The New York adventures of Aryan Republican Army bank robber...
RealAberration@BirdWendy2
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Oct 30, 2026
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The New York adventures of Aryan Republican Army bank robber Richard “Wild Bill” Guthrie: A Local History multipart thread series. Installment #1.
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Aside from a passing, unelaborated mention in a 1996 Columbus Dispatch article, little has been said publicly about Guthrie’s travels to and through Western and Central New York (WNY & CNY). Not even in the most heralded book on the ARA, In Bad Company: America’s Terrorist Underground, which was largely derived from the work of JD Cash.
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Guthrie had a significant, or at least working, relationship with the region or someone in it, having made at least 6 trips to or through there from early 1993 until early 1995. This should have been at least potentially significant to the OKCB investigation, given McVeigh’s own ties to WNY.
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In early 2009, I began corresponding with Guthrie’s childhood friend and former partner in crime and ideology, convicted ARA bank robber formerly known as Peter Langan (now going by Donna), who told me about the Secret Service’s Guthrie Task Force and suggested I file a FOIA for more info on the Task Force and a few other topics.
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So, I filed several FOIAs, asking for documents about Richard Lee Guthrie from, among others, the FBI, ATF, DOD, Secret Service, US Postal Inspection Service, and even the Department of Agriculture. I did not start receiving results from any of my 2009 FOIAs until 2012 and 2013.
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During the wait, Langan provided me with a wealth of material, and through this I learned that JD Cash, probably also based on Langan’s suggestions, had filed some of these same FOIAs years earlier, with truncated results. Regardless, I first heard mention of Guthrie’s travels through Western and Central New York through my FOIA results and Langan's defense files.
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I wanted to develop this topic, but because of more pressing matters and a lack of additional available information, I put it on the back burner. However, this past year, while reviewing Jesse Trentadue’s very recent FOIA results (production still ongoing), I found supporting information to help me develop the topic further, went back, reviewed his earlier FOIA results, and found more.
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The following multi-part thread series, of which this is the first installment, is based largely on the above-mentioned materials, with some additional contextual info gleaned from the defense files of both McVeigh and Nichols, two very different collections with some minimal overlap.
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Throughout this series, I’ll trace Guthrie’s travels to and through WNY & CNY, various federal agencies' investigations of them and lack thereof, and situate these in the context of PATCON, as well as the movements of McVeigh, Nichols, Roger Moore, and others, thereby hopefully outlining some hitherto unexplored connections along the way, but probably only raising more questions than answers.
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However, to illustrate the significance of Guthrie’s NY trips, which begin in February 1993, I must first give some critical context in the form of a backstory, but I’ll try not to bog you down with too much unnecessary detail. So, without further ado:
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PATCON: While numerous related, predecessor, and parallel investigations ran under other names, and while the name is now used as an umbrella term to refer to many of those, the FBI formally launched the multi-agency, multi-state undercover operation PATCON in April 1991, with a major priority on Louis Beam, his associates at Aryan Nations, and potential criminal enterprises patterned after The Order.
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The investigation soon grew to include, among other things, the broader White Power Movement, and LAW rockets, Stinger missiles, grenades, night vision goggles, and other equipment stolen from National Guard armories and military bases.
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Before and after the official advent of PATCON, both Timothy McVeigh and soon-to-be notorious bank robber, Richard “Wild Bill” Guthrie, were themselves known to deal in stolen military equipment to varying extents, and in the late 1980s, McVeigh’s friend, Spooky Roger Moore, had been investigated for the same during Operation Punchout.
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More than one of his fellow COHORTS later said it was common knowledge on base that while stationed at Ft. Riley, Kansas, from 1988 until 1991, McVeigh gathered quite a bit of surplus and/or stolen Army property, regularly sending 3 to 4 boxes a month back home to Lockport, NY, and at least one said that Terry Nichols often helped him do this.
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Guthrie told the FBI that around July 1991, he bought stolen US Army night vision goggles from a soldier at Ft. Bragg, NC, a staff member for the Commanding General of the 82nd Airborne Division, whom he first met in 1984 while both attended the Embry-Riddle Aeronautical Institute in Daytona Beach, Florida.
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In August 1991, after a heated conflict between Guthrie and an old friend of his, Norm Smith, about “some unofficial business” of an unknown nature they’d conducted together at Ft. Bragg, Guthrie threatened to kill Smith and was arrested on a weapons charge.
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A search of his residence in West Virginia turned up the stolen goggles, along with numerous fraudulent driver’s licenses, counterfeit birth and baptismal certificates, and other false identification.
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ARYAN NATIONS: Guthrie visited Aryan Nations HQ at Hayden Lake, Idaho, numerous times, alone and with others, starting in the late 1980s when he became a “tireless proselytizer” for the organization. AN spokesperson later turned informant, Floyd Cochran, remembered Guthrie’s 1991 visit.
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In July 1992, Guthrie jumped bail on the WV charge he caught after his altercation with Norn Smith and then set about bailing out Langan in jail on a stolen property charge in Ohio, after which they embarked on a road trip to Aryan Nations HQ. In a May 2009 letter to me, Langan recalled the trip and Cochran:
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Langan, however, was not impressed.
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The timing of their trip was fortuitous, occurring just weeks before the bloody events at Ruby Ridge, Idaho, which was already starting to pop off and had been gaining increasing national media attention for months.
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They arrived in time to attend the annual Aryan World Congress held at Aryan Nation, which, while always infested with undercover agents and informants, was specifically attended that year by undercover PATCON agents and informants.
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Guthrie and Langan’s visit should be documented, as most open-to-the-public events at AN were well documented by attendees, feds, and snitches alike. In fact, one FBI report noted that Guthrie was observed on videotape sitting in the audience listening to an AN speaker.
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The continuance of PATCON was approved on August 5, 1992, whilethe siege resulting in the deaths at Ruby Ridge began on August 21 and ended on August 30, when Randy Weaver came down from the mountain and surrendered.
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A Secret Service report noted that a couple of weeks after Weaver’s surrender, an associate of Guthrie and Langan learned that AN leadership suspected:
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In a letter to me, Langan recalled that after leaving Idaho, they headed to Thom Robb’s in Arkansas and gave a very detailed description of the Robb’s property.
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Meanwhile, in September 1992, after leaving the Army, returning to the Buffalo area, andjoining the National Guard, McVeigh tried to offload his stolen stockpile of surplus military items by asking friends and associates to buy them.
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ON THE RUN: Not fated to be a happy Aryan camper for long, by October 1992. Guthrie was being sought by Georgia law enforcement for the armed robbery of a Pizza Hut in Georgia 10 days earlier, and by the Secret Service for an outstanding warrant for credit card fraud and his rumored threats to assassinate George H. W. Bush.
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In early November, Langan was apprehended for the same Pizza Hut robbery, while Guthrie remained at large, and Langan denied knowing his whereabouts.
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Later that month, Guthrie began his bank-robbery career when, in the span of 2 weeks, he robbed 2 Cincinnati banks by himself and began attempting to recruit others to assist with future bank and armored car robberies and a counterfeiting operation he was considering starting.
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And that concludes this morning's thread; in the next one we’ll finally get into Guthrie’s 6 known visits to Western and Central New York, which is the point of this entire series, ISTG, believe it or not.
