Richard Girnt Butler
Richard Girnt Butler was a prominent figure in the American white supremacy movement, born in 1918 in Bennett, Colorado. He moved to Los Angeles during the Great Depression, where he studied aeronautical engineering before serving in the U.S. Army during World War II. After the war, Butler became an admirer of Adolf Hitler, believing that his government often acted against the interests of Caucasians. His association with William Potter Gale introduced him to the Christian Identity movement, which asserts that God's chosen people are of European descent rather than Jewish. In the 1960s, Butler became involved with the Christian Defense League, an anti-Semitic organization, and later founded the Church of Jesus Christ Christian, establishing a compound in Idaho aimed at creating a racially pure homeland.
Butler’s teachings combined religious beliefs with white nationalism, significantly impacting the organization known as the Aryan Nations. His leadership attracted various white power advocates and facilitated the networking of disparate racist groups, which he unified under the Christian Identity ideology. Notably, the Aryan Nations faced legal challenges that led to its bankruptcy and the loss of Butler's compound following a civil trial in which his group was found negligent. Despite the decline of his organization, Butler's influence on the white supremacist movement remains a notable aspect of his legacy.
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Richard Girnt Butler
Official spokesperson for the Aryan Nations
- Born: February 23, 1918
- Birthplace: Bennett, Colorado
- Died: September 8, 2004
- Place of death: Hayden, Idaho
Cause of notoriety: Butler was the voice of anti-Semitism for the neo-Nazi movement in North America.
Active: 1960’s-2004
Locale: Idaho
Early Life
Born in Bennett, Colorado, in 1918, Richard Girnt Butler (BUHT-luhr) moved during the Great Depression to Los Angeles, where he studied aeronautical engineering. During World War II, he served in the United States Army and was stationed in India. While the European community sought to eliminate Nazi aggression during the war, Butler became an admirer of Adolf Hitler and set out to learn more about the German leader’s resolve to purge society of those races he claimed to be inferior. Butler returned to the United States believing that his own government many times acted contrary to the best interests of its Caucasian citizens.
It was at Lockheed in Southern California where Butler met William Potter Gale, a fellow veteran and leader of a local paramilitary group called the California Rangers. Gale introduced Butler to Christian Identity—a religious belief that claims God’s chosen people are not Jewish but in fact are of European descent.
During the 1960’s, Butler associated himself with the Christian Defense League, an anti-Semite organization. Its founder, Wesley Swift, mentored Butler and later appointed him to the position of director. Following Swift’s death in 1971, Butler attempted to legitimize the Christian Identity faith by blending the Christian Defense League into a newly formed religious sect, the Church of Jesus Christ Christian. Soon thereafter, Butler moved this new ministry to a compound near Hayden Lake, Idaho, in an attempt to establish a homeland of racial purity—an Aryan nation.
Militant Career
Butler’s philosophy of racial solidarity flowed from a patchwork of diverse ideas. Combining religious bigotry with white nationalism, Butler transformed an otherwise heartless paramilitary organization into a passionate congregation focused upon preaching a message of racial purity in hopes of making the Pacific Northwest a homeland for the Caucasian race. While Butler’s interpretation of Christian doctrine differed only slightly from the mainstream, his exaggerations of parables and prophecies were highly shocking to some. For example, Butler compared Hitler with Jesus Christ, suggesting that they were two of the greatest individuals who had ever lived.
Butler was well known for his friendship with Robert Matthews and his support of the Order, a white separatist organization. During 1983 and 1984, the Order committed bombings, conducted armed robberies, and assassinated a Jewish radio personality from Denver. That same year, Matthews was killed during a confrontation with federal agents.
Although neatly hidden from the public eye, Butler’s compound became host to white power advocates from all walks of life. In addition to hosting the annual World Congress of Aryan Nations, Butler promoted youth training camps and survivalist schools for the paramilitarily inclined. All of this, Butler claimed, would ready his people for the coming race war. It would be his associations with militant groups, however, that would ultimately contribute to the demise of the Aryan Nations in the Pacific Northwest. In 1998, armed members of Butler’s security fired shots from inside the compound at a minority family repairing their car out on the roadway. Represented by the Southern Poverty Law Center, the minority family prevailed in a civil trial in which a Kootenai County jury found that Butler had been negligent in the training and supervision of the security detail. This action caused the Aryan Nations to claim bankruptcy and ultimately led to the loss of Butler’s compound in Hayden Lake.
Impact
The white supremacy movement might have remained fragmented were it not for the networking machine of Richard Butler’s organization. For years his message to the Caucasian race came by way of newsletters, radio programs, demonstrations, pickets, and parades. Butler will best be remembered, however, for his ability to unite disparate racist factions under the umbrella of Christian Identity.
Bibliography
Abanes, Richard. American Militias. Downers Grove, Ill.: Intervarsity Press, 1996. A fact-filled contemporary account of the militia phenomenon in the United States in the late twentieth century.
Ezekiel, Raphael S. The Racist Mind. New York: Penguin Books, 1995. Ezekiel interviews four different types of people belonging to the hate movement in the United States.
Landau, Elaine. The White Power Movement: America’s Racist Hate Groups. Brookfield, Conn.: Millbrook Press, 1993. Offers a historical account of the white power movement and broadly examines the philosophical roots of racial hatred.