The White Supremacist Gang Leader | World’s Most Evil Prisoners | Forensic Files

SAM DOUGLAS: In the United States of America, some of the world's most infamous criminals
are behind bars. Held in a Nevada prison was killer and one-man crime wave Anthony Williams.
- He was extremely dangerous. LINA HAJI: He had no problem being violent, murdering, attacking, assaulting
people his entire life. SAM DOUGLAS: Williams was a high-ranking member of the notorious white supremacist
gang the Aryan Warriors. HECTOR BRAVO: One of the most feared prison gangs in the Nevada correctional system.
They have no issue executing extreme violence on other inmates. MICHAEL DICKERSON: Anthony Williams killed somebody
when he was in prison, grabbing the body and pulling it out of the cell into the middle of the tier,
and they can all see what's happened. - During the attack, Thurgood suffered 52 stab wounds.
This is what happens. They're making an example of him. It was barbaric. They then celebrate his death.
These are sick human beings. SAM DOUGLAS: Covering himself with more tattoos as he racked up offenses, Williams' appearance
was meant to terrify. LINA HAJI: There's no going back. He's in this 110%. He wants to be feared.
PAUL LOPEZ: He shows no mercy to any of his victims, and he never has. He has a black soul and a dark heart.
[theme music] SAM DOUGLAS: Located 40 miles northwest of Las Vegas is High Desert State Prison.
Nevada's largest correctional institution can hold around 4,000 inmates. GARY MODAFFERI: High Desert is very imposing.
It's daunting. Barbed wire, there are guards with guns, gun towers. It's meant to send a message, if you're here,
you're staying here. RICK CHILDRESS: I have spent time in High Desert. It's a big, big prison, and it's very intimidating when
you roll through those gates. - Full of inmates who a lot of them are extremely violent.
The guards are outnumbered dramatically. - They shot at us a lot, the COs did, with live rounds.
PAUL LOPEZ: There's been a long list of violence coming out of that prison that's been documented,
including inmate murders and officer-involved shootings. - It's a tough place, no doubt about it.
SAM DOUGLAS: One of the toughest in there was inmate Anthony Williams. - As a society, we can't have an individual
like Anthony Williams walking the streets because it puts the entire public in danger.
HECTOR BRAVO: Williams would have been viewed in prison as a dominant figure and somebody
not to be messed with. PAUL LOPEZ: His entire life, he's committed a variety of different types of crimes,
and it's not going to change just because he's in prison. Animals like Williams aren't going
to stop committing crimes or hunting just because you put a cage around them. SAM DOUGLAS: Anthony Williams was born in Las Vegas in 1982.
Not much is known about his childhood, but what is known is that it wasn't a good one.
MICHAEL DICKERSON: What he said is his childhood, quote, "sucked." That he was in and out of foster care.
His mom was a drug addict. GARY MODAFFERI: His father lived in the south, had separated from his mother at an early age.
He had half brothers in the south, but for some reason, they weren't connecting.
So he never had that family love that we would all want and expect. LINA HAJI: A child who has no guidance
and is lacking in role models and parental figures is really learning early on that he or she
has to fend for themselves. It kind of sets them up to view the world as a very scary place.
And to develop without anybody protecting you, it can result in anger, but the child might
not know that they are angry. They might think that this is normal for them. They don't know any other way.
GARY MODAFFERI: Anthony, he ran wild as a child. From the time he was 12, he was drinking and drugging,
and it got worse in his late teens when he started using meth. SAM DOUGLAS: To pay for it, Williams
would turn to petty crime. - He was in and out of juvenile detention and things like that,
so he was being bred for it very young. That's it, in a nutshell, when it comes to most of us.
We don't have our parents around-- the streets are our family, and we start all doing drugs and crime.
And from a young age, we're going and we're being put away. Just pain that somebody would feel when they get
put in jail, it's nonexistent to us because that pain, who are we even mourning not being around?
It doesn't matter because we don't have anything out there anyway. SAM DOUGLAS: Anthony Williams' criminal offenses
continued to spiral. RICK CHILDRESS: He started off with burglaries, like most of us.
You're stealing basically to eat, to survive, to have money, and there's a lot of us that had to do that since we
were 15 years old. And it can stunt your growth in life, for sure. SAM DOUGLAS: When he was 19, Williams
was convicted in 2001 of burglary, landing him his first spell in an adult prison.
Over the next decade of his life, he would bounce in and out of the penitentiary.
PAUL LOPEZ: Williams had an extensive criminal history. He's what we refer to as a habitual criminal.
His crimes started out relatively minor, but they escalated over the years. MICHAEL DICKERSON: In 2006, he's convicted of a conspiracy
to commit larceny from a person. Then he's arrested again in 2010 for battery and burglary,
and he's convicted of battery. It was also reported that throughout his life, he didn't really have a job.
He was only employed for six months back in 2006 for a construction company, and that's the only time he had full-time work.
He had, as he reported, a daughter that lived with her mother, and that's basically his background.
PAUL LOPEZ: You can't control where you come from, but you can control decisions about where
you're headed in life. And Williams has made a series of bad decisions. SAM DOUGLAS: By 2013, Williams made another criminal decision,
trying his hand at a different kind of offense, forgery. GARY MODAFFERI: The stealing of personal identification
information, usually credit cards or other types of identification. He and his confederates were establishing
what are called forgery labs, which are essentially high-tech methods by which you could reproduce
identification and perpetuate forgery-type crimes, including credit card fraud, bank account fraud,
things like that. LINA HAJI: When you assess people for psychopathy, one of the traits of a psychopath
is what we refer to as criminal versatility. This isn't just a petty criminal anymore.
Williams is now holding positions of power. The forgery laboratory seemingly was not only his idea, he was in charge of it.
This is interesting because this is an individual who probably grew up feeling very lonely.
His mother was addicted to drugs. His father was largely absent. He bounced around from foster home to foster home.
But now he's starting to realize that he can interact with people in a way that can benefit him.
This is how he's going to earn money. This is how he's going to earn respect, and this is how he's going to advance in the criminal world.
SAM DOUGLAS: On the criminal scene, Williams had acquired the nickname Mugsy, and in 2015, the law caught up with him again when
he was convicted of multiple forgery charges and possession of a firearm by a prohibited person.
Sentenced to serve between 24 and 60 months, he was sent to Nevada's notorious High
Desert State Prison. - It's mostly a level 5, the highest level of security, but they do have some medium and minimum housing units.
It's known as one of the two most violent prisons in Nevada. - It is a very, very dangerous place.
SAM DOUGLAS: Rick Childress spent six and a half years in prison. RICK CHILDRESS: My criminal history is a lot of auto theft.
I started very young stealing cars. I started getting busted at 18, 19 years old stealing cars.
I turned 20 in prison. I turned 30 in prison. SAM DOUGLAS: Rick was at High Desert
when Anthony Williams arrived there. RICK CHILDRESS: I didn't trust him. I didn't trust Mugsy right off the bat at all
when I first met him. The way he slinks around and looks and-- like, his movement threw me off.
But getting to know Mugsy, he's actually a very decent person to know. SAM DOUGLAS: Anthony Williams and
Rick had something in common. They were both members of the Aryan Warriors. PAUL LOPEZ: The Aryan Warriors are a white supremacist prison
gang that operate throughout the Nevada penal institutions. HECTOR BRAVO: The Aryan Warriors
have a reputation for being one of the most violent and feared prison gangs in the Nevada correctional system.
Reason being is they have no issue executing extreme violence on other inmates. RICK CHILDRESS: I'm a member of the Aryan Warriors.
I'm still in good standing. I'm not active in any crime side of anything like that.
I just-- I still have people that I consider my brothers that are in prison that I care deeply about,
and I care what happens to them. We are more into the Viking and the Odin religion
than we are behind the swastikas and things like that. I have friends of all races.
In prison, segregation is for avoidance of issues. They try to call us a white supremacist group,
but we're far from that. It's just what the news media has called us. And having the word "Aryan" in our name doesn't help.
SAM DOUGLAS: But others have a different opinion. PAUL LOPEZ: The beliefs of the gang
are rooted in white supremacy. However, the fundamental reason for their existence,
make no mistake, is power and control and profit-- running the criminal enterprise within the prison.
MICHAEL DICKERSON: The way that it would work for Anthony Williams and for the majority of members of the Aryan Warriors
is that they would come into prison, and then they would be asked to tip up into the gang, which means, hey, do you want
to join the Aryan Warriors? A white inmate who's identified by the Aryan Warriors to tip
up is somebody who they've already vetted. RICK CHILDRESS: There's paperwork that you come with
or that you can get from your lawyer. It shows all the crimes that you've been charged with and convicted on.
It shows the circumstances of your case, and we'd like to look at that. Nobody wants to be around somebody who has hurt a child
or they have beat their spouse so badly that it sent them to prison. Hurting a pet or arson can even be a red flag for us.
We don't want you around us if you're a firebug, you know. I don't want to sleep around somebody who
sets fires, things like that. So we all want to know what you're there for. SAM DOUGLAS: Anthony Williams had already
been accepted into the Aryan Warriors during his previous stints in prison. MICHAEL DICKERSON: The individual that is asked to tip
up, who isn't just going to be any run-of-the-mill inmate, they'd be expected to do acts of violence
or anything that's ordered. They may be asked to run a tier, in charge of running the drug trade that they're doing there,
any gambling operations that they have going on on the tier, and taking that money and making sure
that it gets where it needs to go and that the higher-ups are getting it. LINA HAJI: We think of gangs, and
we think, OK, maybe these are just kind of violent, angry thugs. But that's not what these gangs are.
These are crime syndicates bringing in a ton of money, and they are typically extremely well organized.
SAM DOUGLAS: Anthony Williams was steadily climbing the hierarchy of the Aryan Warriors.
RICK CHILDRESS: He hadn't committed any major acts yet besides, you know, just normal assaults,
things like that. But I do know that he had that unit, though, so he was in control of all the white population inside
of that building, basically. He was coming up. He was a big up and comer. SAM DOUGLAS: In his block, Williams
was cellmates with a man named Tarik Goicoechea, also known as Torque. - Tarik Goicoechea was somebody who
was really just kind of coming in to the Aryan Warriors at that time. - He's Armenian, but he's screaming, "Nine
generations of Aryan blood." He had no fear. He wasn't a fearful man. Put those two men together in the same cell
for that long, Torque and Mugsy, you're asking for it. When something like Andrew Thurgood comes along--
PAUL LOPEZ: Andrew Thurgood was a 26-year-old Las Vegas native. His father described him as being
both charming and artistic. At High Desert in 2016, he was serving a three-year sentence
for a crime for attempted possession of a stolen vehicle in Clark County. - It was three years, but Nevada
is like a 12 to 36 months. So they call it a three-year sentence, but really, you're out in a year.
He was doing very, very small time, and he went in with a chip on his shoulder. He was a young man.
He probably thought he needed to be a little tougher. You know, somebody wants to fight you,
you got to fight them. LINA HAJI: Thurgood and Williams seemingly crossed paths.
It's not exactly clear what happened, but there was a conflict that erupted between the two.
HECTOR BRAVO: Andrew Thurgood was an inmate who stood up for another older inmate, and that's what got
him involved in the conflict. People absolutely have to consider what they get involved with in prison.
It's a jungle in there. It's a alpha male dominated environment of predators. It's not necessarily common for inmates
to stick up for other inmates due to they know the repercussions, such as they can get killed.
SAM DOUGLAS: There may have been another reason Thurgood gained Williams' attention.
MICHAEL DICKERSON: Andrew Thurgood, from what we gathered through our investigation,
he had been associating with another white prison gang known as the Outlaw Nazi Skinheads, or ONS,
and that's a prison gang that is a rival of the Aryan Warriors. PAUL LOPEZ: The Outlaw Nazi Skinheads are a prison gang
primarily operating in Nevada. They're a white supremacist gang, and that's their ideology.
- Most of the juvenile offenders in Nevada, if they're white, they're going to become Aryan Warriors or
ONS, one or the other. Andrew Thurgood, he might have been ONS. It's hard to put your thumb down on that,
and I never really asked. SAM DOUGLAS: On the morning of February 1, 2016, 26-year-old Andrew Thurgood called
his fiancée from prison. He told her he was concerned for his safety. - He said that he felt he was going
to be attacked on that day. He referred to him as the dubs. W meaning the Aryan Warriors.
MICHAEL DICKERSON: Something might happen because the Aryan Warriors are after him because of his association
with the Outlaw Nazi Skinheads and his behavior of disrespecting the Aryan Warriors.
PAUL LOPEZ: His fiancée, she asked him not to get involved. And he said he wasn't going to start a fight,
but he would walk into a cell with somebody and defend himself if he had to. LINA HAJI: When you're in danger in prison
and there's a gang hit on you, it's absolutely terrifying. I've seen inmates go to great lengths
to avoid being in the same space as these gang members. I've seen inmates cut themselves severely to get out
and go to outside hospitals. I've seen inmates commit other crimes in order to go to the hole, because they'd rather be in confinement
and segregation where they are safe than be in general population. Because conflict in prison with a gang
means either a very serious physical assault, or it means death. SAM DOUGLAS: Yet, just hours after talking to his fiancee,
Thurgood decided to meet with Williams and Goicoechea in their unit. - They have Andrew Thurgood come
over from another wing, the D wing, and somehow he gets in there. The other inmates had described him as maybe a little reckless.
Maybe he put himself in a situation that wasn't safe at all. SAM DOUGLAS: Prison CCTV showed Andrew Thurgood
walking into cell B11 along with Williams and Goicoechea. MICHAEL DICKERSON: There is some conflicting information
of how they got him over there. It could have been that they said, we're going to fight.
But what we know happened is that those three men walk in. RICK CHILDRESS: Thurgood, he was the aggressor also.
Maybe he had had enough of it. Maybe they were giving him too much of a problem or too hard of a time.
You make a very bad decision to go into the cell of two known bangers for a gang, you know.
LINA HAJI: Now, for somebody who's not in a correctional setting, it's a little easy to say, well, why did he go ahead and face them.
But what Thurgood understood is that to not stand up for yourself and to show fear in prison, you're just as much
of a dead man as if you confront your attackers. So he might as well have taken the opportunity
and taken the chance of potentially surviving an attack because they were going to get him either way.
SAM DOUGLAS: After the three men walked into the cell, what exactly happened is uncertain, but
there is no doubt about what happened six minutes later. PAUL LOPEZ: You then see Williams on video
dragging Thurgood's lifeless body out of the cell and puts him basically in the middle of the day room
on display. Now that not being good enough, I guess, Tarik then exits the cell, takes over for Williams,
and drags him further into the day room area so he is clearly more on display, not just to the inmates, but to staff as well.
SAM DOUGLAS: As correctional officers arrived, Williams and Goicoechea shook hands and embraced.
GARY MODAFFERI: They immediately submitted to the authority of the prison guards.
There was no fight. There was no acting out after that occurred. It was like, this is done, period.
SAM DOUGLAS: The men were cuffed and shackled. Williams, in his identification photo,
looked pleased with himself. Andrew Thurgood had clearly been beaten and stabbed many times, but he started moving.
RICK CHILDRESS: Andrew Thurgood's still alive, but he's been stabbed somewhere over 50 times all
over his body. He is clearly in immense pain. PAUL LOPEZ: Several officers were around Thurgood,
but nobody is providing any sort of life-saving measures. He's just laying there.
MICHAEL DICKERSON: Writhing in pain. It is so apparent that this is incredibly devastating
to his entire nervous system, and what he's feeling is pain all over his body, because that's where he was stabbed, all over.
Meanwhile, Anthony Williams and Tarik Goicoechea, they don't have any injuries on them.
They have some spots of blood on their shoes and their clothing, and that's that.
PAUL LOPEZ: After 12 minutes, correctional officers are seen on closed circuit television,
picking up Thurgood to his feet and assisting him to the infirmary. Thurgood complained that he couldn't breathe.
At that point, medical staff provided advanced life-saving techniques. However, Thurgood lost his battle and unfortunately died.
SAM DOUGLAS: The weapon used to kill Andrew Thurgood was never recovered. - Investigators at the prison speculated that it was likely
flushed down the toilet. SAM DOUGLAS: The autopsy showed Andrew Thurgood was beaten and
stabbed 52 times in total while he was in the cell with Williams and Goicoechea.
- The kid bled out, and it's terrible and it's sad. And I'm sure, you know, he has a mother,
and that's a very sad thing for her. I don't know exactly the beef between them,
but there's very few things in my mind I could think that that kid could have done that didn't
just warrant getting hell kicked out of him instead of killing him. Torque and Mugsy, they were putting on an exhibition
when they drag Andrew Thurgood out of that cell. It was to show the rest of the population,
this is what happens. They were making an example of him. When you look at it, it was nasty.
PAUL LOPEZ: To drag him out in the middle of the day room and then celebrate, these are sick human beings,
if you even want to call them that. Andrew Thurgood, his father said he wasn't a saint,
but he didn't need to die that way. I would agree with Thurgood's father. Thurgood was in jail for stealing a car,
and he met his fate at the end of a knife at 52 stab wounds. So whatever he did, he did not deserve that.
- When you come into prison, they put you in what we call the fish tank, but it's a classification unit.
They figure out who you are. Then after you leave the fish tank, you go to the max unit
while they kind of see how you hold yourself in the population. Now, the max unit is a terrible place
for this because right off the bat, you're being thrown to the wolves. There's better places to put these young offenders that
are doing a year if they got any notion that they're tougher than they actually are.
Like Andrew Thurgood, it can cost you your life very easily. LINA HAJI: Williams went above and beyond
to murder him in an extremely violent manner and then brought his body out for all to see,
and knowing that it was captured on video camera. So what this tells me is that Williams didn't care.
Williams is extremely dangerous because thus far, as we look at his life, there's nothing that deters him.
There's no kind of attempts at rehabilitation. There's no indications of empathy or remorse.
There's no indication that additional prison time or being in the box or being separated from his gang
members, nothing, no consequence that he's experienced thus far has stopped him from continuing to escalate in all of his violent crimes.
SAM DOUGLAS: In a surprise to many, in the years immediately following Thurgood's death,
Williams and Goicoechea faced no charges for his killing. MICHAEL DICKERSON: The way it works
in Nevada is that their investigations into prison crimes go and are submitted for prosecution to the attorney
general's office. The attorney general is a separate prosecuting agency from the Clark County District Attorney's office.
This is something that was out of my hands. SAM DOUGLAS: Emails later obtained by news media
showed that a top prosecutor at the attorney general's office was reluctant to bring charges against the pair,
arguing that it was just as likely that Thurgood was the aggressor in coming to their cell.
RICK CHILDRESS: I think Mugsy and Torque weren't prosecuted right away because you
can claim self-defense. He came into my home, invaded my house, and I stood my ground.
Neither one was talking. Mugsy, he wasn't going to talk about it to anybody. That's obvious.
That's sort of a good way to get a life sentence. I think he probably felt like he might
have gotten away with it. SAM DOUGLAS: To add insult to injury, with no charges brought
against Williams for the attack on Thurgood, he was released from prison in May 2018.
PAUL LOPEZ: Clearly, the family was upset after the murder of Mr. Thurgood. They filed a lawsuit against the department of corrections,
stating that they did not provide medical care in a quick and efficient manner because Mr. Thurgood was
allowed to lay on the floor bleeding with 52 stab wounds for 12 minutes. SAM DOUGLAS: The lawsuit would later
be settled for an undisclosed amount in April 2020. But back in 2018, Anthony Williams, aged 36,
was a free man once more. LINA HAJI: Now he's thinking I'm invincible. I'm untouchable.
Not only do consequences not matter to me, they don't even apply to me. - When he's released, well, turns out he doesn't
turn into a model citizen. He's out there committing a series of robberies. - I think he started in, like, Boulder City or something
and just went clear across the valley, robbing every place that he could at gunpoint.
PAUL LOPEZ: On July 15, 2018, he robbed an elderly female of her purse and its contents.
He was acting as the getaway driver in this incident, and they ended up, Williams and his co-conspirator,
using this credit card of the victims at a gas station. Five days later, on July 20, 2018,
Williams was involved in another robbery, this time using a firearm, where he robbed a business
employee of money and a customer of that business of their car keys, their car, and his wallet.
- He was extremely dangerous. SAM DOUGLAS: Williams' crime spree was brought to an end just days later
when he was apprehended by police. Now fully covered in tattoos, his appearance had
become even more intimidating. MICHAEL DICKERSON: This is an individual who has, on the back of his head,
tattooed a picture of a police officer being shot in the head. He has "[bleep] cops" tattooed on his
knuckles and on his forehead. - This is who Williams is. He has shown a lifetime of disrespect
for authority, disrespect for rules, disrespect for the law. Tattooing his entire face with gang symbols and
Aryan Warrior symbols, it's showing that there's no going back. He's in this 110%.
He wants to be feared, and that he's 110% committed to his gang. SAM DOUGLAS: Williams was committed to prison again when
a jury found him guilty of robbery charges with the use of a deadly weapon, and he would continue to show his lack of respect
for authority. MICHAEL DICKERSON: By the time of sentencing, our office had become aware that he'd
made threatening statements about one of our prosecutors who was prosecuting that case.
This is Anthony Williams saying on calls that he's hoping that she gets hit by a bus.
He gets sentenced in that case, and the judge takes some leniency on him of a sort
by not ordering that he have life without the possibility of parole. - He was very upset with the judge in court,
and he lashed out. I wasn't there, but I read through the transcripts. It was quite a scene.
MICHAEL DICKERSON: Anthony Williams starts going off on the judge and saying threatening things to the judge, calling the
judge names. - Talking in the most disrespectful manner in open court and essentially saying,
I don't care. Give me whatever sentence you want. I hope you die. MICHAEL DICKERSON: So the judge there decided
to change his decision right there on the spot and sentenced him to life without.
But ultimately, that didn't last. SAM DOUGLAS: The Court of Appeals of the Supreme Court of Nevada decided
Williams needed to be resentenced, and he was later given the chance of parole. But he wasn't out of the firing line yet.
Mike Dickerson and the DA's office were heading up a task force cracking down on the criminal activity of the Aryan Warriors.
MICHAEL DICKERSON: Through our investigation, we're able to get up on wiretaps on a number of individuals.
We're hearing orders being given from leadership in the prison to set up hit teams to go kill people.
We ultimately were able to prosecute 23 people that we brought a racketeering case against for a variety
of crimes. We had everything from forgery and drugs to multiple murders. The majority of the murders that we charged
were murders that were occurring on the streets of Las Vegas. It was only one that was in prison,
and it's Anthony Williams' murder of Andrew Thurgood. SAM DOUGLAS: Mike and his team didn't buy the notion that it
could have been self-defense. They were determined that Williams would finally be brought to justice for this crime.
- We ultimately, through our investigation, we were able to uncover a pretty incredible letter that was written by Anthony Williams.
SAM DOUGLAS: Andrew Thurgood had been killed on February 1, 2016. Williams had written to a woman the day before.
- This letter is dated January 31, 2016. It's from Anthony Williams. It says, "What's up, sexy little mama.
Allow me to extend big-ass Aryan warrior love and all my respect to you full blast.
This is Mugsy, and I was hoping by now to have gotten a letter and some pics to see what you look like, but nope.
So check it out. I'm not going to be Kidd's celly anymore after tomorrow because I have to handle something,
so I will be going to the hole and then Ely. So what's up? You want to be my pen pal or what?"
He's writing this girl telling her, hey, look, I'm not going to be this other Aryan Warrior's cellmate
anymore because I have to take care of some business. Go kill Andrew Thurgood. Which then he says, I am going to be
sent to the hole, which is administrative segregation unit after somebody commits an offense inside,
and then to Ely, which at that time was the maximum security prison. So that letter showed that this was absolutely
premeditated murder. PAUL LOPEZ: Williams, as a result of the Aryan warrior investigation,
he was indicted for racketeering. He was also indicted for murder and conspiracy
to commit murder with a dangerous weapon for the murder of Thurgood. SAM DOUGLAS: On September 11, 2019,
Anthony Williams appeared in court with other gang members to answer charges. MICHAEL DICKERSON: We're here at the Regional Justice Center
in Las Vegas. What happened here is that this is where we prosecuted the Aryan Warriors,
including Anthony Williams. When the case first started, all the Aryan Warriors were really riled up in court.
I think, generally, William's demeanor in court was that of a hardened criminal, somebody
who had been through the system, who expected people to respect him. Williams reaction to all this, I think,
initially was probably surprise, surprise that he was actually getting prosecuted for the murder
that he committed years earlier. PAUL LOPEZ: The prosecution was, in fact, going to seek the death penalty
for the murder of Thurgood. MICHAEL DICKERSON: When you look at a case like this, somebody who is already
in prison for a litany of crimes and then is committing extremely violent crimes and
murder in prison, to me, it shows that there's no other penalty that can be imposed.
Putting them in prison for longer is something that is going to probably result in more murder.
SAM DOUGLAS: Williams pleaded not guilty. GARY MODAFFERI: My name is Gary Modafferi,
and I was Anthony Williams' defense attorney with another attorney that was appointed by the courts.
I've been doing this for 40 years. It's really not the norm to see such a young man
with so many prior felonies. I mean, they had really stacked up against him. Anybody who is accused of a death penalty crime
knows and worries about it. I don't care how tough you project yourself or where you've been in life.
When you're facing a lawyer across the aisle, who's asking that you be put to death,
the clients are put in another lane for sure. He was, from our perspective, a non-problem client.
He was good. He was good with us. HECTOR BRAVO: Williams was very polite and charming
to the defense team during the trial, which is very common for inmates to switch up their appearance and
their personality in an attempt to manipulate individuals and get them to do what they want.
Because ultimately, they were trying to seek a sentence of life without the possibility
of parole versus the death penalty. SAM DOUGLAS: Eventually, Mike's prosecuting team
accepted a plea deal. If Williams confessed to Andrew Thurgood's murder, they would not seek the death penalty.
MICHAEL DICKERSON: Ultimately giving that up with him agreeing to plead guilty and
spend the rest of his life in prison without ever having the possibility of parole.
The reality of the death penalty, it is not very often imposed, and even when it is imposed,
it's not very often carried out. SAM DOUGLAS: By now, Williams had risen to be one of the leaders of the Aryan Warriors.
GARY MODAFFERI: Anthony Williams was critical in his mind to maintain his stature
in the Aryan Warriors. What stuck out to me was his undying loyalty to this organization.
I mean, it was unwavering. - Because of the plea deal that Mugsy took, Torque only got 10 years.
MICHAEL DICKERSON: Anthony Williams ended up taking complete responsibility. The idea that only one of them committed this
is not one that I subscribe to. But we know Anthony Williams is an extremely violent
individual, and I have no doubt that Anthony Williams inflicted stab wounds on Andrew Thurgood.
SAM DOUGLAS: Sentenced to life without parole, Williams, as he'd predicted in his letter years before,
was finally sent to Nevada's Ely prison. MICHAEL DICKERSON: It was the highest security prison
that we had in the state. The most violent inmates that posed the biggest threat to the system
would be within Ely State Prison. RICK CHILDRESS: Mugsy seemed, by this point, to be more comfortable being in prison.
He understood, at this point, he's not getting out ever again unless he escapes.
Mugsy had written himself into being a gang leader in prison for the rest of his life.
- Some criminals actually are comfortable in prison. This is the environment that they know how to navigate.
For Williams, he doesn't have a problem serving time in prison. And on top of that, there's a likelihood
that he will continue to engage in criminal activity in prison. He has his people.
He has his gang. This is the life he's going to live until he dies. PAUL LOPEZ: On July 30, 2024, the White Pine County Sheriff's
office received a call stating that there was a large fight that was in progress at Ely State Prison.
Nine inmates were injured and transported to nearby medical facilities outside of the prison.
Three died from their injuries. MICHAEL DICKERSON: Aryan Warriors were targeted by members of the Sureños gang.
I had never heard of there being three inmates killed in a single event at a Nevada prison.
SAM DOUGLAS: The word on the street was that in retaliation for a member being killed
in a Las Vegas shooting, the Sureños, a Mexican-American gang, had ordered their members at Ely prison to attack any inmate
who was an Aryan Warrior. Rick has been told a version of what went down. - They went after Mugsy, who was the number one, and
Little Dog, his number two. They had three treys apiece strapped around them, body armor.
I couldn't believe they got Mugsy. And for him to walk out of the cell and to see them wearing their coats in the day room
should have been a red flag. I've heard that they called him over and said, hey, look at this.
They have some drugs over here or whatever. And when Mugsy looked down, they got him.
And they killed Little Sin. Little dog was the only one left, and he strapped two knives to his hands
and went out into the day room and faced 13 guys and put six of them on helicopters before they
almost decapitated him. SAM DOUGLAS: Whatever the exact version of events, Anthony Williams was killed, age 41, a violent end
to a violent life. LINA HAJI: It sounds very harsh, but we think of sayings like "you reap what you sow,"
or "you live by the gun, you die by the gun--" it was pretty much inevitable that
his time was going to come. MICHAEL DICKERSON: I do not believe that Anthony Williams
could have been rehabilitated. That ship had sailed. He'd been given those opportunities.
There was no rehabilitation to be had whatsoever. HECTOR BRAVO: He showed zero remorse
after killing Thurgood, going out to the streets and not reforming his life but continuing a life of crime.
LINA HAJI: He did horrific, evil things. Was he a product of his neglectful childhood?
Was he predisposed to violence? We really don't know. But what we do know is that he made a conscious decision
in adulthood to perpetuate crime and to perpetuate violence. In my opinion, that certainly makes him evil.
PAUL LOPEZ: In my opinion, he has a black soul and a dark heart, and ultimately, that cost him his life,
and he got what he deserved. [theme music]

Feared Aryan Warriors gang leader Anthony 'Mugsy' Williams was a one-man crimewave. His violence ultimately sparked a bloody showdown in a Nevada jail, leaving multiple inmates dead.

World’s Most Evil Prisoners is a chilling exploration of the terrifying offenders sentenced to a lifetime behind bars. Locked away, yet still driven by their twisted desires, these inmates delve into acts of torture, abduction, and homicide. Prepare to confront the criminals from the darkest facets of humanity.

Brief Summary

Anthony Williams, a violent Aryan Warriors member, murders inmate Andrew Thurgood in prison, leading to his eventual life sentence.

Key points

Prison Violence Unleashed. A brutal attack leads to the death of Andrew Thurgood, showcasing prison brutality.
The Rise of Anthony Williams. Anthony Williams, a dangerous inmate, escalates his criminal activities in prison.
Conflict in Prison. Andrew Thurgood faces a deadly confrontation with Anthony Williams and Tarik Goicoechea.
The Brutal Murder of Andrew Thurgood. Andrew Thurgood was brutally murdered in prison, sparking outrage and legal battles.
Williams' Crime Spree. After his release, Williams continued a violent crime spree, robbing multiple victims.
Williams' Final Days. Anthony Williams met a violent end in prison, a fitting conclusion to his life of crime.

Episode highlights

Episode quotes

There’s no going back.

Lina Haji on Williams' commitment to his violent lifestyle.

1:23WatchAug 24, 2025

Tension

85/ 100High tension

More from True Crime Files

Solve the Crime

Read a real case one clue at a time, then see how your call held up against the investigators.