Bryon Widner First News Today

You didnt sit where they sat. we were better than them. that was normal. the only way to describe it is that the blacks and minorities were like a cockroach. they were like second class citizens. >> at age 29, julie joined the national alliance. >> the national alliance is a neo-nazi movement and this particular organization is not the kind that goes around wearing swastikas and brown shirts. they were looking for a more subtle member because they felt like if their members were in the system, t...

Forehead and told me he was going to shoot me. and so at that point, i was scared to death, obviously. i thought i was going to die. but it really dawned on me the next morning that i came that close to having my brains all over the side of a building. and i still -- i still see his face and feel that gun on my forehead most nights, actually. >> its bryons third treatment, but its the first on his neck. >> going to start slipping you some cocktails while we get those monitors put on. >> because ...

>> when i first heard about that, i was terrified theyd even consider that. >> the southern poverty law center offered to cover the cost of bryons tattoo removal procedures. >> if i can prevent one other kid from making the same mistakes i did, if i can prevent one other family from having to go through the same crap that i put my family through, maybe i can redeem myself and maybe it will be worth it. >> the difficulty with bryon is the number of them. i mean, its just -- hes got so many. so th...

Throughout the rest of his life. anybody who puts themselves through this much torture is bound to want to do something good with it once its all over with. absolutely. okay. that was it. bryon, were all done, buddy. that got it. well tell him again when he wakes up. but were done. its been an interesting road. you know, weve gotten to know them so well, theyve sort of become a part of our routine around here. >> youve been awesome. >> yeah, well, weve been through a lot together, all three of u...

>> as bryon and julie struggle to escape the skinhead movement, they sought the counsel of a rival of sorts. >> you dont have the right to -- >> i have every right. >> daryl lamont jenkins is an anti-racist who runs the website one peoples project. >> julie was, im guessing at her wits end. she wanted to talk to somebody. its obvious they are going through something. they are asking for my help so, okay. you got it. you got it. i mean, i think of you as a human first. i dont think of you as an a...

>> what do you think now of all these tattoos on your face? >> they drive me nuts. its just a bad reminder of a part of my life that i left behind. >> bryon widner grew up in albuquerque, new mexico. >> when i was about 3 years old, i moved in with my grandparents along with my little sister. my grandmother was a severe alcoholic. i was told that i was pretty well worthless. i wouldnt ever amount to anything. this or that. by the age of 13, 14, i just started running away all the time. i became ...

>> okay, bryon. scale of one to ten. is it excruciating? >> it hurts. >> more so than usual? >> the post treatment on the hands, they swell up really bad like boxing gloves. the swelling throbs and kills. the worst part about it is you dont realize how much you use your hands for everything in the world until you cant use them. the pain sucks but its the frustration that really gets me. >> we almost got divorced right after we got married because he was drinking almost every night. >> the beginn...

See out of that eye and he says not very well because its like his eyes all covered up. >> im going to the pharmacy to get his prescription. his pain medicine. the second treatment has been a little bit harder for me to watch him go through because i know how much pain he was in the first treatment. and it hurts to see people you love in pain. >> theres some swelling in the hospital and, by the time we got home it was pretty poofed out. by about 10:00 last night, my eye was already almost this b...

Get this done in seven or eight treatments but its going to take more than that, obviously. so this whole process may wind up taking a year and a half before were finished. >> following several treatments, the medical team alters their approach. >> so now what were doing, weve done the last couple of times, its worked very well. weve put him to sleep. once hes asleep, then we give him the local anesthesia. then we do the treatment. so when he wakes up, his face is still numb. the numbing medicin...

After bryon and julie left the white power movement, the couple were being threatened by bryons former mates. >> they take everything that you entrusted with them and they throw it right at you, and thats what they did to me. and i was pregnant with tierson. i was so sick. i was cramping up. we thought we were going to lose him. that was the summer you had the nervous breakdown. >> yeah. >> julie and i got into an argument one day over some shirt on the clothesline outside. and she was hormonal,...