David Lane | |
|---|---|
.png) Lane after his 1985 arrest | |
| Born | David Eden Lane (1938-11-02)November 2, 1938 Woden, Iowa, U.S. |
| Died | May 28, 2007(2007-05-28) (aged 68) |
| Other names | Wodensson |
| Occupation | Real estate broker |
| Organization(s) | Ku Klux Klan,Aryan Nations,The Order,Wotansvolk |
| Known for | Fourteen Words, murder ofAlan Berg |
| Spouses | |
| Criminal information | |
| Convictions |
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| Criminal penalty | De factolife imprisonment (190 years in prison)[a] |
| Details | |
| Victims | Alan Harrison Berg, 50 |
David Eden Lane (November 2, 1938 – May 28, 2007) was an Americanneo-Nazi and a co-founder of the white supremacistterrorist organizationThe Order. For his actions as part of The Order, Lane was convicted and sentenced to 190 years in prison forracketeering,conspiracy, and the violation of the civil rights ofAlan Berg, a Jewish radio talk show host, who prosecutors claimed was murdered by a member of the group via adrive-by shooting with Lane acting as driver, though they were unsuccessful in gettingmurder convictions.[1][2] He died while still incarcerated at theFCI Terre Haute inTerre Haute, Indiana.[3]
While in prison, Lane wrote many white supremacist materials and coined the "Fourteen Words", a well known white supremacist slogan in North America. He has been described by theSouthern Poverty Law Center as "one of the most important ideologues of contemporary white supremacy".[2]
David Lane was born November 2, 1938 inWoden, Iowa.[4][5] At the time of his birth, the town was largely populated by Germanic immigrants.[6] Lane was the third of four siblings, with a brother and two sisters.[7][8] His father was an alcoholic itinerant worker who was physically abusive toward his wife and children;[8][4] Lane described his father as "a truly despicable creature", and described his mother as an "uneducated [...] farm girl".[6] In one instance, his father beat Lane's older brother Roger so severely that he was rendered permanently deaf.[8] When Lane was four years old, his father abandoned his family.[7] In 1944, Roger was found searching for food in a neighbor's trash bins, and Lane and his sisters were placed in anorphanage.[6]
After being placed in state care Lane was separated from and lost contact with his biological family.[6] He was soon adopted by a travelingLutheran minister.[9][6] With his new family he moved very frequently.[6] Traveling across theMidwestern United States with his adoptive family, Lane finally settled inAurora, Colorado, where he attendedHinkley High School.[10][11] His adoptive family was strictly Christian, which contributed to Lane's distaste for Christianity.[9] As an adult, he changed his last name back to his biological father's surname, rather than his adopted family's.[10] He attended a community college; there he had good grades, but left after one semester.[11]
Lane claims that he rejectedChristianity early in life, finding the faith boring.[6] Lane later favored pagan beliefs as a more authentic ancestral "white" religion, as opposed to what he viewed as Jewish influenced Christianity.[2][9] Lane claimed that he first became attracted to women of the "Caucasian race" after befriending a blonde-haired girl in first grade.[8][6] Lane stated that while he reenacted battles with his foster brother as a child, he portrayed aNazi stormtrooper while his brother portrayed an American soldier.[8] It is uncertain how true some of these claims are.[6]
Lane was briefly a member of theJohn Birch Society before joining theKu Klux Klan, becoming the organizer of theDenver unit of theKnights of the Ku Klux Klan in 1979.[12] Originally aspiring to become a golf professional, Lane worked as areal estate broker starting in 1973, but his license was revoked because he "wouldn't sell homes tocoloreds in white neighborhoods".[12][13] In 1979, his biological sister Jane tracked him down, and Lane regained contact with his biological family for the first time in several decades.[13] He became close again with his brother; he died during Lane's trial, which Lane blamed on federal agents targeting him. His other sister did not share his views, but Jane had also become a white supremacist and was married to the leader of the Pennsylvania branch ofAryan Nations, Carl Franklin.[13] This contact with Jane and her husband led to Lane making contact with Aryan Nations.[13] In late 1981, Lane became Colorado State Organizer of Aryan Nations.[12] He distributed his first pamphlet, "The Death of the White Race", in the Denver area, leading to publicity and attention from theAnti-Defamation League; he claimed that the Denver police attempted to assassinate him by helicopter after this.[13]
Lane metRobert Jay Mathews in July 1983 at the Aryan Nations world congress.[14] On September 22, 1983, Lane was among the nine founding members to be sworn intoThe Order, a white supremacist group led by Mathews whose mission was to "deliver our people from theJew and bring total victory to theAryan race."[15] The Order was accused of stealing over $4.1 million in armored car hijackings, killing three people (one of whom was Order member Walter E. West), detonating bombs,counterfeiting money, organizing militaristic training camps and carrying out numerous other crimes with the ultimate goal of overthrowing the "Zionist occupational government" they deemed in control of theUnited States and to "liberate the Pacific Northwest as a homeland for whites" in the process (seeNorthwest Territorial Imperative).[16]
For his role in The Order's crimes, Lane was sentenced to consecutive sentences totaling 190 years, including 20 years forracketeering, 20 years forconspiracy, both under theRacketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act (RICO), and 150 years for violating the civil rights ofAlan Berg, a Jewish radio talk show host who was murdered on June 18, 1984.[1][2][3][17] Berg was shot and killed in the driveway of hisDenver home by three members of The Order.[18] Lane was arrested on the evening of March 30, 1985, inWinston-Salem, North Carolina.[19] While he did not pull the trigger, prosecutors said Lane drove the getaway car and played a large role in the planning of Berg's assassination.[2][20]
Lane was also among 14 men prosecuted forseditious conspiracy inFort Smith, Arkansas, but he wasacquitted. Lane was considered extremely dangerous and thus held in high-security facilities suchUnited States Penitentiary, Marion, theUnited States Penitentiary Administrative Maximum Facility inFlorence, Colorado, and theFCI Terre Haute.[citation needed]
While incarcerated, he had theFederal Bureau of Prisons ID # 12873–057.[21] Lane wrote books and articles aboutgematria and the demographic and sociopolitical status of the white race for white nationalist periodicals and websites. With his wife and Ron McVan, he ran a publishing company called 14 Word Press inIdaho to disseminate his writings.[22]
He was featured inNazi Pop Twins, a documentary aired on July 19, 2007, onChannel 4 in the UK.[23] In it, he was shown speaking by phone withPrussian Blue (the music act from the documentary) and termed them "fantasy sweethearts" and that he viewed them like daughters.[24]
Lane's earliest possible release date from prison would have been on March 29, 2035 (at age 96). He died on May 28, 2007, inFCI Terre Haute due to anepileptic seizure.[25][26] On June 30, 2007, white supremacists held memorial demonstrations for Lane in cities across the United States, the United Kingdom, Germany, Russia, and Ukraine.[27]
Lane stated that his beliefs can be best summarized by a slogan he called the "Fourteen Words": "We must secure the existence of our people and a future for White children." He also coined a second 14-word slogan: "because the beauty of the White Aryan woman must not perish from the earth."[8]
While he was in prison, Lane wrote the88 Precepts as a treatise on his views onrace, politics, and philosophy (88 is a commondog-whistle to praise Adolf Hitler, as "Heil Hitler" uses the eighth letter of the English alphabet, H, for the start of both words). Lane viewed these as the principles behind the two "Fourteen Words" slogans. The88 Precepts arecritical of democracy and oppose government under the claim oftaxation as theft. They also promotedservant leadership, aDeistic theological view, and rejectedracial integration, calling it a "euphemism" for "White genocide." Lane's writing also sought to establish awhite ethnostate inNorth America and inEastern Europe.
"88 Precepts" is one of several key texts, printed and distributed through 14 Word Press, including the "White Genocide Manifesto" (which contained 14 key points).[28] As in his other writings, Lane repeats the claim thatwhite people are threatened by a lack of exclusive territorial hegemony and "forced racial mixing".[29] Lane viewed the United States government as part of aZionist conspiracy.[30][31]
Consistent with the restrictivegender roles which were practiced withinAryan Nations, precept 35 of "88 Precepts" regardshomosexuality as unnatural and also viewssex as an act of reproduction which should be performed for the sole purpose of increasing the size of the white population. Lane also considers sex as a motivation for male subjugation of women, who are expected to be subservient. Lane advises men to subjugate women via power and control of territory, and he also advises white men to take up arms for this purpose.[32] According to its web site, theUnited Klans of America viewed the 88 Precepts as "a source for which we can ascertain lasting truths".[33]
Lane was one of the founders of theWotansvolk movement, aracist, neo-völkisch[34] form ofOdinism (orHeathenry) which he formed with his wife Katja in 1995 in order to promote his ideology[2] which pursued a program of concerted outreach to prisoners.[35] Wotansvolk combines an "Aryan call to arms" with anesoteric teaching, partially based onJungian psychology, völkish philosophy, andNational Socialism.[36] Lane distanced himself fromuniversalist Odinists (including "folkish Asatru") who did not embrace "survival of the Aryan race" as a core part of the movement.[37] Lane argued withStephen McNallen, then leader of theAsatru Folk Assembly when Lane was alive.[38] By 2017, McNallen came out with support for Lane's 14 Words, quoting them verbatim.[34]
Aiming to foment a white revolution, Wotansvolk endorsed "leaderless resistance," a strategy which was popularized byLouis Beam, aKlan veteran and a longtime friend of the Lane family.[36] However, 14 Word Press and Temple of Wotan are defunct organizations and as a result no longer have mailing addresses or websites, although Wotanism is still practiced by independentkindreds.
PortrayingSir Francis Bacon andShakespeare as being "adept in ancient divine wisdom" and believing that thepyramids were built by "Aryan architects", Lane taught a belief called the "Pyramid Prophecy 666",[35] which included the concept that aBible code was inserted by "Aryan adepts" within theKing James Version of the ChristianBible. Lane's alleged deciphered code described him as being the "man" who is described in theBook of Revelation, with America beingthe Beast, but that belief was censored by Ron McVan and other strategists who believed that Lane'sMessianic /Anti-Christ claims would be counterproductive by "turning off potential converts".[39] Lane also issued a declaration called "Moral Authority", which calls the United States a "Red, White, and Blue travelling mass murder machine" intent on committinggenocide against white people. According to the declaration, "true moral authority belongs to those who resist" this purported genocide.[8] Lane claimed that was the "666 Sun Man" and that America was the "Beast", and that "14-88" was an integral part of coding in his "Pyramid Prophecy"[40] and was fundamental Wotanism (with "88 Lines and 14 Words" being a supplement to 88 Precepts). 1488 is a combination of 14 as in Lane's Fourteen Words and88, a white nationalist/supremacist abbreviation for "Heil Hitler."[41]
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