Tyler Davis Bingham: Aryan Brotherhood Murders, Trial, and Appeal

Tyler Davis Bingham, nicknamed “The Hulk,” is a former commissioner of the Aryan Brotherhood who was convicted in 2006 of racketeering, conspiracy, and murder in one of the largest federal capital cases ever brought in the United States. He is serving life in prison without the possibility of parole after a jury deadlocked on whether to sentence him to death. From behind bars, Bingham had directed murders, drug trafficking, and gang warfare across the federal prison system for more than a decade.

His Role in the Aryan Brotherhood

Bingham started as the Aryan Brotherhood’s “shot-caller” at the United States Penitentiary in Leavenworth, Kansas, running gang activity at that facility.¹ He later joined the three-person “Council” that had coordinated the gang since the 1980s.

In 1992 or 1993, the AB restructured. A new three-person “Commission” replaced the Council, and Bingham took one of the three seats alongside Barry Byron “The Baron” Mills and Al Benton.¹ The Commission voted on major decisions by majority rule, including authorizing murders and declaring war on rival prison gangs.² Only the Commission could sanction a hit on a fellow AB member, and killing a brother without that approval was itself punishable by death.

Bingham gave orders through coded messages, some written in invisible ink made from urine. Certain numbers meant murder. The phrase “It’s a boy” signaled the start of hostilities.¹ He kept control of the gang even while held in solitary confinement at the federal Supermax in Florence, Colorado.

The Aryan Brotherhood itself was founded in 1964 at San Quentin. The FBI and Southern Poverty Law Center have reported that it is responsible for roughly 18 percent of murders in U.S. prisons despite making up about one percent of the prison population.³

The Killings He Ordered

The government’s case against Bingham was built on a string of killings and attempted killings carried out on his orders.

Arva Lee Ray, 1989

At the federal penitentiary in Lompoc, California, AB members killed fellow member Arva Lee Ray for breaking the gang’s internal rules. Court records described a homosexual relationship, drug mishandling, and disrespect toward other members. Glenn Filkins gave Ray a heroin overdose and then strangled him with a garrote wire. The Council, which then included Bingham and co-defendant Edgar Hevle, ordered and facilitated the murder.¹

Ismael Benitez-Mendez, 1992

Over a drug debt, Bingham ordered a prospective member named Steve Scott to attack Latin Kings member Ismael Benitez-Mendez at USP Leavenworth. On January 4, 1992, Scott stabbed Benitez-Mendez in the back and hand.¹

The War With the DC Blacks, 1997

The most severe violence tied to Bingham came in August 1997 at USP Lewisburg in Pennsylvania. After a group of inmates called the “DC Blacks” had killed a white inmate at Lewisburg in December 1996, Bingham and Mills, acting as the AB Commission, authorized a nationwide war. From the Florence Supermax, Bingham wrote Al Benton a note in invisible ink that read: “War with DC Blacks /s/ T.D.” Benton received it on August 27, 1997.⁴

The next morning, Benton organized the attack. He promoted Jason Schwyhart and Henry Houston to full AB membership because, in his words, they were “going to sacrifice themselves” and “catch a case.” Benton and Houston tracked down inmate Abdul Salaam; Benton stabbed him in the throat and Houston joined in. Salaam suffered 34 stab wounds, 16 of them fatal. At the same time, Wayne Bridgewater, John Campbell, and Schwyhart attacked inmate Frank Joyner, stabbing him 35 times and killing him. Schwyhart also stabbed inmate Byron Ball in the back and shoulder.⁴

Bingham had also ordered AB members at Florence to kill two DC Blacks members known as “Hollywood” Smith and Clarence Hinnitt. Those killings were prevented when prison officials moved the AB members into solitary confinement.¹

The 2006 Federal Trial

In August 2002, a federal grand jury indicted 40 members and associates of the Aryan Brotherhood in a 140-page charging document assembled by Assistant U.S. Attorney Gregory W. Jessner. It detailed 32 murders and attempted murders and used the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act, a statute originally written for the Mafia.⁵ Nineteen of the 40 defendants took plea deals, and one died before trial.⁶

The trial of the leadership began on March 14, 2006, in Santa Ana, California. The four defendants were Bingham, Mills, Edgar “The Snail” Hevle, and Christopher Overton Gibson.⁷ Prosecutors sought the death penalty for Bingham and Mills.

Over four months, the jury heard taped phone calls, saw surveillance video of prison fights, and reviewed coded messages, including the invisible-ink note. Prosecutors relied heavily on cooperating former gang members, including Al Benton, the AB leader who had carried out the Lewisburg killings. Benton received a nine-year sentence in exchange for his testimony rather than facing the death penalty.⁵ The defense argued the case rested on “cross-contamination” among informants motivated by money and reduced sentences.⁷

On July 28, 2006, the jury answered nearly 80 questions on the verdict form and convicted Bingham of substantive RICO violation, RICO conspiracy, VICAR murder for the killings of Frank Joyner and Abdul Salaam, and the murder of Arva Lee Ray under 18 U.S.C. § 1111. He was acquitted only of the 1993 murder of inmate William McKinney.⁸ The jury also found he had agreed to at least one act involving murder and one involving drug trafficking, satisfying the RICO conspiracy count.¹

How He Escaped the Death Penalty

The penalty phase for Bingham and Mills started on August 15, 2006. Prosecutors had proved Bingham ordered five murders, two of them carried out, and Mills ordered twelve, with six carried out. Both men were death-eligible.⁹

After three and a half days, the jury told U.S. District Judge David O. Carter they were deadlocked. Judge Carter sent them back. The next day, September 15, 2006, they reported they were “honestly and conscientiously unable to agree after a full consideration of the evidence.”¹⁰ The final split was 9-3 in favor of death for Mills and 8-4 in favor of life for Bingham. Because a death sentence required unanimity, Judge Carter declared a mistrial on the penalty phase.

On November 21, 2006, Judge Carter sentenced Bingham to life without the possibility of parole. Hevle received three consecutive life sentences at the same hearing, and Gibson faced 20 years to life.¹¹ The judge ordered the jurors’ identities kept secret and had them escorted to their cars.

The Appeal

Bingham appealed to the Ninth Circuit, arguing that the AB’s leadership restructuring undercut the government’s theory, that prosecutors had knowingly used false testimony, and that his coded messages to Lewisburg were “warnings” rather than orders to kill.¹²

On August 4, 2011, a panel of Circuit Judges Rymer, Callahan, and Ikuta affirmed the convictions in full. The court held the restructuring was “immaterial” because the gang’s goals had not changed, found no evidence of perjured testimony, and concluded that “a reasonable jury could interpret Bingham’s statements as an order to kill.”¹

Where Bingham Stands Now

Bingham’s co-commissioner Barry Mills was serving four life terms at the Florence Supermax when he was found dead in his cell on July 8, 2018, at age 70. The Fremont County coroner said there was no evidence of foul play and the death appeared to be natural.¹³ Bingham remains in federal custody serving his life sentence. None of the Aryan Brotherhood leaders prosecuted in either the 2006 case or the later Sacramento prosecutions received a death sentence.¹⁴

1
FindLaw. United States v. Bingham
2
VPM. Timeline: The Aryan Brotherhood
3
Britannica. Aryan Brotherhood
4
Justia. United States v. Houston and Bridgewater
5
Los Angeles Times. Aryan Brotherhood Leaders Convicted
6
NBC News. Aryan Brotherhood
7
NPR. Trial of Aryan Brotherhood Leaders Wraps Up
8
CBS News. Four Aryan Brotherhood Leaders Convicted
9
ADL. Aryan Brotherhood Leaders Sentenced in California
10
CBS News. Two Aryan Inmates Spared Death Penalty
11
Orange County Register. Prison Gang Leaders Sentenced
12
Willamette University. United States v. Bingham
13
New York Times. Barry Mills, Brutal Leader of Racist Prison Gang, Dies at 70
14
U.S. Department of Justice. Final Aryan Brotherhood Gang Member Sentenced to Life in Prison