THE ARYAN CIRCLE - ADL

6
I. Officers Killed in Bastrop
It started and ended with murders. The first murders occurred on July 14, 2007, after a pickup
truck parked in front of an east Houston house occupied by Dennis Clem and his longtime
girlfriend, Tanya Smith. An argument ensued between the occupants of the truck and people
in the front yard of the house. It is possible that the encounter was drug-related.
According to Clem’s brother, who was a witness, Smith came outside and began yelling at the
two teenagers to leave, shouting racial epithets. When a person in the yard approached the
truck, one of the men in the truck shot at him, wounding him. Shortly thereafter, Clem burst
out of the house with an AK-47 and opened fire, killing two teenage passengers in the truck.
The wielder of the assault rifle, Dennis “Bigboy” Clem, was not just anybody. He was a member
of the Aryan Circle, a large and violent racist prison gang active throughout Texas and in
many other states. And he wasn’t just any member, but one of the group’s inner circle, close
to people such as Billy Wayne Haynes, soon to be the Circle’s next leader, and Haynes’ fiancee,
Summer Heinz, also a member. He was well-liked by other Circle members, and respected for
his tattooing abilities. Tanya “Little Feather” Smith was also a member of the Aryan Circle.
After the shootings, Clem and Smith hid out with local Circle friends, giving some of them tattoos
to pass the time. After a few weeks, fearing capture, they fled across state lines on August
5 to Bastrop, Louisiana, where a cell of Aryan Circle members could hide them. They took with
them a mini-arsenal of weapons, including handguns, a sawed-off shotgun, and an SKS assault
rifle, as well as large amounts of ammunition. They also took white supremacist flags, patches,
and clothing. Clem brought along his tattooing tools.
In Bastrop, they met local Aryan Circle members Donald Brendle and Chrystal Harrell. After
spending their first night at Harrell’s home, Clem and Smith moved to a downtown motel room,
registered by Brendle under his own name. However, Brendle himself was under suspicion by
the Bastrop Police Department in a theft case. On August 10, a relative of Brendle’s told police
that Brendle might be at the motel room.
That afternoon, Bastrop Police Detectives Chuck Wilson and John Smith showed up at the
motel, thinking they could question Brendle there. They had no idea that two desperate and
well-armed fugitives were in the room instead of their suspect.
When they knocked on the door, Tanya Smith answered and let them in. A motel security
camera revealed that, shortly thereafter, the two detectives fled the hotel room, both wounded,
guns still in holsters. Clem followed, a gun in each hand, shooting at the detectives until they
fell to the ground, dead. John Smith was hit six times in total, Wilson twice.
Tanya Smith left the hotel room, walked across the parking lot, and told the motel manager to
dial 911. She then fled the scene. Another local Aryan Circle member, Chrystal Harrell, helped
her get out of Bastrop.