PHOENIX ? One of two white supremacist brothers accused of bombing a black city official in suburban Phoenix told a government informant shortly before his arrest that once his mother died, he would return to a life of "bomb throwing" and "sniper shooting" because he had nothing to lose, according to a recording played for jurors Wednesday.
The recording of 61-year-old Dennis Mahon was made by a government informant, identified in court records as civilian Rebecca Williams, after he left her a voicemail on March 29, 2009, about three months before he and his identical twin brother, Daniel Mahon, were arrested at their Illinois home.
Prosecutors played the tape and others for jurors Wednesday as Williams sat on the stand and confirmed that the voices on the recordings were hers and Dennis Mahon's.
The Mahons have pleaded not guilty to the February 2004 bombing of Don Logan, Scottsdale's diversity director at the time. Logan's hand and arm were injured, and a secretary was hurt.
But prosecutors are arguing to jurors that phone conversations between Dennis Mahon and Williams, and other in-person recordings of Daniel Mahon, prove that they admitted their involvement to her.
"Once my mother passes away, I go back to my radical bomb-throwing, sniper-shooting realm," Dennis Mahon said. "Look out because I've got nothing to lose."
In the same voicemail, he goes on to say that he knows how to take down the U.S. electrical power system during the coldest part of winter or hottest part of summer using explosives and high-powered rifles, and once he does that: "The non-whites shall destroy each other," he said.
During a May 4, 2006, phone call, Dennis Mahon mentions Logan by name and continues telling Williams that Scottsdale police officers were responsible for bombing him, but that he helped. He also suggests that next time, Logan wouldn't survive.
"He doesn't understand ? they're not going to get him where he works. They're going to get him where he lives," he said. "They're going to tail pipe the son of a bitch and blow up his car while he's in it."
In other conversations, Mahon speculates about his own eventual arrest, saying that he'd be armed when authorities come knocking on his door.
"They'll find out they've got a big problem with something called white terrorists," he said during a Jan. 5, 2009 phone call with Williams.
Earlier in the trial, prosecutors played for jurors recordings of the brothers using racial slurs for black people and pointing out the bombing site to Williams while they were in Scottsdale under a ruse that she had to pay a speeding ticket.
Williams met the Mahons in January 2005 after federal investigators recruited her to become an informant. They hoped that Williams could use her feminine wiles while acting like a white supremacist and a government separatist to get the brothers to admit to the bombing.
Over a four-and-a-half-year period, she spent several weeks in person with the brothers, but many of the recordings were made over the phone while she lived in Arizona and the brothers were in Illinois.
Defense attorneys have heavily criticized her behavior with the brothers, referring to her as a "trailer park Mata Hari" ? a reference to the Dutch exotic dancer who was convicted of working as a spy for Germany during World War I.
Prosecutors say that Williams never had sex with either brother, but did flirt with them and send racy photos to them in order to allay their suspicions that she was not to be trusted.
Among the racy photos she sent them was one that showed her in a white bikini with a grenade hanging between her breasts and a swastika and pickup truck in the background. Another showed her from behind wearing Confederate flag bikini bottoms, a black leather vest, thigh-high black boots and ripped fishnet stockings.
Defense attorneys have shown the photos to jurors.
Williams appeared in court for the first time Tuesday, testifying under questioning by prosecutors that the Mahons fell for her so much that Dennis Mahon even said he wanted to father her child and marry her.
Under tense cross-examination by defense attorney Deborah Williams on Wednesday, the informant acknowledged previously being an exotic dancer and became bashful when asked whether she knows how to use her body around men.
As she was being questioned, Deborah Williams repeatedly displayed the racy photos that the informant had sent to Dennis Mahon for the jurors.
Rebecca Williams said that the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives recruited her as an informant after they worked with her brother, an informant himself who worked with ATF and the Arizona Department of Public Safety to infiltrate the Hell's Angels motorcycle gang.
At the time she was recruited, Rebecca Williams testified that she was about to be evicted from her trailer in Flagstaff and that she decided to become an informant for the money.
She said that she was paid $100 for in-person contact with the brothers on top of $300 every month for their phone conversations. She got a total of $45,000 for her work, including reimbursements for her expenses, and said that she was promised to be paid $100,000 upon the Mahons' convictions.
Williams said that she planned to use the $100,000 to help set up a home for herself in Hawaii.
Her testimony will continue Thursday.
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Follow Amanda Lee Myers on Twitter at http://twitter.com/AmandaLeeAP
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