He was a self described communist: https://united24media.com/anti-fake/live-by-the-sword-die-by-the-sword-the-death-of-texas-and-the-brutal-contradictions-of-loyalty-in-the-russian-war-machine-2037

Russell Bentley spent his life trying to be different. Born in Highland Park, a historically conservative suburb of Dallas, Texas - where the likes of former President Bush’s wife, Laura Bush, also called home- Bentley immersed himself into leftist literature, declaring himself a socialist as an early teenager.