After Alan Berg’s testy on-air exchange with members of the Christian Identity movement, The Order, a neo-Nazi organization that had been robbing banks in the Northwest to finance its operations, put Berg on its hit list. The group had also targeted television producer Norman Lear, among others, for death.
Anath White, who had been a producer on Berg’s show, told The Denver Post it was the confrontation between Berg and callers from the Christian Identity movement “That got him on the list and got him moved up the list to be assassinated,” but she added Berg (pictured) wouldn’t have backed down even if knew how dangerous the group was, saying, “He was a person who took risks for his beliefs.”
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Following the murder, authorities caught up with The Order’s founder, Bruce Pierce, in Georgia in March 1985 on federal warrants, per the Tyler Courier-Times. When arrested, police found a cache of weapons, including grenades and dynamite, in the van he was driving. The Spokane Chronicle reported that soon the FBI rounded up the rest of the hit squad, four other members of The Order, who federal prosecutors contended had been part of Berg’s murder. But by the time they went to trial in 1987 none of them were facing a murder charge.
