A white-supremacist gang in Oklahoma turned on one of its own members, murdering him and burning off his gang tattoo because he destroyed an air conditioning unit, police say.
Jared “Cowboy” Langworthy was set upon by seven Universal Aryan Brotherhood members, including his girlfriend, on Dec. 5 and tortured, bashed with a bat, shot at, thrown in a pond, and burned with a hot metal object. U.S. marshals are now hunting for Aaron Mitchell Welch, the last of the seven members accused of first-degree murder. A sixth member, Jerry “One Eye” Brian Williamson, was caught last week.
The Universal Aryan Brotherhood, a violent neo-Nazi gang run out of Oklahoma’s prisons, is an offshoot of the infamous Aryan Brotherhood, known for their dealings with mob boss John Gotti and their brutal “blood in, blood out” motto. Members sport “SS” lightning bolt tattoos and adhere to militaristic rules.
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Jared ‘Cowboy’ Langworthy had his Universal Aryan Brotherhood tattoo burnt off his shoulder during a brutal internal attack.
The gang’s inner workings were revealed in a sweeping RICO operation last year that targeted 18 UAB members for kidnapping, racketeering, drug conspiracy, and nine murders. It found that an all-powerful Main Council of about a dozen prisoners directs all operations, controls sub-councils in smaller prisons and hands out SS “patches” to prospects who commit acts of violence. Outside “the walls,” the gang distributes meth and enforces their rule through kidnappings, arson and murder. Women, known as “featherwoods,” often carry out orders.
In rare cases, the gang has turned on members for indiscretions like stealing drugs or defying rules. Langworthy’s case is one of the more chilling episodes of internal retribution outside prison walls, showing how even the smallest of slights can be fatal.
Cody Lee Fulmer, whose silver SUV was allegedly seen leaving the scene of the crime, admitted to investigators that he bashed Langworthy but denied using a weapon or leaving him for dead, according to an affidavit filed in the District Court for Tulsa County. He said Langworthy’s girlfriend, Destiny Rae Asher, lived with Fulmer’s relative, and Langworthy would damage property whenever his girlfriend would not come outside. In one instance, he ripped an air conditioning unit while fighting Asher.
“This made [Fulmer] mad because his family member Charlie was extremely old and in a wheelchair and did not deserve that to happen,” the affidavit says.
Langworthy's girlfriend, Destiny Rae Asher, was among seven gang members charged with first-degree murder.
Tulsa County Sheriff's OfficePolice believe Asher alerted Fulmer and other gang members to her boyfriend’s location on Dec. 5. They allege that Tyler “100” Coyle, Billy Shawn Griffith, Welch and Williamson joined Fulmer in setting upon Langworthy with a bat before dragging him into a car and taking him to Coyle’s house, where Coyle’s girlfriend Taylor Michelle Harper was heating up a metal object in the living room fire. Williamson picked up Langworthy by his neck and began to burn his “patch” off his shoulder, the affidavit says. He was thrown in a pond, dressed, driven to another house, and then left in a ditch, where he was discovered the next day.
A friend of Langworthy, who knew the gang was after him, tried to warn his friend but said the victim responded, “I’m Hollywood, I ain’t running from shit.” One gang member said his last words, as he lay with a burning shoulder, were: “Why? Am I going to die?”
The friend believed the murder was ordered from “the Walls”—UAB inside Oklahoma State Reformatory—because it was rumored Langworthy was working with law enforcement. However, Langworthy’s mother, Toni, said she believed her son was killed over the air conditioning dispute.
“Why did they have to be so brutal?” Toni Langworthy asked in an interview with a local TV station. “I am not getting closure, I have questions, and I need some answers, so I can heal.”
The first five suspects arrested have pleaded not guilty; Williamson has not yet entered a plea.
