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Talk Show Host’s Killers Sentenced

December 7, 1987
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Two former members of a violently anti-Semitic neo-Nazi group were each sentenced to 150-year prison terms in federal district court here Thursday for the June 1984 murder of Denver radio talk show host Alan Berg.

The sentences were pronounced little more than two weeks after a jury found David Lane, 48, and Bruce Carroll Pierce, 33, guilty of violating Berg’s civil rights by taking his life because he was Jewish.

Neither will be eligible for parole for at least 50 years. Pierce was convicted of shooting Berg 13 times with a submachine gun in the driveway of his home. Lane, who is already serving a 40-year sentence for federal racketeering violations, drove the getaway car.

Two other defendants in the case, Richard Scutari and Jean Craig, were acquitted. Scutari is serving 60 years and Craig 40 years on racketeering charges.

All four belonged to a group known variously as the Silent Brotherhood or the Order.

The leader of the Order, who allegedly masterminded the Berg murder, was killed in a shoot-out with federal agents near Seattle in December 1984.

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