Bill Riccio
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Bill Riccio (aka William E. Davidson) is a leader in the
white power skinhead White power skinheads, also known as racist skinheads and neo-Nazi skinheads, are members of a neo-Nazi, music of white skin head white supremacist and antisemitic offshoot of the skinhead subculture. Many of them are affiliated with white natio ...
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 Alabama, United States. It is the county seat of Jefferson County, Alabama, Jefferson County. The population was 200,733 at the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, making it the List ...
white power skinhead White power skinheads, also known as racist skinheads and neo-Nazi skinheads, are members of a neo-Nazi, music of white skin head white supremacist and antisemitic offshoot of the skinhead subculture. Many of them are affiliated with white natio ...
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 ...
, 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 1889 – 30 April 1945) was an Austrian-born German politician who was the dictator of Nazi Germany from 1933 until Death of Adolf Hitler, his suicide in 1945. Adolf Hitler's rise to power, He rose to power as the lea ...
. 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 ...
; 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 neo-Nazi 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 the group ...
, 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 KKK or Klan, is an American Protestant-led Christian terrorism, Christian extremist, white supremacist, Right-wing terrorism, far-right hate group. It was founded in 1865 during Reconstruction era, ...
(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 ser ...
'' 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 (), commonly known as marijuana (), weed, pot, and ganja, List of slang names for cannabis, among other names, is a non-chemically uniform psychoactive drug from the ''Cannabis'' plant. Native to Central or South Asia, cannabis has ...
. On August 7, 1992, the War House was raided by police as part of a multi-state sweep of
white supremacist White supremacy is the belief that white people are superior to those of other races. The belief favors the maintenance and defense of any power and privilege held by white people. White supremacy has roots in the now-discredited doctrine ...
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 KKK or Klan, is an American Protestant-led Christian terrorism, Christian extremist, white supremacist, Right-wing terrorism, far-right hate group. It was founded in 1865 during Reconstruction era, ...
. When KKK leader Roger Handley was later charged with
sodomy Sodomy (), also called buggery in British English, principally refers to either anal sex (but occasionally also oral sex) between people, or any Human sexual activity, sexual activity between a human and another animal (Zoophilia, bestiality). I ...
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

*
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 20th-century American criminals American neo-Nazis American Ku Klux Klan members 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