Bill Riccio
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Bill Riccio (aka William E. Davidson) is a leader in the white power skinhead movement in the United States who gained public notoriety for his appearance in the 1993 documentary ''Skinheads: Soldiers of the Race War''. He has been convicted numerous times on illegal weapon possession charges, the most recent of which was in 1992. =Activism= Riccio was the organizer of the Aryan Youth Front, a
Birmingham, Alabama Birmingham ( ) is a city in the north central region of the U.S. state of Alabama. Birmingham is the seat of Jefferson County, Alabama's most populous county. As of the 2021 census estimates, Birmingham had a population of 197,575, down 1% fr ...
white power skinhead group composed of mostly male teenagers, many of them runaways. According to the
Southern Poverty Law Center The Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) is an American 501(c)(3) nonprofit legal advocacy organization specializing in civil rights and public interest litigation. Based in Montgomery, Alabama, it is known for its legal cases against white su ...
, Riccio "systemically indoctrinated them in racial hatred and his own special brand of neo-Confederate Hitler worship." Two of Riccio's followers committed at least two murders in Alabama, one of which was the April 1992 fatal beating of a homeless man under a railroad trestle, hours after they had attended a birthday party at the War House for
Adolf Hitler Adolf Hitler (; 20 April 188930 April 1945) was an Austrian-born German politician who was dictator of Nazi Germany, Germany from 1933 until Death of Adolf Hitler, his death in 1945. Adolf Hitler's rise to power, He rose to power as the le ...
. The group had originally been called White Aryan Resistance. Although he later changed it to avoid confusion with another group of the same name, he continued to call the house he rented as the organization's headquarters and social gathering place the "WAR House". He funded the War House with his small auto parts business."The Godfathers"
Southern Poverty Law Center The Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) is an American 501(c)(3) nonprofit legal advocacy organization specializing in civil rights and public interest litigation. Based in Montgomery, Alabama, it is known for its legal cases against white su ...
; 2006; Page 2 of 2
Riccio also led a network of white supremacists in Alabama, Florida and Georgia, working closely with the Confederate
Hammerskins The Hammerskins (also known as Hammerskin Nation) are a white supremacist group formed in 1988 in Dallas, Texas. Their primary focus is the production and promotion of white power rock music, and many white power bands have been affiliated with ...
, and attracting followers from as far away as Pennsylvania. In November 1991, he and Alabama
Ku Klux Klan The Ku Klux Klan (), commonly shortened to the KKK or the Klan, is an American white supremacist, right-wing terrorist, and hate group whose primary targets are African Americans, Jews, Latinos, Asian Americans, Native Americans, and ...
(KKK) leader Roger Handley co-hosted a large gathering on Handley's farm, and co-organized a white power march by 150 of their members through downtown Birmingham in June 1992. Riccio came to public attention when he was profiled in the 1993
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''
America Undercover ''America Undercover'' is a series of documentaries that aired on the cable television network HBO from 1983 through 2006. Within the series are several sub-series, such as ''Autopsy'', ''Real Sex'', and ''Taxicab Confessions''. History The seri ...
'' documentary '' Skinheads USA: Soldiers of the Race War'', during which he explained that his goal was to reclaim the Southern United States as a haven for "pure Aryans". According to a 2006 report by the Southern Poverty Law Center, Riccio continues to attend KKK events with followers, including some of those who first joined his cause as teenagers.


Legal troubles

In 1979, Riccio was convicted of possessing a sawed-off shotgun. In 1981 he was convicted of violating his probation by illegally possessing a firearm. In 1985, he was convicted of the same crime, along with possession of
marijuana Cannabis, also known as marijuana among other names, is a psychoactive drug from the cannabis plant. Native to Central or South Asia, the cannabis plant has been used as a drug for both recreational and entheogenic purposes and in various tra ...
. On August 7, 1992, the War House was raided by police as part of a multi-state sweep of
white supremacist White supremacy or white supremacism is the belief that white people are superior to those of other Race (human classification), races and thus should dominate them. The belief favors the maintenance and defense of any Power (social and polit ...
groups. The discovery of guns and grenades on Riccio's property resulted in another arrest and conviction for illegal weapons possession, with the judge who sentenced him commenting, "It is iccio'sapparent ability to organize and mobilize disenchanted young white males even to acts of violence that makes him dangerous." After serving 15 months in prison, he returned to the War House, and became Imperial Kludd (national chaplain) of the North Georgia White Knights of the
Ku Klux Klan The Ku Klux Klan (), commonly shortened to the KKK or the Klan, is an American white supremacist, right-wing terrorist, and hate group whose primary targets are African Americans, Jews, Latinos, Asian Americans, Native Americans, and ...
. When KKK leader Roger Handley was later charged with
sodomy Sodomy () or buggery (British English) is generally anal or oral sex between people, or sexual activity between a person and a non-human animal ( bestiality), but it may also mean any non- procreative sexual activity. Originally, the term ''sodo ...
with a teenaged boy, Riccio defended him, claiming the accusations were false, and part of a law enforcement defamation conspiracy. In 2007 Ronnie Painter, a former member who lived with Bill Riccio at his war house and is now an inmate at Donaldson Correctional Facility in Bessemer, Alabama, described Riccio as a master manipulator who gave them drugs, exploited them emotionally and sexually. Riccio denied that he had had or tried to have sex with any of the boys who flocked to his home in the 1990s. "That's certainly not true in any sense of the word," Riccio said.


See also

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Neo-Nazism Neo-Nazism comprises the post–World War II militant, social, and political movements that seek to revive and reinstate Nazism, Nazi ideology. Neo-Nazis employ their ideology to promote hatred and Supremacism#Racial, racial supremacy (ofte ...


References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Riccio, Bill American neo-Nazis convicted of crimes American Ku Klux Klan members convicted of crimes American prisoners and detainees Living people Year of birth missing (living people) People convicted of illegal possession of weapons Prisoners and detainees of the United States federal government