WEBVTT - Small Time Arms Dealer 0:00:01.680 --> 0:00:10.119 Col Zone Media. On April twenty first, nineteen ninety two. 0:00:11.200 --> 0:00:14.160 The phone rang at the Portland, Oregon field office of 0:00:14.200 --> 0:00:18.360 the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms. The caller wouldn't 0:00:18.360 --> 0:00:21.119 give his name, but he had something he had to 0:00:21.120 --> 0:00:24.560 get off his chest. He said he was a private 0:00:24.600 --> 0:00:29.680 investigator working for a man named Bob. He said Bob 0:00:29.840 --> 0:00:32.120 was the owner of a gun shop in Salem, Oregon, 0:00:32.840 --> 0:00:36.839 and Bob had recently obtained a photograph of an ATF 0:00:36.880 --> 0:00:41.800 agent named John Comery. The caller said he wanted to 0:00:41.800 --> 0:00:46.680 tell agent Comery to be careful, and then he hung up. 0:00:48.520 --> 0:00:51.360 It might not sound like much, but it set off 0:00:51.360 --> 0:00:56.680 alarm bells for agent John Comery. He'd been investigating Robert Maler, 0:00:57.280 --> 0:01:00.960 a gun dealer in Salem, for over a year, and 0:01:01.040 --> 0:01:03.000 they were just about to take the case to a 0:01:03.000 --> 0:01:08.240 grand jury. It wasn't really anything too serious, just some 0:01:08.440 --> 0:01:12.280 fraudulent paperwork for a gun purchase, pretty typical fare for 0:01:12.319 --> 0:01:16.840 an ATF agent. But now, just three weeks before that 0:01:16.920 --> 0:01:22.319 court date, here was this troubling development. Sure, there's no 0:01:22.400 --> 0:01:24.919 way to know if the anonymous caller was telling the truth, 0:01:26.319 --> 0:01:29.319 if Robert Maler really was talking about taking out the 0:01:29.360 --> 0:01:31.560 agent who'd been investigating him. 0:01:32.520 --> 0:01:33.280 But how had the. 0:01:33.160 --> 0:01:37.400 Caller even known, And if the caller knew that Agent 0:01:37.480 --> 0:01:42.440 Komery was about to arrest Robert Maler, Robert Maler probably 0:01:42.480 --> 0:01:47.119 knew too. So Agent Komery called the US Attorney's office 0:01:47.680 --> 0:01:51.040 and he asked if they could speed up that timeline. 0:01:51.120 --> 0:01:53.880 They could present the case to the grand jury later, 0:01:54.960 --> 0:02:00.800 but they needed to arrest Maller now. The prosecutor if 0:02:00.800 --> 0:02:03.280 he could write the criminal complaint and get that in 0:02:03.280 --> 0:02:07.480 front of the judge and make the arrest immediately. The 0:02:07.480 --> 0:02:11.280 prosecutor said no, the case was already scheduled for the 0:02:11.280 --> 0:02:14.000 grand jury and changing the calendar now would just put 0:02:14.040 --> 0:02:18.560 the judge in a bad mood. So they waited, and 0:02:18.600 --> 0:02:21.720 a grand jury did indict Robert Moller three weeks later, 0:02:23.120 --> 0:02:25.840 but when the ATF went to pick him up, he 0:02:25.960 --> 0:02:27.280 was gone. 0:02:28.040 --> 0:02:28.639 By the time. 0:02:28.560 --> 0:02:33.200 ATF agents saw Robert Maler again two years later, he'd 0:02:33.240 --> 0:02:37.600 already smuggled hundreds of guns halfway across the world to 0:02:37.760 --> 0:02:39.720 arm a group that hoped to start a civil war. 0:02:42.600 --> 0:03:03.760 I'm Molly Conger, and this is we're little guys. This 0:03:03.960 --> 0:03:07.800 is a silly one to the extent that anything on 0:03:07.840 --> 0:03:11.760 this show can really be said to be lighthearted. I 0:03:11.800 --> 0:03:15.120 needed something that wasn't too complicated to get me back 0:03:15.160 --> 0:03:18.440 into the swing of things after two weeks off. It 0:03:18.560 --> 0:03:20.560 wasn't sure I even remembered how to do this at 0:03:20.560 --> 0:03:24.720 all after such a relaxing vacation. As much as I 0:03:24.760 --> 0:03:28.040 love my work, it was good to get away from 0:03:28.080 --> 0:03:30.920 the weird little guys for a minute, if I'm being honest. 0:03:32.280 --> 0:03:35.480 And in the time since my last episode, I got married. 0:03:36.320 --> 0:03:40.160 It was beautiful and fun and the cake was really good, 0:03:41.520 --> 0:03:44.960 and I went on my honeymoon. I was really worried 0:03:45.200 --> 0:03:48.760 that I wouldn't be able to properly enjoy doing nothing. 0:03:49.720 --> 0:03:53.880 That's not really my thing, But it turns out that 0:03:54.440 --> 0:03:57.080 lying on a white sandy beach listening to the gentle 0:03:57.120 --> 0:03:58.640 waves of the Caribbean sea. 0:04:00.080 --> 0:04:02.760 Also be my thing. I loved it. 0:04:04.840 --> 0:04:08.120 I do think I'll probably go back to keeping my 0:04:08.160 --> 0:04:12.200 private life private for the most part. That's been my 0:04:12.280 --> 0:04:15.800 preference for a few years, and for good reason. There 0:04:15.840 --> 0:04:18.880 are a lot of weirdos out there, you know. But 0:04:18.920 --> 0:04:21.640 I couldn't just disappear for a few weeks without any explanation, 0:04:22.880 --> 0:04:24.760 and I did put a lot of thought into the 0:04:24.800 --> 0:04:28.280 decision to share a bit of myself with the wider world. 0:04:29.240 --> 0:04:31.800 Getting married was a joyful thing for me and for 0:04:31.920 --> 0:04:35.440 my partner, and it felt very grim to even consider 0:04:36.320 --> 0:04:40.200 keeping that to myself just because some weird little guy 0:04:40.240 --> 0:04:42.880 out there might try to make me regret sharing my 0:04:42.920 --> 0:04:50.080 happy news. So no regrets. And it is very funny 0:04:50.120 --> 0:04:52.720 to me that the only weird little guy I've seen 0:04:52.839 --> 0:04:56.600 weighing in on the subject so far really does not 0:04:56.640 --> 0:05:01.760 have any business opining on other people's relationship. I mean, look, 0:05:01.800 --> 0:05:04.719 I know we've all got our baggage, but if your 0:05:04.800 --> 0:05:07.839 last marriage ended because you caught your son in law 0:05:07.839 --> 0:05:11.000 in bed with your wife, you should mind your business. 0:05:12.680 --> 0:05:14.039 But that's a story for another day. 0:05:16.160 --> 0:05:21.960 Today we're talking about guns. A lot of guns, guns 0:05:22.000 --> 0:05:25.640 where they shouldn't have been, guns bought and sold by 0:05:25.680 --> 0:05:29.160 men who shouldn't have had them, Guns that showed up 0:05:29.200 --> 0:05:33.039 in places they weren't allowed to go, and guns that 0:05:33.080 --> 0:05:37.480 were found in unexpected places, like under a pillow an 0:05:37.520 --> 0:05:41.280 empty hotel room in Los Angeles. We're in a mysterious 0:05:41.279 --> 0:05:46.000 shipping container on a farm in violation of international sanctions. 0:05:48.080 --> 0:05:50.279 I know, I said I was done with South Africa 0:05:51.360 --> 0:05:55.599 and I am. I am for now, at least I 0:05:55.640 --> 0:06:00.160 swear this episode is perfectly listenable as a stack and 0:06:00.240 --> 0:06:04.039 alone bit of entertainment. But it is something I came 0:06:04.080 --> 0:06:09.560 across while I was researching those episodes. When I started 0:06:09.600 --> 0:06:13.799 researching the story that turned into that monstrous, nearly three 0:06:13.920 --> 0:06:18.800 month long eight episode arc about Monica Huggetts Stone, one 0:06:18.839 --> 0:06:21.159 of the first side characters I made a note of 0:06:21.960 --> 0:06:25.000 was a man I never actually even mentioned in those episodes, 0:06:26.040 --> 0:06:31.039 an arms dealer in Oregon named Robert Maller. In the 0:06:31.080 --> 0:06:34.640 section of the South African Truth and Reconciliation Report where 0:06:34.640 --> 0:06:38.280 I first found Monica, the section about connections between right 0:06:38.279 --> 0:06:41.920 wing terrorist groups in South Africa and extremist groups abroad, 0:06:42.640 --> 0:06:47.919 there's a passing mention of mister Maller. Like Monica, his 0:06:48.080 --> 0:06:51.320 name is only in the report the one time, and 0:06:51.360 --> 0:06:53.480 it's in the paragraph immediately. 0:06:52.960 --> 0:06:54.960 After the one about her. 0:06:55.640 --> 0:07:01.120 The report reads, mister Robert Maler, an American city, claims 0:07:01.120 --> 0:07:03.479 in his application to have been recruited by the former 0:07:03.520 --> 0:07:07.919 South African police to act as a firearms instructor. Maller 0:07:08.000 --> 0:07:10.760 was caught in the United States after he illegally imported 0:07:10.800 --> 0:07:14.240 a large cache of weapons to South Africa using fraudulent 0:07:14.320 --> 0:07:18.400 names and passports. He claims allegiance to the Conservative Party 0:07:18.920 --> 0:07:21.760 and said he had contact with other groups like the 0:07:21.760 --> 0:07:26.440 Africaner Folks Front and the AWB. He also said that 0:07:26.480 --> 0:07:33.880 he was the USA fundraising representative of the AWB. I know, 0:07:33.960 --> 0:07:36.400 I just said, you don't need to have listened to 0:07:36.480 --> 0:07:39.880 those eight episodes about white supremacist terrorism in South Africa 0:07:40.000 --> 0:07:44.480 during the fall upartheid to understand this episode. And you don't, 0:07:45.000 --> 0:07:48.360 It's okay if you didn't join me on that saga. 0:07:49.320 --> 0:07:51.840 All you really need to know right now is that 0:07:51.880 --> 0:07:56.040 the AWB, the group referred to in that paragraph was 0:07:56.080 --> 0:08:01.320 the Africaner Resistance Movement, an explicitly neo Nazi group founded 0:08:01.320 --> 0:08:06.040 in the nineteen seventies in South Africa. They kind of 0:08:06.360 --> 0:08:10.480 still exist, I guess, but in the eighties and early 0:08:10.560 --> 0:08:16.960 nineties they did quite a bit of terrorism, bombings, murders, shootings. 0:08:17.040 --> 0:08:19.480 They tried to participate in a minor coup, but they 0:08:19.560 --> 0:08:22.880 fucked it all up and some of them died, et cetera. 0:08:24.480 --> 0:08:28.080 And to do all of that, obviously they needed guns. 0:08:29.400 --> 0:08:31.480 And if you did listen to those other episodes about 0:08:31.480 --> 0:08:34.559 all that violence in South Africa. You know that they 0:08:34.600 --> 0:08:38.680 had guns, They smuggled guns in from outside of the country, 0:08:39.360 --> 0:08:43.840 and they stole guns from military bases. But what I 0:08:43.880 --> 0:08:48.120 didn't really get into in those episodes is why every 0:08:48.200 --> 0:08:53.240 single gun the AWB had seemed to be stolen or smuggled. 0:08:54.559 --> 0:08:57.240 See by the nineteen nineties, it was getting pretty hard 0:08:57.440 --> 0:09:02.040 to find a brand new gun in South Africa. In 0:09:02.080 --> 0:09:05.760 nineteen sixty three, the United Nations Security Council adopted Resolution 0:09:05.920 --> 0:09:10.160 one eighty one calling for all countries to voluntarily stop 0:09:10.280 --> 0:09:14.520 selling or allowing export of guns, ammunition, and military equipment 0:09:14.559 --> 0:09:19.160 to South Africa. In nineteen seventy seven, Resolution four eighteen 0:09:19.240 --> 0:09:23.800 made that embargo mandatory. A subsequent UN resolution in nineteen 0:09:23.840 --> 0:09:29.120 eighty six tightened those restrictions and clarified that, yes, allowing 0:09:29.200 --> 0:09:32.079 sales to pass through a third country is still a 0:09:32.160 --> 0:09:37.959 violation of the embargo. On paper, no one was supposed 0:09:38.000 --> 0:09:42.920 to be selling military equipment to South Africa, and yet 0:09:43.559 --> 0:09:50.360 South African soldiers, police, paramilitaries, civilians, and terrorist groups all 0:09:50.440 --> 0:09:55.520 seemed to have plenty of foreign hardware. After that initial 0:09:55.600 --> 0:09:59.160 voluntary embargo was passed in nineteen sixty three, the United 0:09:59.200 --> 0:10:03.920 States announced it intention to comply fully, but Henry Kissinger's 0:10:03.960 --> 0:10:07.760 interpretation of the resolution allowed the US government to continue 0:10:07.760 --> 0:10:12.119 selling things like military aircraft as long as everyone pretended 0:10:12.160 --> 0:10:14.480 that they believed that those things would be used for 0:10:14.520 --> 0:10:20.360 civilian purposes. In nineteen seventy eight, fully half of the 0:10:20.400 --> 0:10:23.560 planes in use by the South African Air Force were 0:10:23.559 --> 0:10:27.599 made by US companies. The same loophole was used to 0:10:27.600 --> 0:10:30.920 supply the South African military with US made communications equipment 0:10:31.040 --> 0:10:35.839 and computers. Even after Jimmy Carter stopped these gray area 0:10:35.960 --> 0:10:39.720 sales to the South African government, private companies in South 0:10:39.760 --> 0:10:42.560 Africa were still free to make the exact same purchases, 0:10:43.320 --> 0:10:45.920 and they often did so on behalf of the government, 0:10:48.400 --> 0:10:51.240 and some countries just kept openly selling weapons to South 0:10:51.280 --> 0:10:55.120 Africa no matter how many resolutions were passed. The Chilean 0:10:55.160 --> 0:11:00.280 government under Pinochet had no issue violating the resolution, and 0:11:00.360 --> 0:11:02.640 Paraguay was known to turn a blind eye when other 0:11:02.679 --> 0:11:08.240 countries laundered those transactions through them. But nobody, and I 0:11:08.320 --> 0:11:14.160 mean nobody, sold South Africa more guns, planes, bombs, and 0:11:14.280 --> 0:11:19.800 drones than Israel. In one of several reports submitted to 0:11:19.840 --> 0:11:22.079 the United Nations in nineteen eighty five by the UN 0:11:22.080 --> 0:11:26.559 Committee Against Apartheid. The committee's chairman notes that they had 0:11:26.559 --> 0:11:30.440 been aware of Israel's ongoing assistance on South Africa's nuclear 0:11:30.520 --> 0:11:36.080 weapons program since nineteen seventy seven. The report quote condemns 0:11:36.160 --> 0:11:41.679 this diabolical alliance and calls for concerted international action against it. 0:11:43.240 --> 0:11:46.600 With substantial assistance from Israel, South Africa was able to 0:11:46.840 --> 0:11:50.960 eventually scale up domestic production for most of their military needs. 0:11:52.000 --> 0:11:56.360 South African soldiers carried domestically produced copies of the Israeli UZI, 0:11:57.520 --> 0:12:01.480 but small arms were a different story. There was a 0:12:01.480 --> 0:12:07.160 growing demand for guns among white South African civilians, so 0:12:08.080 --> 0:12:11.400 corporations did what they always do, and they found a 0:12:11.400 --> 0:12:16.040 way to make money meeting that need. There were a 0:12:16.080 --> 0:12:20.280 handful of high profile incidents in the late seventies. Employees 0:12:20.320 --> 0:12:24.920 of American gun manufacturers Colt Industries and Winchester Arms were 0:12:24.960 --> 0:12:30.319 caught selling massive quantities of firearms to dummy corporations operating 0:12:30.320 --> 0:12:33.680 in third party countries, and then those arms were trafficked 0:12:33.679 --> 0:12:37.440 into South Africa and sold at a premium to eager buyers. 0:12:38.480 --> 0:12:42.079 When Walter Plowman pled guilty to trafficking firearms manufactured by 0:12:42.120 --> 0:12:46.400 Colt through a company in West Germany. He pleaded for leniency, 0:12:47.400 --> 0:12:50.240 telling the court that it wouldn't be fair to punish 0:12:50.320 --> 0:12:53.720 him harshly because it was an open secret that the 0:12:53.720 --> 0:12:57.640 State Department knew this was happening and routinely looked the 0:12:57.679 --> 0:13:02.120 other way. That's not a great argument for the court, 0:13:03.280 --> 0:13:07.360 but I do think it's true. Winchester Arms was caught 0:13:07.400 --> 0:13:13.320 selling thousands of rifles and shotguns and millions upon millions 0:13:13.320 --> 0:13:16.400 of rounds of ammunitions to a shell company in the 0:13:16.480 --> 0:13:21.760 Canary Islands. The Canary Islands is a tiny island territory 0:13:21.920 --> 0:13:25.720 with a population of barely a million people. They didn't 0:13:25.760 --> 0:13:28.760 need fifty million bullets. That should have been a red 0:13:28.800 --> 0:13:33.720 flag on the export declaration, but it went on for years. 0:13:35.480 --> 0:13:38.520 In nineteen seventy nine, an arms dealer in Detroit was 0:13:38.520 --> 0:13:42.320 sentenced to just two years in prison after pleading guilty 0:13:42.360 --> 0:13:44.480 to shipping nearly half a million dollars worth of guns 0:13:44.480 --> 0:13:47.520 and ammunition to South Africa in at least twenty one 0:13:47.640 --> 0:13:51.720 separate shipments. The Washington Post article that year about his 0:13:51.800 --> 0:13:56.680 conviction notes that it wasn't police work or strict export 0:13:56.720 --> 0:14:00.680 control that caught him. It was a FOURKL life operator 0:14:00.720 --> 0:14:05.280 in the freight hangar at Chicago's O'Hare Airport. The employee 0:14:05.320 --> 0:14:07.719 was stacking boxes in the hangar when he noticed that 0:14:08.120 --> 0:14:11.760 one box was torn open a bit, exposing its contents. 0:14:13.320 --> 0:14:16.600 Packages containing bullets are required to be labeled as such, 0:14:17.240 --> 0:14:20.360 and he reported to his superior that this box was not. 0:14:22.440 --> 0:14:27.640 It was easy money. Apparently South Africa was desperate for guns, 0:14:28.440 --> 0:14:31.280 so they were willing to pay a significant premium to 0:14:31.360 --> 0:14:36.440 a discrete arms dealer. And despite the illegality of these sales, 0:14:37.480 --> 0:14:42.280 everyone seemed to be turning a blind eye. I couldn't 0:14:42.320 --> 0:14:44.880 tell you now, based on the records available to me, 0:14:45.600 --> 0:14:50.440 how widespread this understanding was in the arm stealing community. 0:14:51.560 --> 0:14:53.280 I don't know what the numbers would have been like 0:14:53.360 --> 0:14:56.200 if you'd pulled American gun shop owners in nineteen ninety 0:14:56.240 --> 0:15:00.080 about their willingness to try this, But I am well 0:15:00.200 --> 0:15:04.400 to bet that for every high profile prosecution of a 0:15:04.400 --> 0:15:08.920 guy who got greedy or sloppy and got caught, there 0:15:08.920 --> 0:15:13.440 were probably dozens of guys who dabbled making small shipments 0:15:13.640 --> 0:15:17.000 that never got flagged. Because in the cases we do 0:15:17.240 --> 0:15:21.880 have where guys got caught, every single one of them 0:15:21.960 --> 0:15:26.800 is pretty upfront about how easy it was, and the 0:15:26.840 --> 0:15:30.280 punishments were light enough that it wouldn't necessarily be a 0:15:30.320 --> 0:15:32.960 deal breaker for someone who wanted to make hundreds of 0:15:33.040 --> 0:15:38.080 thousands of dollars for mailing a package. And in nineteen 0:15:38.160 --> 0:15:43.480 ninety two, Robert Maler was running out of options. He 0:15:43.520 --> 0:15:48.680 had a lot of guns and no way to sell them. 0:15:48.840 --> 0:15:54.560 I guess we should back up for a second. In 0:15:54.640 --> 0:15:58.560 nineteen eighty eight, Robert Maler and his wife Nancy bought 0:15:58.560 --> 0:16:03.120 a commercial property in say at an auction. They got 0:16:03.120 --> 0:16:05.480 a great deal on the place. They paid about sixty 0:16:05.520 --> 0:16:09.200 percent of the assessed value for the storefront, and within 0:16:09.240 --> 0:16:12.320 a few months he'd gotten his federal firearms license and 0:16:12.440 --> 0:16:17.840 opened a gun store, calling it Name Guns. That's all 0:16:17.920 --> 0:16:23.880 caps with periods name. I assume business was decent. They 0:16:23.960 --> 0:16:27.080 ran ads in the local paper for holiday specials, scratch 0:16:27.120 --> 0:16:31.680 and dent sales, and special events. In nineteen ninety there 0:16:31.760 --> 0:16:35.040 was this enigmatic series of ads in the classified section 0:16:35.120 --> 0:16:40.560 of the Statesman Journal that read miss Elliefonte, pro gun activist, 0:16:41.040 --> 0:16:44.080 invites you to stop by and visit her Tuesday through 0:16:44.160 --> 0:16:50.640 Sunday at Name Guns. I could find no explanation for 0:16:50.760 --> 0:16:55.000 that could possibly mean. I looked everywhere I could think 0:16:55.080 --> 0:16:58.760 to look, but I can't find a pro gun activist 0:16:58.920 --> 0:17:03.480 using the pseudonym miss Ellie Fante. That's sort of like 0:17:03.880 --> 0:17:09.520 a stylized elephant. I don't know what that means. It 0:17:09.640 --> 0:17:11.760 is hard to say how the ATF found out about 0:17:11.800 --> 0:17:15.800 the machine guns. Unfortunately, the federal courts in Oregon have 0:17:15.920 --> 0:17:19.000 not digitized their collection of records from the early nineties, 0:17:20.080 --> 0:17:23.399 so there's definitely information in that record that I just 0:17:23.440 --> 0:17:26.840 don't have. But based on the records I do have 0:17:26.920 --> 0:17:30.040 access to without flying to Portland to plead with a 0:17:30.080 --> 0:17:35.040 court clerk, I have a pretty good guess. I think 0:17:35.080 --> 0:17:40.080 it was Gary. You see, in nineteen ninety, the tiny 0:17:40.119 --> 0:17:43.680 town of Falls City, Oregon, had a population of about 0:17:43.720 --> 0:17:47.080 eight hundred people, and two of those people were Robert 0:17:47.080 --> 0:17:50.560 and Nancy Maller. They commuted about half an hour into 0:17:50.560 --> 0:17:54.280 Salem to run their gun store, and in nineteen ninety, 0:17:54.640 --> 0:17:57.840 Falls City was looking to replace their entire police force. 0:17:59.280 --> 0:18:01.960 That sounds dramatic, but they were looking for a new 0:18:01.960 --> 0:18:06.040 police chief. The town relied on the county sheriff for 0:18:06.080 --> 0:18:09.959 anything major, but in town for day to day things, 0:18:10.560 --> 0:18:12.720 they did have their own police department, and it was 0:18:12.760 --> 0:18:17.480 staffed with just a single officer, the chief, and in 0:18:17.520 --> 0:18:22.200 April of nineteen ninety, Fall City, Oregon, made the baffling 0:18:22.240 --> 0:18:25.280 decision to hire a thirty one year old man with 0:18:25.359 --> 0:18:30.119 no police experience. He wasn't even certified to be a 0:18:30.160 --> 0:18:33.679 police officer. He was not qualified for the job. For 0:18:33.760 --> 0:18:36.360 the first few months after he was hired, he wasn't 0:18:36.400 --> 0:18:38.880 even in town. He was at the Oregon Police Academy 0:18:38.920 --> 0:18:43.959 getting certified. Gary Allen himself had previously worked as a 0:18:43.960 --> 0:18:47.119 security guard at a casino in Nevada, and before he 0:18:47.160 --> 0:18:50.959 moved to Falls City, he'd been a private investigator in Portland, 0:18:51.840 --> 0:18:54.959 but he'd never been a real cop before, and it 0:18:55.000 --> 0:19:01.560 turns out he wasn't really that good at it. Gary 0:19:01.560 --> 0:19:04.359 self graduated from the police Academy at the end of July, 0:19:05.240 --> 0:19:07.720 so he officially started work as the police chief in 0:19:07.800 --> 0:19:13.000 Falls City in August of nineteen ninety. By December thirty 0:19:13.040 --> 0:19:17.160 first of that same year, he'd been placed on unpaid 0:19:17.240 --> 0:19:22.080 leave pending an investigation into allegations that he had simply 0:19:22.119 --> 0:19:27.240 stopped showing up for work entirely. Later that same night, 0:19:27.840 --> 0:19:31.560 New Year's Eve nineteen ninety, witnesses saw Gary get into 0:19:31.600 --> 0:19:35.600 an argument with his girlfriend at the bar. The articles 0:19:35.640 --> 0:19:39.199 I could find don't name the girlfriend or weigh in 0:19:39.240 --> 0:19:42.680 on whether Gary's wife knew that he had a girlfriend. 0:19:44.560 --> 0:19:46.480 So after getting into an argument at the bar with 0:19:46.520 --> 0:19:50.800 his girlfriend, he leaves, and he's seen leaving the bar 0:19:50.840 --> 0:19:54.480 a little after one am, and then witnesses see him 0:19:54.760 --> 0:20:00.240 start kicking in the doors of several homes. None of 0:20:00.280 --> 0:20:06.760 the reporting explains this. He was convicted of burglary, but 0:20:06.840 --> 0:20:09.880 that just means he entered at least one of those homes. 0:20:09.920 --> 0:20:14.000 It doesn't sound like he stole anything. One newspaper article 0:20:14.040 --> 0:20:18.560 offered the vague explanation that he'd been drinking heavily and 0:20:18.600 --> 0:20:22.400 he was at this point looking for either his girlfriend 0:20:22.680 --> 0:20:26.880 or an unnamed male acquaintance, presumably because he wasn't done 0:20:26.880 --> 0:20:30.200 with the argument that started in the bar, and so 0:20:30.240 --> 0:20:34.439 somewhere in between breaking into the first house and the 0:20:34.480 --> 0:20:38.600 third or fourth one, he encountered some random passers by 0:20:38.640 --> 0:20:41.520 on the sidewalk and he stabbed one of them in 0:20:41.560 --> 0:20:45.320 the neck. That sixteen year old boy did need a 0:20:45.359 --> 0:21:03.359 few stitches, but he was not critically injured. Gary self 0:21:03.400 --> 0:21:09.159 was fired, obviously in exchange for pleading guilty. Most of 0:21:09.200 --> 0:21:12.800 the charges were dropped. He was convicted of one count 0:21:12.840 --> 0:21:16.880 of burglary and one count of assault and sentenced to 0:21:17.000 --> 0:21:19.639 just ten days in jail, which he was allowed to 0:21:19.680 --> 0:21:23.800 serve on weekends, but the conviction made him a felon. 0:21:25.080 --> 0:21:29.000 After his sentencing, the prosecutor told reporters, quote, we wanted 0:21:29.040 --> 0:21:31.359 to get this guy out of firearms and out of 0:21:31.440 --> 0:21:37.280 law enforcement. And the prosecutor specifically mentioned that Gary self 0:21:37.320 --> 0:21:42.280 had a significant collection of firearms, one that included several 0:21:42.320 --> 0:21:46.320 machine guns. So I think it's safe to say the 0:21:46.359 --> 0:21:51.119 investigation into the machine guns really got going after Gary 0:21:51.160 --> 0:21:55.000 Self's arrest for that strange drunken rampage a little after 0:21:55.040 --> 0:21:59.200 midnight on New Year's Day nineteen ninety one. The lone 0:21:59.280 --> 0:22:02.159 ATF report that I could actually get my hands on 0:22:02.560 --> 0:22:06.760 indicates that they did open this investigation into Gary shortly 0:22:06.880 --> 0:22:11.800 after his arrest on those assault charges. Agent John Comery 0:22:12.000 --> 0:22:16.560 received approval for the investigation on January twenty second, nineteen 0:22:16.640 --> 0:22:22.280 ninety one. It wasn't a complicated case. The ATF solved 0:22:22.280 --> 0:22:26.679 it pretty quickly. During Gary Self's short stint as the 0:22:26.680 --> 0:22:30.520 police chief of False City, he had befriended Robert Maller. 0:22:32.080 --> 0:22:36.400 The pair used official police department letterhead and lied when 0:22:36.400 --> 0:22:40.080 they filled out the ATF Form five, the Application for 0:22:40.240 --> 0:22:43.919 tax Exempt Transfer and Registration of Firearms. And so they 0:22:43.960 --> 0:22:47.679 filled out this paperwork as though Robert Maler the gun dealer, 0:22:48.200 --> 0:22:51.359 were facilitating a legitimate purchase of machine guns for a 0:22:51.400 --> 0:22:55.360 government agency, in this case, the Fall City Police Department. 0:22:56.720 --> 0:22:59.399 In fact, the two men just wanted the machine guns 0:22:59.400 --> 0:23:04.720 for their person collections. Gary self was federally charged with 0:23:04.760 --> 0:23:08.720 possessing an unregistered firearm later that same year, and he 0:23:08.880 --> 0:23:13.000 pretty quickly entered a guilty plea. And so in this case, 0:23:13.800 --> 0:23:17.480 I have the docket sheet for Gary's federal case. The 0:23:17.560 --> 0:23:20.280 actual documents aren't digitized, but I have the Dockett sheet 0:23:20.800 --> 0:23:23.440 and it's not sealed. And I have a lot of 0:23:23.520 --> 0:23:27.200 news stories from nineteen ninety one about Gary's drunken rampage, 0:23:27.200 --> 0:23:30.080 about Gary getting fired, about Gary bleeding guilty to stabbing 0:23:30.080 --> 0:23:35.280 a teenager. But what I don't have are any news 0:23:35.280 --> 0:23:39.280 stories about the former police chief fraudulently obtaining a machine 0:23:39.280 --> 0:23:43.880 gun for personal use. I know the digital record isn't perfect. 0:23:43.960 --> 0:23:46.600 There are plenty of things that existed in nineteen ninety 0:23:46.640 --> 0:23:49.120 one that I'll never see. 0:23:49.480 --> 0:23:50.520 But it does seem. 0:23:50.280 --> 0:23:53.840 Odd that those same local newspapers that reported Gary self's 0:23:53.880 --> 0:23:57.560 assault charges don't seem to have run stories about Gary 0:23:57.600 --> 0:24:00.800 getting arrested again a few months later on a federal 0:24:00.840 --> 0:24:07.000 firearms charge. I can't explain it. So looking at our 0:24:07.040 --> 0:24:11.720 timeline here, Gary gets arrested for assault in January. He 0:24:11.800 --> 0:24:15.160 pleads guilty in February, but at this point he doesn't 0:24:15.200 --> 0:24:19.239 know yet that the ATF is looking into him. In 0:24:19.280 --> 0:24:23.720 October of nineteen ninety one, Robert Mahler's federal firearms license 0:24:23.760 --> 0:24:29.159 expired and he doesn't bother renewing it. Yes, I should explain, 0:24:29.280 --> 0:24:31.080 just in case you're not familiar. So this is a 0:24:31.440 --> 0:24:33.600 license that you have to apply for with the Bureau 0:24:33.600 --> 0:24:38.199 of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms to be allowed to deal guns. 0:24:38.800 --> 0:24:41.560 But you can't be running a gun store without an 0:24:41.680 --> 0:24:44.720 FFL and you have to renew it every three years. 0:24:44.720 --> 0:24:46.400 So at this point he's been running the gun store 0:24:46.440 --> 0:24:50.240 for three years, the license is going to expire. Normally 0:24:50.240 --> 0:24:54.480 you would just renew it, but he doesn't. I think 0:24:54.520 --> 0:24:58.399 at this point he knows the ATF probably won't reissue it. 0:24:59.280 --> 0:25:02.480 So I mean, no one's been charged yet, but he 0:25:02.640 --> 0:25:06.679 had to have known something was coming. So, despite no 0:25:06.760 --> 0:25:10.560 longer having a license to legally sell guns, his gun 0:25:10.600 --> 0:25:14.360 store is still open five days a week. And it's 0:25:14.400 --> 0:25:17.879 around this time in October of nineteen ninety one that 0:25:18.000 --> 0:25:24.440 Robert Maller starts taking trips to South Africa. In November, 0:25:24.480 --> 0:25:27.800 Gary Self is indicted on that machine gun charge, and 0:25:27.840 --> 0:25:31.920 so now Robert Maller absolutely knows that his days are numbered. 0:25:33.040 --> 0:25:36.600 His name is on that paperwork. If Gary is guilty, 0:25:36.640 --> 0:25:41.440 then so is he. In March of nineteen ninety two, 0:25:41.600 --> 0:25:43.960 just a few weeks after Gary Self blood guilty to 0:25:44.000 --> 0:25:47.560 possessing that machine gun, Robert Maller went to the county 0:25:47.560 --> 0:25:50.520 clerk's office and he put the deed of his house 0:25:50.600 --> 0:25:54.520 in his wife's name, and he filed paperwork to give 0:25:54.560 --> 0:25:58.520 his wife Nancy power of attorney, so if he were 0:25:58.520 --> 0:26:02.280 for some reason absent, she would be legally empowered to 0:26:02.280 --> 0:26:08.280 make decisions regarding their property. He's preparing to be unavailable. 0:26:09.760 --> 0:26:11.840 But is that because he knows he's going to prison, 0:26:13.040 --> 0:26:16.399 or because he's preparing to do whatever it takes to 0:26:16.640 --> 0:26:23.280 not go to prison. In early April of nineteen ninety two, 0:26:23.520 --> 0:26:26.960 Gary Self is sentenced on that gun charge. He doesn't 0:26:26.960 --> 0:26:30.240 get any jail time. He has to do home detention 0:26:30.400 --> 0:26:32.160 for a few months, and he'll have a few years 0:26:32.160 --> 0:26:37.439 of probation, but no jail time. And in that lone 0:26:37.640 --> 0:26:42.639 ATF report that I do have Agent COOMERI wrote that 0:26:42.680 --> 0:26:47.320 both the Portland Police and an informant would later report 0:26:47.320 --> 0:26:51.159 to the ATF that Robert Maler had expressed interest in 0:26:51.240 --> 0:26:57.119 having both the agent and his co defendant quote knocked off. 0:26:59.160 --> 0:27:05.000 So now I'm wondering maybe in April of nineteen ninety two, 0:27:05.240 --> 0:27:09.199 maybe Gary self was scared. He was stuck in his 0:27:09.320 --> 0:27:13.480 house on home detention, he couldn't leave, and he thought 0:27:13.560 --> 0:27:19.000 Robert Maler wanted to kill him. Maybe the anonymous caller 0:27:19.040 --> 0:27:21.840 who warned the ATF that Moller was going to try 0:27:21.840 --> 0:27:26.440 to kill Agent Coomery had his own reasons to want 0:27:26.480 --> 0:27:31.440 Moller in custody, But we'll never know. The report says 0:27:31.480 --> 0:27:36.119 that they never identified the caller. When agents did finally 0:27:36.119 --> 0:27:38.400 get the go ahead in May of nineteen ninety two 0:27:38.640 --> 0:27:42.560 to arrest Robert Maller for purchasing those machine guns, he 0:27:42.680 --> 0:27:47.879 was gone. He was already in South Africa. Robert Maller 0:27:47.960 --> 0:27:50.040 was in South Africa for most of nineteen ninety two 0:27:50.080 --> 0:27:53.280 and nineteen ninety three. He didn't come home for good 0:27:53.320 --> 0:27:56.720 until March of nineteen ninety four, and in the two 0:27:56.840 --> 0:28:00.720 years he spent abiding arrest on federal gun charges, he 0:28:00.800 --> 0:28:04.959 did come home a few times. News reports say he 0:28:05.119 --> 0:28:07.879 entered the country at least twice using a false passport. 0:28:08.920 --> 0:28:10.640