LOS ANGELES – Meticulous planning and sheer brutality are the hallmarks of the murderous reign of the Aryan Brotherhood, one of America’s most feared and violent prison gangs.

For 40 years, the white supremacist organization, whose members mark themselves with tattoos of swastikas and 666 signs, has masterminded savage attacks in prisons across the nation.

But yesterday federal prosecutors launched an attempt to dismantle the gang with what is thought to be the largest death penalty case in American history.

Using a racketeering law originally passed to target Mafia leaders, 40 brotherhood members are accused of orchestrating 32 murders and attempted killings. The 110-page indictment also includes charges of conspiracy, extortion, and drug trafficking.

As many as 16 could face the death penalty for crimes reaching back three decades.

The gang’s sophistication has long hindered attempts to curb its attacks. Many members are in maximum security prisons and often in solitary confinement.

But they have developed a method of communicating in code, writing messages in invisible ink and sometimes using a double alphabet invented by Sir Francis Bacon in 1623.

They have also been known to study anatomy in prison libraries to hone their talent for ruthless killings.

Also known as the Brand, the brotherhood was formed by Irish bikers in 1964 in San Quentin maximum security prison near San Francisco. Since then it has infiltrated nearly every federal and state jail.

According to the gang’s slogan – “blood in, blood out” – aspiring members can only join by killing a black man. They only leave by being killed.

Many members exercise in their cells for up to five hours a day and sport walrus-like mustaches and beards.

Their nicknames range from Bart Simpson and Blinky to Big Mac and Lucifer, according to court documents.

Tuesday’s trial opening in Santa Ana, the first to result from the 2002 indictment that followed a six-year investigation, featured four defendants. All have pleaded not guilty.

Among them is Barry “The Baron” Mills, 57, accused of ordering and approving murders carried out by gang members. He is already serving two life sentences for a 1979 near-decapitation.

His co-defendant, Tyler Davis Bingham, also known as the Hulk, is one of the most feared men in the federal prison system with a Star of David on one arm, and a swastika on the other.

Both face the death penalty in a hearing expected to last up to nine months.

Prosecutors hope the sweeping case will trigger the demise of the gang by taking out its leaders.

But experts predict it will be hard to win capital sentences as nearly all the victims were themselves dangerous thugs and the prosecution’s witnesses are likely to be questionable jailhouse informants.

Twenty gang members will be brought to trial in groups in coming months.

Nineteen of the 40 defendants struck plea bargains, and one has died.