Meet the Exotic Dancing Artist Who Undercover To Take down Terrorists

She was a mom of two who’d gone from cocktail waitress to dancer to pay the bills. A cop’s daughter who’d always harbored dreams of fighting crime. And, for four and a half years, a confidential informant who helped the feds bring down a white supremacist behind a 2004 Scottsdale, Arizona, bombing that maimed a Black man — and who had plans to do much worse.

You can now find us at Substack’s exclusive interview with Jeff MayshRebecca Williams is the truth about her identity. She tells the crazy story of her recruitment to the ATF, and the undercover operation which could have ended her life. Williams was often undercover with the ATF in January 2005, Maysh explains. She worked alone and received no formal training. She first slept with twin brothers Dennis Mahon and Daniel Mahon (K.K.K. White Aryan Resistance members, one ex-ATF agent claims “could be the greatest serial bombers that ever lived in this country.”Her handler extended their investigation to include Robert Joos. Robert Joos was a religious zealot and ran an extreme camp in remote Missouri that had illegal weapons. He had previously been an adviser to Mahons.

Williams first encountered federal agents through her brother Phillip, a career criminal who’d agreed to infiltrate the Hells Angels after he’d sold drugs to an undercover officer. On a routine visit, Phillip’s handler noticed Rebecca and asked if she’d be interested in undercover work. “It sounded cool at the time,”Maysh hears her tell Maysh: “and I guess it was sort of sexy, you know, the whole spying game.” Maysh describes Williams’ first meeting with ATF Special Agent Tristan Moreland at the bureau’s Phoenix office in January of 2005:

Moreland looked over her. “She’s lived a little in life, she has a lot of street smarts, and she’s run with some rough crowds,”He thought back to that moment. He thought she was believable and had an edge. Rebecca was intrigued when he told her about a bombing that had seriously injured a Black man. “They said they needed me to just go and talk to a couple of guys and everything would be recorded. They said that I could get up to $100,000.”

Moreland had shown Rebecca photographs of Dennis and Daniel Mahon. However, she warned her to not look at them. Rebecca was naturally curious. Dennis Mahon was “one of the scariest guys around”According to the Southern Poverty Law Center which tracks hate groups, it was in the 1990s.

One day later, she called Moreland. She’d do it.

Williams was given a cover story — her name was Becca Stephens, and she was on the run from the law after a failed bombing attempt — and a trailer outfitted with a Confederate flag. She drove up to the Mahons’ RV camp in Arizona and formed a friendship with them. Dennis shared his K.K.K. story with her during their first conversation, which included a few beers and some Everclear, which was 190 proof. Grand Dragon showed him photos of himself in green ceremonial hoods and the Nazi salute. He also gave her a copy of The Turner DiariesThe novel “The Race War” was written by Timothy McVeigh, Oklahoma City bomber. “He talked a lot about overthrowing the government with an underground revolutionary war,”Williams spoke to Maysh. Maysh continues:

According to transcripts from secret recordings later heard in court, Daniel boasted of drive-by shootings as well as blowing up cars. “We thought we were doing the right thing. We were just trying to send a message,”He said it to Rebecca. “When I would take someone’s car out, it wasn’t anger. It was a sense of duty. It is like a military operation. You plan for it. Equip for it.”

Rebecca, hoping to seduce the men. [her alter ego] “Stevie”Customers at the strip club were quiet and polite. Dennis was infatuated. “I just want to cuddle with you. You’re so beautiful,” he told her, but as the night wore on, Rebecca made it clear she wanted to go to bed — alone. “Your day may come someday,”Before escorting him out the door, she teased. Hidden microphones caught Rebecca as she fell into bed.

“Motherfucking weirdo,”She whispered.

Within a month of their friendship, Maysh recounts, Dennis had promised to introduce Williams to Joos — who investigators later learned was the first person Mahon had telephoned after the Scottsdale bombing. The brothers also brought her to a local gun show, on the hunt for everything she’d need to make a bomb under their tutelage. As they shopped, she asked Dennis if he’d made successful bombs. As Maysh describes it:

He leaned in closer and whispered: “Yes, the goddamn diversity officer…Scottsdale Police Department, had his fingers blown off.”He then caught himself and confessed that he had told the truth. “white cops how to do it.”She was able to get her confession.

Williams thought she was done with her work, but the ATF was so intrigued by Joos and his training camp that they refused to let Williams go. They offered her a raise. She developed a deeper relationship with the Mahons by visiting them frequently and becoming pen pals with Dennis over the next few decades. Dennis eventually organized a meeting between her, Joos and her in January 2008.

There was a dusting of snow on the road as Rebecca steered a rental car through the Ozarks, following a map to Joos’ 200-acre-church compound near Powell, Missouri (population: 49). The church registered a logo that consisted of two capital letters. “Ns,”That looked almost like lightning bolts from the Nazi. “SS” logo. Rebecca met Moreland at a roadside briefing. He received bad news. Surveillance was impossible due to the remoteness of the location. She was the only one going in. No backup.

After Rebecca drove [through a large gate, Joos]They left it behind. As stray dogs howled and cats mooed, they drove through a cemetery of old vehicles. Rebecca spotted several long guns in the rickety buildings. Joos and Rebecca chatted about conspiracy theories and survivalism as they walked among the walnut trees. He showed Rebecca how to make napalm from household soap as casually and casually as someone who is on a YouTube cooking channel.

Joos took her deeper into the woods and showed her distant caves where his supplies were hidden. “He said if he ever found out that somebody was trying to infiltrate them, that they would disappear,”She thought back. She was relieved when Joos closed the padlock and said goodbye. “I hope I didn’t freak you out too much,”He wrote a letter shortly after she left. “I know Dennis would really like you to participate in what we are developing here.”

Williams continued collecting evidence and information over the next year with Dennis Mahon. He was increasingly suspicious of Williams and she tried to dispel his fears about Williams being a spy. “plant”He turned the paranoia around on him. Finally, at 7 a.m. on June 25, 2009, the bureau swarmed the Mahons’ home and arrested the brothers. Dennis was cuffed by Moreland who had gone undercover later in the operation. Maysh recounts that the terrorist said. “We knew. We knew…you and the girl. We knew.”

Thanks in large part to Williams’ work, Dennis Mahon was found guilty on three counts related to the Scottsdale bombing and sentenced to 40 years in prison. Joos was sentenced for illegal firearm possession and served a 78-month sentence. (Daniel Mahon wasn’t convicted but was tried. Williams was recommended by ATF to join the witness relocation program. She declined. “sitting duck,”Maysh, she said it. Now, she lives off the grid in a house that she bought with ATF money. But she hasn’t lost her thirst for adventures in crime-fighting: She is currently working independently on solving a local cold case.