# The Order (Brüder Schweigen) A neo-Nazi revolutionary cell active from September 1983 to December 1984, founded by **Robert Jay Mathews** (1953–1984). In 15 months, The Order committed the most audacious campaign of white supremacist terrorism between the First KKK era and the Oklahoma City bombing: $4.1 million in armed robberies (including a then-record $3.6M armored car heist), counterfeiting operations, the assassination of a Jewish radio host, and plans for further attacks — all in service of [[William Luther Pierce]]'s vision of a white revolution as depicted in *[[The Turner Diaries]]*. The Order matters for the KB not as a successful organization (it was destroyed in barely a year) but as the **blueprint** that every subsequent white nationalist terrorist cell has studied. Mathews is a martyr figure across the movement. The operational lessons — small cells, dedicated financing, targeted assassinations — fed directly into [[Leaderless Resistance]] doctrine. ## Robert Jay Mathews (1953–1984) *This section absorbs the former standalone Robert Jay Mathews page (folded in 2026-09-30); his name is an alias of this page.* - **Origins.** Born January 16, 1953, in Marfa, Texas, and raised in Phoenix. He announced he would join the John Birch Society at 11 and drifted into the tax-protest movement as a teenager. - **First militancy.** In 1971 he co-founded the Sons of Liberty, a small survivalist militia drawn mostly from Mormon tax protesters. In 1973 he was arrested for tax fraud after claiming ten dependents on a W-4 as an act of tax resistance. - **The Northwest move.** After probation he moved in July 1974 to Metaline Falls in Washington's far northeast corner, promising his parents he was done with extremism. He bought 60 acres there, worked mine and cement-plant jobs, and joined [[William Luther Pierce]]'s [[National Alliance]] in 1980, the route by which *[[The Turner Diaries]]* became the group's operating manual. - **The "Declaration of War."** In the days before his death he wrote a four-page letter declaring war on the federal government, calling for the elimination of politicians, judges and others in authority and closing, "Let the battle begin." - **Death.** He died December 8, 1984, in a house near Smugglers Cove outside Freeland on Whidbey Island, after refusing to surrender to an FBI siege. The house burned after agents fired illumination flares into it; he was identified by dental records. - **The martyr cult.** White nationalists mark December 8 as "Martyrs' Day." The scholar Jeffrey Kaplan wrote in 2000 that "the cult of Robert Mathews continues to grow." On the 30th anniversary in 2014, about three dozen people, mostly Northwest Hammerskins, gathered on Whidbey Island for the date (SPLC). - **On screen.** Peter Gallagher played him in *Brotherhood of Murder* (1999) and Nicholas Hoult in *The Order* (2024). ## Founding and Ideology Mathews was a young white supremacist from Metaline Falls, Washington, who was active in the National Alliance (William Luther Pierce's organization) and attended Aryan Nations congresses at Richard Butler's compound in Hayden Lake, Idaho. Frustrated by the movement's inability to translate ideology into action, Mathews formed The Order in September 1983 with approximately 9 original members, drawn from the National Alliance, Aryan Nations, and the KKK. The group took its name from a revolutionary organization in Pierce's *The Turner Diaries* — making it a case of fiction directly inspiring terrorist action. Members swore a blood oath to fight for the white race. ## The Crime Spree (1983–1984) | Date | Action | Detail | |------|--------|--------| | **Oct 1983** | Robbery | Adult bookstore in Spokane ($369) — the inauspicious start | | **Dec 1983** | Robbery | Citibank armored car, Seattle (~$25,000) | | **Mar 1984** | Counterfeiting | Produced $50 bills (poor quality, limited success) | | **Apr 1984** | Robbery | Continental Armored Transport, Seattle ($230,000) | | **Apr 1984** | Bombing | Boise synagogue (planted bomb; no casualties) | | **Jun 1984** | **Assassination** | **Alan Berg**, Jewish radio talk show host in Denver, shot outside his home by Bruce Pierce and David Lane | | **Jul 1984** | **Armored car heist** | **Brink's truck in Ukiah, CA — $3.6 million** (record at the time) | The Brink's heist yielded $3.6 million in cash, which The Order distributed to various white supremacist organizations — effectively financing the broader movement. Recipients included the National Alliance, Aryan Nations, White Aryan Resistance ([[Tom Metzger]]), and individual Klan leaders. ## Alan Berg Assassination (June 18, 1984) Alan Berg was a combative Denver talk radio host known for confronting white supremacists on air. Bruce Pierce and David Lane (later famous for coining the "14 Words") killed Berg with a MAC-10 submachine gun outside his townhouse. The assassination demonstrated The Order's willingness to target public figures — and the broader movement's willingness to kill Jews specifically. ## Destruction The Order began unraveling when member Thomas Martinez was arrested for passing counterfeit bills and agreed to cooperate with the FBI. By fall 1984, members were being arrested across the country. Mathews himself was tracked to a safe house on Whidbey Island, Washington, where on December 8, 1984, he refused to surrender despite a 36-hour standoff. FBI agents fired flares into the house; Mathews died in the resulting fire. 23 members were ultimately convicted on federal racketeering charges. Bruce Pierce received 252 years. David Lane received 190 years (died in prison in 2007). The organization was destroyed in approximately 15 months. ## Legacy and Influence Despite its brief existence, The Order's influence on the white nationalist movement is profound: - **Mathews as martyr:** Robert Jay Mathews is venerated across the white nationalist spectrum. December 8 is commemorated as "Martyrs' Day" by multiple WN organizations. His death-by-fire narrative has mythic status. - **The Turner Diaries → action pipeline:** The Order demonstrated that Pierce's fictional revolutionary blueprint could be operationalized — a lesson [[Timothy McVeigh]] absorbed a decade later. - **Financing the movement:** The $3.6M Brink's heist funded white nationalist organizations throughout the 1980s. - **Leaderless resistance response:** The ease with which the FBI destroyed The Order (once one member cooperated) directly informed [[Louis Beam]]'s argument for [[Leaderless Resistance]] — small cells with no connection to each other, precisely because The Order's centralized structure proved fatally vulnerable. ## See Also - [[Leaderless Resistance]] — The tactical doctrine developed in response to The Order's failure - [[Atomwaffen Division]] — Ideological descendant; same accelerationist logic - [[Active Club Network]] — Current WN formation; learned decentralization lesson from The Order - [[First Ku Klux Klan]] — Earlier paramilitary terrorism - [[David Duke]] — Klan-to-politics bridge; contemporaneous with The Order - [[Aryan Nations]] — Where Mathews was radicalized and recruited; compound as movement networking hub - [[Christian Identity]] — Theological framework for The Order's blood oaths and holy-war framing - [[National Alliance]] — Received $3.6M distribution; Pierce's Turner Diaries inspired The Order - [[Willis Carto]] — Carto organizations received Order funds - [[Militias and Extremist Groups Ecosystem]]