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CNN Live Today

Author of 'Turner Diaries' Dies

Aired July 24, 2002 - 10:35   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
DARYN KAGAN, CNN ANCHOR: Back here in the U.S., William Pierce, a man who used words as weapons and amassed an international empire of hate. The white supremacist author of "The Turner Diaries," an angry manifesto that became a Bible for many activists, including Oklahoma City bomber Timothy McVeigh.

Our Kathy Slobogin looks at how his death could now affect the underground movement that pierce inspired.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

KATHY SLOBOGIN, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): He was called the inspiration for the Oklahoma City bombing.

WILLIAM PIERCE, AUTHOR: They have promoted every sort of diversity.

SLOBOGIN: The intellect behind the racist movement.

PIERCE: Homosexuals, non-white racial minorities, feminists, their fellow Jews, of course, everybody except normal, healthy, decent white men and women.

SLOBOGIN: William Pierce, leader of the white-supremacist group the National Alliance, used radio broadcasts, tapes, writings, anything he could to promote his message to an angry white constituency.

PIERCE: We're engaged in the most desperate war we've ever fought, a war for the survival of our race.

MARK POTOK, SOUTHERN POVERTY LAW CENTER: This is one case in which you could say the world is a better place for the death of this man. This is a truly vile man, a man who spoke of mass murder in dinner table terms.

SLOBOGIN: Pierce is most notorious for his 1978 book "The Turner Diaries," a racist fantasy where a small band of revolutionaries committed to a white America overthrow the U.S. government. Along the way they slaughter millions of people -- blacks, Jews, anyone Pierce considered a collaborator.

MORRIS DEES, SOUTHERN POVERTY LAW CENTER: We've come across "The Turner Diaries" in almost every single case that we've had against white supremacy, neo-Nazi, Ku Klux Klan-type activities, that resulted in violence that caused the deaths and injuries to many innocent people.

SLOBOGIN: "The Turner Diaries" is believed to have inspired Timothy McVeigh, the Oklahoma City bomber. According to Army buddies, he carried it with him and recommended it to friends. Details of his crime mimic a similar bombing in the book.

DEES: Guys like McVeigh see themselves as the true patriot in "The Turner Diaries," and he doesn't forget about it. He sleeps on it, he becomes obsessed with it and he acts on it. Like I think he did in Oklahoma City.

SLOBOGIN: Pierce himself denied any responsibility for the bombing. But he admitted his book was a call to action.

PIERCE: Probably the most important idea expressed in "The Turner Diaries" is that each of us has a responsibility for what's happening in the world around him, that each person has to stop being a spectator and start being a participant.

SLOBOGIN: In recent years Pierce bought and ran Resistance Records, which produced white power and hate rock, estimated to have grossed more than $1 million a year for his National Alliance.

PIERCE: There are 100,000 or so of us here today listening to this program who aren't confused or ashamed or guilty.

SLOBOGIN: William Pierce fought his war with words, words that many hope will die with the man.

Kathy Slobogin, CNN, Washington.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

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