Frank and August Hesse attracted national attention in March 1995 when a police search for neo-Nazi Skinheads Bryan and David Freeman ended at the Hesse family farm. The Freeman brothers, who were being sought by Pennsylvania authorities for the recent murder of their parents and younger brother, had fled to the Hesses' home. After their capture, the Freemans confessed to killing their parents and were ultimately sentenced to life in prison. Frank Hesse has said that he first met Bryan Freeman at a "white power" concert in Detroit and claimed that he was unaware of the murders when the two brothers took refuge at his farm.

In December 1994, prosecutors say, August Hesse, who was clad in a "White Power" T-shirt and had a shaven head, threatened to kill a Black man while he was shopping in a local store. Hesse pleaded no contest to charges of ethnic intimidation and pleaded guilty to charges of battery and resisting and obstructing arrest, and was sentenced to one year in jail. Police searching the Hesse home at the time of the racial incident found assault weapons, rifles and Nazi literature. In a later search of the house, authorities discovered materials for the manufacture of a pipe bomb and arrested Frank Hesse on an explosives charge, which was ultimately dropped.

There has been evidence of camaraderie between Midland NA members and other local white supremacists. In July 1997, Skinheads distributed copies of the NA's publication, Free Speech, in Traverse City. Two months later, in Caro, several Midland NA members attended a rally staged by Thom Robb's Knights of the Ku Klux Klan.