--- title: "Gangs: The Aryan Brotherhood" description: "It was late in the evening of April 5th 1970, when the red Pontiac Grand Prix screeched to a halt in front of J's Coffee Shop in Valencia, California.\n\nInside were Bobby Augusta Davis and Jack Wright Twinning, two convicted criminals who'd stolen a series of workmans' tools from an unsupervised building site in the nearby town of Gorman. Having gotten into a freeway altercation with another motorist, their route was signalled to the California State Patrol, who sent two officers to carry out a traffic stop on the Pontiac.\n\nBut when the officers pulled up to the side of the car, Twinning and Davis opened fire, killing both men and going on to murder another two officers who arrived on the scene as backup. What had begun as a routine traffic stop quickly turned into a bloodbath, and the pair of killers quickly fled the scene. Twinning later shot himself with one of the dead officers' guns, but Davis was arrested and taken into custody. And this was the first occasion that what would become one of the most notorious prison gangs on record came into public attention.\n\nBoth men were suspected members of the Aryan Brotherhood.\n\n## The 'Brand'\n\nThe Aryan Brotherhood — also known as AB or 'the Brand' — formed behind the walls of San Quentin Prison, California, in the 1960s.\n\nThe location was no accident. San Quentin was heavily populated by petty or violent criminals from poor, overwhelmingly white areas of inland California — including cities such as Fresno, Norco, San Bernardino and Bakersfield. But what also contributed to the rise of the Brotherhood were wider social changes occurring in American society at that time, and which were no different within the confines of the prison.\n\nThe US — and especially California — was in a state of great political upheaval. The Civil Rights movement was in full swing, and the Black Panthers formed in Oakland in 1966, where they marched for an end to segregation and discriminatory practices against African-Americans. In San Quentin, something similar was occurring. Inmate George Jackson established the Black Guerrilla Family, a prison gang whose objectives mimicked the wider Black Power movement. Shortly after this, prison wards were desegregated, and the general population of San Quentin was mixed for the first time. Race relations were no better than in some of the most divided parts of the US, and came to a head in the exercise yard in January 1967. A race riot erupted, which saw up to 2000 BGF inmates and more than a thousand non-black inmates do pitched battle, before the upheaval was suppressed by prison guards.\n\nThe white inmates, realising the numbers and coordination of the BGF, decided to consolidate their own fraternal organisation in response: this led to the rise of the Aryan Brotherhood, which had in fact been established — also in San Quentin — two years before the BGF, as a white supremacist movement.\n\nOne of its key rules would be that membership would amount to a deal for life: but more on that in a bit.\n\n## A Deal for Life\n\nWhat emerged from San Quentin would go on to become one of the most well-organised and ruthless gangs in the United States.\n\nUnlike rival gangs such as the BGF, the DC Blacks and the Hispanic Nuestra Familia, AB membership was small, compact, and utterly without mercy. The very baddest members sat as a three-person leadership committee, known as the Commission, which would order hits and direct in-house narcotic trafficking and trade. Murders of other inmates and insubordinate AB members were authorised through a \"green light\" system, usually a two-third majority vote.\n\nThe relatively smaller pool of white prisoners meant that membership was not really much of a choice. While membership of other gangs was largely voluntary, new white inmates would be presented a choice: join the Brotherhood and be protected at least from the threat posed by other gangs, or refuse to join and be vulnerable to attack by both other gangs and the AB as well.\n\nThe organisation structure was nothing if not rigid, and its membership protocols strict.\n\nBrotherhood members were made to read Western and Oriental philosophy, including Sun Tzu's *The Art of War*, Musashi's *The Book of Five Rings*, and works by Nietszche, Machiavelli and others. The gang generated revenue by smuggling substances into its prison, often by way of enablers on the outside such as released associates and members' wives and girlfriends. The illicit substances — often heroin and methamphetamine — were also used to control prisoners' lives, preying largely on the drug-dependent and those admitted on narcotics charges.\n\nCentral to the orchestration of gang activities was a complex and cunning system of communication. The gang managed to circumvent prison restrictions by passing notes to one another using coded writing and cryptograms. This included invisible text (mostly using urine as ink), and remarkably even the gang's own alphabet, which was partly lifted from the Elizabethan-era writings of Francis Bacon — and which otherwise read as mumbo-jumbo.\n\nAnd amidst all this, the Brotherhood oversaw a campaign of brutal prison killings.\n\nOne of the key features of the organisation was its \"Blood In, Blood Out\" principle. In other words, a prisoner would have to commit a murder or violent assault to join the gang — and they'd meet the same fate if they tried to leave it. Defectors and informers were particularly subject to vicious retribution — something which could follow them to other prisons and into protective incarceration. A prisoner in Pennsylvania was murdered on orders received in invisible ink from a supermax prison in Colorado, some 1,700 miles away. This followed a rise in violence such that prison authorities made the understandable — if ill-advised — decision to transfer members to federal prisons in other parts of the country.\n\nOne of the locations chosen was FCI Leavenworth in the state of Kansas. And this was where one of the most notorious members of the Brotherhood would rise to prominence.\n\n## 'Terrible Tom' Silverstein\n\nThomas Silverstein was twenty-five years old when he entered Leavenworth in 1978 on a conviction for armed robbery.\n\nSilverstein was blooded by the AB only a few months later, when he stabbed white prisoner Danny Atwell to death, after Atwell had refused to act as a drug mule for the Brotherhood.\n\nTherein, Silverstein — like many others — fell into the quagmire posed by membership in the organisation. To survive the prison system — especially if on anything more than a trifling sentence — an inmate would be forced to rely on the protection of a gang. To achieve this, in the case of the Brotherhood, one would often be expected to carry out a task on behalf of the gang or one of its allies, which could involve murdering another inmate. This, in turn, would lead to an extended sentence — often life — which would leave the inmate fully at the disposal of the gang and simultaneously reliant on them.\n\nHave you ever seen the Hollywood film *Shot Caller*? If not, spoiler ahead.\n\nIn the movie, stockbroker Jacob Harlon is moved into a California prison on a short sentence for a fatal DUI conviction. After falling in with a white supremacist gang for his own protection (going on to receive the ironic gang nickname \"Money\"), Harlon rises to the helm of the Brotherhood, through gritted teeth and one gruesome killing after another.\n\nThe film was praised for a gripping and realistic depiction of the stages of prison gang membership. But the film could also have received attention as a light retelling of the circumstances of Silverstein's life.\n\nSilverstein was shunted into Leavenworth for a string of armed robberies in which he participated, but which were led by his father and cousin. Being from California, Silverstein had previously served four years for the same crime in none other than San Quentin, and had somehow managed to swerve AB membership on that occasion. But now serving fifteen years in Leavenworth, the Brotherhood quickly came knocking on his door. In the years thereafter, Silverstein rose through the rungs of the organisation by carrying out murder after murder — increasing both his prestige and the length of his conviction.\n\nLike in *Shot Caller*, Silverstein eventually reached highest rank. He gained the nickname 'Terrible Tom', and his vicious crimes inspired other members to do similarly. As a central figure in the Commission, Silverstein green-lit hits on associates and rival inmates for disrespect or insubordination. One of these targeted Bobby Davis, the shooter from the red Pontiac, who was wounded by an improvised arrow shot and moved into solitary detention for his own safety — where he killed himself in 2009.\n\nOver time, the violence in the American prison system entered uncharted territory.\n\n## Walls Bathed in Blood\n\nIn some prisons, the Aryan Brotherhood constitute as little as 1% of the population, but have been responsible for up 26% of murders committed.\n\nPrison authorities eventually shifted out of transferring its members to federal prisons (which had largely succeeded only in opening new chapters of the Brotherhood elsewhere), and began to lock down the most severe offenders in strict isolation. A notable target of this practice was Terrible Tom Silverstein.\n\nSilverstein was moved out of Leavenworth following the murder of Danny Atwell, and arrived at USP Marion, at that time a maximum-security facility in the state of Illinois. Soon after, Silverstein and another Brotherhood member set upon Robert Chapelle, a member of the DC Blacks gang, and strangled him to death in the exercise yard.\n\nBy now, Terrible Tom's fearsome reputation preceded him in the US prison system. But Chapelle's death led to fury among rival gangs and another race war began. The national leader of the DC Blacks gang, Raymond 'Cadillac' Smith, was moved into USP Marion around this time, and vowed revenge for his associate's death.\n\nSmith made several attempts on Silverstein's life, and nearly succeeded in killing him. Crucially, however, he didn't — and his luck would run out soon after.\n\nSilverstein and Clayton Fountain — his accomplice in the Chappelle murder — managed to break out of an exercise area and set upon Smith in the prison shower area. Raymond Cadillac Smith was stabbed 67 times, after which Silverstein and Fountain dragged his lifeless body into the prison gen-pop area for other inmates to see. Silverstein was moved into solitary detention soon after.\n\nThomas Silverstein's story was a strange one. In 1985, his first conviction for murder — that of Danny Atwell in Leavenworth — was quashed on the basis of unreliable witness testimony. But by that time, Silverstein had rather incontestably carried out another prison murder — the strangulation of Robert Chappelle in the USP Marion prison yard. Had it not been for this, Silverstein may conceivably have served his time for armed robbery and been released. But by murdering Chappelle, he not only secured a lifetime stint in prison, but also a number of would-be suitors for his own murder. This, in turn, drew him further into the arms of the Aryan Brotherhood and later on into dehumanising isolation. In some ways, Silverstein represented the sober dilemma that membership of the Brotherhood presented: a half-life as a locked-down criminal in the American prison system, or no life as the victim of a murder by another inmate or by the AB itself.\n\nIn Silverstein's case, the half-life amounted to practically no life whatsoever. After the Smith murder, he was placed into 24-hour guarded detention, with the lights permanently illuminated, and with only drawing utensils to pass his time — with which he depicted the realities of his isolation. During this lone incarceration, he was mistreated by Merle Clutts, the prison officer on duty, who smudged his art and stripped some of the few belongings from his cell. Soon, Silverstein had enough of Clutts, and went on to carry out one of the most infamous murders in US prison history by getting his hands on a prison shank and stabbing Clutts forty times to death.\n\nClutt's murder sent USP Marion into a lockdown which lasted for a full twenty-three years thereafter. Silverstein was transferred again, this time to USP Atlanta, and ultimately into the newly-built Florence supermax in Colorado. In each location, he was kept in strict isolation with only limited contact even with the guards tasked with containing him.\n\nBy the time he died in 2019, Silverstein had spent the last 37 years of his life in brightly-lit isolation, save for a short interlude when he was released from his cell by Cuban inmates during the Atlanta prison riot in 1987. Ostensibly for the protection of all around him, Terrible Tom was allowed practically no human contact — and the only evidence of his existence were the mesmerising portraits of his limited life which circulated on various websites.\n\n## The Brand Expands\n\nBut Silverstein was by no means the only — or even the most sadistic — leader of the gang. Around the time he began his sentence in Leavenworth, a new beast was already rising behind the walls of San Quentin.\n\nAfter the Aryan Brotherhood and Black Guerilla Family rivalry erupted, it was judged too risky to allow the gangs to share the prison exercise yard simultaneously. As such, the gangs would use the yard on alternating weeks, each sharing the space with Hispanic gangs who'd been separated for the same reason. With this, the AB struck a bond with the Mexican Mafia — or 'La Eme' — and began to carry out murders on behalf of the group against their rivals Nuestra Familia, with La Eme doing the same against black gangs.\n\nBarry Byron Mills entered San Quentin as a twenty-year-old around this time.\n\nLike Silverstein, Mills was a native of California and his detention was on an initially-short conviction for armed robbery. Also like Silverstein, Mills' detention was later extended all the way to life for what became a litany of gruesome crimes behind bars. But perhaps unlike Silverstein, Mills' murders were the work of a berserker, seemingly particularly buoyed by the racial element of the AB's murderousness.\n\nMills made his name by carrying out murders on behalf of the AB in light of the new web of allegiances at San Quentin. After stabbing a member of Nuestra Familia to death in 1972, he was moved on to USP Atlanta. Mills received notoriety for a ferocious murder in 1979, when he set upon an AB member who'd fallen foul of Thomas Silverstein, and nearly decapitated the man with a crudely-fashioned knife. This elevated Mills to the Commission, where he sat alongside Silverstein and another vicious figure named Tyler Bingham. Mills and Bingham's influence expanded as Silverstein faded into strict isolation, and they went on to expand the AB's trafficking and racketeering activities, in addition to ordering a large number of prison murders. Many of these were against associates Mills disliked, strong-arming even other members of the Commission into meeting the two-vote mark for greenlighting hits. Mills gained the nickname 'the Baron', and was known to have a visceral hatred of informants, something traced back a partner's confession which paved his route to San Quentin. To be branded a 'rat' by the Mills-led Brotherhood was an extremely undesirable fate, and one which The Baron routinely used as a means to target his foes.\n\nThe AB also continued its practice of murders-for-hire, and offered protection to well-connected inmates for a price. One notable recipient was Italian-American mob leader John Gotti, who was imprisoned in USP Marion from 1992. Gotti initially paid protection to the AB, but made the mistake of faltering on his payments to the gang. His protection vanished, and Gotti was attacked by black inmate Walter Johnson in the prison rec room. He survived, and turned back to none other than the AB for retribution against his assailant. Johnson was swiftly shepherded out of Marion and into the relative safety of the Colorado supermax. But it has been suggested that the reason the Brotherhood allowed Johnson to escape with his life was to shake Gotti down for his failure to pay protection — and to remind the once-formidable mob boss just who owned him in his new surroundings at USP Marion.\n\nOther targets of the Brotherhood met no such clemency. Mills had not forgotten about the DC Blacks and their attempts to end the life of Thomas Silverstein. Under direction from Mills and Bingham, AB members carried out frenzied attacks on DC Blacks prisoners, including the double murder of two inmates in Lewisburg prison in 1997, and the mass stabbing of six more with shivs in the same prison a few months later.\n\nBarry Mills and Tyler Bingham were eventually targeted with a massive indictment for conspiracy, incitement, racketeering, and 32 murders in 2006, and later saw out their days — like Silverstein — in the Florence Supermax in Colorado.\n\nBut the relentless violence of the AB had now overtaken even the overseers at its helm.\n\n## The Brand Lives On\n\nDespite attempts to curtail its influence, the Aryan Brotherhood remains prominent in US prison circles, and no less deadly than in the years before.\n\nHugo Pinell — or 'Yogi Bear' — was a member of the Black Guerrilla Family who'd been part of the organisation since the George Jackson days in the 1970s. Pinell was convicted of cutting the throats of two prison guards during an escape attempt in 1971, and later stabbed his own attorney in the midst of his arraignment. Like Silverstein, he was sentenced to 24-hour isolated detention soon afterwards. But by 2015, the now-elderly Pinell was granted release to the general population of New Folsom Prison in California. His relative newfound freedom lasted two weeks, before he was stabbed to death by AB members during a prison riot.\n\nWhat was once a gang bandied together to counter the threat of the black gangs had become a formidable criminal enterprise with tentacles extending both inside and outside the prison system. What was born in the petri dish of San Quentin had now expanded to chapters the length and breadth of the country. And what had once been an outfit of a few hundred members by now had thousands of associates and foot soldiers, bound to service by the enduring threat of the Blood In, Blood Out principle.\n\nGoing back to events depicted in *Shot Caller*, Money's service to the gang does not end with his parole and release from the prison. Now hardened by his experiences during his detention, and faced with the reality that the gang held control over his movements on the outside by threatening to move on his family, Money realises that his stint outside the prison will be short-lived. The only way to ensure the safety of those close to him will be a return to the confines of the prison system, and to dictate the organisation by himself from within.\n\nThe same is likely true to reality. Once blooded by the gang, membership is not a reality easily dispelled. With a vast membership across dozens of institutions, and with a capacity for regeneration secured through the unforgiving conditions of this membership, the decision to join the Aryan Brotherhood perhaps far outweighs even the terms of one's incarceration.\n\nIt amounts, in fact, to a true deal for life.\n\n## Key Takeaways\n\n- The Aryan Brotherhood emerged in the 1960s at San Quentin Prison due to racial tensions and the rise of the Black Guerrilla Family.\n- The gang's strict 'Blood In, Blood Out' principle requires members to commit murder to join and face death if they leave.\n- Thomas Silverstein, known as 'Terrible Tom,' became a notorious leader of the Aryan Brotherhood, spending decades in isolation.\n- The Aryan Brotherhood's influence extends beyond prisons, with members involved in trafficking and murders-for-hire.\n- Despite efforts to curb its power, the Aryan Brotherhood remains a significant and deadly presence in US prisons.\n\n## Frequently Asked Questions\n\n### When and where was the Aryan Brotherhood first brought to public attention?\n\nThe Aryan Brotherhood was first brought to public attention on April 5th, 1970, following a violent incident at J's Coffee Shop in Valencia, California, where Bobby Augusta Davis and Jack Wright Twinning, suspected members of the Aryan Brotherhood, killed four California State Patrol officers.\n\n### What is the 'Blood In, Blood Out' principle of the Aryan Brotherhood?\n\nThe 'Blood In, Blood Out' principle means that a prisoner must commit a murder or violent assault to join the Aryan Brotherhood, and they will face the same fate if they try to leave the gang.\n\n### How did the Aryan Brotherhood communicate within prisons?\n\nThe Aryan Brotherhood used a complex system of communication, including coded writing, cryptograms, invisible text (using urine as ink), and even their own alphabet partly lifted from Elizabethan-era writings of Francis Bacon.\n\n### Who was 'Terrible Tom' Silverstein and what was his role in the Aryan Brotherhood?\n\nThomas 'Terrible Tom' Silverstein was a notorious member of the Aryan Brotherhood who rose to prominence in FCI Leavenworth. He became a central figure in the Commission, ordering hits on associates and rival inmates, and was known for his brutal crimes.\n\n### What was the significance of the race riot in San Quentin in January 1967?\n\nThe race riot in San Quentin in January 1967 was a pivotal event that led to the consolidation of the Aryan Brotherhood. White inmates realized the coordination and numbers of the Black Guerrilla Family and formed the AB in response to protect themselves.\n\n### How did the Aryan Brotherhood expand its influence beyond San Quentin?\n\nThe Aryan Brotherhood expanded its influence by striking alliances with other gangs, such as the Mexican Mafia, and carrying out murders on behalf of these groups. They also began to operate in other prisons, including USP Marion and FCI Leavenworth.\n\n### What was the impact of the Aryan Brotherhood's violence on the prison system?\n\nThe Aryan Brotherhood's violence led to significant changes in the prison system, including the transfer of members to federal prisons and the implementation of strict isolation for the most severe offenders. Their actions also resulted in long-term lockdowns and increased security measures.\n\n### What was the 'green light' system in the Aryan Brotherhood?\n\nThe 'green light' system was a method used by the Aryan Brotherhood to authorize murders of other inmates and insubordinate members. It typically required a two-thirds majority vote from the leadership committee, known as the Commission.\n\n### How did the Aryan Brotherhood generate revenue within prisons?\n\nThe Aryan Brotherhood generated revenue by smuggling illicit substances, such as heroin and methamphetamine, into prisons. They also controlled prisoners' lives by preying on the drug-dependent and those admitted on narcotics charges.\n\n### What was the role of Barry Byron Mills in the Aryan Brotherhood?\n\nBarry Byron Mills, known as 'the Baron,' was a vicious leader of the Aryan Brotherhood who carried out numerous murders and expanded the gang's trafficking and racketeering activities. He was known for his hatred of informants and his brutal methods of enforcing the gang's rules.\n\n## Sources\n\n- [Original Into the Shadows video: Gangs: The Aryan Brotherhood](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0BVdW8buhFA)\n- [https://www.nytimes.com/1967/01/19/archives/san-quentin-guards-thwart-a-race-riot-by-2000-convicts.html](https://www.nytimes.com/1967/01/19/archives/san-quentin-guards-thwart-a-race-riot-by-2000-convicts.html)\n- [https://casetext.com/case/silverstein-v-fed-bureau-of-prisons-1](https://casetext.com/case/silverstein-v-fed-bureau-of-prisons-1)\n- [https://www.upi.com/Archives/1990/09/24/California-inmate-serving-life-wins-45000-from-state/3393654148800/](https://www.upi.com/Archives/1990/09/24/California-inmate-serving-life-wins-45000-from-state/3393654148800/)\n- [https://www.corrections1.com/treatment/articles/2-notorious-calif-inmates-commit-suicide-wXZcG6jfMt5NfOKw/](https://www.corrections1.com/treatment/articles/2-notorious-calif-inmates-commit-suicide-wXZcG6jfMt5NfOKw/)\n- [https://bibliography.icpsr.umich.edu/bibliography/citations/data/173680/fileDownload](https://bibliography.icpsr.umich.edu/bibliography/citations/data/173680/fileDownload)\n- [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Atlanta_prison_riots](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Atlanta_prison_riots)\n- [https://thomassilverstein.net/toms-art-a-gallery/#jp-carousel-142](https://thomassilverstein.net/toms-art-a-gallery/#jp-carousel-142)\n- [https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-2006-jul-30-me-aryan30-story.html](https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-2006-jul-30-me-aryan30-story.html)\n- [https://www.courthousenews.com/longest-held-prisoner-in-solitary-loses-challenge/](https://www.courthousenews.com/longest-held-prisoner-in-solitary-loses-challenge/)\n- [https://www.nytimes.com/2018/07/20/obituaries/barry-mills-brutal-leader-of-racist-prison-gang-dies-at-70.html](https://www.nytimes.com/2018/07/20/obituaries/barry-mills-brutal-leader-of-racist-prison-gang-dies-at-70.html)\n- [https://www.justice.gov/usao-edca/pr/three-aryan-brotherhood-prison-gang-members-convicted-murder-aid-racketeering-rico](https://www.justice.gov/usao-edca/pr/three-aryan-brotherhood-prison-gang-members-convicted-murder-aid-racketeering-rico)\n- [https://www.cbsnews.com/sanfrancisco/news/aryan-brotherhood-prison-murder-racketeering-ronald-yandell-william-sylvester-california/](https://www.cbsnews.com/sanfrancisco/news/aryan-brotherhood-prison-murder-racketeering-ronald-yandell-william-sylvester-california/)\n- [https://www.nytimes.com/2019/05/21/obituaries/thomas-silverstein-dead.html](https://www.nytimes.com/2019/05/21/obituaries/thomas-silverstein-dead.html)\n- [Hero image source](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/e/e3/At_Valencia_2025_394_-_EES_kiosks.jpg) by Photograph by Mike Peel (www.mikepeel.net). / openverse, by-sa.\n\n## Related Coverage" url: https://intotheshadows.pub/article/gangs-the-aryan-brotherhood.md canonical: https://intotheshadows.pub/article/gangs-the-aryan-brotherhood datePublished: 2026-06-28 dateModified: 2026-06-28 author: - name: Simon Whistler url: https://intotheshadows.pub/author/simon-whistler publisher: Into the Shadows image: "https://media.intotheshadows.pub/cdn-cgi/image/width=1600,height=900,fit=cover,quality=80,format=auto/articles/0BVdW8buhFA/hero.jpg" type: Article contentHash: ba70ee1b54708c7530ec865616c934a8a58760f666f19fb85418efda0dd35bdc tokens: 6509 summaryUrl: https://intotheshadows.pub/article/gangs-the-aryan-brotherhood.md.summary.md --- It was late in the evening of April 5th 1970, when the red Pontiac Grand Prix screeched to a halt in front of J's Coffee Shop in Valencia, California. Inside were Bobby Augusta Davis and Jack Wright Twinning, two convicted criminals who'd stolen a series of workmans' tools from an unsupervised building site in the nearby town of Gorman. Having gotten into a freeway altercation with another motorist, their route was signalled to the California State Patrol, who sent two officers to carry out a traffic stop on the Pontiac. But when the officers pulled up to the side of the car, Twinning and Davis opened fire, killing both men and going on to murder another two officers who arrived on the scene as backup. What had begun as a routine traffic stop quickly turned into a bloodbath, and the pair of killers quickly fled the scene. Twinning later shot himself with one of the dead officers' guns, but Davis was arrested and taken into custody. And this was the first occasion that what would become one of the most notorious prison gangs on record came into public attention. Both men were suspected members of the Aryan Brotherhood. ## The 'Brand' The Aryan Brotherhood — also known as AB or 'the Brand' — formed behind the walls of San Quentin Prison, California, in the 1960s. The location was no accident. San Quentin was heavily populated by petty or violent criminals from poor, overwhelmingly white areas of inland California — including cities such as Fresno, Norco, San Bernardino and Bakersfield. But what also contributed to the rise of the Brotherhood were wider social changes occurring in American society at that time, and which were no different within the confines of the prison. The US — and especially California — was in a state of great political upheaval. The Civil Rights movement was in full swing, and the Black Panthers formed in Oakland in 1966, where they marched for an end to segregation and discriminatory practices against African-Americans. In San Quentin, something similar was occurring. Inmate George Jackson established the Black Guerrilla Family, a prison gang whose objectives mimicked the wider Black Power movement. Shortly after this, prison wards were desegregated, and the general population of San Quentin was mixed for the first time. Race relations were no better than in some of the most divided parts of the US, and came to a head in the exercise yard in January 1967. A race riot erupted, which saw up to 2000 BGF inmates and more than a thousand non-black inmates do pitched battle, before the upheaval was suppressed by prison guards. The white inmates, realising the numbers and coordination of the BGF, decided to consolidate their own fraternal organisation in response: this led to the rise of the Aryan Brotherhood, which had in fact been established — also in San Quentin — two years before the BGF, as a white supremacist movement. One of its key rules would be that membership would amount to a deal for life: but more on that in a bit. ## A Deal for Life What emerged from San Quentin would go on to become one of the most well-organised and ruthless gangs in the United States. Unlike rival gangs such as the BGF, the DC Blacks and the Hispanic Nuestra Familia, AB membership was small, compact, and utterly without mercy. The very baddest members sat as a three-person leadership committee, known as the Commission, which would order hits and direct in-house narcotic trafficking and trade. Murders of other inmates and insubordinate AB members were authorised through a "green light" system, usually a two-third majority vote. The relatively smaller pool of white prisoners meant that membership was not really much of a choice. While membership of other gangs was largely voluntary, new white inmates would be presented a choice: join the Brotherhood and be protected at least from the threat posed by other gangs, or refuse to join and be vulnerable to attack by both other gangs and the AB as well. The organisation structure was nothing if not rigid, and its membership protocols strict. Brotherhood members were made to read Western and Oriental philosophy, including Sun Tzu's *The Art of War*, Musashi's *The Book of Five Rings*, and works by Nietszche, Machiavelli and others. The gang generated revenue by smuggling substances into its prison, often by way of enablers on the outside such as released associates and members' wives and girlfriends. The illicit substances — often heroin and methamphetamine — were also used to control prisoners' lives, preying largely on the drug-dependent and those admitted on narcotics charges. Central to the orchestration of gang activities was a complex and cunning system of communication. The gang managed to circumvent prison restrictions by passing notes to one another using coded writing and cryptograms. This included invisible text (mostly using urine as ink), and remarkably even the gang's own alphabet, which was partly lifted from the Elizabethan-era writings of Francis Bacon — and which otherwise read as mumbo-jumbo. And amidst all this, the Brotherhood oversaw a campaign of brutal prison killings. One of the key features of the organisation was its "Blood In, Blood Out" principle. In other words, a prisoner would have to commit a murder or violent assault to join the gang — and they'd meet the same fate if they tried to leave it. Defectors and informers were particularly subject to vicious retribution — something which could follow them to other prisons and into protective incarceration. A prisoner in Pennsylvania was murdered on orders received in invisible ink from a supermax prison in Colorado, some 1,700 miles away. This followed a rise in violence such that prison authorities made the understandable — if ill-advised — decision to transfer members to federal prisons in other parts of the country. One of the locations chosen was FCI Leavenworth in the state of Kansas. And this was where one of the most notorious members of the Brotherhood would rise to prominence. ## 'Terrible Tom' Silverstein Thomas Silverstein was twenty-five years old when he entered Leavenworth in 1978 on a conviction for armed robbery. Silverstein was blooded by the AB only a few months later, when he stabbed white prisoner Danny Atwell to death, after Atwell had refused to act as a drug mule for the Brotherhood. Therein, Silverstein — like many others — fell into the quagmire posed by membership in the organisation. To survive the prison system — especially if on anything more than a trifling sentence — an inmate would be forced to rely on the protection of a gang. To achieve this, in the case of the Brotherhood, one would often be expected to carry out a task on behalf of the gang or one of its allies, which could involve murdering another inmate. This, in turn, would lead to an extended sentence — often life — which would leave the inmate fully at the disposal of the gang and simultaneously reliant on them. Have you ever seen the Hollywood film *Shot Caller*? If not, spoiler ahead. In the movie, stockbroker Jacob Harlon is moved into a California prison on a short sentence for a fatal DUI conviction. After falling in with a white supremacist gang for his own protection (going on to receive the ironic gang nickname "Money"), Harlon rises to the helm of the Brotherhood, through gritted teeth and one gruesome killing after another. The film was praised for a gripping and realistic depiction of the stages of prison gang membership. But the film could also have received attention as a light retelling of the circumstances of Silverstein's life. Silverstein was shunted into Leavenworth for a string of armed robberies in which he participated, but which were led by his father and cousin. Being from California, Silverstein had previously served four years for the same crime in none other than San Quentin, and had somehow managed to swerve AB membership on that occasion. But now serving fifteen years in Leavenworth, the Brotherhood quickly came knocking on his door. In the years thereafter, Silverstein rose through the rungs of the organisation by carrying out murder after murder — increasing both his prestige and the length of his conviction. Like in *Shot Caller*, Silverstein eventually reached highest rank. He gained the nickname 'Terrible Tom', and his vicious crimes inspired other members to do similarly. As a central figure in the Commission, Silverstein green-lit hits on associates and rival inmates for disrespect or insubordination. One of these targeted Bobby Davis, the shooter from the red Pontiac, who was wounded by an improvised arrow shot and moved into solitary detention for his own safety — where he killed himself in 2009. Over time, the violence in the American prison system entered uncharted territory. ## Walls Bathed in Blood In some prisons, the Aryan Brotherhood constitute as little as 1% of the population, but have been responsible for up 26% of murders committed. Prison authorities eventually shifted out of transferring its members to federal prisons (which had largely succeeded only in opening new chapters of the Brotherhood elsewhere), and began to lock down the most severe offenders in strict isolation. A notable target of this practice was Terrible Tom Silverstein. Silverstein was moved out of Leavenworth following the murder of Danny Atwell, and arrived at USP Marion, at that time a maximum-security facility in the state of Illinois. Soon after, Silverstein and another Brotherhood member set upon Robert Chapelle, a member of the DC Blacks gang, and strangled him to death in the exercise yard. By now, Terrible Tom's fearsome reputation preceded him in the US prison system. But Chapelle's death led to fury among rival gangs and another race war began. The national leader of the DC Blacks gang, Raymond 'Cadillac' Smith, was moved into USP Marion around this time, and vowed revenge for his associate's death. Smith made several attempts on Silverstein's life, and nearly succeeded in killing him. Crucially, however, he didn't — and his luck would run out soon after. Silverstein and Clayton Fountain — his accomplice in the Chappelle murder — managed to break out of an exercise area and set upon Smith in the prison shower area. Raymond Cadillac Smith was stabbed 67 times, after which Silverstein and Fountain dragged his lifeless body into the prison gen-pop area for other inmates to see. Silverstein was moved into solitary detention soon after. Thomas Silverstein's story was a strange one. In 1985, his first conviction for murder — that of Danny Atwell in Leavenworth — was quashed on the basis of unreliable witness testimony. But by that time, Silverstein had rather incontestably carried out another prison murder — the strangulation of Robert Chappelle in the USP Marion prison yard. Had it not been for this, Silverstein may conceivably have served his time for armed robbery and been released. But by murdering Chappelle, he not only secured a lifetime stint in prison, but also a number of would-be suitors for his own murder. This, in turn, drew him further into the arms of the Aryan Brotherhood and later on into dehumanising isolation. In some ways, Silverstein represented the sober dilemma that membership of the Brotherhood presented: a half-life as a locked-down criminal in the American prison system, or no life as the victim of a murder by another inmate or by the AB itself. In Silverstein's case, the half-life amounted to practically no life whatsoever. After the Smith murder, he was placed into 24-hour guarded detention, with the lights permanently illuminated, and with only drawing utensils to pass his time — with which he depicted the realities of his isolation. During this lone incarceration, he was mistreated by Merle Clutts, the prison officer on duty, who smudged his art and stripped some of the few belongings from his cell. Soon, Silverstein had enough of Clutts, and went on to carry out one of the most infamous murders in US prison history by getting his hands on a prison shank and stabbing Clutts forty times to death. Clutt's murder sent USP Marion into a lockdown which lasted for a full twenty-three years thereafter. Silverstein was transferred again, this time to USP Atlanta, and ultimately into the newly-built Florence supermax in Colorado. In each location, he was kept in strict isolation with only limited contact even with the guards tasked with containing him. By the time he died in 2019, Silverstein had spent the last 37 years of his life in brightly-lit isolation, save for a short interlude when he was released from his cell by Cuban inmates during the Atlanta prison riot in 1987. Ostensibly for the protection of all around him, Terrible Tom was allowed practically no human contact — and the only evidence of his existence were the mesmerising portraits of his limited life which circulated on various websites. ## The Brand Expands But Silverstein was by no means the only — or even the most sadistic — leader of the gang. Around the time he began his sentence in Leavenworth, a new beast was already rising behind the walls of San Quentin. After the Aryan Brotherhood and Black Guerilla Family rivalry erupted, it was judged too risky to allow the gangs to share the prison exercise yard simultaneously. As such, the gangs would use the yard on alternating weeks, each sharing the space with Hispanic gangs who'd been separated for the same reason. With this, the AB struck a bond with the Mexican Mafia — or 'La Eme' — and began to carry out murders on behalf of the group against their rivals Nuestra Familia, with La Eme doing the same against black gangs. Barry Byron Mills entered San Quentin as a twenty-year-old around this time. Like Silverstein, Mills was a native of California and his detention was on an initially-short conviction for armed robbery. Also like Silverstein, Mills' detention was later extended all the way to life for what became a litany of gruesome crimes behind bars. But perhaps unlike Silverstein, Mills' murders were the work of a berserker, seemingly particularly buoyed by the racial element of the AB's murderousness. Mills made his name by carrying out murders on behalf of the AB in light of the new web of allegiances at San Quentin. After stabbing a member of Nuestra Familia to death in 1972, he was moved on to USP Atlanta. Mills received notoriety for a ferocious murder in 1979, when he set upon an AB member who'd fallen foul of Thomas Silverstein, and nearly decapitated the man with a crudely-fashioned knife. This elevated Mills to the Commission, where he sat alongside Silverstein and another vicious figure named Tyler Bingham. Mills and Bingham's influence expanded as Silverstein faded into strict isolation, and they went on to expand the AB's trafficking and racketeering activities, in addition to ordering a large number of prison murders. Many of these were against associates Mills disliked, strong-arming even other members of the Commission into meeting the two-vote mark for greenlighting hits. Mills gained the nickname 'the Baron', and was known to have a visceral hatred of informants, something traced back a partner's confession which paved his route to San Quentin. To be branded a 'rat' by the Mills-led Brotherhood was an extremely undesirable fate, and one which The Baron routinely used as a means to target his foes. The AB also continued its practice of murders-for-hire, and offered protection to well-connected inmates for a price. One notable recipient was Italian-American mob leader John Gotti, who was imprisoned in USP Marion from 1992. Gotti initially paid protection to the AB, but made the mistake of faltering on his payments to the gang. His protection vanished, and Gotti was attacked by black inmate Walter Johnson in the prison rec room. He survived, and turned back to none other than the AB for retribution against his assailant. Johnson was swiftly shepherded out of Marion and into the relative safety of the Colorado supermax. But it has been suggested that the reason the Brotherhood allowed Johnson to escape with his life was to shake Gotti down for his failure to pay protection — and to remind the once-formidable mob boss just who owned him in his new surroundings at USP Marion. Other targets of the Brotherhood met no such clemency. Mills had not forgotten about the DC Blacks and their attempts to end the life of Thomas Silverstein. Under direction from Mills and Bingham, AB members carried out frenzied attacks on DC Blacks prisoners, including the double murder of two inmates in Lewisburg prison in 1997, and the mass stabbing of six more with shivs in the same prison a few months later. Barry Mills and Tyler Bingham were eventually targeted with a massive indictment for conspiracy, incitement, racketeering, and 32 murders in 2006, and later saw out their days — like Silverstein — in the Florence Supermax in Colorado. But the relentless violence of the AB had now overtaken even the overseers at its helm. ## The Brand Lives On Despite attempts to curtail its influence, the Aryan Brotherhood remains prominent in US prison circles, and no less deadly than in the years before. Hugo Pinell — or 'Yogi Bear' — was a member of the Black Guerrilla Family who'd been part of the organisation since the George Jackson days in the 1970s. Pinell was convicted of cutting the throats of two prison guards during an escape attempt in 1971, and later stabbed his own attorney in the midst of his arraignment. Like Silverstein, he was sentenced to 24-hour isolated detention soon afterwards. But by 2015, the now-elderly Pinell was granted release to the general population of New Folsom Prison in California. His relative newfound freedom lasted two weeks, before he was stabbed to death by AB members during a prison riot. What was once a gang bandied together to counter the threat of the black gangs had become a formidable criminal enterprise with tentacles extending both inside and outside the prison system. What was born in the petri dish of San Quentin had now expanded to chapters the length and breadth of the country. And what had once been an outfit of a few hundred members by now had thousands of associates and foot soldiers, bound to service by the enduring threat of the Blood In, Blood Out principle. Going back to events depicted in *Shot Caller*, Money's service to the gang does not end with his parole and release from the prison. Now hardened by his experiences during his detention, and faced with the reality that the gang held control over his movements on the outside by threatening to move on his family, Money realises that his stint outside the prison will be short-lived. The only way to ensure the safety of those close to him will be a return to the confines of the prison system, and to dictate the organisation by himself from within. The same is likely true to reality. Once blooded by the gang, membership is not a reality easily dispelled. With a vast membership across dozens of institutions, and with a capacity for regeneration secured through the unforgiving conditions of this membership, the decision to join the Aryan Brotherhood perhaps far outweighs even the terms of one's incarceration. It amounts, in fact, to a true deal for life. ## Key Takeaways - The Aryan Brotherhood emerged in the 1960s at San Quentin Prison due to racial tensions and the rise of the Black Guerrilla Family. - The gang's strict 'Blood In, Blood Out' principle requires members to commit murder to join and face death if they leave. - Thomas Silverstein, known as 'Terrible Tom,' became a notorious leader of the Aryan Brotherhood, spending decades in isolation. - The Aryan Brotherhood's influence extends beyond prisons, with members involved in trafficking and murders-for-hire. - Despite efforts to curb its power, the Aryan Brotherhood remains a significant and deadly presence in US prisons. ## Frequently Asked Questions ### When and where was the Aryan Brotherhood first brought to public attention? The Aryan Brotherhood was first brought to public attention on April 5th, 1970, following a violent incident at J's Coffee Shop in Valencia, California, where Bobby Augusta Davis and Jack Wright Twinning, suspected members of the Aryan Brotherhood, killed four California State Patrol officers. ### What is the 'Blood In, Blood Out' principle of the Aryan Brotherhood? The 'Blood In, Blood Out' principle means that a prisoner must commit a murder or violent assault to join the Aryan Brotherhood, and they will face the same fate if they try to leave the gang. ### How did the Aryan Brotherhood communicate within prisons? The Aryan Brotherhood used a complex system of communication, including coded writing, cryptograms, invisible text (using urine as ink), and even their own alphabet partly lifted from Elizabethan-era writings of Francis Bacon. ### Who was 'Terrible Tom' Silverstein and what was his role in the Aryan Brotherhood? Thomas 'Terrible Tom' Silverstein was a notorious member of the Aryan Brotherhood who rose to prominence in FCI Leavenworth. He became a central figure in the Commission, ordering hits on associates and rival inmates, and was known for his brutal crimes. ### What was the significance of the race riot in San Quentin in January 1967? The race riot in San Quentin in January 1967 was a pivotal event that led to the consolidation of the Aryan Brotherhood. White inmates realized the coordination and numbers of the Black Guerrilla Family and formed the AB in response to protect themselves. ### How did the Aryan Brotherhood expand its influence beyond San Quentin? The Aryan Brotherhood expanded its influence by striking alliances with other gangs, such as the Mexican Mafia, and carrying out murders on behalf of these groups. They also began to operate in other prisons, including USP Marion and FCI Leavenworth. ### What was the impact of the Aryan Brotherhood's violence on the prison system? The Aryan Brotherhood's violence led to significant changes in the prison system, including the transfer of members to federal prisons and the implementation of strict isolation for the most severe offenders. Their actions also resulted in long-term lockdowns and increased security measures. ### What was the 'green light' system in the Aryan Brotherhood? The 'green light' system was a method used by the Aryan Brotherhood to authorize murders of other inmates and insubordinate members. It typically required a two-thirds majority vote from the leadership committee, known as the Commission. ### How did the Aryan Brotherhood generate revenue within prisons? The Aryan Brotherhood generated revenue by smuggling illicit substances, such as heroin and methamphetamine, into prisons. They also controlled prisoners' lives by preying on the drug-dependent and those admitted on narcotics charges. ### What was the role of Barry Byron Mills in the Aryan Brotherhood? Barry Byron Mills, known as 'the Baron,' was a vicious leader of the Aryan Brotherhood who carried out numerous murders and expanded the gang's trafficking and racketeering activities. He was known for his hatred of informants and his brutal methods of enforcing the gang's rules. ## Sources - [Original Into the Shadows video: Gangs: The Aryan Brotherhood](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0BVdW8buhFA) - [https://www.nytimes.com/1967/01/19/archives/san-quentin-guards-thwart-a-race-riot-by-2000-convicts.html](https://www.nytimes.com/1967/01/19/archives/san-quentin-guards-thwart-a-race-riot-by-2000-convicts.html) - [https://casetext.com/case/silverstein-v-fed-bureau-of-prisons-1](https://casetext.com/case/silverstein-v-fed-bureau-of-prisons-1) - [https://www.upi.com/Archives/1990/09/24/California-inmate-serving-life-wins-45000-from-state/3393654148800/](https://www.upi.com/Archives/1990/09/24/California-inmate-serving-life-wins-45000-from-state/3393654148800/) - [https://www.corrections1.com/treatment/articles/2-notorious-calif-inmates-commit-suicide-wXZcG6jfMt5NfOKw/](https://www.corrections1.com/treatment/articles/2-notorious-calif-inmates-commit-suicide-wXZcG6jfMt5NfOKw/) - [https://bibliography.icpsr.umich.edu/bibliography/citations/data/173680/fileDownload](https://bibliography.icpsr.umich.edu/bibliography/citations/data/173680/fileDownload) - [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Atlanta_prison_riots](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Atlanta_prison_riots) - [https://thomassilverstein.net/toms-art-a-gallery/#jp-carousel-142](https://thomassilverstein.net/toms-art-a-gallery/#jp-carousel-142) - [https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-2006-jul-30-me-aryan30-story.html](https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-2006-jul-30-me-aryan30-story.html) - [https://www.courthousenews.com/longest-held-prisoner-in-solitary-loses-challenge/](https://www.courthousenews.com/longest-held-prisoner-in-solitary-loses-challenge/) - [https://www.nytimes.com/2018/07/20/obituaries/barry-mills-brutal-leader-of-racist-prison-gang-dies-at-70.html](https://www.nytimes.com/2018/07/20/obituaries/barry-mills-brutal-leader-of-racist-prison-gang-dies-at-70.html) - [https://www.justice.gov/usao-edca/pr/three-aryan-brotherhood-prison-gang-members-convicted-murder-aid-racketeering-rico](https://www.justice.gov/usao-edca/pr/three-aryan-brotherhood-prison-gang-members-convicted-murder-aid-racketeering-rico) - [https://www.cbsnews.com/sanfrancisco/news/aryan-brotherhood-prison-murder-racketeering-ronald-yandell-william-sylvester-california/](https://www.cbsnews.com/sanfrancisco/news/aryan-brotherhood-prison-murder-racketeering-ronald-yandell-william-sylvester-california/) - [https://www.nytimes.com/2019/05/21/obituaries/thomas-silverstein-dead.html](https://www.nytimes.com/2019/05/21/obituaries/thomas-silverstein-dead.html) - [Hero image source](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/e/e3/At_Valencia_2025_394_-_EES_kiosks.jpg) by Photograph by Mike Peel (www.mikepeel.net). / openverse, by-sa. ## Related Coverage