Two self-avowed white supremacists, Holly Ann Grigsby and David Pederson, are awaiting trial in district courts in Oregon and Washington State for a five-month crime spree in 2011 that included kidnapping, robbery and murder—all in the name of preserving and purifying the "white race."  They are charged under the same racketeering statute that was used by federal prosecutors in 1985 in Seattle, when twenty-three members of The Order were indicted for a murder, robbery and other crimes.

The Order criminal enterprise lasted longer, involved more combatants and was considerably more sophisticated politically than the most recent case. Indeed, the legacy of The Order included multiple Klan, Aryan Nations and neo-Nazi organizations adopting the "white bastion" strategy: trying to create a whites-only republic in the states of the Pacific Northwest region of the United States.  Although it had its detractors inside the white nationalist movement at the time, the strategy was promoted widely until the defeat of the militia movement in the late 1990s.

Today, the white nationalist idea of secession, carving out a piece of territory in the Pacific Northwest, is regaining adherents.  An uptick in activity in the region, increased discussion of the possibility of establishing a white republic, and the migration of a few white souls into states of Montana and Idaho may be signs that more trouble is in the offing.

On Tuesday, May 22, Dennis Mahon will be sentenced for sending a mail bomb to the Scottsdale, Arizona, Office of Diversity and Dialogue in February 2004. The bomb injured three people, including Don Logan, an African American who was director of the office. Mahon's twin brother, Daniel Mahon, was indicted in the case, but not convicted. Neither man was convicted of a hate crime, although all the evidence pointed to racial animus as the only motivating cause for the crime.

Dennis Mahon's background is instructive for several reasons: the length of time he stayed active in the white nationalist movement; the multiple number of organizations he was a member of; his international travel on behalf of the nationalist movement; and his life-long tendency to associate himself with the movement's most violent wing.