Into The Devil’s Den
Inside The Devil’s Den is a pretty intense ride through the bowels of the White Supremacist movement in the United States, and it’s told with the help of an unlikely source. Dave Hall was a burly biker who enjoyed going to the local bar, flirting with chick slinging the drinks, downing a few vodkas, and maybe punching a few patrons in the face. But when he gets involved in a drug deal gone bad, the FBI enters his life, and it’s changed forever.
With his rough look and tattoos, the FBI asks Dave to go undercover and join the Ohio chapter of the Ohio Aryan Nations, and gain the trust of the upper management of the racist group. As Dave moves further up the ranks, the plots of the Aryan Nations become more deadly. At the same time, Dave becomes more torn between his angry, hateful persona at the Aryan meetings and his real self, who is much more at home playing with his dog Gary (who plays an important role in keeping Dave from going insane).
At the same time, Dave reports to Tym Burkey, who is the FBI agent who got him into the undercover role. The relationship Dave has to Tim reminded me of two brothers, where one is the college drop-out and the other is a law school graduate. You can see Tym really cares about Dave, and worries about him going too deep into Racistland, but he keeps enough of a distance to know they will never be friends. In the end, they work together to strike a major blow against hate groups in America.
Into The Devil's Den is told from the perspective of both Dave and Tym, who go back and forth in their first-person take on events. When Dave talks about how he goes home at night and screams into his pillow, then downs shots of vodka to dull his pain, it is truly amazing. What is even more amazing is how he interacts with the violence obsessed leader of the Aryan Nations, especially when there is constant talk of their “church” being filled with government informants. Meanwhile, Tym’s sections, while not as interesting as Dave’s, gives good background on how much Dave’s information is helping the FBI, and how that info gets turned into arrests.
By the end of the book, Dave Hall is both a heroic and pitiful figure at the same time. While he is hailed for the work he has done, he explains in detail the damage it has caused to him both personally and mentally. So in the end, as much as you’ve been enthralled by his story, it makes the reader wonder if it was really all worth it. Most books like this make you appreciate the glory their subjects receive, but sometimes you wonder if Dave wasn’t better off taking the drug rap.
