William Pierce was born in Atlanta in 1933. He was the great-grandson of the Governor of Alabama. Pierce graduated from Rice University in 1955 with a bachelor’s degree in physics. He received his Ph.D. from University of Colorado Boulder in 1962.

Pierce worked at Los Alamos National Laboratory.

Pierce taught at Oregon State University from 1962-1965.

Pierce was a member of the John Birch Society.

Pierce joined the American Nazi Party in 1959. American Nazi Party National Socialist White People’s Party

Author of the Turner Diaries, “the bible of the racist right”, under the name Andrew MacDonald.

Timothy McVeigh was inspired by the Turner Diaries

“[T]he Alliance has no interest at all in the so-called movement. We’re not interested in uniting with the movement, and we’re not interested in competing with the movement for members. If anything, we should be grateful that the movement is out there to soak up a lot of the freaks and weaklings who otherwise might find their way into the Alliance and make problems for us. In this regard, I was sorry to note Aryan Nations and the [World] Church of the Creator have, for all practical purposes, died in the last few weeks. I hope one or two replacement groups spring up to draw away from us the defectives.”
— Pierce’s final speech, National Alliance leadership conference, April 2002
https://www.splcenter.org/fighting-hate/extremist-files/individual/william-pierce