And Hell Followed With Her: Crossing the Dark Side of the American Border

by David Neiwert

Overview

It began with a frantic 911 call from a woman in a dusty Arizona border town. A gang claiming to be affiliated with the Border Patrol had shot her husband and daughter. It was initially assumed that the murders were products of border drug wars ravaging the Southwest until the leader of one of the more prominent offshoots of the Minutemen movement was arrested for plotting the home invasion as part of a scheme to finance a violent antigovernment border militia.

And Hell Followed With Her: Crossing to the Dark Side of the American Border is award-winning journalist David Neiwert's riveting account of the life and death of America's Minutemen — and the terrifying story and psychology of movement leader Shawna Forde. A compulsive and brilliant portrait of cold-blooded killers and true believers, And Hell Followed With Her is at once a horrifying crime story and a frontline report on America's nativist foot soldiers.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781568587257
Publisher:	PublicAffairs
Publication date:	03/26/2013
Pages:	336
Product dimensions:	6.10(w) x 9.30(h) x 1.40(d)

About the Author

David Neiwert is a journalist and author and an acknowledged expert in American right-wing extremism. He has appeared on Anderson Cooper 360, CNN Newsroom, and The Rachel Maddow Show and is the managing editor of the popular political blog Crooks and Liars. His work has also appeared in The American Prospect, The Washington Post, MSNBC.com, Salon.com, and other publications. His previous books include The Eliminationists: How Hate Talk Radicalized the American Right (Polipoint) and Strawberry Days: How Internment Destroyed a Japanese-American Community (Palgrave), and he has won a National Press Club award for Distinguished Online Journalism.

What People are Saying About This

From the Publisher

Kirkus Reviews“A scouring investigation of the unorthodox methods of the anti-immigration Minuteman Project . . . . A sweeping account of some of [its] major players.”

Editorial Reviews

“David Neiwert has not only earned his investigative chops over the past decade or so by exploring the dangerous side of right-wing extremism—he's proven himself to be one of the more lyrical and elegant writers on the beat. …Neiwert's insights after covering right-wing extremism movements, his gift with language, his considerable storytelling skills all combine to make And Hell Followed With Her a near compulsive—and frightening—read. His ability to combine the history of these various organizations with the more immediate crime, and his analysis of the mindset of those who spent their lives immersed in the delusions of the right wing, make this book an important one, one with implications that reach far beyond one woman, two deaths and one border town….a radically scary wake-up call of forewarning.”
Daily Kos

“The pace is gripping as well as informative in ways human and political…”
Oregonian

“A taut true-crime story told with a measure of gravitas, gripping as much for the grisly particulars of a violent murder as for the fascinating context of the anti-immigrant movement playing out along the U. S-Mexico border....As the national debate on immigration heats up again, this is a must-read for those who seek a deeper understanding of the issues and emotions behind the rhetoric.”
Seattle Times

“A scouring investigation of the unorthodox methods of the anti-immigration Minuteman Project . . . . A sweeping account of some of [its] major players.”
Kirkus Reviews

“A taut true-crime story told with a measure of gravitas, gripping as much for the grisly particulars of a violent murder as for the fascinating context of the anti-immigrant movement playing out along the U.S.-Mexico border....As the national debate on immigration heats up again, this is a must-read for those who seek a deeper understanding of the issues and emotions behind the rhetoric.”
Seattle Times

From the Publisher

A scouring investigation of the unorthodox methods of the anti-immigration Minuteman Project. Journalist Neiwert (The Eliminationists: How Hate Talk Radicalized the American Right, 2009, etc.) probes the underworld of anti-immigration vigilante justice. Beginning with the murder of a drug trafficker and his family in an Arizona border town, the author reveals that neither a rival drug gang nor illegal immigrants were responsible for the crime, but rather, members of the Minuteman Project themselves. The narrative soon expands outward, tracing the tangled web of circumstances that led America's so-called anti-immigration defenders down a murderous path. Featuring a complex assortment of characters and an occasionally difficult-to-follow storyline, Neiwert examines the various routes men and women took to becoming Minutemen. As he proves, not all were motivated by unrelenting patriotic fervor or xenophobic tendencies; economic prospects, as well as the desire to restart otherwise unremarkable lives also played a part. These motives were particularly important for Shawna Forde, a beautician-turned-vigilante extremist who took part in the aforementioned murders. A lifetime of swindling and petty theft prepared her for the ultimate crime. As Neiwert reports, Forde's personality likely predisposed her for her actions, or at least her involvement in the Minutemen organization. "What movements like the Minutemen most offer psychopaths like Shawna Forde is the opportunity to remake themselves into their own hyperinflated view of themselves as Heroes with a capital H," he writes," "all without the hard work, sacrifice, and dedication that usually comprise the foundations of real heroism." Forde never received her hero status; her cowardly crimes caught up with her in the Arizona courtrooms in 2011. A sweeping account of some of the major players in the Minuteman Project, though the ambitious narrative occasionally becomes unfocused.

Kirkus Reviews