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CNN Live Today

Neo-Nazi Icon William Pierce Dead at 68

Aired July 24, 2002 - 12:47   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.
KYRA PHILLIPS, CNN ANCHOR: And Morris Dees of the Southern Poverty Law Center joins me now to talk about William Pierce's legacy of hate. You saw him in the piece.

Nice to have you with us.

MORRIS DEES, SOUTHERN POVERTY LAW CENTER: Thank you.

PHILLIPS: I guess it's a wonderful day for you.

Well, you know, it's hard to say anybody's death is a wonderful day. But it certainly is a day that will change America, I believe, because I think this man was running his organization by himself. It is a big operation. He's a very intelligent person. And hopefully, hopefully, this will be the end of the National Alliance, his hate group.

PHILLIPS: What inspired William Pierce? You say he was a very intelligent man. You would think someone who is very intelligent would know that this is crazy.

DEES: He was a physicist professor, taught at Oregon State University. I guess he just was obsessed with the survival of the white race, much so as like Pat Buchanan who just wrote the book "The Death of the West." Actually, he quoted things from William Pierce in his book. Shocking that some of the ideas that a crazy man like William Pierce, crazy in the sense of his racism and his vile anti- Semitism could live on through writings of people that some people look up to in America today.

So hopefully that will change this country.

PHILLIPS: There's been a lot of criticism over Buchanan's book also. But back to Pierce, what inspired him though. Degree up a certain way? Did he have a father influencing him?

DEES: You know, I think most people, like Adolf Hitler and William Pierce, if -- I'm no psychologist, but if you trace down their backgrounds, you will see that they had some childhood experience that made them feel unloved, made them feel not a part of a family. So they try to blame other people for the problems in their own life, insecurities its they have, and they look out, and they scapegoat people, whether it be Jews, blacks, gays and others.

PHILLIPS: Now he wanted you killed. Tell me about that.

DEES: Well, you know, the work the Southern Poverty Law Center has done in putting groups like the Aryan Nations out of business, Ku Klux Klan groups, skinheads. They are aligned in one way and they're brothers of a sort.

With Mr. Pierce, we have some intelligence that he has actually encouraged people in his indirect kind of way, like he encouraged McVeigh, to harm the Southern Poverty law Center, and myself and people that work there, yes.

PHILLIPS: Talk to me about -- first of all, did he ever come close? Did you have close calls?

DEES: There have been quite a number of people who have been arrested, over 20, who attempted to harm the people that work at the Southern Poverty Law Center and our project that goes out to hate. Yes, there have been some quite close calls.

PHILLIPS: Wow. Now back to "The Turner Diaries." Give me some background. Tell me how this all came to be and how you started putting them together.

DEES: "The Turner Diaries" is really the "Mein Kampf" of the modern neo-Nazi movement in America. And it's the Bible that's carried by most of the foot soldiers in the field, over 200,000 copies have been sold of "The Turner Diaries." It's a paperback book. It's a fictional account of a race war that takes place in the late 1990s -- fortunately, it didn't take place, but it's a blueprint. And in it, a small group of -- band of white patriots blow up a federal building using 4,000 pounds of ammonium nitrate, just like McVeigh did, and kill a lot of people, and that escalate into a race war. And the whole idea is to save the white race from becoming multicultural and becoming the nation that we know we have always had in this nation, the nation we have today.

And he also published another book, Kyra, called "The Hunter." And it glamorizes, fictional account, actually built on the life of an actual person, glamorizes, a man that goes around in killing interracial couples. And the man this book glamorizes shot Vernon Jordan, you know, President Clinton's best friend, almost killed Mr. Jordan, because he was walking down the street with a white woman.

PHILLIPS: Unbelievable. And this book, how easy is it to get your hands on both of these books.

DEES: Unfortunately, you can find it on amazon.com and Barnes and Nobles, and it's not that we discourage people from buying books, because the First Amendment allows that. People who buy "The Turner Diaries" should realize that some $2 from each book goes into building a neo-Nazi movement, training young people in this country, even children, how to hate, kill, Jews, blacks and others.

PHILLIPS: My final question, now that he's dead, William Pierce is dead, can this movement continue to be so strong? DEES: Well, he has 20 full-time staffers in his compound in West Virginia. He owns Resistance Records, the most powerful not just in America, but in the world, sell of hate records. So they have a source of income, several million dollars a year coming in. He is the leader. I think they will run it for a while based on the momentum he created. But I do think the end is in sight for this particular individual and his group.

PHILLIPS: That's more good news today. Morris Dees, from the Southern Poverty Law Center, thank you sir.

DEES: Thank you. Thanks for having me.

PHILLIPS: Absolute pleasure.

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