Scarlett Johansson is reportedly set to star as an FBI informant in a film about the six-year investigation into the Aryan Brotherhood of Texas.
Why it matters: Johansson will portray Carol Blevins, a North Texan whose informing work secured 13 convictions and helped in at least 16 others more than a decade ago.
She was the subject of a seven-part series by former Dallas Morning News reporter Scott Farwell.
Catch up fast: Blevins grew up in Murphy and was an athlete at Plano East Senior High School. It was the era of heroin overdoses in the middle class suburb.
She tried heroin for the first time at 15 and eventually quit school. Blevins became a Sєx worker, which led her to Micheal “Crash” Bianculli, an ABT member who was also a low-level informant. Bianculli asked Blevins to be his featherwood, saying it meant she was his “Aryan princess.”
Of note: The movie is тιтled “Featherwood,” per ᴅᴇᴀᴅline, which first reported the movie deal.
The ABT term means a member’s girlfriend is an object to be shared among the brothers.
Details: The six-year FBI investigation into the Aryan Brotherhood of Texas involved several federal law enforcement agencies, the Texas Rangers and multiple police departments, including Carrollton, Mesquite and Fort Worth.
The ABT evolved from being a prison gang to protect white supremacist inmates to conducting criminal enterprise beyond bars.
One of the top targets of the FBI investigation into the ABT was James “Skitz” Sampsell, the only ABT general outside prison. After Sampsell was arrested, he ordered other members to capture and kill Blevins, per the DMN.
The intrigue: Sampsell was one of the 36 people charged with conducting racketeering activity as part of the investigation involving Blevins.
Records show the group would enforce its rules through threats, ᴀssaults and murder.
Zoom in: Sampsell was sentenced to nearly 12 years in federal prison and was released in August 2022, per federal records.
Rusty Eugene Duke, of Dallas, remains in federal prison and isn’t scheduled for release until May 2028.
