The Post and Courier reported in 2019 that white supremacists of the Aryan Brotherhood and Aryan Nations were present in South Carolina prisons, and a 2016 Horry County Police presentation placed the Aryan Brotherhood in that county. The public court record for SC defendants is thin: federal releases name an Aryan Nations national leader formerly of Lexington County and a Kirkland inmate who invoked Aryan Nations and the Aryan Brotherhood in threats against presidents from 2014 to 2026, and a Union County couple pleaded guilty in killings tied to the skinhead gang Crew 41. [1][2][3][4][5][6]
Origins
A 2010 U.S. Department of Justice release describes the Aryan Brotherhood as a California-based prison gang formed in the California prison system during the 1960s. The same release states the Aryan Brotherhood of Texas was established in the early 1980s within the Texas prison system and modeled itself on the Aryan Brotherhood. [7]
Footprint in South Carolina
The Myrtle Beach Herald reported on 2016-03-24 that a Horry County Police Department presentation stated members of the Ku Klux Klan, the Aryan Brotherhood and other hate groups are present within the county. [2]
On 2012-10-16, WSPA quoted an Anderson County Sheriff's Office spokesman stating that there are some white supremacist groups locally; no group was named. [8]
The Times and Democrat reported on 2018-05-21 that an Orangeburg County incident report described a person suspected of affiliation with the "Aryan Brotherhood/Aryan Nations" gang. The report states a suspicion, not a charge. [9]
On 2011-08-23, the U.S. Attorney's Office for South Carolina announced that August Byron Kreis III, formerly of Lexington County, pled guilty to a false statement in a Veterans Affairs pension report; the release described him as a national leader in the Aryan Nations movement. Salon, republishing the Southern Poverty Law Center, reported on 2014-02-22 that Kreis, who once led a faction of Aryan Nations, was held at the Alvin Glenn Detention Center on child sexual abuse charges from Richland, Lexington and Kershaw counties. [3][10]
Identifiers and symbols
Fox News reported that deputies recognized Jeremy Moody by the word "skinhead" tattooed on his neck and a "Made in America" tattoo on the side of his head. No public source opened for this profile describes Aryan Brotherhood or Aryan Nations symbols as used in South Carolina. [11]
Notable South Carolina cases
Charles Parker, 59, and Gretchen Parker, 51, were killed on 2013-07-21 in Jonesville, Union County. WYFF reported on 2013-07-30, citing SPLC Hatewatch, that an accused was a member of the racist skinhead gang Crew 41. [12][6]
The Southern Poverty Law Center reported on 2014-05-06 that Jeremy and Christine Moody pleaded guilty and each received life in prison, and described them as the South Carolina representatives of Crew 41, also called Die Auserwahlten. Fox News described Crew 41 as a loosely organized online white supremacist group. [6][11]
Benjamin Thomas Samuel McDowell of Conway was arrested in Myrtle Beach on 2017-02-15 after buying an inert pistol from an FBI undercover agent posing as a member of a white supremacist organization. He pled guilty to felon in possession on 2018-02-28 and was sentenced to 33 months on 2018-07-11. The releases do not name a prison gang. [13][14]
A 2019-04-12 USAO-SC release stated that a Greenwood man sentenced to 10 years for murder for hire had contacted a white supremacist organization to seek help killing his African American neighbor. The organization is not named. [15]
Inside SCDC
The Post and Courier reported on 2019-12-06 that Corrections officials said gangs had a presence in South Carolina prisons since at least the 1990s, and that white supremacists of the Aryan Brotherhood and Aryan Nations were present alongside the Crips, Bloods and Folk Nation. [1]
On 2015-09-23, USAO-SC announced that Eric Anthony Rome, incarcerated at Kirkland Correctional Institution, received 41 months for a 2014-05-16 message to the SCDC Inspector General threatening President Obama. Rome told agents he had been a member of the "Aryan nation" since age 17. [4]
The State reported on 2023-08-27 that Rome received five years in federal prison for threats against President Biden, Vice President Harris, a South Carolina federal judge and others, and that he told the court he feared the Aryan Brotherhood gang and the Bloods. [16]
Current status
FOX Carolina reported that a federal indictment filed 2026-02-19 charged Rome, 37, held at Kirkland Correctional Institution, with threatening the President and with depositing threatening communications. The letter at issue stated, "But we, the Aryan Brotherhood, and a few associates." The charges are allegations. [5]
