In the brutal world of the Aryan Brotherhood, the notoriously violent White supremacist gang born some 60 years ago in California’s prisons, it’s an unwritten but widely understood rule that any member of the exclusive gang must inflict violence on anyone who falsely claims membership.
So it was that on a December night in 2020, three men with ties to the gang found themselves in a heated standoff at Fanuel Street Park in Pacific Beach. One was an active member of the Aryan Brotherhood, which is also known as AB or The Brand; another was an AB associate and member of a subordinate White supremacist street gang; and the third was a man who the other two believed was falsely claiming he was AB.
During the confrontation, Michael “Thumper” Sean Trippe, whom federal prosecutors described as the only Aryan Brotherhood member in San Diego County not in prison, stabbed the third man, Donald “Cricket” Denney, in the chest. The 5-inch deep wound missed Denney’s heart by 2 inches but pierced one of his lungs.
Trippe, 56, eventually pleaded guilty to a federal charge of assault with a deadly weapon in aid of racketeering, and earlier this month a judge sentenced him to two years and nine months in federal prison.
The sentencing brought to a close a case that offered an unparalleled view into San Diego County’s White supremacist criminal underworld, revealed a long-running federal wiretap investigation of groups such as the Lakeside Gangsters and exposed the links between the Aryan Brotherhood and outlaw motorcycle clubs. But it also raised unanswered questions about why Trippe did not face more serious charges if he is indeed the power player that prosecutors portrayed him as.
Fanuel Park stabbing
Denney arrived at Fanuel Park the night of the stabbing with Brett “Split” Patrick Wenbourne, a member of the East County group Lakeside Gangsters. Wenbourne had heard that Denney was claiming to be a member of the Aryan Brotherhood, and believing this claim to be false, he felt it was his duty to bring him to Trippe to sort out the matter.
It’s unclear from public court documents exactly when Trippe became a made member of the Aryan Brotherhood, though court records suggested he may have gained entry into the exclusive gang by assaulting a warden at a state prison.
As for Denney, he apparently joined the Aryan Brotherhood in federal prison after being sentenced for robbing three San Diego County bank branches in 2008, according to court documents in two federal districts. He also apparently dropped out of the gang at some point.
The Aryan Brotherhood began in 1964 in the California prison system. It was formed by White prisoners, who are a minority in California’s prisons, as a way to seek power and protect themselves while incarcerated. The gang eventually expanded to the prison systems of other states and the U.S. Bureau of Prisons.
While the gang’s influence has spread outside of prison over the last several decades, the number of full-fledged AB members remains small. Citing records from the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation, prosecutors said there are currently about 290 members of the Aryan Brotherhood in California. Membership is often denoted with a shamrock tattoo, but members also sport Nazi-related tattoos such as swastikas and “SS” lightning bolts.
AB members and their associates sometimes speak in coded language. So it was that night at Fanuel Park, where Trippe and Denney initially said just a few words to each other.
Fanuel Park in Pacific Beach. (Alejandro Tamayo / U-T file)
“I’m that guy,” Trippe allegedly told Denney.
“Hey, I am that dude,” Denney responded.
Prosecutors wrote in sentencing documents that this was gang speak for claiming AB membership. “These are words of consequence,” the government attorneys wrote.
Trippe then stabbed Denney in the chest, according to his guilty plea. It was only in the moments that followed that the wounded Denney explained that he and his attacker didn’t know each other because one was AB from federal prison and one from state. Denney allegedly omitted the fact that he had dropped out.
The two men hugged, apologized about the misunderstanding and agreed that Denney would lie to police when seeking medical attention. Denney eventually came clean to authorities.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Dale Blankenship told the judge during sentencing that Trippe “is no stranger to taking care of business,” and that when presented with someone he believed was falsely claiming AB membership, “he immediately took care of business.”
In a statement, the U.S. Attorney’s Office in San Diego said it “appreciates and recognizes the efforts of the San Diego County Sheriff’s Office, San Diego Police Department, (the FBI’s) Violent Crime Task Force, and other state, local and federal agencies in holding Michael Trippe accountable for his brazen and violent conduct. These efforts and the custodial sentence imposed by the court will make our community safer.”
Trippe, a cancer survivor who continues battling multiple serious health issues, told the judge that the stabbing was a “one-off situation” that he didn’t seek out. He said it was the only blemish on his record since his release from prison in 2012.
His attorneys argued that the circumstances of the attack — at a public park, near his home, with his wife nearby — showed it was not a typical AB-style premeditated assault, and that Trippe even offered to host a barbecue for Denney in an effort at reconciliation.
AB prosecutions
Over the past several years, federal prosecutors in Sacramento and Fresno have targeted the Aryan Brotherhood with indictments stemming from a massive Drug Enforcement Administration investigation. Several California prison inmates suspected of being top leaders of the group have been convicted of various RICO-related charges, including murder in aid of racketeering. They’ve been sentenced to additional federal prison terms on top of their prior state-court sentences.
Trippe was named in the Sacramento case, but not as a defendant — as a victim that other AB members conspired to try to kill.
According to his attorneys, Trippe and his wife were “greenlit” for death by other AB members because of his “perceived disloyalty.” Trippe has maintained over the years he was never disloyal.
Court records from the Sacramento case detail an effort to murder Trippe in 2016 that initially failed when Elliott “Rascal” Grizzle, the AB member responsible for carrying out the hit, was arrested for a different murder that occurred during a home-invasion robbery in San Diego’s San Carlos neighborhood. Grizzle was eventually sentenced to 159 years to life in prison for that slaying.
In the months following Grizzle’s arrest, investigators listened in on intercepted phone calls as various AB members discussed the plot to kill Trippe, according to court records that do not make clear why the effort ended.
Trippe’s attorneys argued that was another reason he met with Denney at Fanuel Park — to ensure, if Denney really was AB, there was not still a “green light” on him and his wife.
Wiretap investigations
In the years since the Fanuel Park stabbing, prosecutors have argued that as the only Aryan Brotherhood member out of custody in San Diego, Trippe wielded incredible influence among local chapters of outlaw motorcycle clubs and White supremacist street gangs.
Their evidence for those allegations comes from federal wiretaps in which they allege lower-level gangsters expressed deference to Trippe, so much so that some street gang members allegedly needed his permission to wear their gang’s own patches.
Prosecutors highlighted one particular episode from May 2019 as evidence of Trippe’s power and influence. In that incident, a fight broke out during a gathering of several outlaw motorcycle clubs at the Harley-Davidson dealership in San Marcos. Trippe was struck in the face during the fracas, allegedly by a member of the Peckerwoods Motorcycle Club, an outlaw biker gang that originated in East County.
Prosecutors alleged that members of various White supremacist gangs and motorcycle clubs rushed to the dealership armed with guns and knives “to back up (Trippe) and retaliate against the Peckerwoods on his behalf.” Further violence was prevented when law enforcement officers “(flooded) the scene,” prosecutors alleged.
Trippe allegedly exchanged hundreds of communications in the days that followed with “a wide range of White supremacist street gang and outlaw motorcycle gang leaders and members,” including the leader of the Peckerwoods.
Days later, leaders of the Peckerwoods’ East County chapter allegedly forced at gunpoint three of their own members to give up their motorcycles and gang patches. The three men were then allegedly beaten with a baseball bat.
In the prosecution’s telling, Trippe orchestrated those events, as well as other violence and extortion.
But he was never charged.
“Trippe has been using his standing as an Aryan Brotherhood member to direct others to commit violence on his behalf, thereby insulating himself from criminal prosecution,” prosecutors wrote in 2022 during an effort to keep him detained ahead of trial.
Trippe’s court-appointed defense team, meanwhile, argued in sentencing papers that for more than two years, Trippe complied with every condition of his strict pre-trial release terms and that he has undergone therapy and psychiatric treatment to address mental health challenges and longstanding trauma. They also argued he “has taken meaningful steps to distance himself from the ideologies and affiliations that once defined his past,” including proactively donating a Nazi helmet that was in his possession to a Holocaust museum.
Isaac Blumberg, one of his court-appointed attorneys, told the judge that as an observant Jew, he wrestled with the idea of representing Trippe. But he personally vouched for Trippe, arguing in court that his client is nothing like how prosecutors portrayed him.
While the wiretap investigations never resulted in charges against Trippe, they did produce drug and weapons prosecutions against several White supremacist gang members from East County, including members of the Lakeside Gangsters and Supreme Power Skins.
U.S. District Judge Robert Huie sentenced Wenbourne in May to more than seven years in prison for both his role in the stabbing and a drug-dealing case stemming from the wiretaps. Wenbourne, his attorney and his parents told the judge that he is reformed and done with the gang life, no matter the consequences. They said he even had his White supremacist tattoos removed.
As for Denney, the AB dropout and stabbing victim, he was placed in federal witness protection and sent to Oregon along with several family members. But in May 2022 he robbed an Oregon bank and was subsequently arrested.
Denney was sentenced back to federal prison for 33 months. Prison records showed he was released early this year.
