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White supremacist and ardent Nazi follower William Dudley Pelley, a New England native of what he calls "uncontaminated English stock," founds the Silver Shirts, a neo-Nazi organization, in Asheville, North Carolina, the same day that Adolf Hitler ascends to power in Germany. Apparently Pelley funds the organization through the proceeds of a best-selling book, Seven Minutes in Eternity, in which he claimed to have died and gone to "the beyond" for a seven-minute period. Pelley and his followers, including Henry Lamont "Mike" Beach (see 1969), dress themselves in silver shirts emblazoned with a large cursive "L," blue corduroy knickers, and gold stockings. Pelley considers himself a Republican, though he is not politically active in the usual sense.
Anti-Semitic, Anti-Government - His efforts attract members from pro-Nazi groups, Ku Klux Klan chapters, and others sympathetic to his anti-Semitic views. In August 1933, the American Jewish Committee (AJC) will warn: "The Silver Shirts came into existence the early part of this year. They are enrolling white Protestant Christians as members of a Christian militia, through a plan of State encampments that are reported to extend into various states of the Union, with posts in every community." According to Silver Shirt documents obtained by the AJC, the group intends to bring about the establishment of a strictly Christian government in the US; accuses President Roosevelt of being a "dictator" and "set[ting] aside the Constitution, which they desire to restore"; intends to "save [the] United States from a state of Sovietism into which… the Jews are leading the country"; accuses Jews of being a "money power" bent on destroying the nation's economy via their "control" of the Federal Reserve; and says that "a people who constitute only 2.5 per cent of the population [Jews] to be held down to a 2.5 per cent influence in the American government, and we propose to see that it is brought about, race prejudice or no!" The group also advocates a form of direct democracy, in which citizens mail in their votes for or against pending legislation, and proposes the reorganization of America into what it calls a "colossus corporation," where "[e]very citizen shall be both a common and a preferred stockholder."
Psychic Messages - Pelley claims to receive psychic messages from "the vastness of cosmos," including two sets of documents, the "Esoteric Doctrines of the Liberation Enlightenment" and the "Liberation Scripts," which set forth the "Christ government" he intends to establish. In a Silver Shirt newsletter, Pelley writes: "It is the order of things that those wicked and malignant spirits who have incarnated in certain sections of the Hebrew race trying to bring the downfall of the Christ Peoples, should meet a fearful fate in this closing of the Cycle of Cosmic Event. That contest is on-the-make and Hitler's job it has been to do the advance work. But Hitler is not going to finish that work. THE FINISH OF IT COMES RIGHT HERE IN AMERICA!" Pelley writes that "the Jew" is possessed of a "nomadic character, making him an internationalist whose ultimate objectives may well mean the destruction and disappearance of the United States." (American Jewish Committee 8/24/1933; Ian Geldard 2/19/1995; David Neiwert 6/17/2003)
Spike in Membership Will Dwindle - Pelley's group will enjoy its largest membership of some 15,000 in 1934; four years later, the group will dwindle to around 5,000 members. (The Holocaust Chronicle 2009) Pelley will be convicted of sedition in 1942, and by the time he emerges from prison in 1950, his Silver Shirts will have long since disappeared.
'Christian Fascist' - In the early 1980s, graduate student Karen Hoppes will write extensively about Pelley. She will write of his Christian fundamentalism: "[T]he link with fundamental Christianity establishes the uniqueness of American fascism. The majority of fascist groups justified their existence by their desire to change the United States into a Christian society.… The relationship between the religious identity of these groups and their political demands can be shown by a careful survey of their rhetoric. The Christian fascist does not distinguish between the application of the terms anti-Christ, Jew, and Communist. Neither does he distinguish between Gentile and Christian." (David Neiwert 6/17/2003)
The New World News, a British Moral Rearmament publication, prints what it calls the "Communist Rules for Revolution," claiming that the "rules" were captured during a raid on a German Communist organization's headquarters in Dusseldorf in 1919 by Allied forces during World War I, and published in the Bartlesville, Oklahoma (US) Examiner-Enterprise that same year. In 1946, the NWN writes, the attorney general of Florida, George A. Brautigam, obtained them from a known member of the Communist Party, who told him that the "Rules" were then still a part of the Communist program for the United States. According to the NWN, the "Rules" are as follows:
Corrupt the young; get them away from religion. Get them interested in sex. Make them superficial; destroy their ruggedness.
Get control of all means of publicity, thereby:
Get people's minds off their government by focusing their attention on athletics, sexy books, plays, and immoral movies.
Divide the people into hostile groups by constantly harping on controversial matters of no importance.
Destroy the people's faith in their natural leaders by holding the latter up to contempt, ridicule, and obloquy.
Always preach true democracy, but seize power as fast and as ruthlessly as possible.
By encouraging government extravagance, destroy its credit, produce years of inflation with rising prices and general discontent.
Incite unnecessary strikes in vital industries, encourage civil disorders, and foster a lenient and soft attitude on the part of government toward such disorders.
Cause breakdown of the old moral values—honesty, sobriety, self-restraint, faith in the pledged word, ruggedness.
Cause the registration of all firearms on some pretext, with a view to confiscating them and leaving the populace helpless.
The "Rules" are a hoax invented by NWN writers: there was no German Communist "Spartacist" headquarters in Dusseldorf, the Examiner-Enterprise never published such a document, and Russian experts at the University of Chicago will label them an "obvious fraud," "an obvious fabrication," and "an implausible concoction of American fears and phobias." In 1970, the New York Times will investigate the document; no copies of it exist in the National Archives, the Library of Congress, or any of the university libraries it examines. Montana Senator Lee Metcalf (D-MT) will look into the document's existence around the same time, and will learn that both the FBI and CIA have already investigated it and found it to be "completely spurious." (Brautigam did endorse the "Rules," and his statement and signature avowing the legitimacy of the "Rules" will give the document a veneer of legitimacy.) However, the "Rules" will continue to be used to claim that Communists are for a number of ideas unpopular among European and American conservatives, most frequently gun control and sex education. The National Rifle Association is one organization that frequently cites the "Rules" in its arguments against gun-control legislation, citing the Communists' "secret plans" to "confiscate" Americans' guns and thus "leav[e] the populace helpless." American and British lawmakers regularly receive copies of the "Rules" in letters and faxes citing their opposition to gun control, sex education, support for labor, or other "Communist" ideals or entities. In 1992, University of Oklahoma political science professor John George and his co-author Laird Wilcox will write in their book Nazis, Communists, Klansmen, and Others on the Fringe, "Widely distributed since the mid-forties, the 'rules' have been trundled out at various times when they 'fit' or 'explain' the issues of the day, especially to argue against firearms control and sex education." In April 1996, George will say: "These people [meaning far-right American extremists] would love for the document to be real. But it has been exposed again and again as a phony." Folklorist Jan Harold Brunvand will write: "The rules have to do with dividing people into hostile groups, encouraging government extravagance, and fomenting unnecessary 'strikes' in vital industries. What we have lost, the list suggests, is a world without dissent, budget deficits, inflation, and labor unrest. I just can't remember any such Golden Age." (Stickney 1996, pp. xx; George 1999; Rosa Luxemburg 2003; Snopes (.com) 7/10/2007)
Arthur Porth, a Wichita, Kansas, building contractor, files a claim in a Kansas court to recover his income tax payment of $151. Porth argues that the 16th Amendment is unconstitutional because it places the taxpayer in a position of involuntary servitude contrary to the 13th Amendment. The court rules against Porth, but the defeat does not stop him. For 16 years Porth continues battling the income tax requirement, finding new and inventive challenges to the practice. He claims that the 16th Amendment "put[s] Americans into economic bondage to the international bankers," a claim that the Southern Poverty Law Center will call "a thinly veiled anti-Semitic reference to the supposed 'international Jewish banking conspiracy.'" He also argues that because paper money is not backed by gold or silver, taxpayers are not obligated to pay their taxes because "Federal Reserve notes are not dollars." In 1961, Porth files an income tax return that is blank except for a statement declaring that he is pleading the Fifth Amendment, essentially claiming that filling out a tax return violates his right of protection from self-incrimination, a scheme that quickly becomes popular among anti-tax protesters. Porth becomes an activist and garners something of a following among right-wing audiences, traveling around the country distributing tax protest literature that includes a book, A Manual for Those Who Think That They Must Pay an Income Tax. He even issues his own "arrest warrants" against "bureaucrats" whom, in his view, violate the Constitution. In 1967, Porth is convicted of a number of tax evasion charges, but, as the Anti-Defamation League will later write, "he had already become a grass-roots hero to the nascent tax protest movement." His cause is championed by, among others, William Potter Gale, who will go on to found the racist, anti-government Posse Comitatus movement (see 1969). Gale uses the newsletter of his Ministry of Christ Church, a church espousing the racist and anti-Semitic theology of Christian Identity (see 1960s and After), to promote Porth and the early tax rebellion movement. Porth exhausts his appeals and goes to jail; though sentenced to five years' imprisonment, he only serves 77 days. One of Porth's most active followers is his lawyer, Jerome Daly, whose activism eventually leads to his disbarment (see December 9, 1968 and After). Daly meets Porth in 1965 and files his own "protest" tax return just days before Porth is indicted by a grand jury. Daly is also convicted of tax evasion; in 1969, a federal appeals court will issue a ruling invalidating what has by then become known as the "Porth-Daly Fifth Amendment Return." Porth receives the support of several far-right organizations, many of whom tie their racist views into his anti-tax protests. In a 1967 article for the far-right American Mercury magazine, tax protester and editor Martin A. Larson writes, "The negroes in the United States are increasing at a rate at least twice as great as the rest of the population," and warns that the tax burden posed by blacks "unquestionably doomed… the American way of life." Larson will later write regular columns for the white supremacist magazine The Spotlight, in which he will call black women prostitutes whose "offspring run wild in the streets, free to forage their food in garbage cans, and grow up to become permanent reliefers, criminals, rioters, looters, and, in turn, breeders of huge litters of additional human beings belonging to the same category." He will also write several books promoting Porth's anti-tax protest strategies. (Southern Poverty Law Center 12/2001; Anti-Defamation League 2011)
The "Christian Identity" theology, formerly a fairly benign expression of what is known as "British-Israelism" or "Anglo-Israelism," begins to spread throughout the US and Canada, particularly on the west coasts of these nations. This belief holds that white Americans and Canadians are the real descendants of the Biblical tribes of Israel. In 2003, author Nicole Nichols, an expert on far-right racist and religious groups in America, will define the concept of "Christian Identity" as practiced by many white supremacist and separatist groups. Christian Identity is not an organization, she will write, but an ideology that many organizations have adopted in some form or fashion. Christian Identity "elevates white supremacy and separatism to a Godly ideal," she will write, calling it "the ideological fuel that fires much of the activity of the racist far right." According to Christian Identity theology, Jews are neither the "true Israelites" nor the true "chosen people" of God; instead, Christian Identity proponents claim, Jews are descended from an Asiatic people known as the Khazars, who settled near the Black Sea during the Middle Ages. (Nicole Nichols 2003; Anti-Defamation League 2005; Ontario Consultants on Religious Tolerance 5/30/2006) In 2005, the Ontario Consultants on Religious Tolerance will write, "Followers tend to be involved in political movements opposing gun control, equal rights to gays and lesbians, and militia movements," and quote Michael Barkun, an expert on radical-right groups, as saying, "This virulent racist and anti-Semitic theology… is prevalent among many right-wing extremist groups and has been called the 'glue' of the racist right." (Ontario Consultants on Religious Tolerance 5/30/2006)
Beginnings; 'The Protocols of the Elders of Zion' - In the 1920s, William J. Cameron, editor of the Dearborn Independent weekly newspaper, popularized the anti-Semitic hoax manuscript called "The Protocols of the Elders of Zion," which purported to detail the "secret teachings" of Judaism, including the planned takeover of the world's governments, the subjugation of non-Semitic races, and the bizarre, cannibalistic rituals supposedly practiced by Jews. (Anti-Defamation League 2005)
Wesley Swift and 'Mud People' - In the 1940s, a former Methodist minister, Wesley Swift, started his own church, later known as the Church of Jesus Christ Christian. Swift had deep ties to a number of radical right-wing groups including the Ku Klux Klan; Swift and his associates set the stage for the mutation of the Christian Identity into a loosely organized set of virulently anti-Semitic, racist belief systems that will come to be grouped together under the "Christian Identity" rubric. Swift himself taught that only the white race was created in the form of God, while Asian and African races were created from the "beasts of the fields," and thusly are subhuman creations. In Swift's version of Genesis, Eve, the wife of the first "true" man Adam, was seduced by The Serpent, who masqeueraded as a white man. Eve bore a son, Cain, who is the actual father of the Jewish people. This reinterpretation, sometimes called the "two-seed" or "seedliner" theory, supports the Christian Identity propensity to demonize Jews, whom Swift and others labeled the "spawn of Satan." Today's white Europeans and their American and Canadian descendants, Swift taught, are descended from the "true son" of Adam and Eve, Abel, and are the actual "chosen people" of God. Some Christian Identity adherents go even farther, claiming that subhuman "pre-Adamic" races existed and "spawned" the non-white races of the world, which they label "mud people." (Nicole Nichols 2003; Anti-Defamation League 2005)
Permeates Racist, Far-Right Groups - By the 1960s, a new group of Christian Identity leaders emerges to spread the Identity theology through the radical, racist right in America and Canada, popularizing the once-obscure ideology. Most prominent among them are three disciples of Swift: James K. Warner, William Potter Gale, and Richard Butler. Warner, who will move to Louisiana and play a leading role in the fight against civil rights, founds the Christian Defense League and the New Christian Crusade Church. Gale, an early leader of the Christian Defense League and its paramilitary arm, the California Rangers, goes on to found the Posse Comitatus (see 1969), the group that will help bring about the sovereign citizen movement. Gale will later found the Committee of the States and serve as the "chief of staff" of its "unorganized militia." Butler moves Swift's Church of Jesus Christ Christian to Idaho and recasts it as the neo-Nazi group Aryan Nations (see Early 1970s). Under the leadership of Butler, Gale, Warner, and others, Christian Identity soon permeates most of the major far-right movements, including the Klan and a racist "skinhead" organization known as the Hammerskins. It also penetrates many extreme anti-government activist groups. The Anti-Defamation League will write, "The resurgence of right-wing extremism in the 1990s following the Ruby Ridge (see August 31, 1992) and Waco standoffs (see April 19, 1993) further spread Identity beliefs." (Anti-Defamation League 2005) Nichols will write: "Christian Identity enclaves provide a trail of safe havens for movement activists, stretching from Hayden Lake in northern Idaho (the Aryan Nations stronghold) to Elohim City on the Oklahoma/Arkansas border (see 1973 and After). Many white supremacists on the run from federal authorities have found shelter and support from Christian Identity followers." Some organizations such as the Montana Militia are headed by Identity adherents, but do not as a group promote the theology. (Nicole Nichols 2003; Anti-Defamation League 2005)
Bringing Forth the Apocalypse - Many Christian Identity adherents believe that the Biblical Apocalypse—the end of the world as it is currently known and the final ascendancy of select Christians over all others—is coming soon. Unlike some Christians, Identity adherents do not generally believe in the "rapture," or the ascendancy of "saved" Christians to Heaven before the Apocalypse ensues; instead, Identity followers believe Jesus Christ will return to Earth only after the time of the "Tribulation," a great battle between good and evil, which will set the stage for the return of Christ and the final transformation of the world. Identity followers believe it is their duty to prepare for the Apocalypse, and some believe it is their duty to help bring it about. They tend to cast the Apocalypse in racial terms—whites vs. nonwhites. Identity adherents believe that worldly institutions will collapse during the "end times," and therefore tend to distrust such institutions, making Identity theology appealing to anti-government ideologies of groups such as militia, "Patriot," and sovereign citizens groups. (Anti-Defamation League 2005)
21st Century Identity - In the 21st century, Christian Identity groups are strongest in the Pacific Northwest of America and Canada, and the US Midwest, though Identity churches can be found throughout the US and in other parts of Canada. Identity churches also exist in, among other nations, Ireland, Great Britain, Australia, and South Africa (see June 25, 2003). The Anti-Defamation League will write: "Yet while spread far it is also spread thin. Estimates of the total number of believers in North America vary from a low of 25,000 to a high of 50,000; the true number is probably closer to the low end of the scale. Given this relatively small following, its extensive penetration of the far right is all the more remarkable." (Anti-Defamation League 2005)
Identity Violence - Identity adherents commit a number of violent acts, often against government and/or financial institutions, in an outsized proportion to their small numbers. In 1983, Identity adherent Gordon Kahl kills two US Marshals who attempt to arrest him on a parole violation, and kills an Arkansas sheriff before finally being gunned down by authorities (see February 13, 1983 and After). The white supremacist terrorist group The Order (see Late September 1983) contains a number of Identity members, including David Tate, who kills a Missouri Highway Patrol officer while attempting to flee to an Identity survivalist compound (see April 15, 1985). During the 1980s, small Identity groups such as The New Order (or The Order II) and the Arizona Patriots commit bombings and armored car robberies. After the Oklahoma City bombing (see 8:35 a.m. - 9:02 a.m. April 19, 1995), Identity minister Willie Ray Lampley attempts a number of bombings (see November 9, 1995). In 1996, the Montana Freeman, led by Identity members, "stands off" federal authorities for 81 days (see March 25, 1996). Between 1996 and 1998, Eric Robert Rudolph, who has connections to Identity ministers such as Nord Davis and Dan Gayman, bombs an Atlanta gay bar (see February 21, 1997), several abortion clinics (see October 14, 1998), and the Atlanta Summer Olympics (see July 27, 1996 and After). In 1999, Identity member and former Aryan Nations security guard Buford Furrow goes on a shooting spree at a Jewish community center in Los Angeles (see August 10, 1999). (Anti-Defamation League 2005)
A Time magazine profile lambasts the racist, anti-Communist John Birch Society (JBS—see December 2011), in what is many Americans' first exposure to the group. It delineates the organization's penchant for secrecy, its domination by its "dictatorial" leader, Robert Welch, and its hardline battle against almost every element of the federal government as "agents of Communism." Forty to 60 percent of the federal government is controlled by Communism, the JBS believes. Time calls the organization "a tiresome, comic-opera joke" that nonetheless has cells in 35 states and an ever-widening influence. In Wichita, Kansas, JBS student members are trained to inform their cell leaders of "Communist" influences they may detect in their classroom lectures, and the offending teacher is berated by parents. A Wichita businessman who wanted to give a donation to the University of Wichita decided not to donate after being hounded by local JBS members, who wanted the university to fire professors and remove selected books from its library. "My business would be wrecked," the businessman explains, "if those people got on the phone and kept on yelling that I am a Communist because I give money to the school." Nashville, Tennessee, JBS members organize community members to verbally attack neighbors whom they suspect of Communist affiliations. JBS's current priority, Time writes, is to bring about the impeachment of Chief Justice Earl Warren. Welch, who obtained his wealth from his brother's candymaking business, believes that Social Security and the federal income tax are all part of the "creeping socialism" that is taking over the federal government. He retired from the business in 1957 and founded the JBS shortly thereafter, naming it for a US Navy captain killed by Chinese Communist guerrillas after the end of World War II. Welch's seminal tract, "The Politician," accuses President Eisenhower and his brother Milton Eisenhower of being Communist plants, and accuses both men of treason against the nation. (Time 3/10/1961)
Author W. Cleon Skousen, a supporter of the John Birch Society (JBS—see December 2011), writes an article attacking the Time profile of the JBS (see March 10, 1961) as being part of an orchestrated Communist attack on the organization. The article came about after the international Communist Party "ordered" the "annihilation" of the JBS, Skousen says. Skousen denies the group's penchant for secrecy, saying that it was openly set up in 1958 as a network of "study groups" examining the threat of Communism to American society. The organization, he writes, is nothing more than "a study group program with a strong bias in favor of traditional American constitutionalism." By 1960, the JBS earned the enmity of competing conservative groups, Skousen says, because the organization "had rallied together most of the best informed and hardest working patriots in many cities." However, he writes, JBS members tend to be part of other conservative movements as well. The JBS worked to defeat a bill, slated to be introduced in January 1961, that would largely defund the House Committee on Un-American Activities "so it could not investigate the Communist Party." Skousen says that JBS efforts derailed the bill, handing the American Communist Party "an overwhelming defeat." After the bill was defeated, Skousen says, "a manifesto… from Moscow" ordered the destruction of the JBS, as it posed the primary danger to "Communist progress" in the US. The Time magazine profile of the JBS was part of that effort, Skousen says, after the organization was attacked in the pages of the Daily People's World, a West Coast publication that Skousen says was "the official Communist newspaper" of that area. Within days, the information in the article was reprinted in Time's own article, which reached far more people than the People's World. "[T]he thing which astonished me," Skousen writes, "was the rapidity with which the transmission belt began to function so that this story was planted in one major news medium after another until finally even some of the more conservative papers had taken up the hue and cry." Skousen calls the article a Communist plant filled with fabrications and lies. He says that JBS leader Robert Welch's accusations that President Eisenhower and other pro-American world leaders are Communists were made in "private communication[s] to his friends" and were never part of official JBS principles, and took place well before Welch founded the JBS in 1957; therefore, Skousen writes, to report Welch's characterizations is to smear the JBS. Skousen also denies any racism or anti-Semitism on the JBS's part, and uses a sympathetic 1963 report by the California Senate Factfinding Committee to "prove" his claims. The report concluded that Welch and the JBS have "stirred the slumbering spirit of patriotism in thousands of Americans, roused them from lethargy, and changed their apathy into a deep desire to first learn the facts about communism and then implement that knowledge with effective and responsible action." Skousen concludes that while Americans are free to disagree with JBS principles and actions, any criticism of the organization should be considered potential Communist propaganda designed to smear the organization and reduce its effectiveness. If the criticism does not come from Communists themselves, it plays into Communist hands. As he claims to have been told by "[a] former member of the Communist Party National Committee," "The Communist leaders look upon the stamping out of the John Birch Society as a matter of life and death for the Party." (Skousen 1963)
Farmer and mechanic Gordon Kahl, a World War II veteran who earned two Purple Hearts while flying bombing missions and a convert to the Christian Identity "religion" (see 1960s and After), now embraces the burgeoning anti-tax protest ideology (see 1951-1967). He writes a letter to the IRS telling it that he will never again "give aid and comfort to the enemies of Christ" by paying income taxes, which he calls tithing to "the synagogue of Satan." Kahl is a virulent anti-Semite who believes that World War II was engineered by Jewish bankers who had "created" and backed Adolf Hitler in order to subjugate "the feisty German people." Kahl denies that the Holocaust ever occurred, calling the concentration camps "mostly work camps" where less than 50,000 Jews died. Communism, he writes, is a "smoke screen" for "world Jewry," which uses every means at its disposal—including the Rotary and Kiwanis Clubs—to deceive and undermine Christians. To his friends and family, Kahl is a loving father and husband and a scrupulously honest businessman, but as author Daniel Levitas will write in 2003: "These virtuous aspects of his character did not extend beyond his small Anglo-Saxon circle, however. Kahl's world was divided strictly into opposites and he felt only murderous contempt for those who fell on the other side of the line—satanic Jews, nonwhites, and the Christian lackeys of the International Jewish Conspiracy." Kahl is a firm believer in ZOG, the "Zionist Occupied Government" of the United States, and he believes that most law enforcement officials are either unwitting dupes of this "conspiracy" or knowing members. Kahl leaves California for the West Texas oilfields, and in 1973 joins the anti-tax, anti-government Posse Comitatus (see 1969). (Levitas 2002, pp. 193) Kahl will be convicted of tax evasion (see 1975 - 1981) and, fleeing incarceration, will kill two police officers in a shootout and later die himself after killing a third (see February 13, 1983 and After and March 13 - June 3, 1983).
Minnesota attorney Jerome Daly defends himself in a lawsuit filed by the First National Bank of Montgomery, in a case later cited as First National Bank of Montgomery v. Daly. The bank sues Daly in Credit River Township, Minnesota, after foreclosing on his property for nonpayment of his mortgage, and seeks to evict Daly. Daly, a well-known anti-tax protester who has filed "protest" tax returns in the past (see 1951-1967), argues that the bank never actually loaned him any money, but merely created credit on its books. Since the bank did not give him anything of tangible value, he argues, the bank has no right to his property. Both the jury and the Justice of the Peace presiding over the case, Martin V. Mahoney, agree, and declare the mortgage "null and void." In his ruling, Mahoney admits that the verdict runs counter to provisions in the Minnesota Constitution and some Minnesota statutes, but contends that such provisions are "repugnant" to the Constitution of the United States and the Bill of Rights in the Minnesota Constitution. Mahoney finds in his ruling that all Federal Reserve paper money has no intrinsic value. Initially, Daly retains his right to the property and has his mortgage revoked, but the bank appeals the case and the verdict favoring Daly is reversed, as is a similar lawsuit brought by Daly against another bank. The Minnesota Supreme Court begins proceedings against Mahoney and Daly for "constructive contempt" of the law. Mahoney's death in 1969 voids the proceedings against him, but Daly is subsequently disbarred for his arguments, which the Minnesota Supreme Court finds entirely fraudulent, "unprofessional," and "reprehensible." The case and its reasoning will be frequently cited in lawsuits challenging the US banking system, particularly the practice of "fractional reserve banking." The case has no value as precedent, but will often be cited by groups supporting a government-owned central bank or opposing the Federal Reserve system. (State of Minnesota, County of Scott, First National Bank of Montgomery v. Daly 12/9/1968 ; State of Minnesota, County of Scott, First National Bank of Montgomery v. Daly 1/12/1969 ; US District Court for the District of Utah 10/28/2008; Minnesota State Law Library 5/27/2010)
The Posse Comitatus, an anti-Semitic, right-wing "Christian Identity" organization (see 1960s and After), is founded by retired dry-cleaning executive Henry L. Beach in Portland, Oregon, who calls his organization the Sherriff's Posse Comitatus (SPC) or Citizen's Law Enforcement Research Committee (CLERC). Beach has supported Nazism since the 1930s, and formerly led a neo-Nazi organization called the Silver Shirts (see January 31, 1933). The Posse Comitatus is quickly taken over by William Potter Gale, a retired Army colonel who founded a similar organization called the US Christian Posse Association in Glendale, California, and manages to roll the two groups, and a few other loosely organized entities, into one. The Posse Comitatus dedicates itself to survivalism, vigilantism, and anti-government activities; its bylaws state that no federal or state governmental entity has any legal standing, and only county and town governments are legitimate. Furthermore, the organization believes that the entire federal government is controlled by Jews, and as such has no authority over whites. Beach's original Posse manual states, "[O]fficials of government who commit criminal acts or who violate their oath of office… shall be removed by the posse to the most populated intersection of streets in the township and, at high noon, be hung by the neck, the body remaining until sundown as an example to those who would subvert the law." According to a 1986 advisory published by the IRS, "members associated with some of the Posse groups wear tiny gold hangmen's nooses on their lapels." Posse members refuse to pay taxes whenever they can get away with it, and ignore laws that they feel cannot be enforced by "the enemy." Instead, they claim to abide by a "common law," defined as a set of principles that they themselves create and change at will. The organization begins making inroads into the farm communities of the Northwest and Upper Midwest after federal mismanagement of agricultural policies threatens the livelihood of many area farmers; the Posse tells them, "Farmers are victims of a Jewish-controlled government and banking system, federal taxes are illegal and loans need not be repaid." Some area farmers embrace the message, and the Posse begins heavily recruiting in Michigan. (Ian Geldard 2/19/1995; Nicole Nichols 2003)
Anti-Government, Anti-Tax Ideology - The Posse Comitatus believes that the federal and state governments are inherently illegal and have no authority whatsoever; the highest elected official of the land, it says, is the county sheriff, who can form juries and call out "posses" of citizens to enforce the law as necessary. The movement strongly opposes paying taxes, particularly to the Internal Revenue Service (IRS), and considers money issued by the Federal Reserve System as illegal. It says that the Constitution's 16th Amendment, which gave Congress the right to tax citizens' incomes, was illegally ratified and therefore unconstitutional; moreover, it says, careful examination of federal law tells it that income taxes are entirely voluntary. The Federal Reserve System is, as one Posse publication puts it, "a private monopoly which neither the people nor the states authorized in the Constitution." The Federal Reserve's printed money violates the Constitution. Some, but not all, Posse Comitatus members also express racist and separatist views similar to those of Christian Identity believers (see 1960s and After); these members say that the Federal Reserve is controlled by a small cabal of international Jewish bankers who intend to destroy the American economy. (Mark Pitcavage 5/6/1996; US Constitution: Sixteenth Amendment 2011; Anti-Defamation League 2011) Posse Comitatus members use the threat of violence, and sometimes actual violence, to express their anti-tax and anti-government ideologies (see 1972 and 1974).
Township Movement - The Posse spawns a directly related ideology, the "township movement," led in part by Utah resident Walt P. Mann. Township advocates advocate setting up small sovereign communities that are answerable only to themselves. The Posse will set up a "constitutional township" on a 1,400-acre plot in Wisconsin and name it "Tigerton Dells," posting signs that say, "Federal Agents Keep out; Survivors will be Prosecuted." Tigerton Dells will appoint its own judges and foreign ambassadors before federal authorities seize the property (see 1984).
Movement Spreads throughout Northwest, Plains States - By 1976, an FBI report says that the Posse Comitatus movement will consist of up to 50,000 adherents throughout the Northwest and Great Plains states. The center of the movement is at Tigerton Dells; Posse members there will disrupt local government meetings and assault public officials. The farm crisis of the early 1980s will allow the Posse to begin converting angry, frightened farmers throughout the region. In 1996, the Anti-Defamation League's Mark Pitcavage will write, "The Posse offered up targets for people to blame: the courts, the money system, the federal government, the Jews."
Waging Legal Battles - While some Posse members offer violence to law enforcement and public officials (see February 13, 1983 and After), most of their battles with the government take place in court. Posse members most frequently use two common legal strategems: filing frivolous liens on the properties of public officials who oppose or anger them, particularly IRS agents, and flooding the courts with a barrage of legal documents, filings, motions, and appeals. The liens carry no legal weight but sometimes damage the recipients' credit scores and interfere with the recipients' ability to buy or sell property. The court documents, often written in arcane, archaic, and contradictory legal language, clog the court system and frustate judges and prosecutors. A related tactic is the establishment of "common law courts," vigilante courts that often threaten public officials. (Mark Pitcavage 5/6/1996)
Inspiration to Other Groups - The Posse Comitatus's ideology will inspire other anti-government groups, such as the Montana Freemen (see 1993-1994).
Aerospace engineer and white racist Richard Butler, who departed California in the early 1970s and moved into a rural farmhouse in Hayden Lake, Idaho, founds and develops one of the nation's most notorious and violent white separatist groups, the Aryan Nations. Butler's 20-acre farmhouse becomes the compound for the group and its affiliated church, the Church of Jesus Christ Christian; Butler and his nascent organization envision a "whites-only" "homeland" in the Pacific Northwest. At age 11, Butler read a serialized novel in Liberty Magazine, depicting the takeover of the US by "race-mixing Bolsheviks" that deeply impressed him. As a young man, he worked as an aeronautical engineer in India, where he was fascinated by the Indian caste structure and the concept of racial purity. In 1941 he left a Los Angeles church after concluding that the preacher was spreading Communist doctrine. During World War II, as an Army engineer, he became fascinated by the German military, and later recalls that he "was thrilled to see the movies of the marching Germans.… In those days, all we knew was that Hitler hated communists, and so did my folks—as we did as teenagers." In the 1950s, Butler was enthralled by radio broadcasts of then-Senator Joseph McCarthy (R-WI) and his "Red scare" accusations, and sent money to support McCarthy's political campaigns. During that time, Butler met William Potter Gale, another white supremacist who went on to found the Posse Comitatus (see 1969). Butler held a high position in the Christian Defense League, an organization founded by the Reverend Wesley Swift and described by the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) as "virulently anti-Semitic," until 1965, and shortly thereafter became a mail-order "ordained minister" of Christian Identity, a white supremacist offshoot of the Christian church (see 1960s and After). Butler buys the farmhouse in Hayden Lake and founds his own "Christian Posse Comitatus," and thereafter founds the Church of Jesus Christ Christian. The two groups merge into what later becomes known as Aryan Nations. (Cooperman 6/2/2003; Southern Poverty Law Center 2010; Southern Poverty Law Center 2010)
A Posse Comitatus group (see 1969) in Michigan sends threatening notices to local law enforcement agencies about the agencies' enforcement of state tax laws against tax protester George Kindred. (Anti-Defamation League 2011)
Robert Millar, a former Mennonite who left Canada for the US in the early 1950s, moves to the Ozark Mountain region of eastern Oklahoma and founds what he calls "Elohim City," a small compound populated by his four sons and 12 other followers. Elohim City grows to become a 400-acre compound populated with 70 to 100 "Christian Identity" white supremacists and religious extremists, who believe that whites are the only true people and all others are subhuman "mud people" (see 1960s and After). Elohim is a Hebrew word for God. Elohim City, accessible only via a rocky road and a single steel bridge, soon becomes a haven for violent right-wing extremists, including Timothy McVeigh, who will call the compound two weeks before bombing a federal building in Oklahoma City (see 8:35 a.m. - 9:02 a.m. April 19, 1995), and Andreas "Andy the German" Strassmeir, a German weapons buff with ties to neo-Nazi groups and an alleged co-conspirator of McVeigh's (see August 1994 - March 1995). The residents receive intensive paramilitary training, often led by Strassmeir, and the compound contains a large arsenal of weapons. Elohim City becomes the headquarters of the Aryan Republican Army (see 1992 - 1995), an organization that has Strassmeir as its "chief of security." Some of the Elohim City residents such as ARA member Dennis Mahon come to believe that Strassmeir is a government informant. Author Nicole Nichols, an expert on right-wing hate groups, will later say she believes Strassmeir is the infamous "John Doe #2" of the Oklahoma City bombing (see April 20, 1995). (Hastings 2/23/1997; Graff, Cole, and Shannon 2/24/1997; Nicole Nichols 2003; Nicole Nichols 2003; Nicole Nichols 2003) A 2002 report by the Anti-Defamation League says that after the Oklahoma City bombing, Elohim City changes to become a less militant settlement, populated largely by white separatists and religious fundamentalists seeking to withdraw from the world. Before his death in 2001, Millar says: "Somebody said, 'You're not a racist, you're a purist.' I sort of liked that." John Millar, who becomes the community leader after his father's death, says: "[W]e consider ourselves survivalists in the sense that we want to survive the best way we can.… We have weapons, but any person within 15 miles of us has more weapons per household than we do. We don't make a big thing about weapons. We don't think we can keep the National Guard away with a few weapons." An unnamed government informer tells a New York Post reporter in June 2001: "McVeigh is a hero inside Elohim City. They look upon him 'as a martyr to their cause.'" (Anti-Defamation League 8/9/2002)
Tax protester Ardie McBrearty founds the United States Taxpayers Union (USTU), an organization dedicated to abolishing the 16th Amendment (see 1951-1967 and 1970-1972), and also the Occupational Safety and Health Act (OSHA), consumer protection statutes, gun control laws, and other "unconstitutional" legislation. McBrearty, an avowed Christian Identity follower (see 1960s and After), will abandon tax protest in favor of armed white supremacist militancy, joining The Order (see Late September 1983 and August 1984 and After). He will eventually earn 40 years in prison for his role in The Order's violent actions. (Southern Poverty Law Center 12/2001) In a 1982 lawsuit, McBrearty will argue that a 1977 agreement with UTSU mandated that the group should pay "all necessary personal and family obligations of said individual [and] all costs incurred in the defense of a client member." McBrearty will be convicted for tax law violations in 1979 and will sue the UTSU shortly thereafter. The courts will dismiss the lawsuit because such an agreement "contravene[s] public policy and [i]s therefore unenforceable." (OpenJurist 1/18/1982) It is unclear whether McBrearty's loss of the lawsuit triggers his desire to join a more actively violent organization, such as The Order.
James Wickstrom, a tool salesman and former mill worker angered by what he saw as less-qualified African-American workers bypassing him in receiving raises and promotions, meets Thomas Stockheimer (see 1974), a member of the violent anti-tax, racist, and anti-Semitic organization Posse Comitatus (see 1969). Wickstrom walks by Stockheimer's "Little People's Tax Party" office in Racine, Wisconsin, each week, and is accosted by Stockheimer, who asks him: "Do you know who you are? Do you really know who you are? Do you know that you're an Israelite?" Initially Wickstrom is offended at being called, he believes, a Jew, but after a discussion, leaves with two audiotapes of sermons by Posse founder William Potter Gale that tell him he is a member of God's chosen people, a member of the "true" Israelite tribe; Jews are the offspring of Satan and are unworthy of being called Israelites. Blacks, Gale preaches, are subhuman, no better than beasts of the field, and merely tools of the Jewish conspiracy to destroy white Western society. Wickstrom finds Gale's message appealing, and he joins Stockheimer in setting up a Bible study group. Wickstrom follows in Gale's footsteps and becomes an adherent of the Christian Identity ideology (see 1960s and After). Stockheimer flees Racine ahead of the police, who intend to have him complete his jail sentence for assaulting an IRS agent, and Wickstrom quits his job and moves to Schell City, Missouri; he will later explain the move, saying, "I wanted to be with like-minded people." He buys property near Identity minister Dan Gayman, becomes a teacher at a small private school operated by Gayman and another Identity minister, Loren Kallstrom, and in 1977 founds his own church, Mission of Jesus the Christ Church, living off tithes and donations. After a falling out with Gayman, in 1978 Wickstrom moves back to Wisconsin, at the invitation of Posse member Donald Minniecheske, who wants him to take part in the establishment of a Posse compound on the shores of the Embarrass River (see 1978 - 1983). (Southern Poverty Law Center 12/2004)
Financial and insurance consultant Irwin Schiff uses the anti-tax arguments of Arthur Porth (see 1951-1967) and Marvin Cooley (see 1970-1972) to bring the anti-tax protest message to a much more mainstream audience than Porth, whose appeal was largely confined to right-wing and racist audiences. Schiff, who bills himself as "America's leading untax expert," will appear on national television for more than 25 years before eventually going to jail for tax evasion. His biggest impact comes with his 1976 book, The Biggest Con: How the Government is Fleecing You. His second book, published six years later, is called How Anyone Can Stop Paying Income Taxes. The Biggest Con earns him $135,000 in royalties over the two years that follow its publication, and $85,000 in royalties for the decade following. In 1978, Schiff is charged for failing to file tax returns, and eventually convicted; he will be convicted of similar charges in 1985 and again in 2005. He tells one judge: "I only received federal reserve units, not dollars. I received no lawful money upon which a tax can be collected." The US government says Schiff owes over $2.6 million in back taxes, interest, and penalties. (Southern Poverty Law Center 12/2001; Tax Protester Dossiers 10/23/2010) In 1996, Schiff will be a candidate for the Libertarian Party's nomination for president. (C-SPAN 7/5/1996)
James Wickstrom (see 1975 - 1978), a self-styled "minister" of the racist, anti-Semitic Christian Identity ideology (see 1960s and After) and a member of the anti-government Posse Comitatus (see 1969), moves back to his childhood state of Wisconsin from his home in Missouri, at the invitation of Donald Minniecheske, who owns 570 acres of land on the shores of the Embarrass River and wants to create a "township" for the Posse that would be run without recognition of federal, state, or local law. Minniecheske wants Wickstrom to be part of the new "township" and what Minniecheske calls the "rejuvenation" of the Posse. He begins by naming himself "national director of counter insurgency" of the organization. After building a bar and moving a few trailers onto the land, Wickstrom and Minniecheske name the property the Constitutional Township of Tigerton Dells. Wickstrom names himself the township's judge and municipal clerk, and grants Minniecheske a new liquor license (he had lost his previous license two years before). Wickstrom also begins traveling through the Midwestern farm belt, appearing at meeting halls, in basements, and at farm shows. "I knew that something had to be done. I knew that the ranchers and the farmers were being meticulously destroyed by the Jew banking system in America," Wickstrom will later say. Wickstrom preaches the gospel of anti-tax protest and refusal to pay income taxes (see 1951-1967). He tells his listeners that since taxation and the federal government are both illegitimate, and since they are "sovereign citizens" of the US, they can pay their tax debts with fictitious money orders. Driver's licenses and ZIP codes are equally illegitimate, Wickstrom says, and tells his listeners they are the victims of a widespread Jewish conspiracy that works through tax collectors, law enforcement officials, judges, and the like to oppress them. Jews and tax collectors should be lynched, Wickstrom advises. Dairy farmer Floyd Cochran will later recall listening to Wickstrom, saying: "In the '70s and '80s farming went through a drastic change. A lot of people I'd known a good part of my life went out of business. Wickstrom was organizing farmers out West, appearing at farm shows and things of that nature, telling farmers you are losing your place not because of something you did but because the Jews want to take away your farms." By 1980, Tigerton Dells becomes the center of Posse-led paramilitary training; Wickstrom will later claim that Posse seminars draw thousands of participants who are taught survival skills and covert military operations by high-ranking Vietnam veterans. That same year, Wickstrom runs for the US Senate on the far-right Constitution Party ticket. In 1982, a local radio station begins broadcasting his speeches, and he runs for governor of Wisconsin. He continues preaching, and tells his listeners, falsely, that "his" Posse has over two million members. When North Dakota Posse member Gordon Kahl kills two US Marshals and flees (see February 13, 1983 and After), Wickstrom uses the incident to vault to national prominence and establish himself as a Posse leader (see February 14-21, 1983), moderating his usual virulently racist rhetoric, emphasizing his patriotism and strong Christian beliefs, and presenting himself as a champion of ordinary farmers and working people. (Southern Poverty Law Center 12/2004)
The Clark family of Jordan, Montana, led by Ralph Clark and including his brother Emmett, Emmett's wife Rosie, Ralph's son Edwin, his nephew Richard, his grandson Casey, and Richard's wife Kay, begin exhibiting radical anti-government views. The Clarks, who work a 960-acre wheat farm, are not averse to accepting over $700,000 in government assistance, but due to poor planning and overextensions due to land and machinery purchases, they find themselves deeply in debt. In 1981, they stop paying their federal farm loans. By 1995, they owe $1.8 million in missed payments. By that time, the Clarks have begun listening to the tax-resister, anti-government rhetoric of the "Montana Freemen" in Roundup, Montana, some 150 miles away (see 1983-1995 and 1993-1994). Alven Clark, Ralph and Emmett's brother who refuses to join them in their increasingly extremist views, will later say: "This thing just kept building every time I talked to them. They just listened to these prophets." After their farm is foreclosed and sold at a sheriff's auction for $493,000, the Clarks take a central part in one of the Freemen's first major assaults on the local judiciary (see January 1994). (Mark Pitcavage 5/6/1996) In 1996, Ralph Clark's grand-nephew Dean Clark will say: "My grandfather worked hard all his life, but his brother is another story. Ralph Clark has always been into one get-rich-quick scheme after the next. But he hasn't done any real work. He hasn't done a damn thing for the past 15 years but drink coffee, smoke cigarettes, and look out the window and daydream." (Johnson 6/10/1996)
The Aryan Nations compound in Hayden Lake, Idaho, owned by organization leader Richard Butler (see Early 1970s), is bombed. The church suffers $80,000 in damages. The bombing is never solved. Butler blames the Jewish Defense League for the attack, and responds by building a two-story guard tower on the property along with posting armed guards and dogs around the perimeter. (Southern Poverty Law Center 2010)
Two of three mercenaries accused of plotting to overthrow the government of the tiny Caribbean island nation of Dominica are found guilty of conspiracy and violation of the Neutrality Act. Stephen Don Black, a prominent Alabama Ku Klux Klan leader, and Joe Daniel Hawkins, a Klansman from Mississippi, are found guilty of the charges. Both are found not guilty of violating five firearms statutes. The plot began in 1979, when the neighboring island country of Grenada was taken over by a socialist regime with ties to the Communist government of Cuba's Fidel Castro. Mike Perdue, a former Marine and prominent white supremacist, discussed retaking Grenada with ousted former Prime Minister Eric Gairy. Perdue sought out Klan Imperial Wizard David Duke, who put him in touch with white supremacist Donald Clarke Andrews, then living in Canada. Andrews had led the white supremacist group Western Guard, and after serving a jail sentence for neo-Nazi activities, founded a new pro-Aryan group, the Nationalist Party of Canada. Andrews convinced Perdue that Dominica might be a good place from which to stage a coup in Grenada. Dominica was in the grip of grinding poverty, having been devastated by a hurricane in 1979 and plagued with racial violence from a splinter group of Rastafarians called the Dreads. The island's government was unstable and, Perdue and Andrews believed, ripe for overthrow. Perdue partnered with another supremacist, Wolfgang Droege, and began planning to stage a coup that would place former Prime Minister Patrick John back in power. Even though John was something of a leftist, and wanted to displace the much more right-wing and pro-American Prime Minister, Eugenia Charles, in September 1980 Perdue and John agreed in writing to commence what they called "Operation Red Dog," a violent coup with the goal of placing John back in charge of the government. The Washington Times will later report: "The coup forged some odd alliances. [It] united right-wing North Americans and Caribbean leftists, white nationalists and black revolutionaries; First World capitalists and Third World Socialists." Canadian writer Stewart Bell later describes Perdue as a man of no real political convictions and a lust for money who routinely lies about his Vietnam experience (he never served in Southeast Asia, and did not tell his companions that he was a homosexual), and Droege as a German-Canadian high school dropout with neo-Nazi sympathies. Others involved in the putative coup are nightclub owner and white supremacist Charles Yanover, gunrunner Sydney Burnett-Alleyne (who supplied the initial connection to John), Black, Hawkins, and a small number of others. The mercenaries' plan was to put John back in power; in return, John would give them license to use the island as a haven for casinos, drug smuggling, and money laundering. Almost from the outset, the conspiracy was infiltrated by two agents from the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms (BATF), John Osburg and Wally Grafton, who were alerted to the planned coup by charter boat captain Mike Howell. Perdue had tried to hire Howell to take the mercenaries to Dominica, and told Howell that his was a CIA operation. Members of the operation also talked to others about it; one even gave a "secret" interview to a radio reporter in Hamilton. Osburg and Grafton alerted law enforcement authorities; on the night of the raid, federal authorities overwhelmed the small band of mercenaries, arrested them all, and confiscated a large number of firearms, 10 pounds of dynamite, over 5,000 rounds of ammunition, and a large red-and-black Nazi flag. The operation was later derisively termed the "Bayou of Pigs," a joking reference to the 1961 attempt by right-wing American mercenaries to overthrow Castro's government. John was arrested in Dominica. Perdue and six other participants have already pled guilty to violating the Neutrality Act. Before his sentencing of three years in prison, Black says, "What we were doing was in the best interests of the United States and its security in the hemisphere, and we feel betrayed by our own government." (Time 5/11/1981; United Press International 6/21/1981; Abel 2/19/1998; Weisman 10/5/2008; Winnipeg Free Press 11/2/2008) After serving his jail term, Black will go on to found the influential white supremacist organization Stormfront (see March 1995 and June 22, 2008).
Ben Klassen, the founder and leader of the Church of the Creator (COTC—see 1973), moves the church from Florida to a large lot in Mulberry, North Carolina, opening a post office box in nearby Otto. He chooses the site because he believes Florida is too dangerous to live in. "I think South Florida is due for a lot of turmoil when bloody fighting breaks out," he says. "Actually, I expect the financial collapse of the entire country, and blood will be flowing in the streets." He and fellow COTC members build a personal residence, a three-story church, a small warehouse, and a "school for gifted boys." Klassen begins calling himself "Pontifex Maximus" of the church, a Latin term meaning "high priest," and begins writing a newsletter, "Racial Loyalty." Later in the year, COTC is granted an exemption from state taxes based on its status as a church. (Anti-Defamation League 1993; Southern Poverty Law Center 9/1999) In the years to come, the Mulberry site will become a full-fledged "compound." A September 1992 article in Mirabella magazine will observe that the "seventeen-acre landscaped compound… includes small-arms firing ranges, paramilitary barracks, and other buildings.… Inside a large converted barn that serves as headquarters, church founder and leader, Ben Klassen… sits beneath a large painted portrait of Adolf Hitler, 'The greatest leader the white race ever had,' says Klassen.… Since 1990 groups of committed young men have traveled here for extensive political mining under Klassen's tutelage. The recruits wear white berets or cowboy hats, live in the barracks, and practice shooting with automatic weapons on the firing range. Many are older teenagers. 'Exceptional boys,' Klassen calls them." (Anti-Defamation League 1993)
Anti-abortion activists Don Benny Anderson (see May 1982), Matthew Moore, and Wayne Moore kidnap Dr. Hector Zevallos of the Hope Clinic for Women (see January 1982) and his wife. The activists hold the Zevalloses for eight days, during which time they force Zevallos to make an anti-abortion speech that is to be videotaped and sent to President Reagan in support of legislation designed to overturn the Supreme Court's 1973 Roe v. Wade decision that legalized abortion (see January 22, 1973). Threatened with the murder of himself and his wife, Zevallos agrees. According to government documents, this is the first action of the "Army of God," a violent anti-abortion group (see 1982, Early 1980s, and July 1988). (Kushner 2003, pp. 38; Extremist Groups: Information for Students 1/1/2006) Anderson and Matthew Moore will plead guilty to multiple felonies in regards to the incident; Anderson will tell the court that he has been told by God to "wage war on abortion." The three will also be convicted of kidnapping Zevallos and his wife. Anderson will receive 30 years for the kidnapping, and 30 additional years for firebombing two Florida abortion clinics. (Extremist Groups: Information for Students 1/1/2006; National Abortion Federation 2010)
LeRoy Schweitzer, a crop duster in Montana and Idaho, becomes increasingly frustrated and resentful at what he considers interference by the government. Beginning in the mid-1980s, Schweitzer moves toward becoming an anti-government tax resister. He becomes fascinated by the legal ideology of the Posse Comitatus (see 1969), attends numerous Posse meetings, and has some contacts with members of The Order (see Late September 1983). Schweitzer, well-liked by his neighbors and friends, begins to worry them with his increasing extremism. He helps a friend, Bernard Kuennan, mount a legal defense against charges of letting his dog roam unvaccinated, and the two hammer the judge with questions about the differences between "admiralty" and "common law" (see Fall 2010). He defies police officers who stop him for traffic violations. He moves to Montana, where he refuses to get a license to fly his Cessna crop duster, resulting in federal arrest warrants. His refusal to pay federal taxes causes the IRS to seize his plane in November 1992, his Bozeman, Montana home, and other equipment, and sell it all to pay his $389,000 delinquent tax bill, dating back to the 1970s. Thoroughly radicalized, Schweitzer meets Rodney Owen Skurdal, another legal manipulator. Skurdal is an ex-Marine and Posse Comitatus advocate who, during litigation of a worker's compensation suit in the 1980s, tells the judge that the federal government lacks the authority to print paper money and demands, fruitlessly, to be paid his compensation in gold bullion. One Wyoming newspaper claims that Skurdal's extremism begins after he suffers a fractured skull in 1983, the source of the compensation claim; Skurdal's former wife says after the injury that Skurdal refuses to use a Social Security number or driver's license. Skurdal, like many in the Posse, is an adherent to the virulently racist Christian Identity belief system (see 1960s and After), and in court filings claims non-whites are "beasts," and Jews "the children of Satan." Skurdal routinely intertwines Identity, Posse Comitatus, Biblical, and Uniform Commercial Code (UCC) tenets in his court filings (see 1994). In 1993, the IRS seizes his farm near Roundup, Montana, for back taxes; Skurdal continues to occupy the farm and no local official dares to evict him. In late 1994, Skurdal invites Schweitzer to move in with him; they are joined by Daniel Petersen in early 1995. The three become the nucleus of what will become the Montana Freemen. Skurdal's farm becomes a headquarters for the nascent organization, with computers, fax machines, laser printers, and satellite dishes going round the clock. The inhabitants post a sign on the edge of the property, reading: "Do Not Enter Private Land of the Sovereign.… The right of Personal Liberty is one of the fundamental rights guaranteed to every citizen, and any unlawful interference with it may be resisted." Local authorities want to curb the group, but do not want to risk violence and bloodshed. Musselshell County Sheriff G. Paul Smith says: "These people want to be martyrs. I don't know how far they are willing to carry that." Moreover, Smith and his small sheriff's department are outnammed and outgunned. (Mark Pitcavage 5/6/1996)
Posse Comitatus (see 1969 and 1983) member and anti-tax protester Gordon Kahl (see 1967 - 1973) and three Posse members gun down two US marshals who are attempting to arrest Kahl in a confrontation near Medina, North Dakota. The two marshals are among a group of six attempting to apprehend Kahl in a 1977 income tax case after he violated his probation by refusing to file a tax return (see 1975 - 1981); he has been a fugitive since 1981.
Initial Attempts to Negotiate Peaceful Surrender Fail - In that year, Kahl refused to turn himself over to North Dakota federal marshal Harold "Bud" Warren after a number of telephone conversations in which Kahl insisted that he had been "illegally" convicted by the "forces of Satan." Warren decided that Kahl's probation violation was "hardly a serious crime" and decided not to pursue it, partially because he knew Kahl was a crack shot and feared he would lose officers in any attempt to arrest him.
Increasing Involvement in Posse Activities - Kahl moved to Arkansas, where he visited the compound of the white supremacist Covenant, Sword, and Arm of the Lord organization. A member of that organization, Leonard Ginter, hid Kahl from federal authorities. Kahl's wife, under tremendous stress from the situation, tried and failed to negotiate a settlement with the IRS, resulting in her excoriation by her 23-year-old son Yorie, who accused her of cooperating with "the tithing collectors of the Jewish-Masonic Synogogue [sic] of Satan." Kahl became more and more involved in Posse Comitatus activities, traveling to Kansas and Colorado.
Return to North Dakota, Confrontation with Police - In January 1983 he and Yorie Kahl returned to North Dakota with the intention of setting up a Posse "township" near Medina, which they envisioned as being free from state and government control. Kahl's station wagon is observed by Stutsman County deputy sheriff Bradley Kapp, who informs the Marshal Service in Bismarck. Warren's successor, Kenneth Muir, authorizes Kahl's arrest, and drives to Medina with Deputy Marshal Carl Wigglesworth to join two other deputy marshals, Robert Cheshire Jr. and James Hopson Jr. Kapp is spotted by some of his Posse colleagues, who quickly join him in planning to forcibly resist any arrest attempt. Reportedly, they receive the assistance of Medina police chief Darrell Graf, who is allegedly a Posse sympathizer. Kahl, Yorie Kahl, and Posse members David Broer and Scott Faul flee Medina in two Posse members' cars, but the ruse only briefly confuses the marshals, and two police cars with flashing lights quickly apprehend Kahl and Broer. One car is driven by deputy police chief Steve Schnabel; the other by Muir and Wigglesworth. Kapp, Cheshire, and Hopson are close behind in a third vehicle. Kahl and Broer turn off the road into a driveway, and Kahl, armed with a modified Ruger Mini-14 assault rifle, prepares to open fire on the approaching police officers. The others leap out of their cars and, armed with Mini-14s, take up positions in a ditch. When the marshals arrive moments later, they get out of their cars and order the Posse members to lay down their weapons. One of the Posse members opens fire, and in the 30-second volley that ensues, Kahl and his fellow Posse members lay down a deadly fire that inflicts heavy damage on the outgunned marshals. Kahl wounds Kapp and Schnabel with two shots, and kills Muir with a shot to the heart. Muir fires off a single shot that gravely wounds Yorie. Hopson is struck in the head by a ricocheting bullet that causes permanent brain damage. Rifle fire from Yorie and Faul fatally wounds Cheshire. Kapp, severely injured, manages to shoot Yorie three more times, then takes cover. Kahl executes the dying Cheshire with a shot to the head, then points his rifle at the downed Schnabel, but chooses not to kill him, instead taking his police cruiser and fleeing the scene. He takes the injured Yorie to a Posse member, Dr. Clarence Martin; Yorie and Kahl's wife Joan are arrested later that night at the hospital, and Yorie tells FBI agents some details of the confrontation. Faul, Broer, and Posse member Vernon Wegner are also arrested; Faul refuses to tell police or FBI investigators where Kahl might have fled to. Police find Schnabel's abandoned police cruiser. Two days later, police surround Kahl's farmhouse and bombard it with tear gas, only to find it abandoned. They do find a store of weapons and ammunition, and a collection of Posse Comitatus pamphlets and related documents. Kahl's family insists that law enforcement efforts to apprehend Kahl are unfair, and complain that he is being "hunted like a dog." Joan Kahl appears on television and tearfully pleads with her husband to surrender, to no avail. FBI and US Marshals descend on the local Posse Comitatus headquarters, and offer a $25,000 reward for information leading to his arrest, but Kahl has disappeared into the shadows of the far-right militia network. (Ian Geldard 2/19/1995; Southern Poverty Law Center 12/2001; Levitas 2002, pp. 194-200; Nicole Nichols 2003; Anti-Defamation League 2011) Kahl's murder of the marshals will be used by Posse Comitatus leader James Wickstrom to promote the anti-tax movement (see February 14-21, 1983). Four months later, Kahl will die in a bloody standoff with police officers in Arkansas (see March 13 - June 3, 1983).
Gordon Kahl, an anti-tax protester, Posse Comitatus member (see 1967 - 1973 and 1975 - 1981), and federal fugitive who killed two US Marshals in a February shootout in North Dakota (see February 13, 1983 and After), quickly gains national prominence as the media begins reporting on the fatal confrontation. Most media reports only identify him as a "tax protester," failing to mention his Posse Comitatus membership and often leaving out the involvement of his son, Yorie Kahl, and two other Posse members who helped kill the marshals and wound three others. CBS news anchor Dan Rather goes farther than most of his colleagues, describing Kahl as "a radical survivalist, a fanatic, [and] an ultraright-wing tax protester" whom authorities describe as "a killer." It does not take long for Posse Comitatus leader James Wickstrom (see 1984) to begin contacting the media himself, proudly announcing Kahl's Posse connections and announcing: "The Posse in Wisconsin is on standby alert. All communications are locked in." The government has, in pursuing Kahl, "declared war on the people of this country," Wickstrom tells reporters. He adds that his organization has some three million members, though the FBI estimates its membership at closer to a few thousand; the number is hard to pin down, as many anti-tax protesters (see 1951-1967, December 9, 1968 and After, 1970-1972, 1974, 1976-1978, 1980, and Early 1980s) have at least some affiliation with the loosely organized group. As the FBI and local law enforcement officials mount a nationwide manhunt, Wickstrom, with some success, tries to turn the story away from Kahl's murder of the two marshals and towards the story of the Posse's anti-tax beliefs. "What we have here is a gentleman who is now being pursued in North Dakota on a setup to shut his mouth because the American people are waking up by the tens of thousands across this country, realizing that we have been duped by a private central bank," he declares to a Milwaukee reporter. He makes an appearance on the nationally televised Phil Donahue Show, where he claims that his "heart really goes out to the US Marshals and the children of those marshals and their families." Asked by Donahue if he would join Kahl's wife in asking Kahl to turn himself in, Wickstrom changes the subject, arguing that Kahl's civil rights have been violated and the real issues are farm foreclosures, corrupt courts, the income tax, the Federal Reserve, unemployment, foreign workers, and Jews. In 2002, author Daniel Levitas will write, "Phil Donahue's dialogue with Wickstrom was oftentimes inane, and though he clearly didn't agree with his guest, he gave Wickstrom a tremendous platform to spread his ideas." Wickstrom will use his media appearances to mount a longshot candidacy for governor of Wisconsin. (Levitas 2002, pp. 201-204) Four months later, Kahl will die in a bloody standoff with police officers in Arkansas (see March 13 - June 3, 1983).
Gordon Kahl, an anti-tax protester, Posse Comitatus member (see 1967 - 1973 and 1975 - 1981), and federal fugitive who killed two US Marshals in a February shootout in North Dakota (see February 13, 1983 and After), arrives at a farm in Mountain Home, Arkansas. The farm owner, Arthur Russell, is a member of another white supremacist organization, the Covenant, Sword, and Arm of the Lord (CSA), and willingly hides Kahl, who is facing a second warrant for his arrest issued March 11. Kahl spends two months hiding at Russell's farmhouse, studying the Bible, watching television, and spending time with Russell's daughter Karen. While Kahl is in hiding, his family and colleagues in the Posse who were involved in the shootout are tried in May 1983; his son Yorie Kahl and colleague Scott Faul are convicted of second-degree murder and six other related charges; David Broer is convicted of conspiracy and of harboring a fugitive; and his wife Joan Kahl is acquitted of conspiracy and harboring a fugitive.
FBI Learns of Kahl's Whereabouts - In late May, after the convictions, Kahl leaves the Russell farm with his CSA friend Leonard Ginter and Ginter's wife Norma. Ginter, an unemployed carpenter, belongs to a small anti-government group called Americans for Constitutional Enforcement, but is not too ideologically rigid not to accept food stamps for himself and his wife. Kahl and the Ginters drive to Smithville, Arkansas, a tiny Ozark town where the Ginters have a concrete house with a vegetable patch and a chicken pen. After Kahl leaves, Karen Russell calls the FBI and informs them of his whereabouts.
Final Confrontation - On June 3, FBI agent James Blasingame organizes a group of US Marshals and local lawmen at the Lawrence County courthouse to plan how best to apprehend Kahl and the Ginters. Twenty-eight law enforcement officials, including 15 US Marshals, six FBI agents, three state police officers, and four county lawmen descend on the Ginter home. While en route, they encounter Ginter, driving away from the house in a car with a rifle in the backseat; he has a cocked and loaded pistol in his lap. Ginter is apprehended without incident, but lies to the police, saying Kahl is not at the house. Unfortunately, the officials believe his story. At the officials' request, Ginter drives back to the house, with five officials behind. Ginter parks his car, as do the officials; Ginter gets out and shouts: "Norma, come out. The FBI wants to talk to you." He emphasizes the word "FBI" as loudly as possible, alerting Kahl to their presence. Norma Ginter comes out and is escorted away. Lawrence County Sheriff Gene Matthews, departing from the plan, enters the house through a utility room off the garage, with US Marshal James Hall and Arkansas State Police investigator Ed Fitzpatrick following him. Kahl is waiting in the kitchen, armed with a formidable Ruger Mini-14 assault rifle. When Matthews enters the kitchen, the two men see each other and open fire simultaneously; Kahl wounds Matthews fatally with two shots to the chest and Matthews kills Kahl with a bullet to the head. Hall and Fitzpatrick, unsure of what has happened, begin firing wildly, striking Matthews with buckshot. Matthews manages to get to a police cruiser before collapsing, and gasps, "I got him." But the other officials are unsure if Kahl is actually dead, and if others may be in the house as well. They open fire on the house and let loose a barrage of tear gas. They then set the house afire with a can of diesel fuel; the fire ignites several thousand rounds of ammunition stored inside the house and the house is all but gutted by the conflagration. Eventually, officials are able to enter the house and find what remains of Kahl's body in the kitchen. Posse Comitatus leader William Potter Gale, asked by a reporter about Kahl's death, says that Kahl was murdered for helping farmers and belonging to the group. Another Posse member, Richard Wayne Snell, will later claim that Matthews had been killed by FBI agents after interrupting them during their torture of Kahl. (Southern Poverty Law Center 12/2001; Levitas 2002, pp. 217-220; Anti-Defamation League 2011)
Episode Destabilizes Posse Comitatus - The Kahl episode receives national attention and helps destabilize the Posse Comitatus (see 1984). The media quickly learns of Kahl's racist and anti-Semitic past, and reprints a letter he wrote the same night he killed the marshals and later sent to reporters. In his letter, Kahl announced that it was time to begin killing Jews: "We are engaged in a struggle to the death between the people of the Kingdom of God, and the Kingdom of Satan. We are a conquered and occupied nation; conquered and occupied by the Jews, and their hundreds or maybe thousands of front organizations doing their un-Godly work. They have two objectives in their goal of ruling the world. Destroy Christianity and the White race. Neither can be accomplished by itself, they stand or fall together." In an attempt to exonerate his son and Faul, Kahl took credit for all the fatal shots. Kahl's espousal of violence and anti-Semitism causes a backlash when some Posse Comitatus members attempt to portray him as a martyr. (Southern Poverty Law Center 12/2001; Levitas 2002, pp. 217-220)
Robert Jay Mathews, a white supremacist and activist (see 1980-1982), gives a speech at the National Alliance convention in Arlington, Virginia, reporting on his efforts to recruit farmers and ranchers into the "white racialist" movement (see 1969). Mathews receives the only standing ovation of the convention. He also renews his acquaintance with Thomas Martinez, a former Ku Klux Klansman from Philadelphia, and becomes close friends with him. (McClary 12/6/2006) Mathews will go on to found The Order, one of the most violent anti-government organizations in modern US history (see Late September 1983). He will die during a 1984 standoff with FBI agents (see December 8, 1984).
Robert Jay Mathews, a white supremacist and activist (see 1980-1982 and September 1983), invites eight men to his property in Metaline Falls, Washington: neighbor and best friend Kenneth Loft; former Ku Klux Klansman David Edan Lane; Daniel Bauer; Denver Daw Parmenter; Randolph George Duey and Bruce Carroll Pierce of the Aryan Nations; and National Alliance recruits Richard Harold Kemp and William Soderquist. Mathews and his eight guests found a new organization called, variously, "The Order," "The Silent Brotherhood" or "Bruder Schweigen," and "The White American Bastion." The group uses the story depicted in the novel The Turner Diaries as its framework, determining to use violence and crime to destabilize the US government and establish a whites-only society. In the novel, "The Organization" finances its revolution by armed robberies, counterfeiting, and other crimes designed to disrupt the US economy. Mathews decides his group will use the same plan. Mathews is also inspired by real crimes, such as a failed 1981 armored car heist by the Black Liberation Army. (Kushner 2003, pp. 222-223; McClary 12/6/2006)
Four members of the newly founded white supremacist guerrilla group The Order (see Late September 1983), Robert Jay Mathews, Bruce Pierce, Randolph Duey, and Daniel Bauer, carry out the group's first armed robbery to finance their plans for armed insurrection. They rob an adult video store in Spokane, Washington, and escape with $369. Mathews, the group leader, decides to strike next at an armored car. (McClary 12/6/2006)
Bruce Pierce, a member of the white supremacist guerrilla group The Order (see Late September 1983), is arrested in Yakima, Washington, for passing counterfeit $50 bills at a local mall. Pierce obtained his counterfeit bills from an operation coordinated with the Aryan Nations in western Idaho. Pierce is interviewed by a Secret Service agent, but refuses to give him any real information. Order leader Robert Jay Mathews (see Late September 1983), worried that Pierce might talk to police or another prisoner, tries to finance Pierce's bail by robbing a bank north of Seattle. Mathews escapes with over $26,000, but most of the money is ruined when an exploding dye pack stains the bills. Pierce eventually posts a $250 bond and is released. (McClary 12/6/2006) Pierce will later murder Denver radio host Alan Berg (see June 18, 1984 and After).
Members of the white separatist, anti-Semitic group Posse Comitatus (see 1969) begin to drift away from the group after federal and state authorities seize the "township" of Tigerton Dells, Wisconsin, which the group has created as part of its "breakaway" nation. The organization is also destabilized by negative media attention after one of its members, Gordon Kahl, killed two US marshals and was later killed himself in a violent confrontation with federal and state officials in Arkansas (see February 13, 1983 and After). Some of the Posse members will take up membership in other white supremacist Christian Identity (see 1960s and After) groups such as Aryan Nations (see Early 1970s). The organization will not entirely dissipate, but quickly loses influence and membership (from a height of some 50,000) to newer groups. (Ian Geldard 2/19/1995; Southern Poverty Law Center 12/2004; Southern Poverty Law Center 2010)
The white supremacist group The Order (see Late September 1983) carries out its second armed robbery (see October 28, 1983). Its members rob the guard of an armored truck and escape with over $43,000. (McClary 12/6/2006)
Bruce Pierce, a member of the secretive white supremacist organization The Order (see Late September 1983), pleads guilty to passing counterfeit currency (see December 3-23, 1983). He believes he will receive a light sentence as this is his first criminal offense, but because he shows no remorse for his actions and refuses to divulge information about his connections to the Aryan Nations, he is sentenced to two years in federal prison. Instead of reporting to prison, Pierce holes up with Order leader Robert Jay Mathews and becomes a federal fugitive. (McClary 12/6/2006) Pierce will later murder Denver radio host Alan Berg (see June 18, 1984 and After).
Robert Jay Mathews, the leader of the violent white supremacist group The Order (see Late September 1983), journeys to Seattle, Washington, with six of his followers to rob a second armored car (see March 16, 1984). Mathews has new recruit Gary Lee Yarborough manufacture small bombs to be used as diversions. On April 19, Yarborough sets off a bomb in an adult theater near the mall where the truck will be; on April 23, Mathews calls in another bomb threat to divert police. The same day, the group successfully robs the armored truck, securing $536,000, though over $300,000 of this money is in checks, which the group destroys. Mathews and another colleague go to Missoula, Montana, where they buy firearms, ammunition, other weapons, and a state-of-the-art computer to give The Order access to the Internet. (McClary 12/6/2006)
Two members of the white supremacist group The Order (see Late September 1983), Bruce Pierce and Richard Kemp, bomb the Congregation Ahavath Israel Synagogue in Boise, Idaho. They use the first bomb Pierce has assembled, and it does little damage. Order leader Robert Jay Mathews is angry over the bombing, not because he disapproves, but because he feels the bomb should have destroyed the building. (McClary 12/6/2006) Pierce will later murder Denver radio host Alan Berg (see June 18, 1984 and After).
Robert Jay Mathews, the founder and leader of the secretive white-supremacist group The Order (see Late September 1983), has decided the group should murder Denver radio host Alan Berg. Berg, a Jewish liberal with a confrontational style, has frequently sparred with white supremacists and neo-Nazis on the air, and for this reason Mathews has decided he must die. Mathews sends Order member Jean Margaret Craig to Denver to observe Berg's movements and determine if he is a viable target. Mathews decides that the "hit" on Berg will take place in June. (McClary 12/6/2006) Mathews and three Order members will kill Berg a month later (see June 18, 1984 and After).
Four members of the secretive white supremacist group The Order (see Late September 1983), Randolph Duey, Richard Kemp, and new recruits David Charles Tate and James Dye, murder an Aryan Nations member, Walter Edwards West. Order founder Robert Jay Mathews ordered West's murder after learning that West had been getting drunk in bars around Hayden Lake, Idaho—the location of the Aryan Nations' compound—and bragging about The Order's recent exploits (see April 19-23, 1984 and April 29, 1984). Duey and Kemp kidnap West from his home and drive him into the woods, where the four kill him with hammer blows to the head and a rifle shot to the face. They then dump his body into a previously prepared grave. (McClary 12/6/2006)
Alan Berg, a Jewish, progressive talk show host for Denver's KOA 850 AM Radio, is gunned down in his driveway as he is stepping out of his car. The murder is carried out by members of the violent white-supremacist group The Order (see Late September 1983), a splinter group of the Aryan Nations white nationalist movement. Berg, who was described as often harsh and abrasive, regularly confronted right-wing and militia members on his show. Federal investigators learn that The Order's "hit list" includes Berg, television producer Norman Lear, a Kansas federal judge, and Morris Dees, a civil rights lawyer and co-founder of the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC). Radio producer Anath White later says that some of Berg's last shows were particularly rancorous, involving confrontational exchanges with anti-Semitic members of the Christian Identity movement (see 1960s and After). "That got him on the list and got him moved up the list to be assassinated," White will say. (McClary 12/6/2006; Flynn 5/1/2007; Denver Post 6/18/2009)
Preparing for the Murder - Order leader Robert Jay Mathews had already sent a colleague to Denver to determine if Berg was a viable target (see May 17, 1984). The four members of the assassination team—Mathews, Bruce Pierce, David Lane, and Richard Scutari—assemble at a local Motel 6 to review their plans. Pierce, the assassin, has brought a .45 caliber Ingram MAC-10 submachine gun for the job. All four men begin to surveill Berg's townhouse.
Gunned Down - At 9:21 p.m., Berg drives his Volkswagen Beetle into his driveway. Lane, the driver, pulls up behind him. Mathews leaps out of the car and opens the rear door for Pierce, who jumps out and runs up the driveway. Berg exits his vehicle with a bag of groceries. Pierce immediately opens fire with his submachine gun, pumping either 12 or 13 bullets into Berg's face and body before the gun jams. (Sources claim both figures of bullet wounds in Berg as accurate.) Pierce and Mathews get back into their car, rush back to the Motel 6, gather their belongings, and leave town. Three of the four members of the "hit squad" will soon be apprehended, charged, and convicted. Pierce is sentenced to 252 years in prison, including time for non-related robberies, and will die in prison in 2010; Lane is given 150 years, and will die in prison in 2007. Neither man is prosecuted for murder, as the evidence will be determined to be inconclusive; rather, they will be charged with violating Berg's civil rights. Scutari, accused of serving as a lookout for Pierce, and Jean Craig, accused of collecting information on Berg for the murder, will both be acquitted of culpability in the case, but will be convicted of other unrelated crimes. Mathews will not be charged due to lack of evidence of his participation; months later, he will die in a confrontation with law enforcement officials (see December 8, 1984). (Flynn 5/1/2007; Denver Post 6/18/2009; Pankratz 8/17/2010) In sentencing Pierce to prison, Judge Richard Matsch will say of the murder, "The man [Berg] was killed for who he was, what he believed in, and what he said and did, and that crime strikes at the very core of the Constitution." (Pankratz 8/17/2010)
Re-Enacting a Fictional Murder? - Some will come to believe that the assassins may have attempted to re-enact the fictional murder of a Jewish talk-show host depicted in The Turner Diaries (see 1978). (Flynn 5/1/2007; Estes 11/30/2007)
'Opening Shot ... of a Truly Revolutionary Radical Right' - Mark Potok of the SPLC will characterize Berg's murder as an early event leading to the 1995 Oklahoma City bombing (see 8:35 a.m. - 9:02 a.m. April 19, 1995). "In a sense, it was one of the opening shots of a truly revolutionary radical right," Potok will say, "perfectly willing to countenance the mass murder of American civilians for their cause." (Denver Post 6/18/2009) Berg's ex-wife, Judith Berg, will travel around the country in the years after her ex-husband's murder, speaking about what she calls the "disease and anatomy of hate," a sickness that can infect people so strongly that they commit horrible crimes. In 2007, she will tell a reporter that Berg's murder was a watershed event that inspired more hate-movement violence. "What happened to Alan in the grown-up world has reached into the youth culture," she will say. "It opened the door to an acceptance of violence as a means of acting on hate.… While our backs are turned toward overseas, hate groups are having a heyday. People are very unhappy; they're out of work and jobs are scarce. They're ripe for joining extremist groups. We need to understand what happened to make sure it doesn't happen again." (Flynn 5/1/2007) White later says of Pierce, Lane, and their fellows: "It's left me to wonder what makes somebody like this. I think these people didn't have much opportunity in their lives and scapegoat. They blame others for not making it." (Pankratz 8/17/2010)
David Lane, a member of the secretive white supremacist group The Order (see Late September 1983) and one of the group members responsible for murdering Denver radio host Alan Berg (see June 18, 1984 and After), gives $30,000 in counterfeit bills (see December 3-23, 1983) to Thomas Martinez in Philadelphia. Martinez is not a member of The Order, but has reluctantly agreed to pass on the bills on the group's behalf. Martinez ignores Lane's advice to pass on the bills in New Jersey and not his own neighborhood, and passes over $1,500 in neighborhood stores. On June 28, he is arrested after a liquor store owner alerts authorities about the fake bills. Martinez is questioned by the Secret Service, but though he is fully aware of The Order's array of crimes, tells his questioners nothing. He telephones Order leader Robert Jay Mathews, asking that he give him $1,600 for an attorney. Mathews tells Martinez to be patient, that the group is planning another robbery (see March 16, 1984 and April 19-23, 1984), and he will then send him the money. (McClary 12/6/2006)
Robert Jay Mathews, the head of the secretive white supremacist group The Order (see Late September 1983), has the group pull a third armored car robbery (see March 16, 1984 and April 19-23, 1984). Mathews has a contact in San Francisco, Charles Ostrout, a supervisor at the Brink's Armored Car Service depot in that city. In 1982, Ostrout visited Mathews's White American Bastion (see 1980-1982), complaining that minorities were getting all the jobs and promotions at his company. Mathews and Ostrout decided that the Brink's run to Eureka, California, at a location north of Ukiah, is the best target. Mathews and six Order colleagues stop the Brink's armored truck on Highway 101 and rob the guards of over $3.6 million. During the robbery, Mathews loses a 9mm Smith and Wesson pistol registered to one of his fellow robbers, Andrew Barnhill; the gun will give the FBI its first solid lead in the string of robberies, and the FBI will quickly learn of the group's existence and of Mathews's identity as its leader. The seven escape and, driving several cars, go to Boise, Idaho, where they split the money between them. (McClary 12/6/2006)
The members of the secretive white supremacist group The Order (see Late September 1983) discover that the FBI has learned of their group's existence and has compiled a list of many of its members, including leader Robert Jay Mathews. The FBI is investigating the group for a string of armored car robberies (see March 16, 1984, April 19-23, 1984, and July 19, 1984). The group abandons plans for a fourth robbery and splits up. Mathews and other members move from one cheap hotel and "safe house" to another, while others roam the Northwest in campers and travel trailers. The FBI observes one Order member, Gary Yarborough, moving to a remote mountain cabin near Samules, Idaho. Mathews asks an associate, Ardie McBrearty (see 1974), to establish a telephone message center where group members can leave and receive messages. (McClary 12/6/2006)
Thomas Martinez, an associate of the secretive white supremacist group The Order (see Late September 1983) who is facing charges of passing counterfeit bills on the group's behalf (see June 24-28, 1984), decides to become an FBI informant. Martinez's lawyer has told him that the FBI knows of his links to the group, and he could face charges as a co-conspirator in any future prosecutions. To hopefully avoid any such charges, Martinez gives detailed information on The Order and his knowledge of its crimes. He also agrees to collect more information about the group's activities (see August 1984 and After). (McClary 12/6/2006)
Three FBI agents in a green US Forest Service truck drive onto the wooded Idaho property of Gary Yarborough, a member of the white supremacist group The Order (see August 1984 and After). They are met with gunfire and retreat. They return in the evening with a search warrant. Yarborough has fled into the woods (and will escape to join leader Robert Jay Mathews), but in his cabin the agents find a large collection of evidence of The Order's crimes, including documents, explosives, gas grenades, cases of ammunition, pistols, shotguns, rifles, two Ingram MAC-10 submachine guns with silencers, gas masks, knives, crossbows, assault vests, radio frequency scanners, and other equipment. Among the cache of weapons is the MAC-10 used to kill Denver radio host Alan Berg (see June 18, 1984 and After). Based on the evidence found in Yarborough's cabin, the FBI decides to begin arresting members of The Order. (McClary 12/6/2006)
Robert Jay Mathews, the leader of the neo-Nazi, white supremacist group The Order (see Late September 1983 and June 18, 1984 and After), is killed during a standoff with federal authorities at a rented vacation home near Smugger's Cove on Whidbey Island, Washington State. Mathews has been on the run after escaping from federal custody in November 1984 and in the process wounding an FBI agent in the leg (see November 23-24, 1984). On December 3, the FBI's Seattle office received an anonymous tip that Mathews and other Order members were hiding in three hideouts on Whidbey Island, and were heavily armed. The FBI dispatched 150 agents to the island to ensure none of the members escaped. By December 7, the FBI had all three hideouts located and surrounded. Four members of the group surrender without incident, but Mathews refuses, instead firing repeatedly at agents from inside the Smuggler's Cove house. After 35 hours of fruitless negotiations, agents fire three M-79 Starburst illumination flares into the home, hoping that the house will catch fire and drive Mathews out. Instead, Mathews either chooses to remain inside the house, or is unable to leave. He dies in the flames. The FBI recovers his charred body the next morning. News reports about the siege are the first many Americans hear of The Order and its war against what it calls the "ZOG," or Zionist Occupation Government, which Mathews and others characterize as a "Jewish cabal" running the US government. (McClary 12/6/2006) In 2003, researcher Harvey Kushner will write of Mathews, "For many on the racist right, he died a martyr." (Kushner 2003, pp. 223)
After the death of Robert Jay Mathews, the founder and leader of the white supremacist group The Order (see December 8, 1984), federal authorities decide to "roll up" the group. Federal prosecutors from six states meet secretly in Seattle and decide to use the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act (RICO) against Order members. Under RICO statutes, all defendants are considered co-conspirators and are jointly responsible for all the crimes committed by the group (see October 28, 1983, December 3-23, 1983, March 16, 1984, April 19-23, 1984, April 29, 1984, May 27, 1984, June 18, 1984 and After, June 24-28, 1984, July 19, 1984, and November 23-24, 1984). The RICO Act also allows the government to seize and forfeit all property and assets used by the criminal organization to further its goals. Between December 1984 and March 1985, the Justice Department builds a massive conspiracy case against The Order. On April 15, 1985, a grand jury in Washington State returns a 20-count indictment against 23 members of The Order with racketeering, conspiracy, and 67 separate offenses. By this time, 17 members of The Order are in custody; by the month's end, all but one member, Richard Scutari (see March 19, 1986), are in custody. (McClary 12/6/2006)
Two anti-tax protesters, William "Bill" Benson and Martin J. "Red" Beckman, publish a two-volume book, The Law that Never Was, that argues the 16th Amendment, the constitutional amendment giving the federal government the authority to levy income taxes, is null and void (see 1951-1967, 1970-1972, 1976-1978, and Early 1980s). The arguments in the book include the idea that because the amendment was ratified by different states with small differences in capitalization and punctuation, it was never properly ratified, as well as the argument that since Ohio was not yet a state when it ratified the amendment, Ohio's ratification of the amendment renders it null. The authors include other arguments—the Internal Revenue Code is not "positive law"; the Internal Revenue Service is not a legitimate government agency; wages do not qualify as "taxable income"; "sovereign citizens" are exempt from income tax—all of which will be declared worthless and frivolous by various state and federal courts. The Anti-Defamation League will write that the arguments advanced by Benson and Beckman "are used again and again by tax protesters.… When a tax protest argument fails in court, the response among tax protesters is typically not to conclude that the argument was erroneous but rather to assume that the judge was wrong, corrupt, or deliberately misinterpreting the law." Benson is a former investigator for the Illinois Internal Revenue Service, while Beckman is a virulent anti-Semite who accuses Jews of worshiping Satan and says the Holocaust was God's "judgment upon a people who believe Satan is their god." In 1991, Benson will be convicted of tax fraud and tax evasion, and will be sued by the US government to stop him from promoting an "abusive tax shelter" by selling what he calls a "Reliance Defense Package" while doing business as "Constitutional Research Associates." In 2007, a federal court will find that his Reliance Defense Package "contained false or fraudulent information concerning tax advice," and will note that a circuit court "explicitly rejected Benson's arguments that the Sixteenth Amendment was not properly ratified." Benson's work will frequently be cited by tax protesters, many of whom will be fined or convicted for relying on his claims. (Southern Poverty Law Center 12/2001; Tax Protester Dossiers 11/30/2009; Anti-Defamation League 2011)
Richard Butler, the head of the white separatist and neo-Nazi organization Aryan Nations (see Early 1970s), is subpoenaed to testify before a grand jury in Seattle, as part of the federal effort to convict members of the violent white separatist group The Order (see Late December 1984 - April 1985). Butler escapes indictment, even though he has strong connections with The Order (see 1980-1982), and after the Order trial, denounces the Order members who testified against their former colleagues. (Southern Poverty Law Center 2010)
David Tate, one of two members of the now-defunct white supremacist group The Order to escape the government's massive prosecution of its members (see Late December 1984 - April 1985), is stopped by two Missouri state troopers conducting random vehicle and license checks. He is trying to flee to a Christian Identity (see 1960s and After) survivalist compound called the Covenant, the Sword, and the Arm of the Lord (CSA). Tate opens fire on the two officers with a MAC-10 submachine gun, killing one and critically wounding the other. He is captured five days later hiding in a city park in Arkansas. He will be convicted of assault and murder, and sentenced to life without parole. Federal authorities will use the Tate incident to arrest the CSA leadership (see 1983); the organization will soon fold. (Anti-Defamation League 2005; McClary 12/6/2006)
Dennis Ryan, 15, helps his father torture and kill a man. Michael Ryan, a partially disabled farmer in Rulo, Nevada, has for three years followed the violent white supremacist teachings of the Posse Comitatus (see 1969) through Posse leader James Wickstrom (see 1975 - 1978), who in 1982 told him to prepare for Armageddon. After speaking to Wickstrom for the first time in Kansas, Ryan told his son to quit playing football and begin practicing with a rifle. Wickstrom adopted Ryan as something of a protege, and steered some of his supporters towards him, making him a leader in local Posse circles. In 1985, Dennis, on his father's orders, shoots James Thimm in the face. His father had become angry with Thimm. When Thimm does not die, the elder Ryan chains him inside a hog shed, kicks and beats him, and forces him to have sex with a goat. Dennis, again complying with his father's orders, shoots off Thimm's fingers and partially skins him. The elder Ryan sodomizes Thimm with a shovel and finally kicks him to death. The entire procedure takes two weeks. In 2001, Dennis Ryan will tell a reporter: "I don't hold Wickstrom responsible for the crime I committed. I hold him responsible for getting my dad into it.… Wickstrom didn't make my dad kill anybody, but he planted the seed. He planted it in my dad and then he helped it grow." Author Daniel Levitas will agree, telling the reporter, "There could not have been the tragedy in Rulo if there was not a James Wickstrom." Dennis Ryan wil add: "He was looking for something to believe in. He didn't like blacks to begin with. I don't think he was ever a popular person growing up. I think that it was the right time for the wrong thing. He was weak and you don't let someone indoctrinate you into something like that unless you are weak-minded. He was all screwed up." Former Covenant, Sword and Arm of the Lord member Kerry Noble will say of Wickstrom: "[He] is dangerous to the extent of provoking others. He is typical of leaders. They won't do violent stuff, yet that's all they'll preach. They'll push buttons, but they are extremely cowardly." Dennis will recall: "Jim Wickstrom was the reason Dad got into this stuff. He's the one who showed Dad how to talk to Yahweh, the reason we started getting guns and preparing for Armageddon. He was always so amazed at all the weaponry and how well Jim Wickstrom and his followers in Tigerton Dells (see 1978 - 1983) were armed." After moving from Whiting, Kansas, to a farm in Rulo, Ryan ordered his family to steal farm equipment, livestock, and weapons in the name of Yahweh. Dennis will recall that the crimes were based on Wickstrom's teachings, saying: "We were supposed to kill all Satan's people. Dad was supposed to be the King of Israel and I was the Prince. He was supposed to die before the New Jerusalem was brought down from Yahweh, and then I'd be the king. I believed it 110 percent. All the way. Hell, I helped kill a man for it, and I never once questioned it.… Wickstrom wasn't physically a constant presence in our lives, he wasn't over all the time at the house or always on the phone with my dad, but he was there in that he was Dad's teacher. We had all of his fliers and cassettes. Dad would even listen to Wickstrom while he was taking the garbage out." Dennis will say that by 1985 Ryan had become obsessed with religious fervor and his conviction that Armageddon was imminent. He became more and more violent, focusing much of his rage on Luke Stice, the five-year-old son of follower Rick Stice, whom he savagely abused until March 1985, when he broke Luke's neck. Rick Stice helped Ryan bury his child. Dennis will serve a 12-year prison sentence for his role in the death of James Thimm. Michael Ryan will be sentenced to death. Dennis, after serving his sentence, starting a family, and becoming a carpenter, will have no further contact with his father. He has little trust in organized religion. He says: "I look at the Bible and it scares me because I know how people twist it and use it for their own benefit. I don't want some man up there telling me what God expects of me. I was told that before, and I killed someone.… So many people interpret the Bible so many different ways. I mean, take 9/11. That's their religious beliefs. They're no different than what my dad did except they actually carried it out. As far as killing thousands of people—that was his goal, too." (Southern Poverty Law Center 12/2004)
The trial of 21 members of the white supremacist group The Order begins in a US district court in western Washington State (see Late December 1984 - April 1985). The trial judge is Walter T. McGovern. Eleven of the defendants decide to plead guilty and several agree to serve as government witnesses. The trial lasts into December 1985; 338 witnesses testify, and over 1,500 exhibits are presented. The defense attempts to discredit the Order members who turn state's evidence, accusing them of creating a "self-serving fabric of lies," and the prosecution of "trial by gossip." Jurors will later tell news reporters that the most compelling evidence in the trial comes from the former Order members. The jury, composed of eight white women and four white men, deliberates for two weeks before issuing its verdict on December 30. All 10 defendants are found guilty of racketeering and conspiracy. Six are found guilty of other federal crimes. Judge McGovern will hand down stern sentences, ranging from 40 to 100 years in federal detention. (McClary 12/6/2006) Many of those convicted will remain unrepentant during their prison stays, and are viewed by radical right-wing extremists as "prisoners of war" and "heroes." (Eye on Hate 2003) Two other Order members, David Tate (see April 15, 1985) and Richard Scutari (see March 19, 1986), escape the Washington prosecution.
Aryan Nations (see Early 1970s) security chief Elden "Bud" Cutler is arrested in Coeur d'Alene, Idaho, for trying to hire a hit man to kill an FBI informant in an investigation into the organization known as The Order (see Late December 1984 - April 1985). (Southern Poverty Law Center 2010)
Mark Alan Lingenfelter is convicted of attempting to kill the mayor of Weslaco, Texas, with a pipe bomb. The Lingenfelters, a family of Wisconsin dairy farmers with a fondness for the anti-government Posse Comitatus ideology (see 1969), are members of a UFO cult called the "Outer Dimensional Forces" (ODF), led by a man calling himself "Nodrog" who built a base for UFOs to land. The ODF's prize possession is a fifth-dimensional Armageddon Time Ark which would be used to rescue a chosen few from Armageddon; Nodrog sells spaces aboard the craft. After ODF members clashed with local authorities in Weslaco, Lingenfelter attempted to kill the mayor with a pipe bomb that blew up a car in front of the paint store where the mayor works. Merlon Lingenfelter Sr. initially represents his son in court; his pronouncements are characterized as bizarre by some observers. The senior Lingenfelter tells a Brownsville, Texas, reporter, "Your president, all supporting bloodsuckers of the United States, plus all bloodsuckers of Canada and Mexico, have been duly served and convicted in the Outer Dimensional Forces Foursquare Court at Alternate Base, of triple high treason." Mark Alan Lingenfelter chooses to represent himself as the trial wears on, but he is convicted and jailed. (Mark Pitcavage 1997)
Timothy McVeigh, a distant, solitary young man in Pendleton, New York, takes a job as a security guard with an armored car company after graduating from Starpoint High School in 1986. (Some sources will inaccurately give his home town as nearby Lockport, New York; he did live there for a time as a child.) He grew up as an outgoing and easygoing young man, but began to withdraw into himself after his mother began leaving home (and having extramarital affairs) in 1977. McVeigh began retreating into himself even more after his parents separated in 1984 and his mother left for Florida with his two sisters. He received his first rifle, a .22 caliber gift from his gun-collector grandfather, when he was 13, and was immediately fascinated with the weapon, though he never became interested in hunting, as so many others in the area were (McVeigh always displayed a strong empathy towards animals). He joined the National Rifle Association in 1985. In high school, he told counselors he wanted to be a gun shop owner; though he earned a Regents Scholarship upon graduating, he only spent a few months at a nearby business college before deciding further schooling was not for him. McVeigh has already begun to turn his father's home into a survivalist compound, stockpiling water, gunpowder, and other items in the basement and amassing a collection of magazines like Guns & Ammo and SCOPE Minuteman, a local publication distributed by a Niagara County gun advocacy organization. His father, William "Bill" McVeigh, will later explain: "I guess he thought that someday a nuclear attack or something was going to happen. That was my feeling. You know, he was ready for anything." (McFadden 5/4/1995; Stickney 1996, pp. 44, 49, 65-66, 70; Serrano 1998, pp. 11-20; Douglas O. Linder 2006)
First Exposure to African-Americans, Survivalism - McVeigh, a 19-year-old sometimes called by the disparaging nickname "Noodle" who is unable to connect with women on almost any level due to his shyness, works for a firm currently called Burke Armor Inc., which will later rename itself as Armored Services of America, though he has a considerable amount of expertise with computers and conceivably could have landed a job in that field. McVeigh works out of a depot in Cheektowaga, near Buffalo, mostly delivering money to and from banks and stores, quickly earning a reputation as a reliable, hardworking employee. He works for eight months with a partner, Jeff Camp. This job gives him his first opportunity to work closely with African-Americans; the region of upstate New York he resides in is almost devoid of African-Americans, and the area has long supported a large and active Ku Klux Klan chapter. McVeigh learns from some of his fellow employees about inner-city strife and other related racial and economic issues. Later, he will recall making special deliveries at the beginning and end of each month to check-cashing firms; sometimes he would have to wade through long lines of African-American welfare recipients, and on occasion would brandish his gun to get through the lines. He often drives by African-American homes and sees the residents sitting on their porches, one of the reasons he begins calling African-Americans "porch monkeys." He also begins reading "survivalist" books such as The Turner Diaries (see 1978), The Anarchist's Cookbook, and The Poor Man's James Bond.
Discomfits Co-Workers with Militia-Style Appearance - Several months into the job, as Camp will recall, McVeigh begins coming to work "looking like Rambo." McVeigh has frequently expressed an interest in guns—some sources say he calls guns "the great equalizer[s]"—and has a licensed handgun for his job along with other weapons, including an AR-15 assault rifle. On one particular morning, he comes in with a sawed-off shotgun and ammunition bandoliers slung in an "X" over his chest, apparently as a joke meant to surprise and discomfit his colleagues. "It looked like World War III," Camp will recall. McVeigh's supervisor refuses to let McVeigh go out on the truck, angering him. Camp will later recall: "He used to bring in two or three guns that he carried all the time. He had a .45 and a .38. He had a Desert Eagle [pistol]. That thing was huge." (McVeigh will later sell the Desert Eagle, calling it "unreliable.") McVeigh, Camp will continue, is "intense.… He ate a lot. I don't know if it was nervousness. Sometimes he could be quiet. Some days he was hyper, some days he wouldn't say a word."
Buys Property for Shooting Range - After getting his first gun permit, McVeigh buys 10 acres of wooded property north of Olean, New York, with a partner, David Darlak, and the two use it as a shooting range. As teenagers, he and Darlak formed their version of a "survivalist group" after watching movies such as The Day After, a television movie about the aftermath of a nuclear strike in Kansas. A neighbor, Robert Morgan, later recalls his father calling the police to complain about the incessant gunfire. "My dad turned him in," Morgan will recall. "One day it sounded like a war out there. Sometimes he'd come down during the week, sometimes the weekend. He had on hunting clothes. Camouflage." McVeigh continues his shooting activities even after Darlak loses interest.
Joins US Army - On May 24, 1988, spurred by his partner Darlak, he joins the Army (see March 24, 1988 - Late 1990). (McFadden 5/4/1995; Stickney 1996, pp. 54-57, 72, 82; PBS Frontline 1/22/1996; Serrano 1998, pp. 20-24; Douglas O. Linder 2006)
Vernon Wayne Howell, a Texas musician and a member of the Branch Davidian sect of Seventh-day Adventists, forcibly installs himself as the leader of the Branch Davidian sect near Waco, Texas. Howell is a self-described loner and dyslexic who dropped out of high school, but taught himself the Bible, memorizing most of it by age 12. He was expelled from the Church of Seventh-day Adventists in 1979 for being a bad influence on the church's young people, and in 1981 joined the Waco group of Branch Davidians in its 77-acre compound, "Mount Carmel," on the outskirts of the city. Howell had an affair with the leader of the group, self-described prophetess Lois Roden, some 30 years older than himself.
Power Struggle - After Roden died, Howell began a lengthy struggle for control of the group with Roden's son George Roden. In late 1987, Roden digs up the body of a member, Anna Hughes, and issues a challenge to Howell: the one who could raise her from the dead is the one to lead the community. Instead, Howell asks the local authorities to charge Roden with abusing a corpse. On November 3, Howell returns to the Mt. Carmel compound with seven male followers, all dressed in camouflage and bearing assault rifles, hunting rifles, shotguns, and ammunition. The two groups engage in a gunfight; during the exchange, Roden is shot in the chest and hands. Howell and his followers will be tried for attempted murder, but the others will be acquitted and Howell's trial will end in a mistrial. In 1989, Roden will try to murder a man with an axe, and will be committed to a mental instutition for the rest of his life. By 1990, Howell will have established himself as the leader of the Waco Branch Davidians, and will legally change his name to David Koresh, explaining that he believes he is now the head of the Biblical House of David. Koresh is a Hebrew translation of "Cyrus," the Persian king who allowed the Jews held captive in Babylon to return to Israel. (Applebome 3/1/1993; England and McCormick 3/3/1993; Dean M. Kelley 5/1995; PBS Frontline 10/1995)
Adventists Join Koresh at Waco Compound - Seventh-day Adventists and others from around the world will journey to Waco to join the Davidians, who all told number somewhere around 75. According to a multi-part series by the Waco Tribune-Herald based on the recollections and observations of former members (see February 27 - March 3, 1993), the Davidians gather at the compound to "await the end of the world." The members believe that Koresh alone can open the so-called "Seven Seals" of Biblical prophecy, which will trigger the Apocalypse, destroy the world as we know it, and propel Koresh and his followers into heaven. The compound is heavily armed. (England and McCormick 3/3/1993) Most of the Davidians live communally in an L-shaped compound of beige buildings. A few of the more elderly members live in a trailer four miles from the main compound. The trailer has more amenities than the main building, which lacks central heating and indoor plumbing. The men live separately from the women and children. Members rise early, breakfasting together in a large cafeteria and then going to work. Some of the men have jobs in the Waco area, and many stay, working on what sect member Paul Fatta will describe as a three-year renovation of the compound but what law enforcement officials say is a network of tunnels and bunkers. The children are home-schooled by the women. (Hinds 3/6/1993)
Former Member: Koresh Brought Apocalyptic Mindset, Violence to Group - According to Davidian David Bunds, who will later leave the group, Koresh, or Howells as he is known, was something of a destabilizing factor from the time of his arrival. Bunds will later say: "We were a very reserved, very conservative group. There were no emotional displays. Then along came Vernon Howell. I remember my father said one day, 'Well, that guy sounds like he's going to end up saying he's a prophet the way he's acting.'" Bunds will later say that while he was enthralled for a time by Koresh's personality and his apocalyptic preaching, he became increasingly disturbed at his insistence on having multiple "wives," his stockpiling of more and more weapons, and the increasingly violent methods of "discipline" being meted out to "disobedient" children and adults alike (adults, Bunds and other "defectors" will later say, are physically beaten by Koresh's cadre of militantly loyal "Mighty Men"). Bunds will be forced out of the group after questioning Koresh's Biblical interpretations, and for taking a sect member as his wife against Koresh's wishes. (Conway and Siegelman 1995, pp. 244-246)
Federal Raid, Siege - The Waco Branch Davidians will kill four federal agents attempting to arrest Koresh on gun and sexual abuse charges (see 5:00 A.M. - 9:30 A.M. February 28, 1993); most of them, including Koresh, will die in a fiery conflagration after a 51-day standoff (see April 19, 1993). After the February 1993 raid, Waco Chamber of Commerce president Jack Stewart will say: "The sad part about this group is that it has evolved from the peaceful, pastoral group that it started as in the 1930s. Only since this most recent leader have they begun to acquire some of the weaponry and attitudes that they have." (Applebome 3/1/1993)
Richard Butler, the head of the white separatist and neo-Nazi organization Aryan Nations (see Early 1970s), is indicted, along with 12 of his followers and fellow racists, by a federal grand jury for seditious conspiracy to overthrow the government by violence, conspiring to kill federal officials, and transporting stolen money across state lines. The sedition was allegedly developed at a 1983 Aryan Nations Congress meeting (see 1981 and After). The case is tried in Fort Smith, Arkansas, before an all-white jury. The goverment is unable to prove the case, and Butler and his fellow defendants are all acquitted. The judge refuses to accept the jury's statement that it is deadlocked on two counts, a ruling that leads to the blanket acquittals. Other white supremacists acquitted in the trial are Louis Beam (see February 1992), Richard Wayne Snell (see 9:00 p.m. April 19, 1995), and Robert Miles. US Attorney J. Michael Fitzhugh says he believes the prosecution proved its case, but "we accept the verdict of the jury." Six of the defendants are serving prison terms for other crimes. The prosecution says Butler, Beam, Miles, and the other 10 defendants had robbed banks and armored trucks of $4.1 million, including about $1 million that still is missing. The defense countered that the prosecution's case was based on conspiracy theories given by the prosecution's chief witness, James Ellison, an Arkansas white supremacist serving 20 years for racketeering. During the proceedings, Butler undergoes quadruple bypass surgery and a second surgery to unblock his carotid artery, all at government expense. (Associated Press 4/8/1998; Southern Poverty Law Center 2010; Southern Poverty Law Center 2010) Some time after the trial, one of the jurors marries one of the defendants, David McGuire. (Kaplan 2000, pp. 19)
Terry Nichols, a 33-year-old Michigan farmer and house husband described as "aimless" by his wife Lana, joins the US Army in Detroit. He is the oldest recruit in his platoon and his fellow recruits call him "Grandpa." During basic training at Fort Benning, Georgia, Nichols meets fellow recruits Timothy McVeigh (see 1987-1988), who joined the Army in Buffalo, New York, and Arizona native Michael Fortier. All three share an interest in survivalism, guns, and hating the government, particularly Nichols and McVeigh; unit member Robin Littleton later recalls, "Terry and Tim in boot camp went together like magnets." For McVeigh, Nichols is like the older brother he never had; for Nichols, he enjoys taking McVeigh under his wing. Nichols also tells McVeigh about using ammonium nitrate to make explosives he and his family used to blow up tree stumps on the farm. The three are members of what the Army calls a "Cohort," or Cohesion Operation Readiness and Training unit, which generally keeps soldiers together in the same unit from boot camp all the way through final deployment. It is in the Army that McVeigh and Nichols become enamored of the novel The Turner Diaries (see 1978), which depicts a United States racially "cleansed" of minorities and other "undesirables" (McVeigh is already familiar with the novel—see 1987-1988). All three are sent to the 11 Bravo Infantry division in Fort Riley, Kansas, where they are finally separated into different companies; McVeigh goes to tank school, where he learns to operate a Bradley fighting vehicle as well as becoming an outstanding marksman. (McFadden 5/4/1995; Rimer 5/28/1995; Stickney 1996, pp. 91-95; PBS Frontline 1/22/1996; Serrano 1998, pp. 30; Nicole Nichols 2003) McVeigh later says he joined the Army because he was disillusioned with the "I am better than you because I have more money" mindset some people have, and because he was taken with the Army's advertisement that claimed, "We do more before 9 a.m. than most people do all day." (PBS Frontline 1/22/1996) Fellow unit member Specialist Ted Thorne will later recall: "Tim and I both considered ourselves career soldiers. We were going to stay in for the 20-plus years, hopefully make sergeant major. It was the big picture of retirement." (Serrano 1998, pp. 31)
Nichols Leaves Army, Tells of Plans to Form 'Own Military Organization' - In the spring of 1989, Nichols, who planned on making a career of military service, leaves the Army due to issues with an impending divorce and child care, but his friendship with McVeigh persists. Fellow soldier Glen Edwards will later say that he found Nichols's choice to serve in the Army unusual, considering his virulent hatred of the US government: "He said the government made it impossible for him to make a living as a farmer. I thought it strange that a 32-year-old man would be complaining about the government, yet was now employed by the government. Nichols told me he signed up to pull his 20 years and get a retirement pension." Before Nichols leaves, he tells Edwards that he has plans for the future, and Edwards is welcome to join in. Edwards will later recall, "He told me he would be coming back to Fort Riley to start his own military organization" with McVeigh and Fortier. "He said he could get any kind of weapon and any equipment he wanted. I can't remember the name of his organization, but he seemed pretty serious about it." (Rimer 5/28/1995; Stickney 1996, pp. 96, 101)
McVeigh Continues Army Career, Described as 'Strange,' 'Racist,' but 'Perfect Soldier' - McVeigh does not leave the Army so quickly. He achieves the rank of sergeant and becomes something of a "model soldier." He plans on becoming an Army Ranger. However, few get to know him well; only his closest friends, such as Nichols, know of his passion for firearms, his deep-seated racism, or his hatred for the government. McVeigh does not see Nichols during the rest of his Army stint, but keeps in touch through letters and phone calls. Friends and fellow soldiers will describe McVeigh as a man who attempts to be the "perfect soldier," but who becomes increasingly isolated during his Army career; the New York Times will describe him as "retreating into a spit-and-polish persona that did not admit nights away from the barracks or close friendships, even though he was in a 'Cohort' unit that kept nearly all the personnel together from basic training through discharge." His friends and colleagues will recall him as being "strange and uncommunicative" and "coldly robotic," and someone who often gives the least desirable assignments to African-American subordinates, calling them "inferior" and using racial slurs. An infantryman in McVeigh's unit, Marion "Fritz" Curnutte, will later recall: "He played the military 24 hours a day, seven days a week. All of us thought it was silly. When they'd call for down time, we'd rest, and he'd throw on a ruck sack and walk around the post with it." A fellow soldier, Todd Regier, will call McVeigh an exemplary soldier, saying: "As far as soldiering, he never did anything wrong. He was always on time. He never got into trouble. He was perfect. I thought he would stay in the Army all his life. He was always volunteering for stuff that the rest of us wouldn't want to do, guard duties, classes on the weekend." Sergeant Charles Johnson will later recall, "He was what we call high-speed and highly motivated." McVeigh also subscribes to survivalist magazines and other right-wing publications, such as Guns & Ammo and his favorite, Soldier of Fortune (SoF), and keeps an arsenal of weapons in his home (see November 1991 - Summer 1992). Regier will later tell a reporter: "He was real different. Kind of cold. He wasn't enemies with anyone. He was kind of almost like a robot. He never had a date when I knew him in the Army. I never saw him at a club. I never saw him drinking. He never had good friends. He was a robot. Everything was for a purpose." (McFadden 5/4/1995; Stickney 1996, pp. 86; Serrano 1998, pp. 30; Nicole Nichols 2003) McVeigh is taken with the increasing number of anti-government articles and advertisements in SoF, particularly the ones warning about what it calls the impending government imposition of martial law and tyranny, and those telling readers how to build bombs and other items to use in "defending" themselves from government aggression. (Serrano 1998, pp. 27-28) McVeigh is not entirely "by the book"; he knows his friend Michael Fortier is doing drugs, but does not report him to their superior officers. (PBS Frontline 1/22/1996) McVeigh is promoted to sergeant faster than his colleagues; this is when he begins assigning the undesirable tasks to the four or five black specialists in the group, tasks that would normally be performed by privates. "It was well known, pretty much throughout the platoon, that he was making the black specialists do that work," Regier will recall. "He was a racist. When he talked he'd mention those words, like n_gger. You pretty much knew he was a racist." The black soldiers complain to a company commander, earning McVeigh a reprimand. Sergeant Anthony Thigpen will later confirm Regier's account, adding that McVeigh generally refuses to socialize with African-Americans, and only reluctantly takes part in company functions that include non-whites. Captain Terry Guild will later say McVeigh's entire company has problems with racial polarization, "[a]nd his platoon had some of the most serious race problems. It was pretty bad." In April 1989, McVeigh is sent to Germany for two weeks for a military "change-up program." While there, he is awarded the German equivalent of the expert infantryman's badge. In November 1989, he goes home for Thanksgiving with Fortier, and meets Fortier's mother Irene. In late 1990, McVeigh signs a four-year reenlistment agreement with the Army. (McFadden 5/4/1995)
McVeigh Goes on to Serve in Persian Gulf War - McVeigh will serve two tours of duty in the Persian Gulf War, serving honorably and winning medals for his service (see January - March 1991 and After). Nichols and McVeigh will later be convicted of planning and executing the Oklahoma City bombing (see 8:35 a.m. - 9:02 a.m. April 19, 1995).
A number of anti-abortion protesters, including many members of Operation Rescue (see 1986), are arrested outside the Democratic National Convention in Atlanta, Georgia. They spend several weeks together in jail, and it is believed that while there, many of them join the "Army of God," an anti-abortion organization devoted to using violence to prevent abortions (see 1982 and August 1982). One of the jailed protesters is James Kopp, who in 1998 will murder an abortion doctor (see October 23, 1998). Others include Lambs of Christ leader Norman Weslin; Rachelle "Shelley" Shannon, who will later shoot another abortion doctor (see August 19, 1993); and John Arena, who will later be charged with using butyric acid to attack abortion clinics and providers. According to government documents, Kopp is already a leader of the Army of God, and may recruit new members during his stay in jail. (Extremist Groups: Information for Students 1/1/2006; National Abortion Federation 2010)
Michigan realtor Lana Padilla files for divorce from her husband Terry Nichols. Padillla, frustrated with her husband's tendency to drift from job to job, was disappointed in his failure to commit to an Army career (see March 24, 1988 - Late 1990) and tired of trying to motivate him to begin a career. Padilla decides to move from their home in Michigan to Las Vegas, where the real estate market is booming. The divorce will be finalized in July 1989. (PBS Frontline 1/22/1996; Serrano 1998, pp. 72-74)
James Nichols, a Michigan farmer, anti-government white separatist, and the brother of Terry Nichols (see March 24, 1988 - Late 1990), formulates a plan to use a "megabomb" to destroy an Oklahoma City federal building; an unnamed FBI informant will later tell the FBI that James Nichols specifically indicates the Murrah Federal Building. Nichols, who says he is upset over the US's "role" in the terrorist bombing of Pan Am Flight 103, shares the plan with the informant, who will swear to the information in 1995, after James's brother Terry Nichols is arrested for helping destroy the Murrah Building (see 8:35 a.m. - 9:02 a.m. April 19, 1995). "[James] Nichols… made a specific reference to a federal building in Oklahoma City and began looking through the toolshed and workbench for a newspaper clipping depicting the Oklahoma City building," the informant will say, according to an FBI affidavit. Nichols is unable to find the newspaper clipping, the informant will say, and instead draws a diagram remarkably similar to the Murrah Building. Nichols "later located a newspaper article containing a reference to the Federal Building in Oklahoma City and showed it" to the informer, the affidavit says. The informer is a regular visitor to the Nichols farm. (Thomas 6/13/1995; Nicole Nichols 2003) James Nichols routinely stamps US currency with red ink in a protest against the government, and calls his neighbors "sheeple" for obeying authority "like livestock." A neighbor, Dan Stomber, will recall Nichols criticizing him and others for using drivers' licences and Social Security cards, and for voting and paying taxes. "He said we were all puppets and sheeple," Stomber will tell a reporter. "That was the first time I ever heard that word." Stomber will not recall Nichols discussing any plans to bomb any federal buildings. (Rimer and Bennet 4/24/1995) After the Oklahoma City bombing, a friend of Nichols, an Indiana seed dealer named Dave Shafer, will tell authorities that Nichols showed him a diagram of a building remarkably similar to the Murrah Building, still under construction at the time, and said that building would be an excellent target. Shafer will say that he thought Nichols was joking. (Serrano 1998, pp. 110) It is possible that Shafer and the unnamed FBI informant are the same person. Five years ago, a group of white supremacists had conceived of a plan to destroy the Murrah Building (see 1983).
Richard Butler, the head of the white separatist and neo-Nazi organization Aryan Nations (see Early 1970s), commemorates the 100th birthday of Adolf Hitler by inviting white racists and separatists to the Hayden Falls, Idaho, compound of the organization for a celebration. The gathering, which features music by white power skinhead rock bands, is designed to reach out to younger whites. (Southern Poverty Law Center 2010)
Author Richard Kelly Hoskins, in his book Vigilantes of Christiandom, puts forth the concept of the "Phineas Priesthood." Hoskins is a Christian Identity adherent (see 1960s and After). The idea comes from an obscure Biblical character, "Phinehas," an Israelite who used a spear to kill a "race-mixing" fellow Israelite and the Midianite woman with whom he had had sexual relations. Hoskins concocts the idea of a "brotherhood" of "Phineas Priests," self-professed "warriors" who would use extreme violence against "race-mixers," gays, abortionists, and others. Over time, some "Phineas Priests" will commit bombings and bank robberies around Spokane, Washington (see October 8, 1996). In 2002, two Aryan Nations (see Early 1970s) splinter groups will openly adopt "Phineas Priest" names or symbols. (Anti-Defamation League 2005)
Terry Nichols, a shy Army veteran (see March 24, 1988 - Late 1990) drifting through life as a single (see November 1988), underemployed father, does something that surprises everyone he knows: he leaves his home state of Michigan for the Philippines to marry a mail-order bride, 17-year-old Marife Torres, who lives with her parents in a small apartment above a lumberyard. Torres lives in Cebu City, where Nichols meets her. Her parents are leery of their daughter marrying an older man; in talking with Nichols, they learn that he wants a Filipino bride because he has been told "they stayed at home." The two are married on November 20, 1990 at a Chinese restaurant in Cebu, and Nichols returns to Decker, Michigan, to begin the legal process necessary to bring Marife back to the US. (Rimer 5/28/1995; PBS Frontline 1/22/1996; Serrano 1998, pp. 74-75) Nichols will later be convicted of conspiracy in the Oklahoma City bombing (see 8:35 a.m. - 9:02 a.m. April 19, 1995). His connection to the Philippines will result in shadowy connections with suspected Islamist terrorists in that nation (see Late 1992-Early 1993 and Late 1994 and November 5, 1994 - Early January 1995).
In a speech discussing the post-Cold War world, President Bush outlines his vision of a "New World Order." Bush says: "We stand today at a unique and extraordinary moment. The crisis in the Persian Gulf, as grave as it is, also offers a rare opportunity to move toward an historic period of cooperation. Out of these troubled times, our fifth objective—a new world order—can emerge: a new era—freer from the threat of terror, stronger in the pursuit of justice, and more secure in the quest for peace." The Southern Poverty Law Center will later write that many people, particularly white supremacists and separatists, take Bush's phrase "as a slip of the tongue revealing secret plans to create a one-world government." (Sweet Liberty 9/11/1990; Southern Poverty Law Center 6/2001) In 1995, Michigan gun dealer and right-wing activist Frank Kieltyka will describe the "New World Order" to a Buffalo News reporter. According to Kieltyka, the "New World Order" is backed by the US government and led by, among other organizations, the Trilateral Commission and the Council on Foreign Relations (CFR). "We're moving towards the Communists," Kieltyka will warn. The belief in this "New World Order" will be emphasized in coming years in the militia movements and by right-wing publications such as The Spotlight, an openly racist, anti-government newsletter. (Stickney 1996, pp. 157-158)
Army Sergeant Timothy McVeigh (see March 24, 1988 - Late 1990) receives orders to attend Special Forces training classes beginning November 11, 1990. McVeigh's ambition is to become a Green Beret. (PBS Frontline 1/22/1996) However, his training is interrupted before it begins, as his unit is called up to go to Kuwait as part of Operation Desert Shield, later Desert Storm (see January 16, 1991 and After). McVeigh's unit will leave from Fort Riley, Kansas, to a staging area in Germany, and then on to Saudi Arabia and Kuwait. Before he leaves, McVeigh pays a brief visit to his hometown of Pendleton, New York (see 1987-1988), where he worries a close friend, his "surrogate mother" Lynn Drzyzga, by telling her, "I'm coming back [from Kuwait] in a body bag." She will later recall that watching McVeigh walk away "was just like my own son was leaving at that moment." (Serrano 1998, pp. 32-33)
Sergeant Timothy McVeigh (see March 24, 1988 - Late 1990) gives three months of military service in the Persian Gulf War as a gunner on a Bradley Fighting Vehicle before returning home; during his time there, he paints the name "Bad Company" on the side of the vehicle. "He was a good soldier," Sergeant James Ives, who serves with McVeigh, will later recall. "If he was given a mission and a target, it's gone." (McFadden 4/23/1995; Serrano 1998, pp. 34; Douglas O. Linder 2001; CNN 2001) McVeigh earns a Bronze Star and the Army Commendation Medal while overseas, along with a number of citations and ribbons. (Serrano 1998, pp. 25-26) Staff Sergeant Albert Warnement, the commander of McVeigh's Bradley Fighting Vehicle in Kuwait, later recalls: "He was against the National Command Authority's decision to go to war. McVeigh did not think the United States had any business or interest in Kuwait, but… he knew it was his duty to go where he was told, and he went." (Stickney 1996, pp. 110)
Experiences in Kuwait, Iraq - Fellow soldier Todd Regier later recalls that McVeigh was "definitely excited about going to Desert Storm. He was a perfect gunner. He was the best gunner we had." McVeigh is part of a Bradley crew which spends its first few weeks sitting idly in the Saudi Arabian desert while American aircraft attack Iraqi defenses (see January 16, 1991 and After). Sergeant Anthony Thigpen later recalls that while the other soldiers play cards, write letters, and chat to relieve their boredom, McVeigh spends his time cleaning his weapons. The 2nd Battalion of the 16th Infantry Regiment, McVeigh's unit, is one of those that makes the initial drive into Kuwait when the invasion begins (see February 23, 1991 and After). McVeigh's unit sees less intense action than some, and fellow soldier Roger L. Barnett will later recall that McVeigh shows little interest in shooting unarmed and defenseless Iraqis. At one point, McVeigh shoots an Iraqi soldier from some 2,000 yards away in the head, using the Bradley's 25mm cannon. McVeigh wins a medal for the shot. He later recalls of the shooting: "His head just disappeared.… I saw everything above the shoulders disappear, like in a red mist." He becomes angry when he learns that many Iraqis do not want to fight, and are equipped with inferior gear. According to an aunt, McVeigh is deeply disturbed about the fighting in Iraq. "When he came back, he seemed broken," she later tells a reporter. "When we talked about it, he said it was terrible there. He was on the front line and had seen death and caused death. After the first [killing], it got easy." While posted in Kuwait, McVeigh writes to a friend in the US that he hates Saddam Hussein: "Chickensh_t b_stard. Because of him, I killed a man who didn't want to fight us, but was forced to." However, a fellow soldier, Kerry Kling, later recalls McVeigh being proud of the shot that killed the Iraqi. Sergeant Royal L. Witcher, McVeigh's assistant gunner on the Bradley, later recalls the soldiers' dismay at their experiences with Iraqi soldiers. "I think it kind of shocked most of us," he will say. "We had thought that they were our enemies, and then for us to encounter something like that with a mass of people giving up." After the offensive, McVeigh's unit is assigned to guard duty, and spends the remainder of the war relatively inactive. (McFadden 5/4/1995; Stickney 1996, pp. 113; Serrano 1998, pp. 36-38; CNN 12/17/2007) McVeigh will later recall being angry at the situation in Kuwait. In a letter to a reporter, he will write: "We were falsely hyped up [about the enemy]. And we get there and find out that they are normal like you and me. They hype you up to take those people out. They told us we were to defend Kuwait where the people had been raped and slaughtered (see October 10, 1990). War woke me up. War will open your eyes." Of the Iraqi soldiers, he will write, "I felt the army brainwashed us to hate them." (Serrano 1998, pp. 36-37)
Withdraws from Special Forces Training - After returning to the US, McVeigh begins 21 days of Special Services training at Camp McCall, west of Fort Bragg, North Carolina (see October 1990). He is thrilled to be joining Special Forces, and is confident that he will pass the grueling physical and psychological assessments. However, he leaves the training at Camp McCall during the second day. He later tells people he withdraws because of a leg injury. Some military officials will say that preliminary psychological screening shows him to be unfit for Special Forces, leading some reporters to conclude that McVeigh was kicked out of training, but those conclusions are inaccurate: McVeigh's screenings are not processed until long after he leaves, and his withdrawal is entirely voluntary. McVeigh later says that he begins training with a friend, Specialist Mitchell Whitmire (one source spells his name "Whitmyers," apparently in error), days after returning from overseas duty. He will say that he is in poor physical condition, mentally and physically exhausted from his time in combat, and unready for the physical demands of Green Beret training. He does not accept an offer extended to him and other combat veterans to take some time off and try again at a later date. Instead, after two arduous days of physical workouts, McVeigh and Whitmire leave the training program before McVeigh's assessments can be graded and reviewed. On his Statement of Voluntary Withdrawal, McVeigh writes, "I am not physically ready, and the rucksack march hurt more than it should." Ives will recall McVeigh as being "extremely disappointed." Thigpen later recalls: "Everybody knew he was highly upset. We never knew the reason why he didn't make it. We figured, you don't make it, you don't make it. But he was definitely angry. He was upset, very upset." Fellow soldier James Fox later tells a reporter that McVeigh's withdrawal from Special Forces training was a defining moment for him, saying, "Whether he withdrew or was kicked out, it still was a failure and very easily he could externalize blame." McVeigh then takes a 30-day leave to visit his sister Jennifer in Florida, and to spend some time in upstate New York, where he grew up (see 1987-1988). (McFadden 4/23/1995; McFadden 5/4/1995; Kifner 7/5/1995; Stickney 1996, pp. 115-119; PBS Frontline 1/22/1996; Serrano 1998, pp. 41-42) Author Brandon M. Stickney later writes, "It was revealed in confidence to [me] that answers McVeigh gave on the psychological tests were apparently a bit off-center, not the answers of a man capable of long-term assignments with the exclusive and tight Special Forces." Stickney will also write that McVeigh may be suffering from "Gulf War Syndrome," a mysterious series of maladies apparently caused by exposure to toxic chemicals. (Stickney 1996, pp. 117-118) In 1993, McVeigh will write a letter to his sister Jennifer giving a very different explanation of his reason for withdrawing from Special Forces tryouts (see October 20, 1993). After he returns from active duty, he begins displaying increasingly eccentric behavior (see March 1991 and After). McVeigh will go on to bomb a federal building in Oklahoma City (see 8:35 a.m. - 9:02 a.m. April 19, 1995).
The former Deputy Chief of Mission to the US Embassy in Baghdad, Joseph Wilson, reflecting on the ramifications and consequences of the Gulf War as it comes to an end (see February 28, 1991), will later write: "The war… established the blueprint for the post-Cold War New World Order. For the first time since the Korean War, the world had engaged in a conflict sanctioned by international law. In the aftermath of the fall of the Berlin Wall, America's foreign policy establishment understood that the next generation's war would not be of the World War II variety, with huge mobilizations of national assets and a fight for survival among the major powers; it would instead consist of small, bloody conflicts that would best be dealt with by a coalition of the willing operating under the mandate of the United Nations. Our challenge would be to ensure that the United States did not become the world's policeman, a costly and enervating task, but rather used our power to mobilize coalitions and share costs and responsibilities. In my mind, Desert Shield and Storm were case studies of how to manage both the diplomacy and the military aspects of an international crisis. We were successful in obtaining international financing to cover most of the costs of the war, we were successful in putting together a coalition force with troops from more than twenty nations, and we were successful in obtaining an international legal mandate to conduct the war. It was, in every way, an international effort driven by American political will and diplomatic leadership." Wilson agrees with President Bush and others that the US had been right not to drive into Baghdad and depose Saddam Hussein (see February 1991-1992, August 1992, and September 1998). The US-led coalition had no international mandate to perform such a drastic action, Wilson will note. To go farther than the agreed-upon mandate would alienate allies and erode trust, especially among Arab nations fearful that the US would overthrow their governments and seize their oilfields, or those of their neighbors. Wilson will observe, "The credibility that we later enjoyed—which permitted us to make subsequent progress on Middle East peace at the Madrid Conference in October 1991, and through the Oslo process (see September 13, 1993)… was directly related to our having honored our promises and not exceeded the mandate from the international community." (Wilson 2004, pp. 178-179)
Sergeant Timothy McVeigh, a decorated Army gunner, returns from serving three months in Operation Desert Storm (see January - March 1991 and After). Disillusioned and discouraged by his experiences and his failure to succeed in Special Forces training, McVeigh returns to Fort Riley, Kansas, and begins displaying increasingly odd behavior, always carrying a weapon and talking incessantly about the constitutional right to bear arms. His friend and fellow soldier Bruce Williams later recalls that McVeigh is no longer the "Iron Mike" that he had known during training at Fort Benning. "I'd hang out and go to the parties and drink Budweiser," Williams will recall. "Tim just stayed in his room playing Nintendo." McVeigh rents a house off post with two fellow soldiers, Corporal John Edward Kelso and Sergeant Rick Cerney, in Herington, Kansas, some 40 miles from Fort Riley. Kelso later recalls he and Cerney trying to "josh with him" and get him to relax. "It was so easy to put him over the edge," Kelso will recall. "He was so gullible, so vulnerable. He was so unbalanced about being tough. He was just kind of a nerd." Sergeant Royal L. Witcher, McVeigh's assistant gunner during active duty in Kuwait and Iraq, later recalls that McVeigh is uncomfortable sharing the house with the two, and persuades Witcher to let him move in with him instead. McVeigh moves into Witcher's Herington home and immediately claims the larger of the two bedrooms, blocking the window with a camouflage poncho. Witcher later says he knew better than to enter McVeigh's room. McVeigh keeps at least 10 guns in the house, Witcher will recall, saying: "They weren't exposed, they were hidden. He had a couple in the kitchen, a couple in the living room under the couch. I think there was one in the bathroom, behind the towels. As you go up the steps there was a little ledge and he kept one in there, a .38 revolver." McVeigh also keeps two guns in his car and a shotgun at the home of a sergeant who also lives off post. Witcher never asks why McVeigh keeps so many guns. "I don't know if he was paranoid or what," Witcher will recall. "Or maybe he had some friends that were after him. I don't know." On occasion, McVeigh sells guns to fellow soldiers. He cleans all of his weapons twice a week, and takes them to a lake to shoot every weekend. Witcher never recalls McVeigh having any dates. On a few occasions, the two have conversations. "He was a very racist person," Witcher will recall. "He had very strong views against, like, political things, like that." Witcher will say he does not share McVeigh's racist views: "He pretty much knew my views and he didn't talk too much about it around me." McVeigh constantly complains about government intrusiveness, Witcher will recall, taking umbrage with items he reads in the newspaper on a daily basis. Witcher will remember McVeigh dropping out of the National Rifle Association (NRA) when that organization seems to be softening its stance on the banning of assault rifles. He begins spending more and more time poring over gun magazines, and spends more and more time in the pawnshops and gun dealerships in nearby Junction City. (McFadden 4/23/1995; McFadden 5/4/1995; Kifner 7/5/1995; PBS Frontline 1/22/1996; Serrano 1998, pp. 42; Douglas O. Linder 2001; CNN 2001)
Becomes Conspiracy-Minded, Involved with Extremist Groups - Ives will recall that after his failed attempt to join Special Forces, McVeigh becomes involved with extreme right-wing political groups off-post. Ives cannot identify the groups, but, he will say, "cults is what I call them." Witcher will recall nothing of any such involvement. (McFadden 4/23/1995; McFadden 5/4/1995) Ives may be referring to a group of soldiers who begin meeting off-base to take action against gun control and government interference in their lives, a group McVeigh meets with at least once. His unit member Robin Littleton later recalls McVeigh becoming increasingly "bitter" and conspiracy-minded, reading books about the Kennedy assassination and becoming "convinced that the government was behind it all. He also started reading a lot of fiction, all of it to do with big business and the military planning on overthrowing the government. He started to rant on about the private armies that were springing up inside the federal government, and how the CIA and FBI were out of control." At least one local girl, Catina Lawson, shows some interest in McVeigh, but his anti-Semitic rants and his professed admiration for Adolf Hitler quickly terminate her interest. (Stickney 1996, pp. 120, 125-127) Warnement later recalls corresponding with McVeigh in 1992 and 1993, after Warnement is transferred to Germany. "He sent me a lot of newsletters and stuff from those groups he was involved in," Warnement will recall. He will say that because the literature is so extremist, he throws it away rather than being caught with it. "There were newsletters from [militia leader] Bo Gritz's group, some other odd newsletters, some from the Patriots; then he sent that videotape 'The Big Lie' about Waco. He seemed quite a bit different after the war than he'd been before." The Branch Davidian debacle (see April 19, 1993) infuriates McVeigh, Warnement will recall (see April 19, 1993 and After). McVeigh is also angered by the use of Army units for drug-enforcement duties on the US-Mexican border, the deployment of infantry during the 1992 Los Angeles riots, and UN command over US forces during fighting in Somalia. "He thought the federal government was getting too much power," Warnement will recall. "He thought the ATF [the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms] was out of control. Then, of course, when Waco happened, he really felt the ATF was out of control.… He wasn't happy about Somalia, that if we could put the United States under basically UN command and send them to Somalia to disarm their citizens, then why couldn't they come do the same thing in the United States?… It had a kind of logic to it, but it really didn't take into account the flip side of things. I kind of had the feeling that he might be headed for trouble because he was never the type of person to back down." (Kifner 7/5/1995) In February 1992, McVeigh sends Warnement a copy of The Turner Diaries, a racially inflammatory novel about a white supremacist genocide in the US (see 1978). He also includes a news article concerning a black militant politician. (PBS Frontline 1/22/1996)
Accepts Early Discharge - Like many soldiers, McVeigh is encouraged to leave as part of the military's postwar "drawdown." McVeigh soon takes an early discharge and leaves the Army entirely (see November 1991 - Summer 1992). Sergeant James Hardesty, who served in Kuwait with McVeigh, later says that many soldiers such as McVeigh and himself felt like "discarded baggage." (McFadden 5/4/1995; Serrano 1998, pp. 42-43) Fellow soldier Roger L. Barnett later recalls: "He wasn't the same McVeigh. He didn't go at things the way he normally did. It used to be, a superior commanding soldier would tell him to do something and he'd do it 110 percent. He didn't have the same drive. He didn't have his heart in the military anymore." (Kifner 7/5/1995)
Future Oklahoma City Bomber - McVeigh will go on to bomb a federal building in Oklahoma City (see 8:35 a.m. - 9:02 a.m. April 19, 1995).
Dean Harvey Hicks, an engineer from Costa Mesa, California, launches a mortar attack on an IRS service center in nearby Fresno. He had earlier attempted twice to bomb a West Los Angeles IRS office, once with a truck-borne fertilizer bomb (see 8:35 a.m. - 9:02 a.m. April 19, 1995), and had attempted two other bomb and mortar attacks on IRS offices in Southern California between 1987 and 1990. None of the attacks caused serious damage. The FBI learns that he is planning to bomb an FBI office in Los Angeles. Investigators believe that Hicks has nursed a grudge against the IRS since 1981, when the agency disallowed an $8,500 charitable deduction for the Universal Life Church and assessed a hefty penalty against him. Hicks will confess to launching the attacks, and says he attacks the IRS offices because an IRS employee laughed at him when he called with a question. After arresting Hicks, FBI investigators find what they will describe as "a virtual bomb factory" in his garage, along with letters in Hicks's handwriting claiming responsibility for the attacks on behalf of a group called "Up The IRS Inc." It is unclear if this group actually exists or is merely a creation of Hicks's. Hicks's job gave him access to some of the materials used in the bombing, investigators will conclude, and they will trace the purchase of other explosive components to him. In September 1988, Hicks stole and then exploded a 1971 Toyota Corolla in a parking garage in the basement of a building containing an IRS office in Los Angeles. The owner later received $500 in the mail from an anonymous source. The car was stolen from the parking lot of Hicks's place of employment, and investigators will tie the Corolla's theft and bombing to Hicks. The 1990 truck bombing was prevented by firefighters after Hicks fired mortar shells at the truck; had the mortar shells detonated the 2,000 pounds of ammonium nitrate it contained, it could have done tremendous damage and killed hundreds of people. At his trial, Hicks will claim, "The way I set the timing [of the bombings] was intended to cause the greatest amount of display with minimal injury to anyone around it." Hicks will receive 20 years in prison. (Gewertz 7/30/1991; Associated Press 8/17/1991; Anti-Defamation League 2011)
Terry Nichols, a shy loner and Army veteran (see March 24, 1988 - Late 1990) in Michigan, moves to Henderson, Nevada, outside Las Vegas. He tells friends he wants to attempt a career as a real estate agent, a plan that fails to bear fruit. When his Filipino bride Marife joins him (see July - December 1990), she is six months pregnant with a child that is not his. Nichols may be troubled about the circumstances of the child's conception, but he does not talk about it, and accepts the child, a son they will name Jason Torres Nichols, as his own. In the fall, Nichols takes his wife and son back to his home town of Decker, Michigan. (Rimer 5/28/1995; Thomas 12/24/1997) Nichols will later be convicted of conspiracy in the Oklahoma City bombing (see 8:35 a.m. - 9:02 a.m. April 19, 1995).
Timothy McVeigh, a white supremacist and survivalist (see March 24, 1988 - Late 1990) who is about to leave the US Army after being denied a position in Special Forces (see January - March 1991 and After), reportedly buys a Glock .45 caliber handgun from a dealer in Ogden, Kansas. McVeigh will later say that the gun is a 9mm weapon, not a .45. In April 1993 he will write a letter to Glock Manufacturing claiming that he carries the weapon as a "law enforcement officer." (PBS Frontline 1/22/1996) On the morning of the Oklahoma City bombing, McVeigh will be arrested; the Glock, a 9mm, will be found in his possession (see 9:03 a.m. -- 10:17 a.m. April 19, 1995).
Timothy McVeigh, a nascent white supremacist and survivalist (see March 24, 1988 - Late 1990) who is in the process of taking "early termination" from the US Army after being denied a position in Special Forces (see January - March 1991 and After), moves back in with his father in Pendleton, New York. Initially, he joins a National Guard unit and tries unsuccessfully to join the US Marshals. He is formally discharged from the Army on December 31, 1991. His final psychological assessment from the Army shows him to be under extreme stress and experiencing a powerful sense of disillusionment with the federal government. In January 1992, he goes to work for Burns International Security Services in Buffalo after leaving the Guard (see June 1992), and quickly rises to the rank of inspector. (McFadden 5/4/1995; PBS Frontline 1/22/1996; Mickolus and Simmons 6/1997, pp. 810; Serrano 1998, pp. 48; Douglas O. Linder 2001; CNN 2001; CNN 12/17/2007) (A New York Times report later says McVeigh leaves the Army in early 1992. A book about McVeigh, One of Ours, claims that McVeigh returns to Pendleton after leaving the Army around Christmas of 1991.) (McFadden 5/4/1995; Serrano 1998, pp. 44)
Depressed, Suicidal, Detached, Enraged - Over time, McVeigh becomes increasingly depressed and reportedly considers suicide; friends and colleagues will describe him as deteriorating both mentally and physically, and, in the words of the New York Times, will describe him as "an increasingly unstable man who wavered between gloomy silences and a hair-trigger temper, who lost so much weight he seemed anorexic, and who could follow simple orders but could not handle pressure or take independent action." Lynda Haner-Mele, a supervisor for Burns Security in Kenmore, New York, later recalls working with McVeigh at the Niagara Falls Convention Center. She remembers calling him "Timmy" and worrying about his weight loss. "He seemed almost lost, like he hadn't really grown up yet," she will say. She is unaware of his Army service, later recalling: "He didn't really carry himself like he came out of the military. He didn't stand tall with his shoulders back. He was kind of slumped over.… That guy did not have an expression 99 percent of the time. He was cold. He didn't want to have to deal with people or pressure. Timmy was a good guard, always there prompt, clean, and neat. His only quirk was that he couldn't deal with people. If someone didn't cooperate with him, he would start yelling at them, become verbally aggressive. He could be set off easily. He was quiet, but it didn't take much."
Increasingly Radicalized - McVeigh becomes increasingly radicalized, growing more disenchanted with the idea of a federal government and distressed about the possibility of a federal crackdown on gun ownership. He talks about the government forcibly confiscating the citizenry's guns and enslaving citizens. He writes angry letters to newspapers and his congressman on subjects such as his objection to inhumane slaughterhouses and a proposed law prohibiting the possession of "noxious substances," and warns against an impending dictatorship if action is not soon taken (see February 11, 1992). He urges friends to read a novel, The Turner Diaries (see 1978), which tells the story of a white supremacist revolt against the US government and the extermination of minorities, and gives copies to his friends and relatives. He begins acquiring an arsenal of guns, and sets up a generator and a store of canned food and potable water in his basement so that he would be self-sufficient in case of emergency. He applies to join the Ku Klux Klan, but decides against it because, he believes, the KKK is too focused on race and not enough on gun rights. The Times will later write: "While there was no firm evidence that Mr. McVeigh belonged to any organized right-wing paramilitary or survivalist groups, there was considerable evidence that he sympathized with and espoused their beliefs. He voiced their ideas in conversations, he wrote letters expressing them, he read their literature, and attended their meetings. And he lived, worked, and traded weapons in areas where the paramilitary groups enjoy considerable support, according to numerous interviews." In the summer of 1992, McVeigh moves to Michigan to stay with his old Army friend Terry Nichols, telling friends he is leaving to find a "free state" in which to live. McVeigh's and Nichols's shared hatred of the federal government continues to grow. (McFadden 5/4/1995; PBS Frontline 1/22/1996; Mickolus and Simmons 6/1997, pp. 810; Douglas O. Linder 2001; CNN 2001; Douglas O. Linder 2006; CNN 12/17/2007) Reportedly, McVeigh tells people that the Army has placed a computer chip in his buttocks to keep him under surveillance. (Green 5/8/1995) McVeigh's fellow security guard, Carl Edward Lebron Jr., later recalls long conversations with McVeigh that center around "politics, secret societies, some religion and conspiracy theories," UFOs, and government conspiracies to addict its citizens to illegal drugs. Lebron wonders if McVeigh himself might belong to a secret society of some sort, perhaps a Freemason sect. Lebron will recall McVeigh showing him Ku Klux Klan newsletters and gold coins, some minted in Canada. Lebron becomes worried enough about McVeigh's apparent instability to tape-record some of their conversations, and keep notes of what McVeigh tells him. What seems to worry Lebron the most is McVeigh's talk about stealing weapons from Army bases. In August, McVeigh quits his job at Burns, telling coworkers: "I got to get out of this place. It's all liberals here." Lebron bids him goodbye, saying, "Stay out of trouble," to which McVeigh replies: "I can't stay out of trouble. Trouble will find me." (Serrano 1998, pp. 48-57) Law professor Douglas O. Linder will later speculate that McVeigh's radicalization may have been triggered, and was certainly deepened, by the FBI's raid on the Ruby Ridge compound of white supremacist Randy Weaver (see August 31, 1992 and August 21-31, 1992). (Douglas O. Linder 2006) McVeigh later tells his lawyers that during this time, he became increasingly stressed because of what he will call his "heightened sense of awareness of what the news was really saying." He becomes increasingly obsessed with the news, raging at politicians for trying to blend politics and the military, and at the government for "strong-arming other countries and telling them what to do." He becomes increasingly enraged by what he calls the increasing anti-gun sentiment in the US, and the "liberal mindset that all things in the world could be solved by discussion." He learned in the military that most problems can best be solved by aggression, he will say, citing physical fights he had with fellow soldiers and angry confrontations with fellow security workers. (PBS Frontline 1/22/1996)
Movements Cloudy - McVeigh's movements are somewhat cloudy during this period. A New York Times report will say that McVeigh and Nichols may have lived together in Marion, Kansas, not Michigan, and McVeigh may have moved to Kingman, Arizona, during this time or sometime later. (McFadden 4/23/1995)
Future Oklahoma City Bomber - McVeigh will go on to bomb a federal building in Oklahoma City, with Nichols's aid (see 8:35 a.m. - 9:02 a.m. April 19, 1995). Haner-Mele will have difficulty believing McVeigh orchestrated the bombing. "Timmy just wasn't the type of person who could initiate action," she will say. "He was very good if you said, 'Tim, watch this door—don't let anyone through.' The Tim I knew couldn't have masterminded something like this and carried it out himself. It would have had to have been someone who said: 'Tim, this is what you do. You drive the truck.'" (McFadden 5/4/1995) McVeigh's cousin Kyle Kraus, who received a copy of The Turner Diaries from McVeigh, puts the book away until after the bombing, when he will reread some of it. Horrified, he will contact the FBI; the copy will become an exhibit in McVeigh's criminal trial (see August 10, 1995). (Serrano 1998, pp. 51)
The "Aryan Republican Army" (ARA) commits at least 22 bank robberies across America's Midwest. The ARA is modeled after the violent white supremacist organization The Order (see Late September 1983), which had funded itself primarily through robbing armored trucks. For a time, the group's headquarters is in Elohim City, Oklahoma (see 1973 and After). The ARA's leaders claim to be dedicated to the "overthrow of the US government, the extermination of American Jews, and the establishment of an Aryan Republic" on the North American continent. Members are required to read the infamous Turner Diaries (see 1978), a novel depicting the overthrow of the US government by white separatists and the genocide of minorities. The robberies in all secure between $250,000 and $500,000 for the group.
Robbery Spree - During the height of their robbery spree, ARA members target a bank about once a month, hitting banks and financial institutions in Iowa, Wisconsin, Missouri, Ohio, Nebraska, Kansas, and Kentucky. Sometimes the robbers dress like construction workers and flee in junk cars bought specifically for the escape. Sometimes they leave fake bombs and smoke grenades to delay pursuit; sometimes they speak in foreign languages to confuse authorities. In a December 1994 heist, one robber wears a Santa Claus suit, shouts "Ho, ho, ho!" to customers, and leaves a bomb tucked in a Santa hat. During a March 1995 robbery, the robbers leave a pipe bomb in an Easter basket. On one occasion the robbers leave a copy of the Declaration of Independence in the ashtray of an abandoned getaway car. Sometimes they wear caps or bandannas bearing the logos of the FBI or the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms (BATF). On another occasion the robbers buy a getaway car, a Ford Fairlane, in the name of a retired FBI agent who had worked white supremacist cases in the Northwest; on the front seat of this car they leave an article about Oklahoma City bomber Timothy McVeigh (see 8:35 a.m. - 9:02 a.m. April 19, 1995). When FBI agent Jim Nelson takes his speculations about the ARA public, group members send letters to several Midwestern newspapers mocking him and calling themselves the "Mid-Western Bank Bandits."
Arrests and Convictions - By late 1995, federal and state authorities will arrest most ARA members; ARA leader Peter Kevin Langan will be convicted on multiple charges of bank robbery, and another ARA leader, Richard Guthrie, will commit suicide in prison after cooperating with authorities. Michael William Brescia and Kevin William McCarthy also cooperate with authorities in return for reduced sentences. Others convicted include Mark William Thomas and Scott Stedeford.
Promotional Video Gives Principles - In a two-hour promotional video made in January 1995 and called "The Armed Struggle Underground," Langan, calling himself "Commander Pedro," appears in a ski mask alongside others in fatigues brandishing weapons and fistfuls of cash. In the video, Langan says: "Our basic goal is to set up an Aryan republic.… Don't mistake us for cultists. We, ladies and gentlemen, are your neighbors." Langan also says the ARA supports "ethnic cleansing" similar to what the Serbians are carrying out in Kosovo. Another ARA member tells viewers that ARA intends to declare war on the American government and promises a "courthouse massacre." In the video, ARA members state their principles: all racial minorities are subhuman, Jews are "Satan's spawn," whites of northern European descent are "chosen people," and a United Nations-led "New World Order" (see September 11, 1990) threatens freedom in the United States. (Slobodzian and Fazlollah 2/4/1997; Anti-Defamation League 8/9/2002; Nicole Nichols 2003; Nicole Nichols 2003; New American 11/28/2005)
Oklahoma City Bomber a Member - In 2001, the FBI will state that McVeigh was an ARA member. It is possible that money "laundered" by him shortly before the bombing (see November 1994) came from an ARA bank robbery. (Nicole Nichols 2003)
In a number of venues, including "The Seditionist" magazine and an Illinois publication called "The War Eagle: A Voice and Forum for Revolutionary Pan-Aryanism," white supremacist Louis Beam calls for "leaderless resistance," or cells of fighters who report to no one. Beam writes that the idea originated in the early 1960s as part of preparations for a Communist takeover of the United States; he has adapted it to the idea of resisting what he calls the threat of "federal tyranny" and the federal government's "ever increasing persecution and oppression." Beam writes that the usual "pyramidal" scheme of organization, "with the mass at the bottom and the leader at the top," is "not only useless, but extremely dangerous for the participants when it is utilized in a resistance movement against state tyranny.… In the pyramid type of organization, an infiltrator can destroy anything which is beneath his level of infiltration and often those above him as well. If the traitor has infiltrated at the top, then the entire organization from the top down is compromised and may be traduced at will." Beam recommends the independent "cell system" of organization, and cites two examples: the Revolutionary War-era "Sons of Liberty" and the more recent use of "cells" by Communist infiltrators in the US. Beam writes that if the cell system is adopted without the top layer of leadership—leaderless "phantom cells"—this can thwart government efforts to infiltrate and monitor the groups. Every cell must have the same fundamental ideology and agenda, Beam writes, and then can be trusted to operate independently, taking actions that further the cause of the larger group without top-down direction. He concludes: "America is quickly moving into a long dark night of police state tyranny, where the rights now accepted by most as being inalienable will disappear. Let the coming night be filled with a thousand points of resistance. Like the fog which forms when conditions are right and disappears when they are not, so must the resistance to tyranny be." Beam's idea will be used by many in the so-called "Patriot Movement." The "Patriot Movement" is later defined by founder John Wallace and by the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) as a loose confederation of anti-government organizations, groups, and individuals who believe that the US government is illegally infringing on citizens' liberties. The "Patriot Movement" is largely comprised of right-wing, separatist, and white supremacist organizations, groups, and individuals. (Beam 2/1992; Kifner 7/5/1995; Southern Poverty Law Center 6/2001; John Wallace 2007)
National Guardsman Timothy McVeigh (see January - March 1991 and After, November 1991 - Summer 1992, and June 1992) writes a letter (some sources will call it an "editorial") that is published in the Lockport, New York, Union-Sun & Journal. His letter, published under the title "America Faces Problems," reads in part: "What is it going to take to open up the eyes of our elected officials? AMERICA IS IN SERIOUS DECLINE. We have no proverbial tea to dump; should we instead sink a ship full of Japanese imports?… Is a civil war imminent? Do we have to shed blood to reform the current system? I hope it doesn't come to that! But it might." McVeigh continues: "Crime is out of control. Criminals have no fear of punishment. Prisons are overcrowded so they know they will not be imprisoned long.… Taxes are a joke. Regardless of what a political candidate 'promises,' they will increase. More taxes are always the answer to government mismanagement. They mess up, we suffer. Taxes are reaching cataclysmic levels, with no slowdown in sight. The 'American Dream' of the middle class has all but disappeared.… Politicians are further eroding the 'American Dream' by passing laws which are supposed to be a 'quick fix,' when all they are really designed for is to get the official reelected. These laws tend to 'dilute' a problem for a while, until the problem comes roaring back in a worsened form. (Much like a strain of bacteria will alter itself to defeat a known medication.)" McVeigh then writes: "Racism on the rise? You had better believe it… ! At a point when the world has seen communism falter as an imperfect system to manage people; democracy seems to be heading down the same road.… Maybe we have to combine ideologies to achieve the perfect utopian government.… Should only the rich be allowed to live long?" Lockport is a small town north of Buffalo, and serves McVeigh's home town of Pendleton. McVeigh will have a second letter published in March 1992, that one mainly focusing on the joys of hunting and extolling the "clean, merciful shot" of the deer hunter. Both letters are signed "Tim" and have a preprinted address label pasted beneath the signature. McVeigh will be accused of detonating a massive fertilizer bomb in Oklahoma City; the Union-Sun & Journal managing editor, Dan Kane, will inform the FBI of McVeigh's letters after McVeigh is taken into custody (see April 21, 1995) on suspicion of perpetrating the Oklahoma City bombing (see 8:35 a.m. - 9:02 a.m. April 19, 1995), and reprint them. Kane will speculate: "I think the letter was triggered by something that happened in the service. Here's a man who just got through seeing a lot of blood" in the Persian Gulf war. He was dissatisfied in general with the way the government was operating, and politicians in particular." Kane will add: "There was one paragraph in particular that made my heart stop a little bit. It was the one that said, 'shed blood…' After Oklahoma City, I certainly look at it as a sort of eerie and prophetic statement." (Willman 4/27/1995; Barron 4/27/1995; PBS Frontline 1/22/1996; Serrano 1998, pp. 53; CNN 12/17/2007) McVeigh's letter is in response to a previous letter he wrote to US Representative John LaFalce (D-NY), the representative of his home district, which received no response. McVeigh's letter primarily focused on his concerns about the illegality of private citizens possessing "noxious substances" such as CS gas for protection. (Serrano 1998, pp. 53)
Sergeant Timothy McVeigh, a former Army soldier, white supremacist, and survivalist (see March 24, 1988 - Late 1990 and November 1991 - Summer 1992), is notified that the Army will send him $1,058 as a signing bonus for his serving a second term. Later that month, he is informed that the government wants the bonus back, with interest. (PBS Frontline 1/22/1996; Thomas 7/1/1998) Later, McVeigh's father William McVeigh will tell FBI investigators that the Army called the money an overpayment, not a bonus, and that his son was furious over the incident. Documents later gathered by the FBI show that a form letter from the Department of Defense Finance and Accounting Service is sent to McVeigh at his Pendleton, New York, home on February 15, 1993, two years after he left the Army. The letter asks for either the full $1,058 or a $50 installment within 30 days. McVeigh replies: "I have received your notice informing me of my debt owed to you, as well as your threat of referring me to the Justice Department (Big Brother).… In all honesty, I cannot even dream of repaying you the $1,000 which you say I owe. In fact, I can barely afford my monthly rent. Assets? The only thing which I own of any value is my car, a 1987 Chevrolet/Geo Spectrum. If you really want the car, go ahead and seize it.… My car is my only way to get to work; to support myself. But I guess that's all irrelevant to you. Go ahead, take everything I own; take my dignity. Feel good as you grow fat and rich at my expense; sucking my tax dollars and property, tax dollars which justify your existence and pay your federal salary. Do you get it yet? By doing your evil job, you put me out of work." (Thomas 7/1/1998)
Acting on allegations of physical and sexual abuse of children at the Mt. Carmel compound outside of Waco, Texas, the Texas Department of Protective and Regulatory Services (DPRS) opens an investigation into the allegations among the Branch Davidian sect living on the property (see November 3, 1987 and After). Caseworkers go to the compound three times and interview a number of children, but close the case when no evidence of abuse is unearthed, though the children talk freely about "all the men" training with weapons (leader David Koresh tells investigative officer Joyce Sparks that the Davidians have "only a few" weapons, and most of the adults have nothing to do with them). After a February 1993 newspaper series that alleges an array of such abuse (see February 27 - March 3, 1993), and especially after the April 1993 debacle that kills 21 children among the group (see April 19, 1993), the DPRS will come under fire for possibly mishandling the case. Many will say that the agency caseworkers made a mistake in not interviewing the children outside the compound, where, away from the adult Davidians, they may have spoken more freely. Bob Boyd, director of the Waco office, will say in 2003 that none of the children said anything that would lead to a belief that they were being abused. "People are under the assumption that if we had taken the children out of there for an interview, they would have opened up to us about abuse," he says. "The reality was it was highly unlikely. They were such a closed group, and because of their strong beliefs and devotion to [leader David] Koresh, I don't believe we would have gotten any of them to talk to us about abuse. They were not going to open up to outsiders. Even those kids we talked to who did come out during the standoff didn't reveal anything to us. It was only after a long time were we able to piece together some pictures of what it was like inside." David Jewell, whose daughter Kiri will testify to being abused by Koresh since she was 10 (see July 21, 1995), will say he believes caseworkers called ahead before coming to the compound, and the Davidians were able to hide some of the abused children from the caseworkers. Boyd says no such calls were made. Sparks will allege that McLennan County Sheriff Jack Harwell told her to "back off" from investigating abuse complaints; Harwell will deny making such statements. (Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms 2/25/1993; Anderson 3/16/2003)
Terry Nichols, a white supremacist member of the so-called "Patriot Movement" (see March 24, 1988 - Late 1990 and February 1992), renounces his US citizenship via a "nonresident alien" declaration to the Evergreen, Michigan, Township Clerk. "[T]here is total corruption in the entire political system," Nichols says; "the entire political system from the local government on up thru and including the President of the United States, George Bush." He adds: "I no longer am a citizen of the corrupt political corporate state of Michigan and the United States of America.… I follow the common laws, not the Uniform Commercial Codes, Michigan Statutes, etc., that are all colorable laws.… I lawfully, squarely challenge the fraudulent usurping octopus of jurisdiction/authority that does not apply to me. It is therefore now mandatory for… the so-called IRS, for example, to prove its jurisdiction." He calls himself "a nonresident alien, non-foreigner, stranger to the current state of the forum." Many will later detect language similar to that used by the Posse Comitatus movement (see 1969). Nichols has already sent his bank a letter revoking his signature on a credit card application, in an attempt to avoid paying $14,000 in credit card debt (another source will say Nichols owes closer to $40,000), writing in part: "I came across some information and in researching it further I have found that your credit, money, and contracts are all based upon fraud, etc., as stated in my revocation document." The bank wins a lawsuit to compel Nichols to pay his debt; Nichols attempts to pay the debt with a fraudulent "Certified Fractional Reserve Check," a scheme somewhat similar to the fraudulent checks advocated by the Montana Freemen (see 1993-1994), which the bank refuses to accept. During the court proceedings, Nichols, ordinarily an unusually quiet and shy man, repeatedly defies judicial orders to, among other things, come to the front of the courtroom, and at one point tells the judge, "I'm… a layman, a natural person, a freedom of common-law citizen under threat and duress and to challenge the jurisdiction of this court." Circuit Judge Donald A. Teeple will later recall: "He was hollering in a loud voice. I informed him that if he didn't keep quiet, I'd send him to jail. Then he decided to come around the rail" and participate quietly in the hearing. (McFadden 4/23/1995; Rimer 5/28/1995; PBS Frontline 1/22/1996; Thomas 12/24/1997; Southern Poverty Law Center 6/2001; Nicole Nichols 2003; Nicole Nichols 2003) Both Terry Nichols and his brother James (see December 22 or 23, 1988) routinely stamp their paper money with the words "Discharged Without Prejudice," a phrase indicating they do not accept its validity. The money-stamping is popular among Posse Comitatus members (see 1969) as they claim money not backed by gold lacks credibility. They also refuse to buy license plates for their vehicles or register them. James Nichols will also renounce his citizenship sometime later (Nicole Nichols 2003; Nicole Nichols 2003) , telling local courthouse officials that he is "no longer one of your citizens or a resident of your de facto government." In mid-1992, Nichols will spend several days in jail for refusing to recognize a court's authority to make him pay child support; after those days in a cell, he will agree to the court's mandate. (Rimer and Bennet 4/24/1995; Serrano 1998, pp. 109) Nichols will later be convicted for his role in the Oklahoma City bombing (see 8:35 a.m. - 9:02 a.m. April 19, 1995 and December 23, 1997).
"Racial Loyalty," the monthly newsletter published by the racist Church of the Creator (COTC—see 1973 and 1982-1983), reprints an essay by David Lane on "the Christian Right-wing American Patriots, C.R.A.P. (since that is what they do to [sic] the future of all White children)." Lane is a member of the far-right terrorist group The Order (see Late September 1983) and is serving a 40-year racketeering sentence, as well as a 150-year term for civil rights violation in connection with the 1984 murder of radio talk show host Alan Berg (see June 18, 1984 and After). Many far-right organizations who espouse their own versions of Christianity (see 1960s and After), including the Ku Klux Klan, oppose the COTC's rejection of Christianity. (Anti-Defamation League 1993)
Former Army soldier Timothy McVeigh (see January - March 1991 and After and November 1991 - Summer 1992) makes what apparently is his first visit to Decker, Michigan, to visit his Army friend Terry Nichols (see March 24, 1988 - Late 1990). It is the first of many visits between McVeigh and Nichols. (PBS Frontline 1/22/1996) McVeigh has quit his job as a security guard in upstate New York (see June 1992), and is beginning a life of long, solitary drives around the country, supporting himself by selling and trading guns and materiel (including ammunition, blast simulators, and even atropine, an antidote to chemical warfare) at gun shows. He tells friends that one reason he has chosen to leave his home of New York State behind is because of its "out of control" welfare and social services programs and high taxation. McVeigh does a brisk business buying and selling anti-government propaganda and manuals teaching the reader to build homemade bombs and survival techniques. (Stickney 1996, pp. 143-144; Serrano 1998, pp. 55-57) McVeigh and Nichols share a virulent hatred of the federal government and other right-wing views (see April 2, 1992 and After). They will soon begin a conspiracy that will culminate in the bombing of a federal building in Oklahoma City (see 8:35 a.m. - 9:02 a.m. April 19, 1995).
White supremacist Timothy McVeigh (see March 24, 1988 - Late 1990 and November 1991 - Summer 1992) closely follows the culminating events of the Ruby Ridge, Idaho, siege (see August 31, 1992). McVeigh is appalled by the government's conduct, as is his friend Terry Nichols, with whom he is staying (see Summer 1992). (Douglas O. Linder 2001; CNN 12/17/2007) McVeigh has been closely following the events at Ruby Ridge since the siege began in April 1992, both in local newspapers and in publications such as the National Rifle Association's American Hunter and the racist, separatist Spotlight, and will complain that the mainstream media gives only the government's version of events. He will later recall this as a "defining moment" in his life. (Stickney 1996, pp. 147-148; PBS Frontline 1/22/1996) McVeigh will go on to bomb a federal building in Oklahoma City (see 8:35 a.m. - 9:02 a.m. April 19, 1995).
White supremacist Randy Weaver surrenders after an 11-day standoff with federal authorities at his cabin on Ruby Ridge, Idaho. The standoff cost the lives of Weaver's wife and son, and a US marshal. The incident, according to the Southern Poverty Law Center, will "galvanize… many on the radical right." (Southern Poverty Law Center 6/2001)
Anti-Semitic Christian Identity (see 1960s and After) pastor Pete Peters hosts the "Rocky Mountain Rendezvous" in Estes Park, Colorado. Some 160 right-wing extremists, motivated by the recent Ruby Ridge incident (see August 31, 1992), determine strategies for what will become the US militia movement. (Southern Poverty Law Center 6/2001)
White supremacist Timothy McVeigh (see March 24, 1988 - Late 1990 and November 1991 - Summer 1992) moves out of his father's house in Pendleton, New York, and into a nearby apartment. During this time, he may have a brief affair with a married woman. Also, sometime during this period, he obtains a Ku Klux Klan membership card in Harrison, Arkansas, and drives to Michigan, where he meets his friend Terry Nichols's brother James Nichols (see December 22 or 23, 1988). He begins receiving subscription copies of the white supremacist magazine The Spotlight. (PBS Frontline 1/22/1996)
White separatist Terry Nichols (see March 24, 1988 - Late 1990, December 22 or 23, 1988, April 2, 1992 and After, and October 12, 1993 - January 1994) makes a number of trips to the Phillippines, apparently to meet with al-Qaeda bomber Ramzi Yousef and other radical Islamists. Nichols will later help plan and execute the Oklahoma City bombing (see 8:35 a.m. - 9:02 a.m. April 19, 1995). Nichols's wife is a mail-order bride from Cebu City; Nichols spends an extensive amount of time on the island of Mindanao, where many Islamist terror cells operate. This information comes from a Philippine undercover operative, Edwin Angeles, and one of his wives. Angeles is the second in command in the militant group Abu Sayyaf from 1991 to 1995 while secretly working for Philippine intelligence at the same time (see 1991-Early February 1995). After the Oklahoma City bombing, Angeles will claim in a videotaped interrogation that in late 1992 and early 1993 Nichols meets with Yousef and a second would-be American terrorist, John Lepney. In 1994, Nichols meets with Yousef, Lepney, and others. For about a week, Angeles, Yousef, Nichols, and Lepney are joined by Abdurajak Janjalani, the leader of Abu Sayyaf; two members of the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF); Abdul Hakim Murad and Wali Khan Amin Shah, both of whom are working with Yousef on the Bojinka plot (see January 6, 1995); and a half-brother of Yousef known only by the alias Ahmad Hassim (this is a probable reference to Yousef's brother Abd al-Karim Yousef, who is living in the Philippines at this time). Elmina Abdul, Angeles's third wife, will add additional details about these 1994 meetings in a taped 2002 hospital confession to a Philippines reporter days before her death. She only remembers Nichols as "Terry" or "The Farmer," and doesn't remember the name of the other American. She says: "They talked about bombings. They mentioned bombing government buildings in San Francisco, St. Louis, and in Oklahoma. The Americans wanted instructions on how to make and to explode bombs. [Angeles] told me that Janjalani was very interested in paying them much money to explode the buildings. The money was coming from Yousef and the other Arab." (Dacanay 4/3/2002; Insight 4/19/2002; Zumel-Sicat 4/26/2002; Timmerman 6/22/2002; Nicole Nichols 2003) ("The other Arab" may be a reference to the Arab Mohammed Jamal Khalifa, Osama bin Laden's brother-in-law, because Janjalani's younger brother later claims Abu Sayyaf was funded in its early years by Yousef and Khalifa.) (CNN 1/31/2007) Abdul claims Nichols and Lepney are sent to an unnamed place for more instructions on bomb-making to destroy a building in the US. She also says that Angeles and others in Abu Sayyaf believe Yousef works for the Iraqi government. (Timmerman 6/22/2002) The Manila Times later reports that "Lepney did indeed reside and do business in Davao City [in the Southern Philippines] during 1990 to 1996." One bar owner recalls that when Lepney got drunk he liked to brag about his adventures with local rebel groups. (Zumel-Sicat 4/26/2002) In 2003, Nicole Nichols (no relation to Terry Nichols), the director of the watchdog organization Citizens against Hate, will explain why an American white supremacist would make common cause with Islamist terrorists. Two unifying factors exist, she writes: an overarching hatred of Jews and Israel, and a similarly deep-seated hatred of the US government. (Nicole Nichols 2003) After Nichols takes part in the 1995 Oklahoma City bombing (see 8:35 a.m. - 9:02 a.m. April 19, 1995), Wali Khan Amin Shah will attempt to take the credit for plotting the bombing for himself and Yousef, a claim federal authorities will not accept (see April 19, 1995 and 10:00 a.m. April 19, 1995 and After).
During this time period, over a dozen Montana anti-government tax resisters—the kernel of what will become the "Montana Freemen" movement (see 1983-1995)—establish themselves, creating what they term "common law courts" in Garfield and Musselshell Counties, and mounting a massive bank fraud scheme. (Billings Gazette 3/25/2006)
Beliefs - According to a Washington Post article, the Freemen espouse a number of beliefs that directly contradict federal, state, and local laws. These are:
All forms of organized government are illegitimate and have no right to perform duties routinely assigned to governments, from collecting taxes to requiring automobile licenses.
Thusly, the Freemen can perform a multitude of actions, such as defying foreclosures, issuing arrest warrants, and even putting government officials on "trial."
They can also act as their own central banks and defraud the government, financial institutions, and area merchants.
Racist 'Christian Identity' Ideology - According to the Montana Human Rights Network and local citizens, most of the Freemen espouse some form of "Christian Identity" religious ideology, which claims that whites are inherently superior to other "inferior" races (see 1960s and After); they also hold radical anti-government views. (Kenworthy and Kovaleski 4/1996; Goodstein 4/9/1996; Billings Gazette 3/25/2006) The Anti-Defamation League traces the roots of the Freemen ideology to the the Posse Comitatus movement (see 1969). (Mark Pitcavage 5/6/1996) They call themselves "Freemen" because, in their view, white Christian males have special "Freemen" citizenship status, while non-whites, non-Christians, and women have second class status or worse. Freemen are above government prosecution and taxation. As US currency has no intrinsic value, any loans taken by Freemen need not be repaid. The US government is run by Jews and therefore has no legitimacy. "Common law" is the rule of the land. (Goldberg 6/15/1996) The Reverend Jerry Walters of Roundup, Montana, will later characterize the Freemen's beliefs as a "bizarre distortion of the Christianity taught in most churches on Sundays." (Rodney Skurdal will file a $100 billion lien against Walters after Walters refuses to alter his sermons to reflect Skurdal's Christian Identity beliefs.) The Post will observe: "American history is littered with examples of how hard economic times produce hard-edged political splinter groups, but the Freemen of Montana are a particularly virulent strain. Their philosophy, a hodgepodge drawn from the Old Testament, the Magna Carta, the anti-tax Posse Comitatus of the 1980s, and a highly selective reading of the Constitution, is laced with racism and talk of a Jewish conspiracy, and puts them at the extreme of the Christian patriot movement." Steven Gardner of the Coalition for Human Dignity will say: "The Freemen have, in effect, appointed themselves judge, jury and executioner. They are trying to form their own shadow government for a white Christian republic." (Kenworthy and Kovaleski 4/1996; Goodstein 4/9/1996; Mark Pitcavage 5/6/1996; Billings Gazette 3/25/2006) "What's driving them is their biblical and theological agenda," Walters will say. "Their anti-government conspiracy theories, their anti-tax stance—they're looking at these things through the lens of Christian Identity." (Goodstein 4/9/1996)
Fraudulent Liens - LeRoy Schweitzer and the others concoct a scheme to generate money by filing phony liens against various Montana property owners, or the Montana or US government. The liens have no value; however, once they are created, it takes time for bank computers to recognize them as invalid. During that "window" of time, the liens can be used to generate money transfers from unsuspecting banks. The Freemen file the liens and deposit fake money orders at other banks to be drawn upon the bank listing the lien. The money orders are usually signed by Schweitzer, though Skurdal, Daniel Petersen, and William Stanton (see October 17, 1994) also sign them on occasion. The money orders look quite official, though sometimes they deliberately spell the words "United States" with a lowercase "u." The Freemen also issue bogus checks labeled "Certified Bankers Check—Controller Warrant," instead of a bank name, along with account and lien numbers. Many checks are drawn against a non-existent account in a Butte, Montana, branch of the Norwest Bank. The checks state that they are also redeemable at the Office of the US Postmaster. The scheme is, on the whole, quite profitable. The Freemen also sell the money orders, advertising them to their fellow citizens as a quick means of getting out of debt. One distributor explains on a Web site: "LeRoy Schweitzer does have their [sic] own monetary system. When you attend their course on location, they will issue you CHECKS times two (biblical) to pay off all IRS debts and all loans to banks for no charge. They are having success in this area, but it is hard fight [sic]." One Omaha, Nebraska, county treasurer will later explain, "People see these and, if you're a very unsuspecting person, they really do look authentic." (Mark Pitcavage 5/6/1996) Schweitzer, Skurdal, and Petersen are influenced by Roy Schwasinger, described by federal authorities as a right-wing con artist and head of the Colorado extremist group "We the People." Schwasinger originated the financial schemes that the Freemen run. (Goldberg 6/15/1996)
Appointing Themselves as Legal Officials - The Freemen appoint themselves "justices," issue "arrest warrants," and flood local courts and counties with what the Billings Gazette will term "bogus documents." One of the documents, written by the three Freemen leaders, Skurdal, Schweitzer, and Petersen, is interpreted by local law enforcement officials as a threat. It states: "We the Honorable justices, will not hesitate to use our Lawful force by whatever means necessary to fully support, protect, guarantee, and defend our (common) Law… and… Right of self governing as a free sovereign and independent state." District Court Judge Peter Rapkoch calls the documents "a bucket of snakes." In July 1994, one of the Freemen, Skurdal, is prohibited by court order from filing or recording any "frivolous" document with any Montana county clerk of court, clerk and recorder, or the secretary of state (see 1994); Montana Supreme Court Chief Justice Jean A. Turnage calls Skurdal's filings "not only nonsensical but meritless, frivolous, vexatious, and wasteful of the limited time and resources of this court, of the clerk of this court, and of the various public officials and counsel that are forced to deal with and respond to Mr. Skurdal's abuse." Garfield County prosecutor Nick Murnion files misdemeanor charges of impersonating public officials against 13 residents and a felony charge of solicitation of kidnapping against Ralph Clark for a $1 million bounty posted around the county for court officers, the sheriff, and Murnion. Garfield County Sheriff Charles Phipps organizes a posse of about 90 local residents to come to the aid of his outmanned, outgunned three-person department (see January 1994). Murnion eventually files felony criminal syndicalism charges against Freemen members. US Attorney Sherry Matteucci works with local and state officials to share information on anti-government activities. "I think their purpose is to intimidate people and to cause chaos in governmental operations," she says. (Goodstein 4/9/1996; Worthington 4/19/1996; Mark Pitcavage 5/6/1996; Billings Gazette 3/25/2006)
White separatist Timothy McVeigh (see March 24, 1988 - Late 1990), already mulling over plans to bomb an Oklahoma City federal building (see 8:35 a.m. - 9:02 a.m. April 19, 1995), quits his job with an upstate New York security company (see November 1991 - Summer 1992), sells all of his belongings except what will fit into his car, and begins traveling around the US attending gun shows and militia events. Not all militia movements are characterized by the racist ideology that helps impel McVeigh, but many are, and many white hate groups are making common cause with militias. McVeigh ekes out enough money selling knives, fatigues, and copies of The Turner Diaries (see 1978) to continue his travels, and meets a number of like-minded people. One gun collector who knows McVeigh from the circuit will later tell investigators: "He carried that book all the time. He sold it at the shows. He'd have a few copies in the cargo pocket of his cammies. They were supposed to be $10, but he'd sell them for $5. It was like he was looking for converts.… He could make 10 friends at a show, just by his manner and demeanor. He's polite, he doesn't interrupt." The gun collector, who refuses to give his name to a reporter, also recalls McVeigh living mostly in his car and carrying a "big pistol" with him at all times. An undercover detective will later recall McVeigh showing people at one 1993 gun show in Phoenix how to convert a flare gun into a rocket launcher, and giving out documents with the name and address of the FBI sniper who had shot the wife of white supremacist Randy Weaver at Ruby Ridge (see August 31, 1992). Psychology professor Gerald Post will later say, "Gun shows have become town hall meetings for racists and antigovernment radicals." At McVeigh's trial, prosecutors will say that McVeigh used the gun shows to "fence stolen weapons, make contacts to buy bomb materials, and hone his terrorist skills." During his travels, McVeigh writes to his sister Jennifer, saying that the government is planning to disarm gun owners and incarcerate them in concentration camps. (Kifner 7/5/1995; PBS Frontline 1/22/1996; Douglas O. Linder 2001) Author Brandon M. Stickney will later write: "Today, this part of McVeigh's life would be difficult even for Tim to document, but it was during this odyssey of uncertainty that he became seriously involved in a dangerous world. Tim was now driven by a desire for 'citizen action,' or a movement by the people to alter the liberal thinking of politicians and officials in power.… [I]t is believed that during those lost days, he was frequently exposed to the growing 'paramilitary' underworld of Michigan and other states. Groups whose members were upset with taxes, political corruption, and incidents like Ruby Ridge spoke of organizing 'militias.'" (Stickney 1996, pp. 150)
Meets Fellow Anti-Government Figures at Gun Shows - Along the way, McVeigh meets Andreas Strassmeir, the head of security for the far-right white supremacist community at Elohim City, Oklahoma (see 1973 and After). He also meets gun dealer Roger Moore at a gun show; McVeigh's partner Terry Nichols will later rob Moore (see November 5, 1994) as part of McVeigh and Nichols's bomb plot. (Kifner 7/5/1995; PBS Frontline 1/22/1996; Douglas O. Linder 2001; Nicole Nichols 2003) Moore is an outspoken man who loudly boasts about his love of country and his hatred for the federal government. He frequently says he would be more than willing to take part in a violent assault against federal law enforcement officials, but, he says, his girlfriend, Karen Anderson, will not let him get involved in such activities. He will later tell a reporter: "I don't give a sh_t. I'll put on my flak vest, take a bunch of godd_mn guns in my van, and if I get in a firefight, so be it. I wanna run around and dig up a lot of stuff, but she will not let me go anywhere." (Serrano 1998, pp. 59)
Admires Davidian Attack on Federal Law Enforcement Officials - McVeigh has recently developed a crippling habit of gambling on football games, and has maxed out several credit cards, severely damaging his financial status, though by the end of 1992 he had paid off all but one $10,000 debt. According to his later recollections, he is depressed and frustrated by his inability to find someone to love. He spends some time in Florida, living with his sister and working for her husband as an electrician. He meets Moore while in Florida, and shares a table with him at one gun show. He finds Miami too loud and the people offensive, so he leaves shortly after his arrival. It is at this time that he first learns of the federal raid on the Branch Davidian compound outside Waco (see 5:00 A.M. - 9:30 A.M. February 28, 1993), and while watching news coverage of the event, tells his sister that the Davidians "must be doing something right, they are killing Feds." (PBS Frontline 1/22/1996)
Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms (BATF, sometimes abbreviated ATF) agent Davy Aguilera obtains a warrant, or affidavit as it is sometimes called in law enforcement terminology, to search the Branch Davidian compound, known to many as Mt. Carmel, just outside of Waco, Texas. Aguilera, a BATF agent out of Austin, Texas, secures the warrant from US Magistrate Judge Dennis Green in Waco. Aguilera says the evidence for the warrant comes from his own investigation, "as well as information furnished to me by other law enforcement officers and concerned citizens" (see March 5-9, 1992, June-July 1992, November 1992 - January 1993, December 7, 1992, January 11, 1993 and After, and January 22 - Early February, 1993). Aguilera's warrant gives legal standing for the BATF's upcoming raid on the Davidian compound (see 5:00 A.M. - 9:30 A.M. February 28, 1993). Aguilera writes, "I believe that Vernon Howell, aka David Koresh and/or his followers who reside at the compound known locally as the Mt. Carmel Center are unlawfully manufacturing and possessing machine guns and explosive devices." (Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms 2/25/1993) The legitimacy of the BATF affidavits and warrants will be disputed. After the events of the final assault (see April 19, 1993), a retired FBI agent will examine the original BATF affidavits and say that the agency lacked probable cause for them. In 1996, a Congressional investigation will find that the warrant is replete with "an incredible number of false statements" (see August 2, 1996); one example is its claim, based on witness statements, that the Davidians own a British Boys anti-tank .52 caliber rifle, when in fact they own a Barret light .50 firearm. Possession of the British Boys constitutes a felony, while ownership of the Barret is legal. The affidavit relies heavily on information provided by former Davidian Marc Breault (see February 27 - March 3, 1993); it does not note that Breault left the compound as an opponent of Koresh, a fact that might affect his motives in speaking against Koresh. Nor does the affidavit note that Breault is almost completely blind, but instead claims that he was a bodyguard who "participated in physical training and firearm shooting exercises conducted by Howell. He stood guard armed with a loaded weapon." Aguilera repeatedly misrepresents and misstates the facts of weapons laws in the affidavit, and misstates the types of weapons parts that Koresh and the Davidians are known to have purchased. The investigation will find that while legitimate evidence exists that would constitute probable cause for a warrant, the BATF agents "responsible for preparing the affidavits knew or should have known that many of the statements were false." (House Committee on Government Reform and Oversight 8/2/1996; House Committee on Government Reform and Oversight 8/2/1996)
An attempt to topple the World Trade Center in New York City fails, but six people are killed and over 1,000 injured in the misfired blast. The explosion is caused by the detonation of a truck bomb in the underground parking garage. An FBI explosives expert will later state, "If they had found the exact architectural Achilles' heel or if the bomb had been a little bit bigger, not much more, 500 pounds more, I think it would have brought her down." Ramzi Yousef, who has close ties to Osama bin Laden, organizes the attempt. (Friedman 3/30/1993; US Congress 2/24/1998) The New York Times will report on Emad Salem, an undercover agent who will be the key government witness in the trial against Yousef. Salem will testify that the FBI knew about the attack beforehand and told him it would thwart the attack by substituting a harmless powder for the explosives. However, an FBI supervisor called off this plan and the bombing was not stopped. (Blumenthal 10/28/1993) Other suspects were ineptly investigated before the bombing as early as 1990. Several of the bombers were trained by the CIA to fight in the Afghan war and the CIA will conclude, in internal documents, that it was "partly culpable" for this bombing (see January 24, 1994). (Marshall 11/1/1998) 9/11 mastermind Khalid Shaikh Mohammed is an uncle of Yousef and also has a role in the bombing (see March 20, 1993). (Gumbel 6/6/2002; McDermott 9/1/2002) One of the bombers even leaves a message, which will be found by investigators, stating, "Next time, it will be very precise." (Neumeister 9/30/2001)
The Branch Davidians and their leader, David Koresh (see November 3, 1987 and After), are warned of an impending raid on their compound outside Waco, Texas, by agents of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms (BATF—see 5:00 A.M. - 9:30 A.M. February 28, 1993). For several days, BATF agents have come into Waco from all over Texas; the day before the raid, BATF official Sharon Wheeler alerted news outlets in Dallas that "something big" was in the offing (see February 27, 1993). The morning of the raid, medical personnel alert Waco-area press and television personnel that the "feds" are preparing a large-scale exercise of some sort; some reporters and producers see evidence of the preparations for themselves. A large number of news reporters begin scouting the area for more information. Jim Peeler, a cameraman for Waco's KWTX-TV, knows the Davidians are to be involved in the raid; he finds himself on a rural road near Mt. Carmel, the Davidian compound, where he encounters US mailman David Jones. Peeler asks directions from Jones, who, unbeknownst to Peeler, is Koresh's brother-in-law and a Davidian affiliate. Peeler will later say that Jones seems to be doing some sort of reconnaissance when they stop their cars for their chat. Peeler tells Jones he is looking for Mt. Carmel, and they briefly discuss the "Sinful Messiah" series on Koresh that has been running in the Waco Tribune-Herald (see February 27 - March 3, 1993). Both hear the National Guard helicopters beginning their patrol. Jones asks Peeler: "Are there helicopters out here? Something's gonna happen out here today. There's too much traffic on the road." Jones tells Peeler he is going home to watch television and see what is going on. Instead, he races to the compound and alerts Koresh; Jones will join the Davidians in the compound, and perish in the blaze that kills Koresh and others 51 days later (see April 19, 1993). (Dean M. Kelley 5/1995; Bryce, Ellis, and Moore 6/23/2000) Seven years later, the media learns that Peeler had been alerted to the raid by local law enforcement official Cal Luedke (see June 23, 2000). Peeler will later admit to tipping off Jones, but will claim he knew nothing of Jones's affiliation with Koresh or the Davidians. He will say that he is sent to drive down the road until he encounters a roadblock put up by the Texas Department of Public Safety, and film whatever may happen. He will say he gets lost trying to find the road leading to the compound. Lawyer Richard DeGuerin, who will represent Koresh in the following weeks, will give a different version of Peeler's words to Jones. DeGuerin will say: "David Jones had been out to get a paper. On the way back he was driving his car and saw someone that looked lost. He saw a newsman. After being satisfied that David was a mailman, the newsman said, 'Well, you better get out of here because there's a National Guard helicopter over at [Texas State Technical Institute], and they're going to have a big shootout with the religious nuts.'" Jones drives to Mt. Carmel and alerts Koresh and his father, Koresh's top aide Perry Jones, to the impending raid. (Smolows, Riley, and Woodbury 5/3/1993; Hancock 8/28/1993; Chua-Eoan 10/11/1993) Later allegations that the Davidians were tipped off by Peeler's colleague, KWTX-TV reporter John McLemore, will be disproven. (Hancock 8/28/1993) Lieutenant Gene Barber of the Waco Sheriff's Department will later testify that local police believe another possible source of information for KWTX-TV was an "informant" at the local ambulance company. Barber will say that on several earlier occasions, when police had put the ambulance company on standby, a KWTX-TV camera crew was sent to the site of the police activity even though the police had not disclosed it to the station. A 1996 House investigation of the Davidian debacle (see August 2, 1996) will conclude that not only were the Davidians aware of the impending raid, but many of them quickly prepared to "ambush" the raiders. (House Committee on Government Reform and Oversight 8/2/1996) After the raid, Virgil Teeter, the vice president of news for KWTX-TV, says he decided to send a camera crew to the Davidian compound only because of the "Sinful Messiah" articles on Saturday and Sunday morning. "We just thought it would be wise to be in the area," he says. Teeter says no one from the station began videotaping until after the shooting started. "We didn't go in before the agents," he says. "We had no live coverage till long after the shooting started. There is no issue of criticizing us for our actions." WFAA-TV in Dallas will broadcast some live footage from the raid and its aftermath, and that footage is broadcast nationally on CNN. (Carter 3/1/1993)
Agents of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms (BATF, sometimes abbreviated ATF) prepare to serve arrest and search warrants against members of the Branch Davidian religious sect, housed in a compound they call Mt. Carmel, on a hill just outside Waco, Texas (see November 1992 - January 1993). The Branch Davidians are a Christian group currently led by David Koresh (see November 3, 1987 and After), who is the prime focus of the arrest and search warrants. Koresh and the Davidians are known to have large stashes of firearms, many of which authorities suspect are illegal to own by US citizens—automatic rifles, machine guns, and the like. Koresh has preached that the End Times, or Apocalypse, will begin sometime around 1995, and the Davidians must arm themselves to prepare for the coming conflict. As a result, Koresh and a number of Davidians have been amassing weapons since 1991, along with gas masks, bulletproof vests, and military-issue MREs, or "meals ready to eat." (Dean M. Kelley 5/1995; US Department of Justice 7/16/1995; PBS Frontline 10/1995; PBS Frontline 10/1995)
Large-Scale Raid Launched - After four days of preparation (see February 24-27, 1993), the BATF forces close on the compound: some 80 government vehicles, including two covered cattle trailers containing 70 BATF agents in full SWAT gear, reach the staging area near the compound by 7:30 a.m. Two or perhaps three Texas National Guard helicopters are deployed. (Labaton and Verhovek 3/27/1993; Dean M. Kelley 5/1995; Bryce, Ellis, and Moore 6/23/2000) The raid was originally planned for March 1, but was moved forward when the Waco Tribune-Herald began publishing its "Sinful Messiah" series about Koresh (see February 27 - March 3, 1993). BATF spokesman John Killorin will later say the BATF feared the cult might become more alert to the possibility of a raid once the series started. Tribune-Herald editor Bob Lott will say that the newspaper alerted federal authorities the day before the first installment ran, giving the BATF a chance to review its raid plans. (Labaton and Verhovek 3/27/1993)
Davidians Alerted - A local news reporter's discussion with a US postal official inadvertently "tips off" the Davidians to the impending raid (see Before 9:45 a.m. February 28, 1993).
BATF Decides Element of Surprise Unnecessary - Koresh is visibly agitated at the news of the impending raid; he tells Robert Rodriguez, whom many Davidians correctly suspect to be a BATF undercover agent (see January 11, 1993 and After): "Neither the ATF nor the National Guard will ever get me. They got me once, and they'll never get me again." Looking out of a window, he adds: "They're coming, Robert, they're coming.… The time has come." Fearing that he will be caught on the premises when the raid begins, Rodriguez makes an excuse and hurriedly leaves. Once off the grounds, he alerts the BATF raid commanders that Koresh knows the agents are on their way. Rodriguez reports via telephone to his immediate superior, BATF tactical coordinator Charles Sarabyn, who relays word to Philip Chojnacki, the agent in charge of the raid. The commanders ask if Rodriguez has seen any signs of alarm or guns being distributed. Rodriguez says he has not, though he tells them that Koresh is so agitated that he is having trouble speaking and holding on to his Bible. According to a Treasury Department report (see Late September - October 1993): "Sarabyn expressed his belief that the raid could still be executed successfully if they hurried. Chojnacki responded, 'Let's go.' A number of agents informed the Treasury investigative panel that Sarabyn said things like, 'Get ready to go; they know we are coming.'" Chojnacki and Sarabyn decide to rush the raid, hoping to deploy before the Davidians are mobilized. (Smolows, Riley, and Woodbury 5/3/1993; Hancock 8/28/1993; Chua-Eoan 10/11/1993; Dean M. Kelley 5/1995; House Committee on Government Reform and Oversight 8/2/1996) Rodriguez will testify that he attempts to find Sarabyn and appraise him of his fears that the Davidians are preparing to resist with violence, but will say that by the time he arrives at the BATF command post, on the Texas State Technical College campus, Sarabyn and his companions have already departed. Rodriguez will testify: "At that time, I started yelling and I said: 'Why, why, why? They know we're coming, they know we're coming.'… [E]verything was very quiet, very quiet, and if I remember right, everybody was really concerned. I went outside and I sat down and I remember starting to cry." Sarabyn and Chojnacki will later testify that while they understood Rodriguez's fears, neither of them believe Koresh is aware of the impending raid; testimony from Rodriguez and another BATF agent, Roger Ballesteros, will contradict their claims. (House Committee on Government Reform and Oversight 8/2/1996) A Los Angeles Times report later makes a similar claim, apparently based on Rodriguez's recollections; the BATF will deny that report entirely. A Waco Tribune-Herald article later reports that just before the raid, a voice comes over BATF radios saying: "There no guns in the windows. Tell them it's a go." Two weeks after the raid, Newsweek will incorrectly report that Rodriguez, whom the article does not identify, "apparently thought little of the call [alerting Koresh of the impending raid] at the time," left the compound, and reported an "all clear" to his colleagues. (Kantrowitz et al. 3/15/1993) Other reports have Davidians telling one another, "The Assyrians are coming," and making preparations to resist an assault. (Smolows, Riley, and Woodbury 5/3/1993) In 1996, a Congressional investigation will find that Chojnacki and Sarabyn's decision to go ahead with the raid even though the element of surprise had been lost was a "reckless" error: "This, more than any other factor, led to the deaths of the four ATF agents killed on February 28" (see August 2, 1996). (House Committee on Government Reform and Oversight 8/2/1996)
Davidians Resist - The Davidians successfully resist the raid (see 9:30 A.M. and After, February 28, 1993), in the process killing four BATF agents (see 11:00 A.M. and After, February 28, 1993) and bringing about a standoff between themselves and the FBI (see 12:00 p.m. February 28, 1993).
The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms (BATF) launches its long-planned raid on the Branch Davidian compound near Waco, Texas (see 5:00 A.M. - 9:30 A.M. February 28, 1993). About 9:30, the BATF forces arrive at Mt. Carmel, the location of the Davidian compound. Two National Guard helicopters, which had been scheduled to create a diversion in the rear of the compound so as to allow the cattle trucks carrying the BATF agents to arrive unseen, are late in arriving, and fail to carry out their mission. The raid commanders are out of radio range and unable to abort the raid or modify the deployment of agents. Moreover, as some agents will later tell the New York Times (see March 27, 1993), only squad leaders can communicate with their team members, so communications are difficult, and when a squad leader is shot—and one will be shot in the first few minutes of the raid—that leader's squad can no longer receive or send information. (Labaton and Verhovek 3/27/1993)
BATF Agents Advance, Shots Fired - At least 70 agents wearing bulletproof vests, helmets, and army gear emblazened with "ATF Agent" in yellow and white letters, emerge from the trailers and race towards the buildings in groups. Davidian leader David Koresh opens the front door and shouts: "What do you want? There's women and children in here!" (Some reports say Koresh is unarmed; others say he is dressed in black and carrying an AR-15 semiautomatic rifle.) The lead agent, Roger Ballesteros, brandishes a search warrant and shouts: "Police! Get down!" and Koresh closes the door. Moments later, BATF agents, including Ballesteros (see January-February 1994) and John Henry Williams, and Texas Ranger David Byrnes will report that the Davidians shoot first; Davidians will claim the opposite. One BATF agent will later report that a fellow agent actually shoots first, at a dog he feels is threatening him, but later that agent will retract the claim. A team of agents with a battering ram is slated to burst through the main doors. Two teams of BATF agents with ladders mount to the roof of the first floor and break into windows on the second floor, where they believe the weapons are stored. The ladder and battering ram teams all encounter heavy fire, and several agents are hit, including one on the roof who manages to hobble to a ladder and slide down. Davidians rain bullets from the upper windows onto the agents. One BATF team manages to force entry into the compound, but is unable to advance. Most of the agents are pinned down behind vehicles. The two sides exchange heavy gunfire. (Labaton and Verhovek 3/27/1993; Smolows, Riley, and Woodbury 5/3/1993; Dean M. Kelley 5/1995; Dick J. Reavis 7/19/1995; PBS Frontline 10/1995; LMPD Arcade 2009) A federal law from 1917 mandates that federal agents use what is called the "knock and announce" approach—in essence, a federal law enforcement agent must knock on a door and announce himself and his intentions before entering. Ballesteros and his fellow BATF agents do not follow this legal provision, though the law does have several exceptions that may apply in this instance. A later House investigation will find the BATF's choice not to "knock and announce" reasonable under the circumstances. (House Committee on Government Reform and Oversight 8/2/1996)
Helicopter Activity - Two of the three helicopters land after taking fire. (Kantrowitz et al. 3/15/1993) Philip Chojnacki, the agent in charge, rides in one of the helicopters; he is almost struck by a Davidian bullet in the first minutes of the raid. (Labaton and Verhovek 3/27/1993) The House investigation will find that Chojnacki's presence in the helicopter essentially takes him out of the communications loop with the raid commanders and team leaders before the beginning of the raid, and deprives him of any opportunity to learn that the Davidians are planning an ambush. (House Committee on Government Reform and Oversight 8/2/1996) Catherine Mattison, a Davidian who will escape the April 1993 conflagration (see April 19, 1993), will say in 2003 that she saw gunfire from the helicopters. "They were shooting when they came in," she will recall. "I went upstairs to my room and all of a sudden I could see three helicopters in V-formation firing. David's rooms were in the back of the building and that's where they were firing. I didn't realize that for three months afterwards because of all the shock and commotion but they were trying to kill him right then." (Guardian 10/28/2003) Mattison's allegations are unconfirmed; testimony from a number of agents will challenge her account, and videotape from the raid shows no gunfire from the helicopters. The helicopters are on loan from the National Guard, and are expressly forbidden to engage in any role save as observational. (House Committee on Government Reform and Oversight 8/2/1996)
Machine-Gun Fire - Reflecting on the raid 10 years later, BATF agent Bill Buford will say: "But before I even got out of the trailer, I could hear machine guns, and I knew we didn't have any.… I'm an old Vietnam vet, and I can tell you—the firing was intense." Buford is wounded in the gun battle. "The one thing we had not planned for was to be pinned down by fire right out in front of the building," Buford will add. "We did not anticipate we would come under such heavy fire, nor did we anticipate we would have such heavy casualties." Buford will say that after the botched raid, the BATF will all but abandon such "insertion"-type assaults, and rely instead on surrounding a building and negotiating with the inhabitants. (Anderson 3/16/2003)
Failure to Follow Manual - Ballesteros will later testify that no particular agent was assigned to announce their identity and the purpose of the raid. "We basically all announced," he will say. He will admit that according to the BATF manual, "[o]fficers are required to wait a reasonable period of time to permit the occupants to respond before forcing entry," and the agents do not follow that mandate. He will testify that the agents expected resistance, but not gunfire, and had not planned for that contingency. BATF agent Kenneth King, one of the two "ladder" team members who attempt to force entry through the second-floor windows, will also testify that the agents did not plan for gunfire, and were unprepared for such a heavy level of resistance. Later testimony also shows that some of the damage suffered by the agents may have been from "friendly fire"; one BATF agent is wounded by what later proves to be a 9mm hydroshock bullet, the ordnance being used by the BATF assault teams. (Dean M. Kelley 5/1995)
A cease-fire ends a violent, bloody conflict between the Branch Davidians, a group of religious separatists in their Waco, Texas, compound, and agents from the Bureau of Tobacco, Alcohol and Firearms (BATF, sometimes abbreviated ATF), who launched a raid on the compound to serve search and arrest warrants on Davidian leader David Koresh (see 5:00 A.M. - 9:30 A.M. February 28, 1993 and 9:30 A.M. and After, February 28, 1993). The cease-fire goes into effect after about 90 minutes of the two sides exchanging gunfire. Four BATF agents are dead and 16 are wounded, some severely. The agents retreat to a safe distance, where they mill around aimlessly; the commanders have not given the agents a plan for retreat or failure. The Davidians also withdraw inside their compound. Five Davidians, including a woman nursing her baby, are dead, and several, including Koresh, are wounded; Koresh suffers gunshot wounds in the hand and the side. (Two of the Davidians may have been killed by their fellows after being gravely wounded by BATF fire.) Three Davidians attempting to get to the main building from a warehouse on the property are apprehended by BATF agents; one is killed, one is arrested, and one escapes. In total, six Davidians are killed. (Dean M. Kelley 5/1995; PBS Frontline 10/1995; House Committee on Government Reform and Oversight 8/2/1996)
Media Contacts - During the raid, CNN receives calls from Davidian Steve Schneider. CNN producers verify that Schneider is indeed inside the compound, and set up an interview with Koresh for this evening (see 5:00 p.m. February 28, 1993 and After). (Carter 3/1/1993)
Negotiations and Implementation - The cease-fire takes some time to implement. Senior BATF agent James Cavanaugh succeeds in convincing Koresh and Schneider to agree to a cease-fire. Schneider has to walk through the main building to tell his people to stop firing; Cavanaugh has no direct radio link to his agents, and has to go through team leaders to tell them to stop firing. The cease-fire has been agreed upon for several minutes before the shooting finally concludes. As part of a 1996 House investigation of the Davidian debacle (see August 2, 1996), Cavanaugh will say: "I called the compound directly on the phone from the undercover house. I reached… Schneider. I told him I was an ATF agent and I wanted to talk to him about this situation. As should be expected, the activity inside the compound was very frantic, people were screaming and yelling, and there was still shooting going on both sides. Steve was very excited and very hostile. I wanted to negotiate a cease-fire, and he [Schneider] was agreeable. I am not going to be good on the time of how long it took, but it took a little while to negotiate that. He had to go throughout the compound, which is very large, telling everyone not to shoot. While he was doing this, there was still shooting going on both sides. I had to get on the command net frequency and tell the commanders on the ground there not to shoot, and they had to relay that to all 100 agents, who were around there, so it took a little time to arrange it. Once I returned to the rear command post I called back in on the telephone to the residence about 2:00 p.m. and I spoke with Steve and David Koresh about what was going on. We had long conversations about the warrant, and we also had a lot of conversations about Biblical passages and Mr. Koresh's belief that he was the Lamb of God, who would open the Seven Seals. As you might assume, he was very hostile, very angry, and very upset." (House Committee on Government Reform and Oversight 8/2/1996) In the following days, Koresh will tell local reporters by phone that he is shot in the "gut" and his two-year-old daughter is dead from BATF gunfire. He will also leave a message on his mother's answering machine in Chandler, Texas, which says in part: "Hello, Mama. It's your boy.… They shot me and I'm dying, all right? But I'll be back real soon, OK? I'll see y'all in the skies." (Kantrowitz et al. 3/15/1993) The body of the Davidian slain while trying to return to the compound, Michael Schroeder, will lie untouched in a gully for four days before authorities retrieve it; those authorities will wait 11 days before informing Schroeder's parents of his death (see March 11, 1993).
Death Toll - The four BATF agents slain in the raid are: Conway LeBleu, Todd McKeehan, Robert Williams, and Steve Willis. The six Davidians slain in the raid are Schroeder, Winston Blake, Peter Gent, Peter Hipsman, Perry Jones, and Jaydean Wendell. (Hiott 2/27/2003) (Initial reports of the death toll inside the Davidian compound range from seven to 15; those reports are later determined to be wrong.) (Terry 3/3/1993)
FBI Takes Control - Within hours of the raid's conclusion, the FBI will take control of the situation and besiege the compound (see 12:00 p.m. February 28, 1993).
Criticism of BATF Tactics - Soon after, the FBI publicly criticizes the BATF's decision to storm the compound in a frontal assault. "It's against our doctrine to do a frontal assault when women and children are present," one FBI agent says. BATF spokeswoman Sharon Wheeler explains: "We were outgunned. They had bigger firearms than we did." But former New York City Police Commissioner Benjamin Ward says of that explanation: "'Outgunned' is a euphemism for 'outplanned,' or 'unplanned.' They did it backwards. The accepted way is to talk first and shoot second." Vic Feazell, a former district attorney for the area, says of Koresh and the Davidians, "They're peaceful and nonaggressive unless they are attacked." By going in, guns blazing, the BATF played right into the group's apocalyptic vision, he says. "They would see this as a holy war provoked by an oppressive government." (Kantrowitz et al. 3/15/1993)
Standoff Will End in Fiery Conflagration - Most of the Davidians, including Koresh, will die in a fiery conflagration after a 51-day standoff with FBI agents (see April 19, 1993). After the site is secured, Texas law enforcement officials will recover over 300 firearms from the compound, as well as numerous live grenades, grenade components, and hundreds of thousands of rounds of ammunition. (US Department of Justice 7/16/1995; PBS Frontline 10/1995)
Future Oklahoma City bomber Timothy McVeigh (see 8:35 a.m. - 9:02 a.m. April 19, 1995) goes to the site of the Branch Davidian siege in Waco, Texas (see 5:00 A.M. - 9:30 A.M. February 28, 1993 and April 19, 1993), to see if the gun ownership rights of the Davidians are being curtailed (see January 23, 1993 - Early 1994). Federal agents block his passage to the compound, but McVeigh stays for a few days sellling bumper stickers, pamphlets, and literature; among his offerings are titles such as "Make the Streets Safe for a Government Takeover," "Politicians Love Gun Control" (featuring a Nazi swastika and a Communist hammer and scythe), "Fear the Government that Fears Your Gun," and "A Man with a Gun is a Citizen, A Man without a Gun is a Subject." McVeigh is particularly horrified by the FBI's use of Bradley fighting vehicles, the tanks he manned during Desert Storm (see January - March 1991 and After), in the siege. He tells a student reporter: "The government is afraid of the guns people have because they have to have control of the people at all times. Once you take away the guns, you can do anything to the people. The government is continually growing bigger and more powerful, and the people need to prepare to defend themselves against government control." The normally self-effacing and reticent McVeigh even climbs up onto the hood of his car to be seen and heard better. "You give them an inch and they take a mile," he says of the federal government. "I believe we are slowly turning into a socialist government. The government is growing bigger and more powerful, and the people need to prepare to defend themselves against government control." McVeigh leaves Waco after a few days and goes to Kingman, Arizona, to visit an Army buddy, Michael Fortier (see May-September 1993); he later goes to Arkansas to meet with a gun-dealing friend, Roger Moore, who calls himself "Bob Miller" at the gun shows they frequent (see January 23, 1993 - Early 1994); though he wants to build ammunition with Moore, McVeigh does not stay long, and later recalls Moore as being a dictator and a "pr_ck." During his time in Waco, McVeigh becomes known to federal agents, in part because of an interview with a reporter from Southern Methodist University's school newspaper, the Daily Campus. The published interview, printed on March 30, includes a photograph of McVeigh. (PBS Frontline 1/22/1996; Serrano 1998, pp. 67-70; Douglas O. Linder 2001; Southern Poverty Law Center 6/2001; Nicole Nichols 2003; Douglas O. Linder 2006) He is also captured on film by a crew from the Texas television station KTVT, a CBS affiliate, sitting on the hood of his car just outside the compound. (Stickney 1996, pp. 155) Later he will tell friends at a Pennsylvania gun show that he crawled up to the perimeter fence erected by the FBI around the Davidian compound "without being seen by any of the agents," and will warn one gun dealer, George (or Greg) Pfaff, that the Davidian standoff "could be the start of the government coming house-to-house to retrieve the weapons from the citizens." (Serrano 1998, pp. 71) The college reporter, Michelle Rauch, will later testify in McVeigh's criminal trial. She will recall meeting McVeigh on a hill outside the Davidian compound, where protesters and observers are gathered. She will recall that the hilltop was "a few miles" from the compound, making it difficult for the people gathered there to see any of the activities around the compound. McVeigh tells Rauch that the local sheriff should have just gone down with a warrant and arrested Davidian leader David Koresh. Rauch will recall McVeigh as being calm, and finds his statements quite helpful to her understanding of the protesters' objections to the FBI standoff. Her article quotes McVeigh as saying, "It seems like the ATF [referring to the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms, sometimes abbreviated BATF] just wants a chance to play with their toys, paid for by government money"; "The government is afraid of the guns people have because they have to have control of the people at all times. Once you take away the guns, you can do anything to the people"; "You give them an inch and they take a mile"; "I believe we are slowly turning into a socialist government"; and "The government is continually growing bigger and more powerful, and the people need to prepare to defend themselves against government control." McVeigh, according to the article, considers the BATF mere "pawns" of the federal government, and blames the government for the standoff, saying it violated the Constitution in surrounding the Davidian compound. The standoff, he says, is just the first step in a comprehensive government assault on the citizenry and Americans should be watchful for further actions. (Douglas O. Linder 2006)
The siege of the Branch Davidian compound near Waco, Texas continues (see 5:00 A.M. - 9:30 A.M. February 28, 1993 and March 1, 1993). FBI profilers Pete Smerick and Mark Young, who have warned that the authorities' strategy of negotiation and intimidation may backfire (see March 3-4, 1993), predict that the siege will end with an all-out assault on the compound by federal authorities (see April 19, 1993). Smerick and Young also predict that most of the Davidians may well commit mass suicide (see March 5, 1993), and warn that a strong show of force is merely playing into Davidian leader David Koresh's hands. In Washington, acting Attorney General Stuart Gerson talks FBI Director William Webster out of going to Waco to negotiate directly with Koresh. (PBS Frontline 10/1995) One of Smerick's memos warns that aggressive measures would "draw David Koresh and his followers closer together in the 'bunker mentality' and they would rather die than surrender." (USA Today 12/30/1999) Tactical pressure, Smerick writes, "should be the absolute last option we should consider, and that the FBI might unintentionally make Koresh's vision of a fiery end come true." (House Committee on Government Reform and Oversight 8/2/1996) On March 9, FBI officials will pressure Smerick and Young into issuing a memorandum that supports the increased harassment of the Davidians (see March 9, 1993). (Moore 1995)
A Houston psychiatrist who has interviewed the children released from the besieged Branch Davidian compound near Waco, Texas (see 5:00 A.M. - 9:30 A.M. February 28, 1993 and March 1, 1993), reports that some of the children have drawn pictures of the compound being consumed by flames. Other children have told him that "everyone is going to die" in the compound, that Davidian leader David Koresh intends "to blow you all up," and when the children left the compound, their parents promised to "see them in heaven." The children's statements and drawings are another indication of a violent end to the siege, with the possibility of a mass suicide (see April 19, 1993). (Conway and Siegelman 1995, pp. 244)
The FBI's Hostage Rescue Team (HRT) leader Richard Rogers urges senior FBI and Justice Department officials to use tear gas to bring the Branch Davidian siege (see 5:00 A.M. - 9:30 A.M. February 28, 1993 and March 1, 1993) to a close. According to a memo written by Deputy Assistant Director Danny Coulson, the FBI's top expert on tactical matters, "A lot of pressure is coming from Rogers." Coulson writes that Rogers urged similar tactics in the 1992 Ruby Ridge debacle (see August 31, 1992): "We had similar problems in Idaho with him [Rogers] and he argued and convinced the SACs [special agents in charge of local FBI offices involved in the incident] that [Randy] Weaver would not come out. That proved to be wrong. I believe he is a significant part of the problem here." Rogers's advice, that only extreme and violent action could force Weaver to emerge, sparked the death of Weaver's wife and son. In 1992, Rogers relaxed FBI rules of engagement and tried to force an all-out assault on the Weaver cabin using tanks and tear gas. Weaver eventually surrendered. Coulson believes that Davidian leader David Koresh will also surrender, if given enough time. "All of their intelligence indicates that David [Koresh] does not intend suicide and that he will come out eventually," Coulson's memo concludes. (Hancock 2/28/2000) The day after Coulson's memo is circulated, the FBI begins bombarding the compound with sound and light (see March 23-24, 1993).
White separatist Timothy McVeigh (see March 24, 1988 - Late 1990 and November 1991 - Summer 1992) meets white supremacist Andreas Strassmeir (see 1973 and After) at a gun show in Tulsa, Oklahoma (see January 23, 1993 - Early 1994). Strassmeir is the chief of security at Elohim City, a white supremacist compound in eastern Oklahoma. McVeigh will go on to blow up a federal building in Oklahoma City (see 8:35 a.m. - 9:02 a.m. April 19, 1995); a precursor of the McVeigh-Nichols bomb plot was hatched in 1983 by Elohim City residents (see 1983). McVeigh will make at least two visits to Elohim City before carrying out the bombing (see October 12, 1993 - January 1994 and September 12, 1994 and After), though federal investigators will rule out any involvement by Strassmeir or any other Elohim City residents in the bombing plot (see August 1994 - March 1995). (Douglas O. Linder 2006)
Despite his promises that his Davidian sect members will leave the compound on April 10 (see April 1-4, 1993), David Koresh, the leader of the besieged Branch Davidians (see 5:00 A.M. - 9:30 A.M. February 28, 1993 and March 1, 1993), now refuses to confirm an exit date. Larry Potts, the supervising FBI agent in Washington, and his colleague Floyd Clarke, have flown to Waco; they meet with Richard Rogers, the chief of the Hostage Rescue Team (HRT) to discuss strategy. Rogers proposes using tear gas to flush the Davidians from the compound if they fail to leave as promised (see March 23, 1993). (PBS Frontline 10/1995)
Attorney General Janet Reno approves a modified version of the FBI's original plan to flush the Branch Davidian compound, Mt. Carmel, with tear gas and force the departure of the 80-odd members (see 5:00 A.M. - 9:30 A.M. February 28, 1993, March 1, 1993, and April 7, 1993). Reno rejected an earlier plan, instead asking for further review (see April 14-15, 1993). According to a later Justice Department report, she gives the prepared material "only a cursory review, leaving tactical decisions to those at Waco," and begins discussing rules of engagement with FBI Director William Sessions and his top aides. She briefs President Clinton, who concurs with the plan after asking questions about measures designed to ensure the safety of the children in the compound (see March 28, 1993). According to Reno, who will later discuss her conversation with Clinton: "He said: 'Have you carefully considered it? Have you looked at everything? Do you feel like this is the best way to go?' And I said: 'Yes, sir. It's my responsibility, and I think it's the best way to go.'" Ultimately, Clinton says, "it is your decision." The plan has been under discussion since March 22 (see March 22, 1993); Reno will acknowledge that she has been appraised of such a plan since "around March 27th or sometime near the very end of March." (Labaton 4/20/1993; PBS Frontline 10/1995)
Parameters of Plan - The stated mission of the plan is to "secure the surrender/arrest of all adult occupants of the residence while providing the maximum possible security for the children within the compound." The plan spans some 48 hours, or until all the Davidians have left the building and surrendered. The raid will start with the first "insertion" of CS gas into the front left portion of the residence, the main building of the compound. After a period of time dependent on the Davidians' response to the CS gas and any negotiations that might take place, more CS will be inserted into the back right portion of the residence. A third insertion will be made at an unspecified point in the residence. After that, all subsequent insertions will be made through the upper and lower windows of the building. The first three insertions will be made by two combat engineering vehicles (CEVs), military vehicles similar to Bradley fighting vehicles but lacking armaments. The CEVs to be used have been outfitted with boom-like arms capable of punching through the walls of the residence. On the booms are mechanical sprayers for the CS. After the third insertion, agents will fire "ferret" round projectiles through the windows; these are small, non-explosive grenade-like projectiles containing CS gas which break apart upon impact and deliver the gas. In addition, more CS will be inserted by the CEVs. HRT (hostage rescue team) and SWAT (special weapons and tactics) units have specific assignments. Maneuvers for the two CEVs, nine Bradleys, and one M-88 tank retrieval vehicle are also specified. FBI snipers are carefully positioned. A "medical annex" is placed to treat what the plan calls "the potentially large number of casualties which could exceed the current medical capabilities of any single agency present," and there are procedures to be followed to arrest persons exposed to CS. The annex is prepared to evacuate seriously injured agents or Davidians to local and secondary hospitals, as well as the mass surrender of the Davidians if that occurs. The plan also provides for the possibility that the Davidians might not surrender. In that case, the plan states that "if all subjects failed to surrender after 48 hours of tear gas, then a CEV with a modified blade will commence a systematic opening up/disassembly of the structure until all subjects are located." If Davidians are observed in the compound's guard tower, agents will fire ferret rounds into the tower. Also: "If during any tear gas delivery operations, subjects open fire with a weapon, then the FBI rules of engagement will apply and appropriate deadly force will be used. Additionally, tear gas will immediately be inserted into all windows of the compound utilizing the four Bradley vehicles as well as the CEVs."
No Frontal Assault - The plan has no provision for any sort of frontal assault by armed FBI agents; the planners feel that any such assault would almost certainly result in "significant casualties" among the agents, and might well trigger a mass suicide among the Davidians. (House Committee on Government Reform and Oversight 8/2/1996)
Reno Deliberately Misinformed - Later investigations will show that Reno is being actively misinformed by the FBI in order to secure her approval for the tear gas plan. The FBI procured documentation from the on-site commanders in Waco that supports only the Washington officials' desire for an aggressive assault using a heavy bombardment of tear gas, and omits material from FBI profiler Pete Smerick and FBI negotiators that warns against such a plan (see April 12, 1993 and 1995). The FBI information presented to Reno does not contain Smerick's behavioral memos, omits complaints from Smerick and an array of negotiators that negotiations had been progressing until derailed by more aggressive FBI tactics, and omits warnings that using tanks or other force against the Davidians would cause violence and death. The report concludes, "Since negotiations began on Feb. 28, 1993, despite 51 days of efforts, the negotiators have concluded that they have not been able to successfully negotiate a single item with [Davidian leader David] Koresh." (Boyer 5/15/1995; Rosenbloom 10/17/1995; Hancock 3/6/2000)
Allegations of Child Abuse - A later Justice Department study will show that Reno changes her mind about the plan primarily because she fears the children in the compound are being abused. The FBI's briefing book notes allegations of child abuse by Davidian leader David Koresh, both sexual and physical. Although the FBI has no evidence of current abuse taking place, someone in the FBI tells Reno that children in the compound are being raped and beaten. According to the Justice Department report, "someone had made a comment in one of the meetings that Koresh was beating babies." Reno, who came to Washington with the reputation of being a child advocate, later says she "double-checked" the allegation and got "the clear impression that, at some point since the FBI had assumed command and control for the situation, they had learned that the Branch Davidians were beating babies." However, it is highly unlikely that Koresh is abusing children, largely because the wounds he suffered in the February 28 shootout sharply limit his mobility. Dr. Bruce Perry, chief of psychiatry at Texas Children's Hospital, has closely examined the children already released from the compound, and concluded that none of them had been subjected to sexual or physical abuse. Perry will later say of the child-abuse allegations, "The FBI maximized things they knew would ring a bell with her." (Boyer 5/15/1995; Rosenbloom 10/17/1995) FBI Director William Sessions says on April 19 that no direct evidence exists of current sexual or physical abuse going on among the Davidians. Reno will later state that she possessed "no contemporary evidence" of such abuse. (PBS Frontline 10/1995) Additionally, some FBI officials worry that Koresh and the other adults may try to break out of the compound using the children as human shields, though no evidence supports this fear. (House Committee on Government Reform and Oversight 8/2/1996)
Reno Not Told CS Gas Can Be Flammable - The CS gas to be used is also flammable under certain conditions, a fact of which Reno may not be aware. (Dick J. Reavis 7/19/1995; Rosenbloom 10/17/1995)
Exaggerated Warnings of Militia Members En Route - Reno will later state that she receives warnings during the briefings about the possibility that armed militia members may be preparing to converge on Waco to join Koresh in resisting the law enforcement forces gathered around the Mt. Carmel compound (see April 3, 1993). Later investigation shows that the "threat" of "armed militias" consists of one Indianapolis lawyer, Linda Thompson, who has promised to load people into a van, drive to Waco, and protest for the right to bear arms. Thompson says she is part of an organization called the Unorganized Militia of the United States, an organization of which few Justice Department officials are aware. (Rosenbloom 10/17/1995)
'Highly Irresponsible' - A House committee investigation in 1996 will find Reno's decision to approve the assault "highly irresponsible," and will find, "The final assault put the children at the greatest risk" (see August 2, 1996). (House Committee on Government Reform and Oversight 8/2/1996)
In preparation for tear-gassing the Branch Davidian compound (see April 17-18, 1993), the FBI uses armored vehicles to clear Davidian leader David Koresh's Chevrolet Camaro and other vehicles away from the front of the compound. The FBI warns the Davidians to stay out of the compound's tower, but they ignore the warning. Instead, they display children in the windows, and in one window, put up a sign reading "Flames Await." (PBS Frontline 10/1995) Six hours before the final assault (see April 19, 1993), Davidians are heard telling each other to "spread the fuel," indicating that they are pouring accelerants, probably lighter fluid, in parts of the compound in preparation for torching the buildings. (PBS Frontline 10/1995) The on-site commander, FBI Special Agent Jeffrey Jamar, will later say that while he and his team feared the effects that fire would have on the buildings, they did not take the threat of fire literally. "But we should have known there was going to be a fire? I don't agree with that," he will say. "The apocalyptic view, fire was always thrown out—the scriptures, those references were there." (PBS Frontline 10/1995) Koresh is working to complete a treatise on the Seven Seals (see April 18, 1993).
The FBI and local law enforcement officials begin their planned assault on the besieged Branch Davidian compound near Waco, Texas (see 5:00 A.M. - 9:30 A.M. February 28, 1993, March 1, 1993, and April 17-18, 1993), despite indications that the Davidians inside the compound will retaliate either by firing on the gathered law enforcement officials, by torching the main residential building, or perhaps both (see April 18, 1993). (PBS Frontline 10/1995)
Warning - At 5:55 a.m., Richard Rogers, the commander of the FBI's Hostage Rescue Team (HRT), orders two combat engineering vehicles (CEVs, unarmed modifications of Bradley fighting vehicles and the primary means for deplying CS "riot control agent" into the main building) deployed to the main building. One minute later, senior negotiator Byron Sage telephones the residence and speaks with Davidian Steve Schneider. At 5:59, Schneider comes to the phone. Sage tells him: "We are in the process of putting tear gas into the building. This is not an assault. We will not enter the building." Schneider replies, "You are going to spray tear gas into the building?" Sage says, "In the building… no, we are not entering the building." At the conclusion of the conversation, Schneider or another Davidian throws the telephone out of the building. (PBS Frontline 10/1995; House Committee on Government Reform and Oversight 8/2/1996; House Committee on Government Reform and Oversight 8/2/1996) Minutes later, Schneider slips out, retrieves the phone, and ducks back inside. (van Biema, Shannon, and Taylor 5/3/1993)
Combat Vehicles Begin Deploying Gas, Davidians Open Fire - At 6:02 a.m., the two CEVs begin inserting CS gas into the compound, using spray nozzles attached to booms. The booms punch holes through the exterior walls of the building. The FBI uses unarmed Bradley Fighting Vehicles to deploy "ferret rounds," military ammunition designed to release CS after penetrating a barricade such as a wall or window. As the CEVs and the Bradleys punch holes into the buildings for the deployment of the gas, Sage makes the following statement over the loudspeakers: "We are in the process of placing tear gas into the building. This is not an assault. We are not entering the building. This is not an assault. Do not fire your weapons. If you fire, fire will be returned. Do not shoot. This is not an assault. The gas you smell is a non-lethal tear gas. This gas will temporarily render the building uninhabitable. Exit the residence now and follow instructions. You are not to have anyone in the tower. The [guard] tower is off limits. No one is to be in the tower. Anyone observed to be in the tower will be considered to be an act of aggression [sic] and will be dealt with accordingly. If you come out now, you will not be harmed. Follow all instructions. Come out with your hands up. Carry nothing. Come out of the building and walk up the driveway toward the Double-E Ranch Road. Walk toward the large Red Cross flag. Follow all instructions of the FBI agents in the Bradleys. Follow all instructions. You are under arrest. This standoff is over. We do not want to hurt anyone. Follow all instructions. This is not an assault. Do not fire any weapons. We do not want anyone hurt. Gas will continue to be delivered until everyone is out of the building." Two minutes later, Davidians begin firing on the vehicles from the windows. The gunfire from the Davidians prompts Rogers and FBI commander Jeffrey Jamar to decide to change tactics; at 6:07 a.m., the assault forces begin deploying all of the gas at once instead of dispersing it in a controlled manner over the course of 48-72 hours as originally envisioned. (Dean M. Kelley 5/1995; PBS Frontline 10/1995; House Committee on Government Reform and Oversight 8/2/1996; House Committee on Government Reform and Oversight 8/2/1996; USMC Weapons 2002) (Jamar will later testify that before the assault even began, he was "99 percent certain" that the FBI would have to escalate its assault because the Davidians would open fire.) (House Committee on Government Reform and Oversight 8/2/1996) As a CEV demolishes the back wall of the gymnasium area of the compound, negotiators broadcast: "David, we are facilitating you leaving the compound by enlarging the door.… Leave the building now." (England 1/30/2000) Jamar will later explain that the Bradleys do not carry military weaponry. "Of course we had all the firepower removed," he will say in a 1995 interview. "There were no cannons or anything on them. We used them for transportation. And they're more than a personnel carrier—they're a track vehicle. I mean it's mud, just thick mud there the whole time. And the agents learned how to drive 'em. But the idea was to protect them as best we could. And we didn't know—they talked about blowing a 50—did they have rockets? Who knows? Did they have explosives buried in various vicinities? Are they prepared to run out with Molatov cocktails? What's in their mind?" Jamar is referring to threats made by Koresh and other Davidians to blow up FBI vehicles. As for the CEVs, they are tanks modified for construction and engineering purposes, and are often used as bulldozers. Observers watching the events live on television or later on videotape will sometimes mistake the CEVs for actual tanks, though two M1A1 Abrams tanks are actually on site and take part in the assault. (PBS Frontline 10/1995; PBS Frontline 10/1995)
House Report: Davidians Would Certainly Consider FBI's Actions an Assault - A 1996 report by a House of Representatives investigative committee (see August 2, 1996) will note that it is almost impossible for the Davidians not to consider themselves under assault, with tank-like vehicles tearing holes in the building, CS being sprayed everywhere, grenade-like projectiles crashing through windows, men in body armor swarming around the compound, and the sounds of what seems like combat all around them. "Most people would consider this to be an attack on them—an 'assault' in the simplest terms," the report will find. "If they then saw other military vehicles approaching, from which projectiles were fired through the windows of their home, most people are even more likely to believe that they were under an assault. If those vehicles then began to tear down their home there would be little doubt that they were being attacked. These events are what the Davidians inside the residence experienced on April 19, yet the FBI did not consider their actions an assault." Moreover, the FBI did not consider the close-knit, home-centered community the Davidians have long since formed. "Their religious leader led them to believe that one day a group of outsiders, non-believers, most likely in the form of government agents, would come for them," the report will state. "Indeed, they believed that this destiny had been predicted 2,000 years before in Biblical prophecy. Given this mindset, it can hardly be disputed that the Davidians thought they were under assault at 6 a.m. on April 19." (House Committee on Government Reform and Oversight 8/2/1996)
Monitoring from Washington - At 7:00 a.m., Attorney General Janet Reno and senior Justice Department and FBI officials go to the FBI situation room to monitor the assault. (PBS Frontline 10/1995)
Buildings Breached - At 7:30 a.m., a CEV breaches the side of one of the main buildings and injects large amounts of tear gas into the interior of the compound. At 7:58 a.m., gas is fired into the second floor of the back-right corner of the building. The FBI asks for more ferret rounds, and by 9:30 a.m., 48 more ferret rounds arrive from Houston. The assault is hampered by the FBI's dwindling supply of ferret rounds, a CEV with mechanical difficulties, and high winds dispersing the gas. Another CEV enlarges the opening in the center-front of the building, with the idea of providing an escape route for the trapped Davidians. A third CEV breaches the rear of the building, according to a later Justice Department report, "to create openings near the gymnasium." (PBS Frontline 10/1995)
Clinton Told Assault Progressing Well - At about 11 a.m., Reno briefs President Clinton, tells him that the assault seems to be going well, and leaves for a judicial conference in Baltimore. During this time, a CEV breaches the back side of the compound. At 11:40 a.m., the FBI fires the last of the ferret rounds into the building. At 11:45 a.m., one wall of the compound collapses. (PBS Frontline 10/1995)
Transcriptionist Escapes - Ruth Riddle, the typist and transcriptionist sent inside the compound by the FBI to help Koresh finish his "Seven Seals" manuscript (see April 18, 1993), escapes the compound before the fire. She brings out a computer disk containing the unfinished manuscript. (Dean M. Kelley 5/1995)
Davidians Set Fires throughout Compound - At 12:07 p.m., according to the Justice Department and House reports, the Davidians start "simultaneous fires at three or more different locations within the compound." An FBI Hostage Rescue Team member reports seeing "a male starting a fire" in the front of the building. Later analyses show that the first fire begins in a second-floor bedroom, the second in the first floor dining room, and the third in the first floor chapel. Evidence also shows that the fires spread according to "accelerant trails," such as a trail of flammable liquid being poured on the floor. Some of the Davidians' clothing found in the rubble also shows traces of gasoline, kerosene, Coleman fuel (liquid petroleum, sometimes called "white gas"), and lighter fluid, further suggesting that the Davidians use accelerants to start and spread the fires. (PBS Frontline 10/1995; House Committee on Government Reform and Oversight 8/2/1996) Within eight minutes, the main building is engulfed in flames. One explosion, probably from a propane gas tank, is observed. Later investigation will find a propane tank with its top blown off in the debris. (House Committee on Government Reform and Oversight 8/2/1996; House Committee on Government Reform and Oversight 8/2/1996) After the compound burns to the ground, FBI agent Bob Ricks tells reporters, "David Koresh, we believe, gave the order to commit suicide and they all willingly followed." (Verhovek 4/20/1993) Some of the Davidians who survive the conflagration later claim that the Davidians did not start the fires, but arson investigators with the Justice Department and the Texas Rangers, as well as an independent investigator, will conclude that Davidians did indeed start the fires in at least three different areas of the main building. (PBS Frontline 10/1995) A 1993 Treasury Department report (see Late September - October 1993) will produce audiotapes of Davidians inside the compound and transcripts of conversations, secured via electronic surveillance, discussing the means of setting the fires. Voices on the tapes and in the transcripts say such things as: "The fuel has to go all around to get started." "Got to put enough fuel in there." "So, we only light 'em as they come in," or as a slightly different version has it, "So, we only light 'em as soon as they tell me." Once the fires begin, high winds and the breaches in the walls cause the flames to almost immediately begin consuming the compound. (Dean M. Kelley 5/1995) In 1999, Colonel Rodney Rawlings, the senior military liaison to the HRT, will tell reporters that he heard Koresh give the orders to start the fires over FBI surveillance "bugs" (see October 8, 1999). Sage later describes the horror that goes through him and his fellow agents when they realize that the Davidians have torched the compound. He will recall "pleading" with the Davidians to leave the compound, and say: "I can't express the emotions that goes through you. I had to physically turn around away from the monitor to keep my mind focused on what I was trying to broadcast to those people." He will recall being horrified by the failure of people to flee the compound. "I fully anticipated those people would come pouring out of there," he says. "I'd been through CS teargas on numerous occasions [in training exercises]. And I would move heaven and earth to get my kids out of that kind of an environment. And that's frankly what we were banking on. That at least the parents would remove their children from that kind of situation." Of Koresh, he will say: "By him intentionally lighting that place afire and consuming the lives of 78 people, including over 20 young children, was just inconceivable to me. In 25 years of law enforcement I've never been faced with someone that was capable of doing that." (PBS Frontline 10/1995) Six years later, the FBI will admit to releasing two pyrotechnic grenades into the compound, but insists the grenades did not start the fires (see August 25, 1999 and After).
Plea for Release - At 12:12 p.m., Sage calls on Koresh to lead the Davidians to safety. Nine Davidians flee the compound and are arrested (PBS Frontline 10/1995) , including one woman who leaves, attempts to return to the burning building, and tries unsuccessfully to fight off a federal agent who comes to her aid. (Verhovek 4/20/1993) One of the nine runs out of the building at around 12:28 p.m., indicating that even 21 minutes after the fire, it is possible for some of the inhabitants to make their escape. However, most of the Davidians retreat to areas in the center of the building and do not attempt to get out. (House Committee on Government Reform and Oversight 8/2/1996)
'Systematic Gunfire' - At 12:25 p.m., FBI agents hear "systematic gunfire" coming from inside of the building; some agents believe that the Davidians are either killing themselves or each other. The House committee investigation later finds that FBI agents hear rapid-fire gunshots coming from the compound; while many of the gunshots are probably caused by exploding ammunition, "other sounds were methodical and evenly-spaced, indicating the deliberate firing of weapons."
Fire Department Responds; Search for Survivors - At 12:41 p.m., fire trucks and firefighters begin attempting to put out the flames. HRT agents enter tunnels to search for survivors, particularly children. (Dean M. Kelley 5/1995; PBS Frontline 10/1995; House Committee on Government Reform and Oversight 8/2/1996) No fire trucks are at the scene when the assault begins, and it takes around 25 minutes for the first fire department vehicles to respond to emergency calls from their stations in Waco. Bob Sheehy, mayor of Waco, later says the city fire department "first got a call after the fire had already started." Ricks explains that fire engines were not brought to the compound earlier for fear that firefighters might have been exposed to gunfire from the compound, and because FBI officials did not expect a fire. "We did not introduce fire to this compound, and it was not our intention that this compound be burned down. I can't tell you the shock and the horror that all of us felt when we saw those flames coming out of there. It was, 'Oh, my God, they're killing themselves.'" (Verhovek 4/20/1993)
Death Toll - In all, 78 Branch Davidians, including over 20 children, two pregnant women, and Koresh himself, die in the fire. Nineteen of the dead are killed by close-range gunshot wounds. Almost all of the others either die from smoke inhalation, burns, or both. (PBS Frontline 10/1995; House Committee on Government Reform and Oversight 8/2/1996) The number is improperly reported in a number of media sources, and varies from 75 to 81. Even the House committee report does not cite a definitive total. (House Committee on Government Reform and Oversight 8/2/1996) Some of the FBI negotiators involved in the siege later say that they feel continued negotiations might have saved many, perhaps all, of the lives of those inside the compound. In an interview later in the year, one negotiator tells a reporter, "I'll always, in my own mind, feel like maybe we could have gotten some more people out." (Boyer 5/15/1995) But HRT member Barry Higginbotham, one of the snipers who observes the Davidians throughout the siege, will later state that neither he nor anyone on his team believed the Davidians would ever willingly surrender. Higginbotham will say: "We just felt that if you make them suffer a little more, deny them perhaps a little more food, lighting, power, things like that inside, that would cause more pressure on their leadership inside. And perhaps their leadership would go to Koresh and pressure him to start negotiating in good faith. It was hard to believe that Koresh was ever negotiating in good faith." (PBS Frontline 10/1995) In the hours after the conflagration, Ricks tells reporters: "We had hoped the women would grab their children and flee. That did not occur and they bunkered down the children and allowed them to go up in flames with them.… It was truly an inferno of flames." Ricks says that authorities receive reports, perhaps from some of the survivors, that the children had been injected with some kind of poison to ease their pain. This claim is never confirmed. (Verhovek 4/20/1993)
In the Bunker - FBI investigators combing the building after the conflagration find an enormous amount of guns and other weaponry inside. Dr. Rodney Crow, the FBI's chief of identification services and one of the officials who examine the bodies of the Davidians, spends much of his time in the compound's underground bunker, where many of the bodies are found. Crow later says: "There were weapons everywhere. I don't remember moving a body that didn't have a gun melted to it, intertwined with it, between the legs, under the arm, or in close proximity. And I'd say 18 inches to 20 inches would be close proximity.… The women were probably more immersed in the weapons than anyone else, because there was so much weaponry inside the bunker. It was like sea shells on a beach, but they were spent casings and spent bullets. If you had rubber gloves and tried to smooth it away, you'd tear your gloves away from the bullet points that are unexploded, or unspent ammunition. Then as you went through layer after layer, you came upon weapons that were totally burned. Until we got down to the floor, and it was mint condition ammunition there. Ammunition boxes not even singed." The most powerful weapon Crow finds is a .50-caliber machine gun. Some of the bodies have gunshot wounds. Crow will say: "My theory is there was a lot of euthanasia and mercy killing. That group probably were just about as active as anywhere in the compound, mercifully putting each other out of misery in the last moments." In total, 33 bodies are found inside the bunker; almost all the women and children found inside the compound are in the bunker. Many are found to have died from suffocation or smoke inhalation (two died from falling debris), but some died from gunshot wounds, and one woman was stabbed to death. (PBS Frontline 10/1995; PBS Frontline 10/1995) Local medical examiner Nizam Peerwani later says he does not believe the people in the bunker committed suicide, saying: "There has been a lot of speculation if this is a mass suicide or not. And—did they all go there to die? Ah, we don't really think so. What I feel personally is that they tried to escape. A bunker was perhaps the safest area in the compound." (PBS Frontline 10/1995) Sage will say that he knew the children were dead sometime around 12:30 p.m. He recalls terminating the negotiations at that time, "because I didn't want the loudspeaker bank to interfere with instructions being given on the ground. At that point in time, I walked over to the site in shock, basically. And, uh, the first thing I asked is, 'Where are the kids?'" He is told, "Nowhere." Sage will say: "They had not come out. They had been consumed." (PBS Frontline 10/1995)
Koresh's Fate - Koresh and Schneider are found in a small room the authorities call "the communication room." Koresh is dead of a single gunshot wound to the forehead. Schneider is dead from a gunshot wound in the mouth. Peerwani later says: "Did David Koresh shoot himself and Schneider shoot himself? Or did Schneider shoot David Koresh and then turn around and shoot himself? Certainly both are possible. We cannot be certain as to what really transpired." (PBS Frontline 10/1995)
No Ill Effects from Gas - Peerwani and his colleagues examine the bodies for damage caused by the CS gas used in the assault, and find none. While many of the Davidians were exposed to the gas, according to tissue and blood studies, none inhaled enough of it to cause anything more than short-term discomfort. Concurrently, Peerwani and his colleagues find no damage from the propellant used in the ferret rounds. A fire report later written by Texas-based investigators will call the tear gas operation a failure at dispersing the Davidians. (PBS Frontline 10/1995; PBS Frontline 10/1995) Medical examinations show that some of the children may well have been overcome by the gas, and rendered unable to escape, but the compound had not been gassed for an hour before the fires began, and CS has a persistence factor of only 10 minutes—in other words, the effects should have worn off by the time the fires broke out. The gas proves ineffective against the adults, because the adult Davidians are equipped with gas masks. (PBS Frontline 10/1995)
Wrongly Executed Plan - The plan as signed by Reno called on law enforcement forces to deploy tear gas into the compound at stated intervals, then have agents retreat to await evacuees before approaching again. This "passive," "restrained" approach was to have been followed for up to 72 hours before using assault vehicles to force entry. Instead, the agents wait only 12 minutes before beginning a motorized vehicle assault. (Boyer 5/15/1995)
Taking Responsibility - One of the unlikely "heroes" of the debacle is Reno. She signed off on the attack (see April 17-18, 1993), and within hours of the attacks, she holds a televised press conference where she says: "I made the decision. I am accountable . The buck stops here" (see April 19, 1993). She repeats this statement over and over again on national television. (Boyer 5/15/1995)
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