Incident Summary:
04/23/1984: Seven members of The Order, Bruce Carroll Pierce, Robert Mathews, Gary Lee Yarbrough, Randolph Duey, Denver Parmenter, Andrew Virgil Barnhill, and Richard Kemp, robbed Continental Armored Transport truck employee, George King, at the Northgate Mall in Seattle, Washington, United States. Using his car, Parmenter pinned the armored truck into a corner, while Pierce and Duey posed as window washers between an office supply store and a store called Bon Marche, concealing their weapons. As George King was returning to the money compartment of the truck from Bon Marche, Pierce and Duey pulled their guns on King and the truck driver, Robert White, demanding they surrender their guns and get out of the truck or die. At this point, Yarbrough pulled alongside with Mathews in their van, and Barnhill got out of the Chrysler he was driving, and also brandished a gun. Kemp was also at the scene with a shotgun, and the armored truck employees were forced to the back of the truck, while the perpetrators stole about $536,000 in cash and checks combined, $301,334 of which was in checks and subsequently burned. One shot was fired during the attack, but no one was hit and there were no casualties.
Overview
GTD ID:
198404230019
When:
1984-04-23
Country:
United States
Region:
North America
Province/administrative
region/u.s. state:
Washington
City:
Seattle
Location Details:
at Northgate Mall, on the east side of Interstate 5 at 1105th Street
What
Attack Information
Type of Attack () |
Armed Assault |
Type of Attack () |
Facility/Infrastructure Attack |
Successful Attack? () |
Yes |
Target Information ()
Target Type: Business |
Name of Entity |
Continental Armored Transport |
Specific Description |
armored truck, and employees of the company, George King and Robert White |
Nationality of Target |
United States |
Additional Information
Hostages |
No |
Ransom |
No |
Property Damage |
Yes |
Extent of Property Damage |
Minor (likely < $1 million) |
Value of Property Damage |
$536,000.00 |
How
Weapon Information
Type |
Sub-type |
Firearms |
Handgun |
Firearms |
Rifle/Shotgun (non-automatic) |
Firearms |
Rifle/Shotgun (non-automatic) |
Weapon Details |
9mm semi-automatic; shotgun; .308 caliber Heckler & Koch 91 rifle; .223 caliber ruger mini-14 |
Additional Information
Suicide Attack? | No |
Part of Multiple Incident? | No |
Criterion 1 () |
Yes |
Criterion 2 () |
No |
Criterion 3 () |
Yes |
Additional Information |
This was the second time that victim, George King, was targeted at his armored truck, merely by chance; the perpetrators did not know he would be driving the truck again, as in the robbery in March. Additionally, one day prior to this robbery, the perpetrators bombed Embassy Theater, a theater showing pornographic movies in downtown Seattle, as a diversionary tactic for this robbery (198404220016). Around 11am, the perpetrators called the Embassy Theater warning of a second bomb (although no bomb was present), hoping the police would take the threat seriously due to the bomb from the day before. An hour later, around 12pm, about three hours prior to the robbery, the perpetrators unloaded several boxes of roofing nails into a highway tunnel, hoping to cause a traffic jam due to flat tires, and further divert police. However, the traffic jam failed, and traffic proceeded as usual. Around 3:00pm, the robbery took place. All the perpetrators except Mathews and Parmenter were eventually captured, convicted and sentenced for their crimes. Mathews died in a fire in the midst of a shoot out with police, when he refused to surrender, and Parmenter became a star witness for the prosecution in the Seattle trial, but was sentenced to prison time for his other crimes while in The Order. |
Who
Perpetrator Statistics
Number of Perpetrators |
7 |
Number of Captured Perpetrators |
5 |
Casualty Information
Total Number of Casualties |
0 Fatalities / 0 Injured |
Total Number of Fatalities |
0 |
Number of U.S. Fatalities |
0 |
Number of Perpetrator Fatalities |
0 |
Total Number of Injured |
0 |
Number of U.S. Injured |
0 |
Number of Perpetrators Injured |
0 |
Sources
Sources
Kevin Flynn and Gary Gerhardt, "The Silent Brotherhood: Inside America's Racist Underground," The Free Press, Macmillan Inc., 1989. |
Mark S. Hamm, "Terrorism as Crime: From Oklahoma City to Al-Qaeda and Beyond," New York University Press, 2007. |
"Members of The Order are convicted of racketeering," The Nevada Daily Mail, December 31, 1985. |
Criteria
Criteria 1
The act must be aimed at attaining a political, economic, religious, or social goal. In terms of economic goals, the exclusive pursuit of profit does not satisfy this criterion. It must involve the pursuit of more profound, systemic economic change.
Criterion 2
There must be evidence of an intention to coerce, intimidate, or convey some other message to a larger audience (or audiences) than the immediate victims. It is the act taken as a totality that is considered, irrespective if every individual involved in carrying out the act was aware of this intention. As long as any of the planners or decision-makers behind the attack intended to coerce, intimidate or publicize, the intentionality criterion is met.
Criterion 3
The action must be outside the context of legitimate warfare activities. That is, the act must be outside the parameters permitted by international humanitarian law (particularly the prohibition against deliberately targeting civilians or non-combatants.
Doubt Terrorism Proper
The existence of a "Yes" for "Doubt Terrorism Proper?" records reservation, in the eyes of GTD analysts, that the incident in question is truly terrorism. Such uncertainty, however, was not deemed to be sufficient to disqualify the incident from inclusion into the GTD. Furthermore, such a determination of doubt is subsequently coded by GTD analysts as conforming to one of four possible alternative designations: 1) Insurgency/Guerilla Action; 2) Internecine Conflict Action; 3) Mass Murder; or 4) Purely Criminal Act.
Alternate Designation
The determination of "yes" for "Doubt Terrorism Proper" by GTD analysts is coded as conforming to one of four possible alternative designations: 1) Insurgency/Guerilla Action; 2) Internecine Conflict Action; 3) Mass Murder; or 4) Purely Criminal Act.
Successful Attack
Success of a terrorist strike is defined according to the tangible effects of the attack. For example, in a typical successful bombing, the bomb detonates and destroys property and/or kills individuals, whereas an unsuccessful bombing is one in which the bomb is discovered and defused or detonates early and kills the perpetrators. Success is not judged in terms of the larger goals of the perpetrators. For example, a bomb that exploded in a building would be counted as a success even if it did not, for example, succeed in bringing the building down or inducing government repression.
Type of Attack
This field captures the general method of attack and often reflects the broad class of tactics used. It consists of the following nine categories:
- Assassination
- Armed Assault
- Unarmed Assault
- Bombing/Explosion
- Hijacking
- Hostage taking (Barricade Incident)
- Hostage taking (Kidnapping)
- Facility / Infrastructure Attack
- Unknown
Target Information
This field captures the general type of target. It consists of the following 22 categories:
- Abortion Related
- Airports & Airlines
- Business
- Government (General)
- Government (Diplomatic)
- Educational Institution
- Food or Water Supply
- Journalists & Media
- Maritime (includes Ports and Maritime facilities)
- Military
- NGO
- Other
- Police
- Private Citizens & Property
- Religious Figures/Institutions
- Telecommunication
- Terrorists
- Tourists
- Transportation (other than aviation)
- Unknown
- Utilities
- Violent Political Parties