Hasse died the same day as the justice department said the Kaufman County district attorney's office was pursuing a racketeering case against the white supremacist group, the Aryan Brotherhood in Texas.
Previous possible culprits mentioned included a white supremacist prison gang known as the Aryan Brotherhood of Texas, which had been targeted by a task force that included McLelland's office.
Ebel is not on the radar of the Southern Poverty Law Center, which tracks extremist groups, but the center rates the gang as one of the most vicious white supremacist groups operating in the nation's prisons, comparable to the Aryan Brotherhood of Texas.