Inside neo-Nazi prison gang that 11-year-old's suspected killer has ties with

23 February 2024 , 20:37

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McDougal was a family friend of the Cunningham's who lived on their property (Image: Facebook)

A family friend of an 11-year-old girl who was found dead in a river days after she disappeared had ties to a neo-Nazi prison gang, authorities have confirmed.

42-year-old Don McDougal was charged with capital murder on Wednesday, a day after Audrii Cunningham's body was recovered from a river near her home in Livingston, Texas. McDougal was a friend of Audrii's family and lived on their property in a camper van, he was also the last person said to have seen her alive.

Audrii disappeared on February 15 after being taken to the school bus stop by McDougal sometime just after 7am. But Audrii never got on the bus to school, never registered at school and then failed to return home.

An Amber Alert was issued for the young girl, and a frantic search ensued for any signs of her. McDougal even joined in the search, going door to door in the neighbourhood with Audrii's picture to ask residents if they knew or had seen anything.

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McDougal is accused of killing Audrii Cunningham, 11 (KHOU)

Six days later, on Tuesday, February 20, Audrii's body was recovered by divers from the Trinity River after the river authority slowed the outflow of Lake Livingston to help. Her body was found to have been tied to a rock, with an autopsy confirming she died of "homicidal violence including blunt head trauma".

During the course of their investigation, investigators from the Polk County Sheriff's Office discovered McDougal has ties to notorious neo-Nazi prison gang, the Aryan Brotherhood. Sheriff Byron Lyons confirmed the discovery to KHOU, with his ties to the group evidenced by a large swastika tattoo on his shoulder and arm.

The Aryan Brotherhood, also known as AB, is a neo-Nazi prison gang and organised crime syndicate in the US. It boasts an estimated membership of anywhere between 15,000 and 20,000 individuals both behind bars and out of prison.

"An Aryan brother is without a care. He walks where the weak and heartless won't dare. And if by chance he should stumble, and lose control. His brothers will be there, to help reach his goal," reads their membership pledge.

Photos of McDougal show him with a large swastika tattoo on his arm and shoulder (Facebook)

Audrii Cunningham, 11, disappeared after being dropped at the bus stop (Facebook)

"For a worthy brother, no need is too great. He need not but ask, fulfillment's his fate. For an Aryan brother, death holds no fear. Vengeance will be his, through his brothers still here."

Organisations such as the Anti-Defamation League, among others, consider the AB to be the oldest and most significant white supremacist prison gang in the US. Despite making up just a small percentage of the total prison population, the gang is notorious for a disproportionately high number of prison murders, according to the FBI.

The notorious white supremacist gang was formed in the California state prison system in the late 1960s. The gang was formed as a response to the desegregation of California's jails and the formation of rival black gangs.

Despite starting off as a racially motivated gang, the AB grew over the decades into a thriving organised crime operation. According to FBI estimates, members make up less than one per cent of the population of US jails, but could be responsible for up to 20 per cent of murders.

The Aryan Brotherhood was formed in San Quentin prison, California, in the 1960s in response to the desegregation of the prison system (Corbis via Getty Images)

"Inside the walls of the prison system, the Aryan Brotherhood are the top dogs," explained T J Leyden, a former neo-Nazi turned anti-racism campaigner. "Even the Italian mafia and the Hell's Angels pay homage to them."

The tattoos adorning the skin of members can hold a variety of meanings, like most prison ink. A tattoo of a set of bagpipes, likely Irish Uilleann pipes, harks back to the fact the AB was first established by a group of convicts of Irish descent at San Quentin.

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Swastika tattoos aren't unique to the AB, other white supremacist prison gangs also bear the mark, but they show the Nazi-ideal affiliation with which the gangs are known. Barbed wire tattoos are also common, being given to show that the person bearing the tattoo has spent time behind bars.

The group's motto is 'Blood in, blood out' in reference to the fact aspiring members are said to need to assault someone to get into the gang, and can only leave when they die. 'SS' Nazi lightning bolt tattoos can also be seen on members, visible signs of their blood oath and their belief in white supremacy.

The Aryan Brotherhood has offshoots including the Texas Aryan Brotherhood (splcenter)

Potential recruits have to "make their bones" - which usually involves attacking or murdering a rival gang member or assaulting a corrections officer. Those who want to join have also been instructed to read Hitler's Mein Kampf, along with Sun Tzu's The Art of War and Machiavelli's The Prince.

Almost 60 years later, chapters of the AB can be found in most major federal and state prisons across the country. But outside of prison walls, the organised crime side of the group deals in drug trafficking, male prostitution rings, gambling and extortion.

Members can find themselves involved in a whole host of crimes from murder-for-hire to armed robbery, gun running to methamphetamine production and heroic sales and even counterfeiting and identity theft.

Behind bars, the gang gained a reputation for its "zero-tolerance" policy on "disrespect" from other inmates. After AB member Tommy Silverstein stabbed a corrections officer to death in the Marion, Ohio, federal penitentiary, another AB member, Clayton Fountain, stabbed another corrections officer and assaulted two more because he didn't want Silverstein to have a higher body count.

The Aryan Brotherhood often have distinctive tattoos (Wikipedia)

At the time, Marion was thought to be the most secure federal prison in the country - proving the ruthless nature of AB members. In response, federal prisons across the US began to move known AB members to 'supermax' units or solitary confinement.

But even this couldn't stop the AB from carrying out its criminal activities. Despite being kept isolated for 23 hours a day, AB leaders have still been able to organise major criminal activities, including murders, from their solitary confinement cells.

Ex-AB 'commissioner' John Greschner described the gang saying: "For the Aryan Brotherhood, murder is a way to make a social statement. If blacks attack whites, we send a message.

"We go pick one of their shot callers. We catch them walking across the [prison] yard under guard escort in handcuffs. It don't matter. We're going to butcher him in front of God and everybody at high noon in the middle of the yard.

"And it's not just going to be a few clean stab marks. It's going to be a vicious, brutal killing. Because that's how brothers [AB members] take care of business, and a brother's work is never done."

Vassia Barba