UTAH

     News accounts citing law enforcement sources report
that at least seven militia units are operating in Utah. One
group, the Box Elder County-based Unorganized State Militia
of Utah, was disbanded this spring by leader Doug
Christiansen, who said he disapproved of the growing
militancy of the movement.

     Johnny Bangerter, the leader of a St. George-based neo-
Nazi Skinhead group called the Army of Israel, claims his
organization has ties to militias in Montana, Texas and
Utah. He and other Skinheads traveled to northern Idaho in
1992 to express support for white supremacist Randy Weaver
during his standoff with federal law enforcement agents --
an event that later contributed to the genesis of the
militia movement. Bangerter has asserted that he wrote a
note delivered to Weaver during the episode by influential
far-right figure Bo Gritz (see Idaho), who assisted in
Weaver's surrender to authorities.


~      
ADL Fact Finding Report, "Beyond the Bombing: The Militia
Menace Grows," Anti-Defamation League, 1995.

Home ·  Site Map ·  What's New? ·  Search Nizkor