Following the murder of three U.S. justice officials—Mike McLelland, Kaufman County, Texas district attorney, was killed on March 30, McLelland's deputy, Mark Hasse, was killed on January 31, and Tom Clements, Colorado's head of prisons , was murdered on March 19—each of whom had taken on white supremacist prison gangs, the BBC News Magazine posted a report entitled, Aryan Brotherhood of Texas: How did neo-Nazi Prison Gangs become so Powerful? The report, written by Jon Kelly, focused on the Aryan Brotherhood of Texas (ABT), “a white supremacist group formed in Texan jails.”

Kelly writes, “The Anti-Defamation League (ADL), which monitors hate in the U.S. [United States], describes the ABT as ‘the most violent extremist group in the United States.’ It says the gang, thought to have around 2,000 members, has committed ‘at least’ 29 murders in the U.S. [United States] between 2000-12. Its primary objective has moved beyond conducting turf wars inside jails or propagating racist ideology, however, into running a ruthless Mafia-style organised crime network.”

Brian Levin, director of California State University's Center for the Study of Hate and Extremism, is quoted as saying, "If you look at domestic extremist groups in the U.S. [United States], they are responsible for more homicides than anyone else, although most are crime-related, to do with insubordination or revenge or against those who owe them money."      

Although, not everyone is convinced that the ABT was behind the murders, as Kelly notes. "If they are involved in this, it's a major step for them," says James W. Marquart, a University of Texas criminologist. "Typically, they are not involved in this sort of high-stakes activity. They like to keep it on the down-low as much as possible."