FBI: The Untold Stories

The Alan Berg Case

In 1984, radio talk-show host Alan Berg was gunned down in Denver. After a year, police had no leads. Meanwhile, the FBI was investigating the Aryan Nation, a militant white supremacist group training in Idaho. What they learned would unravel a conspiracy that led to Berg’s murder. The Alan Berg Case would be useful for classes on American History, American Culture, and Criminal Justice. It is appropriate for middle school and high school.

• amalgam
• anti-Semitic
• avowed
• ballistics
• catalyst
• conspiracy
• conviction
• exterminate
• ideology
• militant
• precision
• profitable
• surveillance
• theology
• ultimate
• volatile

Discussion Questions

1. Members of the Aryan Nation murdered Alan Berg because of their anti-Semitism. What is anti-Semitism? How has anti-Semitism affected the course of the 20th century?

2. Critics called Alan Berg the “man you loved to hate.” What does this mean? How did Berg earn this title?

3. What is the Aryan Nation? What is its ideology? What are some of the dangers of groups such as these? Why do they espouse so much hate?

4. How did guns mistakenly left behind during an armored car robbery help the FBI to trace the Aryan Nation?

5. How did the FBI tie the Aryan Nation to the Alan Berg murder?

6. Discuss the process of ballistics tests such as those used in the Alan Beg case.

7. Discuss the dangers to FBI agents of tracking members such as those of the Aryan Nation.

8. Why didn’t Aryan Nation member, and suspected murderer, Bob Matthews, come out of the house when FBI agents set it afire?

Extended Activities

1. Create a mock radio show similar to the one which Alan berg hosted before his death.

2. Do hate groups such as the Aryan Nation have a right to spread their message and literature? Moderate a debate on the rights of the Aryan Nation and similar groups under the First Amendment.