Brotherhood of Hate

Brotherhood of Hate. 55 minutes. 2000. First Run/Icarus Films, 32 Court Street, 21st Floor, Brooklyn, NY 11201. www.frif.com. Phone: [phone]. Rental $75.00. Purchase $390.00.

In 1996, a local fisher accidentally discovered three submerged bodies in an Arkansas bayou. The Mueller family-Bill, Nancy, and their eight-year-old daughter-had been bound, tortured, murdered, and dumped in the bayou by Chevie Kehoe and an accomplice earlier that same year. Brotherhood of Hate documents the life and crimes of Chevie, and the events leading up to the murders. In so doing, the film also describes the way that violence and racism were passed from one generation of Kehoes to the next. Though it is sometimes unclear where and when certain events took place because of chronological discontinuity, the documentary proves fascinating, and would serve as a useful teaching tool in a variety of sociology courses.

Briefly, the story unfolds as follows. Kirby Kehoe, Chevie's father, distrusted and despised the government upon his return from the Vietnam War, and subsequently moved his young family to the Pacific Northwest. The Kehoes lived in an isolated cabin in the mountains, with no electricity or running water; spousal abuse and violence against the children were daily realities. Here, in Colville, Washington, Kirby came into close contact both with individuals who shared his anti-government sentiment and with the Aryan Nation compound in nearby Idaho.

According to one of his teachers, young Chevie, the oldest son, excelled in school, and was polite and well liked. After Chevie's first year of high school, however, Kirby decided that he would educate his oldest...