Supremacists’ monikers elicit giggles, but their activities are not so funny

Nicknames can be fond and loving, or they can ridicule.

Calling the diminutive Tony Spilotro "The Ant" was not a term of endearment. Frank "Far Away Frank" Cullotta's nickname was a dig, because he was the planner who tended to be in other places when the burglaries went down.

You probably saw the faces of the white supremacists in Friday's Review-Journal. That little warning when the hair on your neck prickles? It's made for guys such as these.

Yet to hear some of their supposed nicknames is enough to make you giggle -- just not in front of them.

Ronald Sellers, aka "Fuzzy," is identified as a ringleader. His photo wasn't available, but I seriously doubt that "Fuzzy" is meant to be a reference to his warm and fuzzy ways.

Kenneth Russell Krum has a series of nicknames, and the imagination goes wild thinking about how he earned these monikers: "Yum Yum," "Big Pimping" and "Barnyard."

Scott Michael Sieber's alias, "Knucklehead," may not have been a reference to him being part of any brain trust.

The nickname "Gargoyle" belonged to James Milton Wallis. Probably not a reference to the gargoyles of Notre Dame.

The phrases in the indictment that were completely new to me were "bolt holders" and "horn holders."

A bolt holder is a full member of the Aryan Warriors and gets to wear a lightning bolt tattoo. A horn holder is like Aryan management, the top echelon. Now, godfather sounds a lot better to me than horn holder, which smacks of sex with bighorn sheep. But perhaps I don't fully understand the concept.

Fuzzy Sellers is identified as the Supreme Horn Holder, who controls operations both inside and outside the prison system from his residence within the Nevada prison system.

Horn holders who aren't so supreme include Wallis, Sieber, Daniel "Dano" Joseph Egan, Guy "Baltimore" Edward Almony, and the guy who initially looked like he was named after this newspaper, "R.J.," except his name is Ronnie Lee Jones.

Bolt holders include Krum, as well as Jason "J-Bird" Inman and Robert "Lil Rob" Allen Young.

Associates are lower down the ladder, and the nicknames are less creative. Tony Howard Morgan doesn't have a nickname, Charles Edward Gensemer's nickname, "Charley," is hardly worth mentioning. Kory Allen Crossman, or "Lobes," is an associate.

The soldiers, even lower on the pecking order, are Michael Wayne Yost, or "Big Mike," and Charles Lee Axtell, or "Cowboy."

The nicknames don't suggest warriors of any kind. They're laughable.

But the crimes the 14 men are charged with are far from laughable and are based on allegations that are among the basest. Racism and greed are the motivators of these men, says the federal indictment unsealed Thursday.

Their mini society within the walls of Nevada prisons was formed to promote the white race. They called themselves Aryan Warriors (which sounds so much more manly than Racist Piglets).

The indictment says their activities, inside and outside prison, include murder, extortion, corruption, illegal gambling and drug dealing. The racketeering indictment has some basic parallels to the Mafia racketeers of old.

The Aryan Warriors offer protection to white prison inmates. The mob offered protection from the mob, if you were willing to pay.

The Aryan Warriors have a street rackets operation going; so did the mob.

To promote discipline, the Aryan Warriors use murder, attempted murder, assault and threats. Excuse me, but wasn't that the mob's basic modus operandi?

Maintaining power is based on respect and fear for the Aryan Warriors. Anyone who saw any of the "Godfather" movies knows that disrespect is practically an automatic death sentence.

To become a full Aryan Warrior, you have to perform "blood work," and we're not talking the kind in any hospital. Isn't that how you got to be a "made guy" in the Mafia?

One thing separates the Mafia of yesterday from the Aryan Warriors of today. The white supremacists are into, of all things, identity theft.

Sure it's good to know how to tattoo, manufacture drugs and run illegal gambling operations. But the leaders are also looking for prospects who can write. Yes, write. Apparently, illiteracy is a problem among Aryan Warriors.

Jane Ann Morrison's column appears Monday, Thursday and Saturday. E-mail her at Jane@reviewjournal.com or call 383-0275.