Research Symposium

BIO

My name is Alastair Jurs and I am from Jacksonville Beach, Florida. I am currently majoring in criminology at FSU, and I am in honors here. I am a freshman and I am looking to apply to law school in the future. I am currently a member of Sigma Alpha Epsilon, Presidential scholars, and Urop on campus.

The Organization, Economics, and Investigation of the Minutemen Terror Group in the 1960’s: Race, Religion, and Culture.

Abstract

Amid the Red Scare the American populace was terrified by a wave of communism that they believed would steal their way of life. Due to this, there was a wave of hyper nationalism that was fueled by fear, religion, and culture. its these factors together led to the creation of the extremist minutemen militia group in the early 1960’s. This militia was founded by Robert DePugh based upon anti-communist and nativist ideals which they resorted to membership fees to fund their actions but as they scaled up they enacted insurance fraud and extortion rackets. The Minutemen used these funds to stockpile weapons all over the US in the case of a communist attack or if they believed they must take government into their own hands. The group at it’s origin started as a couple of extremists who believed they were fighting the good fight but, through the use of extensive propaganda such as DePugh’s monthly magazine “On Target” their members grew significantly. When weapons and evidence of arms trafficking were discovered, the FBI launched a full-scale investigation that revealed a command and organizational structure far beyond what they could have imagined. All the research on the poster was obtained through archived FBI documents on their investigation of the Minutemen. This project explores the organization, economics, and investigation of the minutemen terror group in the 1950’s and how their creation was influenced by race, religion, and culture.

Keywords: Criminology, Terrorism, Religion, Red scare, Extremism