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History of The Aryan Brotherhood of Texas. Founded in the early 1980s, the Aryan Brotherhood of Texas, also known as the A B T, is an unrelated knockoff of the California based prison gang Aryan Brotherhood. It is by far the deadliest prison gang in the Texas Department of Prisons and also nationwide, as well as a statewide crime syndicate. Like the Aryan Brotherhood, the A B T has a strictly hierarchical leadership structure and has members both inside the state’s prisons and on the streets. The criminal enterprise controls the majority of the methamphetamine trafficking in the state. Unlike many other more flamboyant racist prison gangs, members of the Aryan Brotherhood of Texas pride themselves on anonymity and their ability to blend in the general population as “suburban gangsters” on the outside. They are known for being few in numbers, many highly intelligent, and all extremely violent. Inmates of other vicious gangs often stay away from its members in fear for their own lives. They are considered the worst of the worst. In their Own Words: “God Forgives. Brothers Don’t.”. Like the similarly named but unrelated group Aryan Brotherhood, the origins of the Aryan Brotherhood of Texas go back to the desegregation of prisons and the racial conflicts that resulted. In the 1970s, under the direction of Texas Department of Corrections chief George Beto, Texas prisons used a brutal “trusty system,” in which corrections officers used certain inmates, known as “building tenders,” to carry out physical punishments of other inmates. The officers favored white inmates as their tenders, and these men had nearly total control behind the walls. But that system was finally abolished in 1980, as a result of the federal court case of Ruiz Estelle, and inmates began to organize along racial lines to fill the power void. White inmates, who were a minority in the prison system and still are, needed to solve the new situation and in 1981 a group of them decided to form a prison gang along racial lines. The group, including A B T founders David Rushing, Bobby Adams, Arthur Wells, Jake Doby, Richard Flinga, John Murray and Harry Wagner reached out to the Aryan Brotherhood in California, which was already nation’s most formidable white prison gang, and asked if they could form a Texas affiliate. But they were refused. In the end, the inmates, some of them already belonging to other small gangs, came together as the Aryan Brotherhood of Texas, the A B T, consequently ignoring the threat that came with the rejection from the Aryan Brotherhood. The group quickly rose to become one of the deadliest prison gangs in Texas and nation wide, responsible for scores of murders over the years. They aimed to protect themselves especially from black gangs within prison walls, but never considered themselves to be new “building tenders.” Founders convinced white inmates that joining was the best way to defend themselves against predators. The gang would go on to be a predator in its own right. They waged war against two rival black Texas prison gangs, the Mandingo Warriors and the Self-Defense Family, where the Mandingo Warriors got beaten to the point of near extermination within the prison system. Instead of being the prey, A B T became the predator. The gang’s leadership is believed to be composed of five generals, one for each region of Texas. They are collectively known as the “Steering Committee” or “The Wheel.” The generals oversee criminal activity — smuggling, drug trafficking, extortion and other rackets in the prisons, and a variety of activity including drug running, home invasions, theft and identity theft outside — and also order incredibly brutal sanctions against any member who breaks the gang’s rules. Punishment of those judged to be snitches is known to involve torture and murder. The gang is known for its effectiveness as a criminal enterprise including few and only extremely loyal members which may explain why they uphold such a high position as a terror organization within prisons. A low point for Texas prisons came in 1983 and 1984, when 52 inmates were killed in gang wars. The A B T was responsible for a majority of the killings and by 1985, its members had become masters of the Texas prison system, calling themselves, "The Mad Dog.”. Since its founding, officials say, the A B T is known to have carried out hundreds of murders and kidnappings. They are still, to this day, a major problem for law enforcement, Texas prisons, F B I and the nation at large. References: Pelz 1988, Pelz et al 1992, S P L C, T D C, course material from University of Texas and professor Gregg Hamon, University of Texas.