Diksha Sundriyal
In Justin Kurzel’s ‘The Order,’ an FBI agent, Terry Husk, arrives in a sleepy Idaho town with the intention of spending his days hiking the beautiful trails and fishing in the river. However, his idyllic plans are disrupted when he discovers that a white supremacist group has been executing a series of robberies and is planning something big once they have enough money. The leader of this group is Bob Mathews, who is ready to do whatever it takes to make his dream of a white nationalist country a reality. As much as the story explores Bob and his group’s nefarious plans, we also get an insight into his personal life. Borrowing from reality, the film showcases his relationship with his pregnant mistress, Zillah. SPOILERS AHEAD.
Bob Mathews’ Mistress Shared His White Supremacist Ideology
The character of Zillah in ‘The Order’ is based on Bob Mathews’ real mistress, Zillah Craig. Because she has been a mostly reclusive figure, most of what is known about her comes from ‘The Silent Brotherhood,’ the 1989 non-fiction book by Kevin Flynn and Gary F. The authors mention in the book that they talked to Zillah to get a better perspective on Bob’s life and their relationship, and she was very open to them about it all.
Zillah Craig was born in January 1956 and was raised by a single mother in an emotionally turbulent household. At birth, she was named Tommie, after her grandpa. However, in her 20s, she decided to drop her given name and gave herself a new name, Zillah. When she was sixteen, she was sexually assaulted by a Hispanic boy. The trauma made her resigned and depressed. Because her mother, Jean Craig, didn’t know the truth, she had 16-year-old Zillah admitted into the state mental hospital. While the girl came back home a bit better, she never fully recovered, and it didn’t just impact her psyche but also her future relationships.
When Zillah was 17, she got pregnant and gave birth to a son in June 1974. She named him Dustin. Sometime later, she found love and got married, but things didn’t turn out well, and she divorced her second husband. By December 1980, she’d given birth to her second son, Caleb, and had also gravitated towards becoming an Identity Christian, which she came to following her search for something that would add meaning to her life. It was around this time that she joined nursing school as well. Shortly after this, she attended an Aryan Nation meeting, and a few months later, she met Bob Mathews.
Bob Mathews Made Zillah Craig Privy to All His Secrets
When Bob Mathews met Zillah Craig, he was immediately charmed by her. However, he didn’t tell her that he was married to Debbie. He kept this information to himself for a while but eventually did come clean. He told Zillah that he had fallen out of love with Debbie because she couldn’t bear him children, which was a huge disappointment for him because he always wanted to have a brood of children. Through their relationship, he told his mistress that he would divorce his wife and marry her, but he never came through on his promise. He did shower her with a lot of money, especially since he had started robbing banks and his group had a lot more money to take care of things now.
Because Bob and Zillah had a similar ideology, he felt free to talk about her with everything he had in mind regarding the group and their white nationalist plans. He shared all his fears and insecurities with her, freely telling her about other members of the group, what they were up to, and how he felt about them. He even took her on a tour of the country with her. Eventually, Zillah got pregnant, but she gave birth to a girl whom she named Emerant. Bob was a little disappointed because he wanted a son, but he still grew to care for his daughter. All this while, things had started to get tense for the Order. The FBI was on their trail. Ultimately, they caught up with Bob and things did not end well for him.
A couple of years later, when other members of the Order were arrested and put on trial, a case was built against them with the testimonies of the people closest to them. Zillah was one of them. When brought in for questioning by the FBI, she spilled everything Bob had ever told her about his operations. Apparently, she left the decision to give away Bob’s secrets or not to God, and when the time came, she found it best to speak the truth. At the trial, she testified against her own mother, with whom she’d always had a rocky relationship. According to Flynn and Gerhardt’s book, following the trial, Zillah and her children were given new identities, and they settled down in a midsize American town. They have since stayed out of the limelight for the sake of their own privacy and safety. The only time Zillah seemed to have spoken to someone was the authors of the book.
Read More: The Order’s True Story: What Happened to Bob Mathews in Real Life?
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