTENTS | phoenixnewtimes.com
