Monday, Apr. 08, 1985
American Notes Terrorism
As a leader of the white supremacist group called the Order, also known as the Silent Brotherhood, Bruce Pierce, 30, is believed to have been one of the men who gunned down Denver Talk Show Host Alan Berg in his driveway last June. Pierce has been on the run since April 1984, when he failed to appear for sentencing after pleading guilty in Spokane to charges of counterfeiting. As law-enforcement agencies intensified their probe of right-wing terror groups, they came to consider Pierce the most wanted man in the West.
Another suspect in the Berg case died in a shoot-out with federal agents near Seattle in December. But Pierce's year as a fugitive ended quietly one night last week when several dozen agents surrounded him in Rossville, Ga. When he was apprehended, Pierce was sporting two pistols in his belt and a derringer in one pocket. Police found automatic weapons, a crossbow and arrows, fragmentation grenades and a pipe bomb in the van he was driving. Now serving the two-year term for counterfeiting in the federal penitentiary at Atlanta, Pierce also faces questioning in murder and armed-robbery cases.