RELEASED FROM PRISON convicted murderer/former high ranking gang leader of ‘the order’ handwritten letter envelope set, signed Richard

A high-ranking member of The Order, a defunct U.S. neo-Nazi group responsible for the murder of a Jewish radio host in Colorado in 1984, is set to be released from federal custody, where he once networked with the leaders of a terrorist organization based in northern Europe, a Hatewatch investigation has revealed.

U.S. District Judge Walter McGovern sentenced Richard Scutari, The Order’s head of security, in June 1986 to 60 years in prison after he pleaded guilty to racketeering and conspiracy charges. Scutari, who has been residing in a prerelease center in Orlando, Florida, since July 2024, will be released on Jan. 21 after serving roughly 38 years for participating in the organization’s violent crimes, according to documents Hatewatch obtained via a public records request from the Federal Bureau of Prisons.

While in prison, Scutari maintained extensive connections with white supremacist groups in the U.S. and Europe. His correspondence with white supremacist activists in Sweden and Finland throughout the late 1990s and 2000s encouraged them to form a series of organizations that would become the Nordic Resistance Movement (NRM), a pan-Nordic neo-Nazi group, according to published correspondence and Hatewatch’s conversation with a former NRM leader. The U.S. Department of State named NRM and three of its leaders as Specially Designated Global Terrorists in July 2024, citing its members’ violent attacks, including the 2017 bombing of a refugee center and plots against “political opponents, protesters, journalists, and other perceived adversaries.”

“[Scutari] had the propensity to unify people,” Brad Galloway, a former neo-Nazi leader, told Hatewatch in an interview. Galloway, who now works closely with the anti-extremist group Life After Hate, corresponded with Scutari in the early 2000s while helping lead the U.S.-based racist skinhead group Volksfront.

Scutari’s release is set to follow the December release of a historical crime thriller film about The Order.

Founded and operated by Robert J. Mathews from September 1983 to December 1984, The Order was based in Washington and sought to create a whites-only state in the Pacific Northwest. The group created an assassination list, murdered Jewish radio host Alan Berg and robbed more than $4.1 million from a bank and three armored trucks. It used the money to fund its activities and distribute to other groups within the white power movement. Members of The Order also produced counterfeit money and murdered a law enforcement officer in Missouri.

Hatewatch reached out to Scutari for comment via certified mail but did not receive a response in time for publication.