Karl Gharst, a member of the neo-Nazi group Aryan Nations, was arrested at the home of Aryan Nations founder Richard Butler in Hayden, Idaho, on April 20, 2004, for allegedly threatening to kill a social worker in Montana.
Gharst, 43, was charged in Flathead County, Montana with threatening and harassing an employee of the Montana Department of Public Health and Human Services, after the agency took custody of his children. He faces up to 10 years in prison if convicted.
According to the criminal complaint, Gharst issued a series of threats to various employees at the agency from April through November 2001. In one instance he warned a secretary to leave the building because "a group was forming in Kalispell to come in and gather up all the lesbians and mongrels and evil people."
During one of several phone calls to the victim, Gharst identified himself as "a white man, [which] makes me a king." He went on to say that "all white people are kings and you are still a greasy turd-colored mongrel, a corruption, a racial hybrid, something god didn't create and he is about to take care of business."
In 2003, Gharst was one of three Aryan Nations members to run for public office in Hayden. Gharst and Zachery Loren Beck ran for seats on the Hayden City Council and Aryan Nations' leader, Richard Butler, ran for Mayor. "After the election," Gharst told a reporter, "We'll teach the racial message from the Father and Creator." But all three lost their races -- Gharst getting a mere 42 votes.
Since its founding, Aryan Nations has been involved in more criminal incidents than any other neo-Nazi group in the United States. In fact, while running for Mayor in Hayden, Zachery Beck was arrested for allegedly attacking a Hispanic man in a parking lot. He was charged with malicious harassment, which is a hate crime in Idaho, and is currently awaiting trail. Another member of Aryan Nations, Sean Michael Gillespie, was recently arrested in Russellville, Arkansas, for allegedly trying to firebomb a synagogue in Oklahoma City.
