The chairman of what was one of the nation’s most powerful hate groups was arrested twice in the last week for his actions involving co-workers at the group’s Pocahontas County compound.
William White Williams II, the chairman of the National Alliance, a neo-Nazi group, was arrested on Dec. 16 on a battery charge for allegedly assaulting a woman who previously worked at the organization’s Mill Point location, according to a criminal complaint filed in Pocahontas County Magistrate Court. Williams was also arrested on Monday for violating an order prohibiting him from contact with another National Alliance employee, according to police.
On Sept. 20, Williams, 68, allegedly lunged toward Garland E. DeCourcy, who was then a National Alliance employee, choked her and pushed her into a corner of the room in an office. Another employee, Michael Oljaca, chief of staff of the online National Alliance magazine, told police that he saw the attack after an argument in the office, according to the complaint. Oljaca told police he stepped in, pushed Williams away, and pried his hands from DeCourcy’s neck.
Williams was arrested on Monday for violating a personal safety order prohibiting him from contacting or being near Oljaca or Oljaca’s residence, according to Pocahontas County Chief Sheriff’s Deputy Dave Walton. Personal safety orders protect victims of harassment, sexual assault or stalking.
Walton said the order was issued because Williams threatened Oljaca. He would not give more details, and a Pocahontas County magistrate did not send the criminal complaint for Friday’s arrest after multiple requests.
DeCourcy and Oljaca saw Monday that Williams had showed up at the compound and drilled out the locks on a residence, so they called police. Walton said. The deputy said he believes Oljaca used to live there.
Walton also said that a magistrate dismissed a personal safety order protecting DeCourcy on Monday, likely because the qualifications for a personal safety order were not met, but that the criminal charge against Williams still stands.
He said that Williams was cooperative when brought back to the station and had “never been anything but nice” to police in Pocahontas County, but acknowledged the police force is white.
A request for comment from the National Alliance, sent through the group’s website, was not answered.
The Southern Poverty Law Center reported Williams’ Dec. 16 arrest on its website last week.
The civil rights organization reported that Williams is now banned from the compound, because DeCourcy and Oljaca were granted orders requiring Williams stay 1,000 feet away from them, and both still reside near or on the compound. They also reported that Williams has a history of stalking and assaulting women.
In 2012, Williams cyber-stalked and sent threatening emails to a woman whom he said owed him $200, according to the SPLC. The leader of another white supremacist group, Ben Klassen, spent an entire chapter in his autobiography on Williams’ alleged abuse of his wife.
“The misogynistic, male-dominated white supremacist movement seems to be overpopulated with domestic abusers of women,” Southern Poverty Law Center authors write. “Why male racists in Europe and the United States frequently relate violently to women in their generational cohort has not been adequately studied.”
Heidi Beirich, director of the intelligence project at the Southern Poverty Law Center, wondered aloud on Tuesday about the future of Williams’ role at the hate group, especially since he is barred from the West Virginia compound.
“He’s a bully and he’s obnoxious,” she said. “… It’s very hard to work with someone who preys on you like that. He just can’t get along with anybody.”
The Southern Poverty Law Center, which tracks the activity of hate groups, estimates that the National Alliance currently only has a handful of members. At one point, the organization was led by William Pierce and was estimated to have about 1,000 followers. Timothy McVeigh cited Pierce as an influence in his decision to bomb the federal building in Oklahoma City in 1995, killing 168 people.
Eleven people have resigned executive positions since Williams took control of the hate group about a year ago, Beirich said.
Walton said that DeCourcy, Oljaca and Williams were the only people he knew of that were ever at the compound. The organization’s main office is in Tennessee, where Walton said he believed Williams spends most of his time.
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