A man identified by the U.S. Department of Justice as one of the nation’s highest-ranking members of the Aryan Circle white supremacist gang was sentenced this week to life in prison.
According to the department, 40-year-old William Glenn Chunn of Conroe, Texas – known as “Big Head” – was sentenced Wednesday for Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations (RICO) charges related to his leadership of the gang.
“The Aryan Circle is a large, growing and dangerous white supremacist prison gang based primarily in Texas, though it has a presence in a number of other states,” said the Anti-Defamation League. “It is active both in prisons and on the streets.
It is an extreme and violent group, with a long track record of murder, including the deaths of two police officers in Bastrop, Louisiana, in 2007.”
Per the Southern Poverty Law Center, Aryan Circle is an offshoot of the Aryan Brotherhood gang that was established in the 1960s after prisons were desegregated. That gang is “largest and deadliest prison gang in the United States,” today with around 20,000 members, the SPLC said.
Aryan Circle first appeared in the 1980s and was the second largest white supremacist gang in Texas with around 1,400 members as of 2009, according to the Justice Department.
“The AC recruits its membership from prisons and on the streets. Members tend to come from lower socioeconomic backgrounds, with many members working in the oil industry,” the department explained. “Women can become members and have even achieved positions of significant responsibility; however, sexism makes it difficult for them to rise to the highest ranks.”
Chunn was previously convicted by a jury in the Eastern District of Texas last November of racketeering conspiracy for an attempted murder he ordered relating to a violent stabbing. He was also convicted by a jury in the Southern District of Mississippi of Violent Crime in Aid of Racketeering (VICAR) Attempted Murder. Chunn is awaiting sentencing in that case.
“The Aryan Circle enforces its rules and promotes discipline among its members, prospects, and associates through threats, intimidation, and acts of violence including, but not limited to, acts involving assault and murder,” said the Justice Department.
It said that evidence presented at trial indicated that Chunn used his Aryan Circle leadership role to order violent stabbings against rival gang members and other victims, “as well as to seek out and retaliate against those he believed were cooperating with law enforcement.”
In addition to Chunn, another Aryan Circle member was sentenced this week.
Mitchell Farkas, a 52-year-old gang member known as “Lifter” from Baton Rouge, La., was sentenced Monday to five to 30 years prison for VICAR Attempted Murder and related charges. These charges were related to his role in a separate violent prison stabbing he committed at USP Big Sandy in Martin County, Ky., on behalf of the Aryan Circle, the Justice Department said.
His victim permanently lost vision in one eye, said the department.
Farkas was convicted in August by a jury in the Eastern District of Kentucky.
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