Expert: Fewer hate groups in Missouri, but white supremacist prison gangs on the rise

White supremacist prison gangs are a growing problem in Missouri, one expert says, despite a recent report that cites a decline in hate groups in the Show-Me State.

In its 2017 "Year in Hate and Extremism" report, the Southern Poverty Law Center states that the number of hate groups in the country rose by 4 percent from the previous year, from 917 to 954. But in Missouri, the number of those groups dropped by 25 percent, from 24 to 18.

Carla Hill, senior investigative researcher with the Anti-Defamation League, said the biggest problem facing Missouri right now, regarding hate groups in general, is white supremacist prison gangs.

"Historically, the Midwest and Southeast are where Klan groups have always been prominent, and the Klan is in decline," said Hill, who tracks extremist groups for the ADL, a U.S.-based organization that advocates against anti-Semitism and for justice and tolerance. "They don't have anywhere to go be a member. They're not organized anymore because the Klan groups are falling apart."

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The Ku Klux Klan always has had a strong presence in Missouri, Hill said, but white supremacist groups increasingly want to recruit younger white males in urban areas — not robe-wearing, torch-carrying, cross-burning older men in rural regions.

One of the most active Klan groups in Missouri was the Traditionalist American Knights of the Ku Klux Klan, she said. But the Knights have been rather dormant since their leader, Frank Ancona, was fatally shot in the head Feb. 9, 2017, in his home near Belgrade, the St. Louis Post-Dispatch reported. His wife, Malissa Ancona, and stepson, Paul E. Jinkerson Jr., have been charged in his death. Ancona's trial is set for May 2.

The Traditionalist American Knights originated in Park Hills, according to the SPLC.

"The segment of the white supremacist movement that is active right now is young and urban, and there's not a lot of young, urban areas in Missouri compared to other places," Hill said. "That demographic of white supremacists is just not there."

The most active portion of the white supremacists in Missouri are the racist prison gangs, she said, noting that there have been four shootouts in the state between law enforcement and extremists since 2013. All four involved felons connected to a white supremacist gang, such as the Southwest Honkys and the Aryan Brotherhood. Two of those incidents occurred in Springfield, in 2013 and 2015, and involved Southwest Honkys.

Currently, there are 77 inmates in the Greene County Jail affiliated with at least 20 different gangs, said Cpl. James Craigmyle with the Greene County Sheriff's Office. The jail holds about 800 inmates.

Those 20 gangs range from motorcycle gangs — Hell's Angels, Outlaws Motorcycle Club — to out-of-state gangs — Bloods, Crips, Gangster Disciples — to international gangs — MS13, Sureños. But most fall into the category of white supremacists: 417 Honkys, Aryan Brotherhood, Aryan Circle, Family Values, Joplin Honkys, Nazi Lowriders, Peckerwood Midwest.

A spokeswoman for the Springfield Police Department said there are white supremacist gang members in the city but that the department has not seen a significant increase in membership in recent years. The department declined to speak further about gang activity in the area.

Craigmyle said inmates at the county jail never want to declare their gang affiliations, if they have any. Tattoos always are a good indicator and are photographed upon intake. The sheriff's office tries to separate rival gang members to avoid violence, but some get taken to jail on purpose to find a specific individual in a rival gang to fight to earn their gang stripes, he said.

The jail often has fights due to gang violence, Craigmyle said. But if an inmate requests to be moved, the jail will do so.

Craigmyle agreed that white supremacist gangs are a growing problem because they're frequently not documented or are underdocumented. While the county doesn't have much gang rivalry on the streets, he said, gang members typically are involved in crimes like car thefts, burglaries and home invasions, which help fund their drug habits and trades. They are driven by meth, heroin and marijuana, in particular.

"We've definitely seen an increase in white supremacist gangs," Hill said. "The ones that are problematic are the ones that stay connected once they leave the system and they remain loyal to the group outside the system. Then they become active in the streets. A lot of it is criminal enterprise-related and not white supremacist-related, but they hold white supremacist views."

The six most active white supremacist gangs in Missouri are: Aryan Circle, Family Values, Joplin Honkys, Missouri Aryan Brotherhood, Peckerwood Midwest and Sacred Separatist Group, according to the ADL.

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Statewide, the number of white supremacist groups, not gangs, fell by almost half from 2016, according to the SPLC. There were 10 in 2016 and six in 2017. The number of KKK groups dropped from four to one.

"There are still the same number of white supremacists there," Hill with the ADL said. "They're just not part of a group. They're not organized. They still have the same ideology. They didn't suddenly stop believing what they believe. All the people who were Klansmen, they're not suddenly not Klansmen in their minds."

Hill said there has been plenty of infighting among white supremacists recently. They have forked off into two newer groups — the "alt-right" and the "hard right" — because they can't agree on where to go next, she said. Hill described the "alt-right" as an American nationalist group that wants to take over the country and take it back in time, essentially, to when the U.S. was founded. The "hard right" is a national socialist group that wants to conquer the U.S. and overthrow the government.The SPLC report blames the jump in white supremacist groups on President Donald Trump's rhetoric and his "sympathetic" presence in the White House.

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"Throughout the year, Trump thrilled and comforted them with his apparent kinship and pugilistic style, his refusal to condemn hate crimes committed in his name and his outrageous statements equating neo-Nazis and anti-racist activists after the deadly violence in Charlottesville," the SPLC report says.

The days-long "Unite the Right" rally in Charlottesville, Virginia, ended with an anti-racist protester being killed by a white supremacist who rammed his car into a crowd, leading to general disapproval and rebuke from public figures and Congress. The SPLC calls it the largest rally by the radical right in a decade.

In response to the increase in white supremacist groups, black nationalist groups grew by about 20 percent, according to the SPLC. These groups are typically anti-Semitic, anti-LGBT and anti-white, and their presence has been growing for several years, now to 233 chapters. In Missouri, black nationalist groups increased by one in 2017, to six chapters.

2017 hate groups in Missouri: