A top leader and another member of the white supremacy prison gang "Aryan Circle" have been sentenced to decades in prison for their part in several gang-related stabbings, U.S. Department of Justice officials said Thursday.
William Glenn Chunn, known as "Big Head," was sentenced to life in prison Wednesday for using his leadership role as one of the highest-ranking Aryan Circle leaders to order "violent stabbings against rival gang members and other victims," according to the Justice Department. The 40-year-old from Conroe, Texas, also used his leadership role to retaliate against those he believed were cooperating with law enforcement, officials said.
Chunn was convicted in November 2021 by a jury in the Eastern District of Texas of racketeering conspiracy for an attempted murder he ordered relating to a violent stabbing, officials said. In October of this year, he was convicted by a jury in the Southern District of Mississippi on charges of violent crime in aid of racketeering attempted murder. He is awaiting sentencing in that case.
Mitchell Farkas, known as "Lifter," was sentenced on Dec. 5 to 30 years in prison for stabbing an inmate at United States Penitentiary Big Sandy in Martin County, Kentucky. The victim, who the Aryan Circle believed had violated gang rules, permanently lost vision in one eye. Farkas, 52, of Baton Rouge, Louisiana, was convicted by a jury in the Eastern District of Kentucky in August, also on charges of violent crime in aid of racketeering attempted murder.
According to court documents and evidence presented at trial, Aryan Circle is a race-based and violent prison gang with hundreds of members operating throughout the country, both inside and outside of prisons.
