WEBVTT - The Ruby Ridge Standoff 0:00:01.480 --> 0:00:06.400 Welcome to Stuff you should know, a production of iHeartRadio. 0:00:11.119 --> 0:00:13.600 Hey, and welcome to the podcast. I'm Josh, and there's 0:00:13.680 --> 0:00:16.360 Chuck and Jerry's here too. And this is stuff you 0:00:16.400 --> 0:00:21.000 should know the podcast the early nineties Black Helicopter Edition. 0:00:22.680 --> 0:00:27.720 Yeah, this is Ruby Ridge, the incident, the standoff, the siege, 0:00:28.000 --> 0:00:29.080 what do you call this? 0:00:30.040 --> 0:00:34.440 The beginning of the far right militia movement being born 0:00:34.479 --> 0:00:39.040 in the United States? For sure? It was huge, huge. Yeah, 0:00:39.120 --> 0:00:41.960 it was a huge example of government overreach. It was 0:00:43.320 --> 0:00:45.640 this researching this was really hard, man, This is a 0:00:45.680 --> 0:00:47.800 hard one for me. It was just it's just such 0:00:47.800 --> 0:00:50.360 an awful story all around. It's just terrible. 0:00:50.920 --> 0:00:51.280 Yeah. 0:00:51.320 --> 0:00:54.680 So this is this occurred when I was I guess, 0:00:54.800 --> 0:00:59.840 like a third year in college or so, and. 0:00:59.760 --> 0:01:00.800 That you know, I was. 0:01:01.600 --> 0:01:03.600 I've talked on the show before about like us not 0:01:03.760 --> 0:01:06.680 having TV or cable and stuff, and so I wasn't 0:01:06.720 --> 0:01:09.759 as newsy then as I am now. 0:01:10.760 --> 0:01:12.040 But this was a big deal. 0:01:12.040 --> 0:01:16.760 And I remember this and then Waco literally right after happening, 0:01:16.840 --> 0:01:19.240 which we should do a Waco episode at some point too. 0:01:19.440 --> 0:01:20.759 Yeah, unfortunately we should. 0:01:21.720 --> 0:01:24.560 I just remember at the time being like, wow, okay, 0:01:25.000 --> 0:01:28.920 I don't think I really agree with these people that 0:01:28.959 --> 0:01:32.440 are having this standoff, but at the same time it 0:01:32.560 --> 0:01:36.399 looks from as an outsider, like the government is just 0:01:36.480 --> 0:01:39.919 going in guns blazing and kind of murdering people. 0:01:40.160 --> 0:01:42.920 And it turns out both are kind of true for me. 0:01:43.080 --> 0:01:45.360 Yeah for sure. I mean, you don't have to sympathize 0:01:45.360 --> 0:01:49.000 with the Weavers or any of their supporters to still 0:01:49.040 --> 0:01:52.600 be like this is just messed up. Like, yeah, that's 0:01:52.600 --> 0:01:54.400 what I was saying. The whole situation's messed up. I 0:01:54.440 --> 0:01:57.760 don't agree with basically any of their views, but yeah, 0:01:57.800 --> 0:02:00.200 it's just I say, we get into it, everybody to 0:02:00.240 --> 0:02:02.240 make up their own minds, because it's definitely one of 0:02:02.240 --> 0:02:03.120 those stories, you know. 0:02:03.840 --> 0:02:07.680 Yeah, so just in the broadest two sentence overview, Ruby 0:02:07.760 --> 0:02:11.919 Ridge was a standoff in the Ruby Ridge area of 0:02:12.000 --> 0:02:12.960 Idaho in. 0:02:13.560 --> 0:02:17.600 When did it finally go down? Ninety two? Yes, yeah, 0:02:17.680 --> 0:02:18.440 nineteen ninety two. 0:02:19.480 --> 0:02:23.280 That was many, many, many months long in the making, 0:02:24.160 --> 0:02:26.960 in which the US government had a stand off with 0:02:27.040 --> 0:02:32.320 a family of children, a couple of adults, and the 0:02:32.400 --> 0:02:36.639 rest were basically kids. Oh yeah, and it ended in 0:02:37.440 --> 0:02:41.400 lost lives on both sides when there's absolutely no reason 0:02:41.440 --> 0:02:44.440 why it should have. And this is that story of 0:02:44.480 --> 0:02:45.280 the Weaver family. 0:02:45.960 --> 0:02:48.639 Yeah, I guess you can start back at the very 0:02:48.680 --> 0:02:53.600 beginning when the Weaver family itself began. Vicky who would 0:02:53.680 --> 0:02:57.560 become Vicky Weaver. She was born Vicky Jordison and her 0:02:57.720 --> 0:03:01.360 husband Randall Weaver, got married in nineteen seven. They lived 0:03:01.360 --> 0:03:05.560 in Iowa, I think Cedar Falls right, Yeah, and she 0:03:05.760 --> 0:03:08.359 was a secretary for Susan Roebuck. He had just been 0:03:08.440 --> 0:03:11.960 discharged as a Green Beret honorably from the army and 0:03:12.200 --> 0:03:14.880 had gotten a job working at the tractor factory for 0:03:14.960 --> 0:03:17.200 John Deere. She can do a lot worse than that. 0:03:17.680 --> 0:03:21.360 So they were like a very normal working class couple 0:03:21.880 --> 0:03:23.120 just starting out in life. 0:03:23.880 --> 0:03:26.919 Yeah, so this was, like you said, nineteen seventy one. 0:03:27.960 --> 0:03:31.160 They had a daughter named Sarah in seventy six, and 0:03:31.200 --> 0:03:34.200 then two more kids, a boy named Sammy and then 0:03:34.240 --> 0:03:38.000 a daughter named Rachel, all over the next six years. 0:03:38.040 --> 0:03:39.440 And those were you know, there was a kid that 0:03:39.480 --> 0:03:43.120 would come later that we'll get to. But around the 0:03:43.240 --> 0:03:48.040 latest seventies, kind of after the latest Arab Israeli conflict 0:03:48.160 --> 0:03:53.200 came around, Vicky started basically kind of thought that was 0:03:53.240 --> 0:03:57.360 a sign of the end times, the biblical biblical end times. 0:03:57.800 --> 0:04:01.480 She kept having these recurring dreams of these omens about 0:04:01.920 --> 0:04:04.760 a house on a hill where they could be safe 0:04:04.840 --> 0:04:08.160 and hide, and she thought the end times were coming. 0:04:08.240 --> 0:04:10.040 And she started sharing this stuff with Randy. 0:04:10.760 --> 0:04:14.240 Yeah, and apparently it really jibed with him because he 0:04:14.280 --> 0:04:17.320 got on board as well. I hadn't seen what exactly 0:04:17.520 --> 0:04:19.880 was the impetus that triggered all that, so thanks for 0:04:19.920 --> 0:04:23.520 clearing that up. But long story short, they ended up 0:04:23.520 --> 0:04:29.680 becoming religious extremists together, and also like apocalyptic religious extremists, 0:04:29.680 --> 0:04:33.640 not just garden variety religious extremists. Ye. Enough so that 0:04:33.680 --> 0:04:35.800 they moved. And not only do they move, they gave 0:04:35.800 --> 0:04:39.240 an interview to the local paper in Iowa saying that 0:04:39.560 --> 0:04:42.240 they were moving and in fact, they wanted to go 0:04:42.440 --> 0:04:44.479 find a place, build a place where they could have 0:04:44.520 --> 0:04:50.880 a three hundred yard defensible kill zone. Yeah no, but 0:04:51.040 --> 0:04:53.400 I mean your local paper is probably like, this is hot, 0:04:53.560 --> 0:04:54.360 hot news. 0:04:55.160 --> 0:04:59.120 Yeah, for sure, hot off the presses local couple moving 0:04:59.680 --> 0:05:05.640 to up depensible shelter. Not here they moved in eighty three. 0:05:06.200 --> 0:05:09.880 I saw fifteen acres. I saw twenty acres regardless, somewhere 0:05:09.880 --> 0:05:13.160 in that neighborhood of land with a freshwater spring. 0:05:14.160 --> 0:05:14.640 This time. 0:05:14.720 --> 0:05:19.160 They were in Idaho near Naples, in the Ruby Ridge area, 0:05:19.360 --> 0:05:23.200 and this area had become a just sort of a 0:05:23.200 --> 0:05:25.880 place where if you didn't trust the government, if you 0:05:25.920 --> 0:05:28.960 didn't like paying taxes, if you maybe were a member 0:05:28.960 --> 0:05:31.720 of a Christian identity group or a white supremacist group, 0:05:32.080 --> 0:05:34.160 you may end up in this sort of rural era 0:05:34.560 --> 0:05:35.320 area of Idaho. 0:05:35.320 --> 0:05:38.760 At the time, Yeah, for sure, this was like a 0:05:39.279 --> 0:05:42.840 it's just I think it's still very much that way too. Actually, 0:05:43.560 --> 0:05:45.599 I don't know what kicked it off, but I think 0:05:45.640 --> 0:05:47.640 it started in the seventies in Earnest, so by the 0:05:47.680 --> 0:05:50.440 time they moved there, it was it was in full swing. 0:05:50.480 --> 0:05:52.880 That's just kind of where you went. And they actually 0:05:52.880 --> 0:05:56.120 built their own home from what I saw, and pictures 0:05:56.120 --> 0:05:57.920 of it are like, well, they did a really good job. 0:05:57.960 --> 0:06:01.440 It's like a two story, nice looking cabin. To build 0:06:01.440 --> 0:06:05.040 a bunch of outbuildings. They basically built themselves a compound, 0:06:05.560 --> 0:06:08.120 and they did it largely using scraps in plywood and 0:06:08.160 --> 0:06:11.520 stuff like that. And they started living the survivalist life, 0:06:11.560 --> 0:06:16.360 like living off the land, planting vegetables. They homeschooled the kids, 0:06:16.440 --> 0:06:20.080 of course, and the way I didn't know that in 0:06:20.160 --> 0:06:21.360 Idaho or in the US. 0:06:21.839 --> 0:06:24.320 In Idaho at the time, at least it was not 0:06:24.440 --> 0:06:27.599 legal to homeschool. So not saying that that was part 0:06:27.640 --> 0:06:30.920 of their illegalities, but I guess technically it was. 0:06:31.040 --> 0:06:33.080 But I think it does kind of like get a 0:06:33.200 --> 0:06:35.920 point across. It's a little subtle, like they couldn't have 0:06:35.960 --> 0:06:39.000 cared less if the state or the federal government told 0:06:39.040 --> 0:06:41.919 them that they couldn't homeschool their kids. That would just 0:06:41.920 --> 0:06:45.120 be one more reason that they hated the government. And 0:06:45.160 --> 0:06:49.160 in fact, one of the big movements in this area 0:06:49.600 --> 0:06:55.760 was essentially like local sovereignty, where the highest authority in 0:06:55.800 --> 0:06:59.760 the entire country for a specific area was the local sheriff. 0:07:00.080 --> 0:07:04.080 Anything beyond that was fraudulent, right, So, yeah, they wouldn't 0:07:04.080 --> 0:07:06.479 have listened to the state government saying they couldn't homeschool 0:07:06.520 --> 0:07:07.320 their kids at all. 0:07:07.800 --> 0:07:13.440 Yeah, for sure didn't have power, no technically no like 0:07:13.480 --> 0:07:15.240 official running water. I think they were able to get 0:07:15.240 --> 0:07:18.720 water to the house via that spring, but you know, 0:07:18.760 --> 0:07:21.920 they were living the rural lifestyle. They took in a 0:07:21.960 --> 0:07:25.280 young teenage boy who had what sounds like a really 0:07:25.320 --> 0:07:28.160 pretty awful home life. His name was Kevin Harris, and 0:07:28.240 --> 0:07:29.920 he kind of came and went for a little while, 0:07:29.960 --> 0:07:33.480 and then eventually basically was kind of adopted by the 0:07:33.520 --> 0:07:36.560 family and he ended up staying there pretty much full 0:07:36.600 --> 0:07:37.760 time at a certain point. 0:07:38.000 --> 0:07:41.160 Yes, so he wasn't like they didn't adopt him because 0:07:41.200 --> 0:07:43.720 he was like, oh, I thought, I'm pretty sure it's 0:07:43.760 --> 0:07:46.600 the end times too, right. He was just like a 0:07:46.680 --> 0:07:49.720 kid that they helped out, which is pretty great. So 0:07:49.840 --> 0:07:51.880 he was, you know, he would come and go. He 0:07:51.920 --> 0:07:53.720 was just kind of living his life and he could 0:07:54.080 --> 0:07:56.040 he just knew he had a place to stay in 0:07:56.240 --> 0:07:59.000 a place where he could eat when things got bad 0:07:59.040 --> 0:08:02.120 at home with the which I think says a lot about. 0:08:01.920 --> 0:08:03.400 Them, Yeah, for sure. 0:08:03.840 --> 0:08:07.720 And while they did kind of chum up to some 0:08:07.800 --> 0:08:10.320 of the Aryan nation groups around there, they were never 0:08:10.440 --> 0:08:13.680 like official members. They would go to a meeting sometimes. 0:08:14.800 --> 0:08:18.120 They were very much aligned with the Christian Identity movement, 0:08:19.280 --> 0:08:21.559 which is I mean, we can't get into the weeds 0:08:21.560 --> 0:08:24.280 too much here, but one of the main tenants is 0:08:24.360 --> 0:08:29.160 that Jews are literally the spawn of Satan, that Eve 0:08:29.280 --> 0:08:34.720 and the serpent bore you know, Jews as babies, and 0:08:34.760 --> 0:08:39.199 that non white people are mud people from a different creation. 0:08:40.480 --> 0:08:42.640 They are. I mean, how deep do you want to 0:08:42.679 --> 0:08:43.079 go here. 0:08:43.360 --> 0:08:46.120 Well, also that if you were of Celtic or Germanic 0:08:46.320 --> 0:08:50.560 Germanic descent, you're the chosen people. You're the You're the 0:08:50.559 --> 0:08:54.040 people who everyone else needs to cater to basically, And 0:08:54.040 --> 0:08:58.480 that also they're the lost tribe of Israel, which legitimizes 0:08:58.520 --> 0:09:00.959 them all the way back to pre Christian days. 0:09:01.320 --> 0:09:03.280 Right, Okay, that's deep enough. 0:09:03.480 --> 0:09:09.120 Yeah, So Randy Weaver came on the Federal alays radar 0:09:09.280 --> 0:09:13.160 as far back as nineteen eighty five because the Secret 0:09:13.160 --> 0:09:16.280 Service showed up one time at the compound and said, Hey, 0:09:16.880 --> 0:09:19.200 what have your neighbors told us that you've been threatening 0:09:19.240 --> 0:09:22.400 to shoot Ronald Reagan? And somebody tried that before, so 0:09:22.480 --> 0:09:26.040 we take it pretty seriously. Are you going to shoot 0:09:26.080 --> 0:09:28.600 Ronald Reagan? Yes? No, maybe? 0:09:28.920 --> 0:09:32.120 Right? Which bubble did he fill out? 0:09:32.280 --> 0:09:34.840 He said no. He adamantly said no. He said, this 0:09:34.960 --> 0:09:37.800 neighbor that told you that is basically trying to pre 0:09:37.960 --> 0:09:41.240 internet swap me because they want we have we're having 0:09:41.280 --> 0:09:43.320 a property dispute and they're just trying to bring the 0:09:43.360 --> 0:09:47.400 heat down on me. And I guess his explanation was persuasive, 0:09:47.480 --> 0:09:49.400 because that's as far as it went. As far as 0:09:49.440 --> 0:09:50.120 I could tell. 0:09:50.440 --> 0:09:52.400 Yeah, that's as far as it went. It could have 0:09:52.440 --> 0:09:54.280 been a I mean, it could have been that innocent 0:09:54.360 --> 0:09:56.520 because they you know, some of their neighbors they were 0:09:56.520 --> 0:09:59.320 friendly with, some they didn't like very much. Some of 0:09:59.320 --> 0:10:04.040 their neighbors. Can plane that kids were wearing Nazi armbands, 0:10:05.320 --> 0:10:09.640 that Randy had fired shots at the houses before it was. 0:10:09.679 --> 0:10:12.440 You know, it's pretty rough and tumble out there. In 0:10:12.520 --> 0:10:15.440 nineteen eighty eight, Randy ran for sheriff, Like you're saying, 0:10:15.520 --> 0:10:18.440 sort of the highest calling that you could have in 0:10:18.520 --> 0:10:22.440 that crowd, and he was. It was basically a platform 0:10:22.520 --> 0:10:27.560 of like, I'm anti government. In fact, I carry around 0:10:27.600 --> 0:10:29.280 these get out of jail free cards and if you know, 0:10:29.400 --> 0:10:31.560 if you're not a non violent criminal, then you're going 0:10:31.640 --> 0:10:34.559 to get a second chance with me, and I'm not 0:10:34.679 --> 0:10:38.800 gonna I'm not gonna be a government sheriff basically, right. 0:10:38.760 --> 0:10:41.880 It's the posse comatadis movement, which is kind of basically 0:10:41.920 --> 0:10:44.080 what I was talking about. That based on this Act 0:10:44.120 --> 0:10:47.079 from eighteen seventy eight, federal troops have to stay out 0:10:47.080 --> 0:10:50.880 of law enforcement. So yeah, those black helicopters and un 0:10:51.440 --> 0:10:54.319 soldiers and all the stuff that everybody's worried about were 0:10:54.360 --> 0:10:58.280 just totally illegal, and I guess by that token, the 0:10:58.440 --> 0:11:01.160 FBI would be totally illegal, or the ATF for the 0:11:01.200 --> 0:11:04.160 DEA like there just isn't supposed to be such a 0:11:04.160 --> 0:11:06.839 thing as federal law enforcement. That right, platform, he ran 0:11:06.920 --> 0:11:07.640 under the party. 0:11:08.240 --> 0:11:11.280 Yeah, I think that's a pretty good break time, What 0:11:11.280 --> 0:11:11.640 do you think? 0:11:12.360 --> 0:11:15.760 Yeah, all right, we'll take a little early Blake early 0:11:15.800 --> 0:11:17.160 Blake took an early break. 0:11:17.360 --> 0:11:19.959 Blake set up like, Yes, I've been waiting for this 0:11:20.040 --> 0:11:22.040 for sixteen years. 0:11:22.920 --> 0:11:24.200 And we'll be back after this. 0:11:24.880 --> 0:11:30.800 Earning stuff, Joshi. 0:11:30.440 --> 0:11:44.880 Stuff, you shut all right. 0:11:44.920 --> 0:11:47.360 So this is a time in the mid eighties, sort 0:11:47.360 --> 0:11:50.080 of late eighties when militia groups were starting to sort 0:11:50.080 --> 0:11:51.800 of be a thing, be in the news a little 0:11:51.840 --> 0:11:54.520 bit more, and so of course the FBI is going 0:11:54.559 --> 0:11:58.760 to start to begin undercover ops to infiltrate these groups. 0:11:58.559 --> 0:11:59.800 And see what the heck is going on. 0:12:00.000 --> 0:12:03.280 And that is exactly what happened at an Aryan Nation 0:12:03.440 --> 0:12:07.400 meeting when Randy met an undercover agent. His name was 0:12:07.679 --> 0:12:12.520 Kenneth Fatally and he was going by the name Gus. 0:12:13.200 --> 0:12:16.360 Gus Magisono's great undercover name. 0:12:16.400 --> 0:12:19.959 I guess, yeah, but not exactly Germanic or Celtic in origin. 0:12:20.080 --> 0:12:23.959 You know, he was worked for the US Bureau of 0:12:24.040 --> 0:12:27.520 Alcohol to back owned firearms the ATF and over the course, 0:12:27.640 --> 0:12:29.920 like this whole operation was years and years long, because 0:12:30.760 --> 0:12:33.400 it took like three years for him to get a 0:12:33.440 --> 0:12:35.479 few different meetings with Randy. 0:12:35.760 --> 0:12:39.320 In which which culminated and if you ask. 0:12:40.800 --> 0:12:43.880 The FBI Randy saying, Hey, I want to sell you 0:12:43.920 --> 0:12:48.840 some illegal sought off shotguns. If you ask Randy, he'll 0:12:48.880 --> 0:12:51.560 say no, Man, I was entrapped. I didn't want to 0:12:51.559 --> 0:12:54.600 sell the guns. The guy asked to buy guns several 0:12:54.640 --> 0:12:56.719 times with me saying no, I don't want to do that, 0:12:57.200 --> 0:13:00.839 until I eventually relented and sold him these firearms. 0:13:00.920 --> 0:13:05.360 Right. So, however it happened the FEDS now had Randy 0:13:05.400 --> 0:13:08.960 Weaver in their grips. So they thought, this is a 0:13:09.080 --> 0:13:12.160 very routine thing that federal law enforcement does and I 0:13:12.200 --> 0:13:15.320 think local as well. Like they will bust you on 0:13:15.360 --> 0:13:18.920 some charge. It's fairly small, still enough that you could 0:13:18.920 --> 0:13:20.480 get prison time. They're going to take you away from 0:13:20.480 --> 0:13:23.400 your family. It's gonna be bad news for you, but 0:13:23.880 --> 0:13:26.720 they'll totally forget about the whole thing if you start 0:13:26.720 --> 0:13:27.920 informing for them. 0:13:28.200 --> 0:13:29.880 Yeah, he's a small fish right. 0:13:29.840 --> 0:13:32.920 Keep sure right, and then they use that fish's bait 0:13:33.080 --> 0:13:35.560 to get bigger and bigger, bigger fish right. So he 0:13:35.760 --> 0:13:38.439 was just going to have to do what he normally does. 0:13:38.480 --> 0:13:40.679 But every once in a while he'd meets secretly with 0:13:40.720 --> 0:13:43.960 some ATF handler and tell them everything he knew and 0:13:44.000 --> 0:13:46.640 who was who and who was leading the stuff. And 0:13:47.160 --> 0:13:49.319 Randy Weaver thought about it and he said, you know what, 0:13:49.400 --> 0:13:51.960 you can go straight to hell. I'm not going to 0:13:52.000 --> 0:13:54.959 be an informant, and you can press the charges if 0:13:54.960 --> 0:13:58.439 you want to. The ATF did not like this at all. 0:13:58.480 --> 0:14:03.040 From what I saw. They essentially took that almost personally. Yeah, 0:14:03.080 --> 0:14:05.360 at the very least they came at him like they 0:14:05.400 --> 0:14:06.319 took it personally. 0:14:06.800 --> 0:14:10.280 Yeah, for sure. Vicky was pretty upset as well. Apparently 0:14:10.280 --> 0:14:12.960 she wrote a warning letter and this is in quotes 0:14:13.080 --> 0:14:16.440 to Aryan Nations and all our brethren of the Anglo 0:14:16.480 --> 0:14:21.080 Saxon race. She filed an affidavit which you knew trouble 0:14:21.160 --> 0:14:23.600 was coming. She filed an affidavit with a county clerk 0:14:23.680 --> 0:14:27.080 saying we might have to defend ourselves from you know, 0:14:27.160 --> 0:14:30.000 with firearms, because the federal government is going to come 0:14:30.040 --> 0:14:33.080 after us and we want to file this affidavit right now. 0:14:33.680 --> 0:14:37.120 That wouldn't even cross my mind. That's forward thinking, you know. 0:14:37.360 --> 0:14:37.680 Yeah. 0:14:37.720 --> 0:14:42.840 Sure, so that was actually very precient too, VICKI writing 0:14:42.880 --> 0:14:45.960 that because they they would end up having to defend 0:14:46.000 --> 0:14:50.400 themselves by attacks from the federal government. And that will 0:14:50.400 --> 0:14:53.320 come a little bit later. First, in January of nineteen 0:14:53.400 --> 0:14:58.400 ninety one, the ATF, I guess they didn't arrest him 0:14:58.440 --> 0:15:00.440 on the spot when they came and said that, you know, 0:15:00.640 --> 0:15:03.560 they wanted him to be an informant. So a few 0:15:03.600 --> 0:15:07.680 months later they decided to take Randy Weaver into custody. 0:15:07.720 --> 0:15:10.200 But to do that, remember he had a three hundred 0:15:10.240 --> 0:15:12.920 yard kill zone. He had a cabin up on a mountain. 0:15:13.200 --> 0:15:16.000 You don't just walk up and tell somebody like that, 0:15:16.040 --> 0:15:18.480 come on, you're coming with us to jail. So they 0:15:18.520 --> 0:15:22.240 actually the ATF posed as and by the way, ATF 0:15:22.280 --> 0:15:26.600 is the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms, another ostensibly 0:15:26.680 --> 0:15:31.880 illegal agency. They posed this like their car had been 0:15:31.880 --> 0:15:35.680 broken down, I guess on Ruby Creek Road, which is 0:15:35.720 --> 0:15:38.360 the main road that led up to the cabin, and 0:15:38.720 --> 0:15:43.400 they basically played on the Weaver's propensity to help strangers. 0:15:43.400 --> 0:15:43.720 I guess. 0:15:44.680 --> 0:15:48.720 Yeah. So they arrest him. He pleads not guilty. 0:15:48.760 --> 0:15:51.880 He's released on bond, a ten thousand dollars bond on 0:15:51.920 --> 0:15:57.000 his own recognisance, which is a little surprising. Vicky, his wife, 0:15:57.040 --> 0:16:00.760 again writes a letter to the US Attorney for the 0:16:00.760 --> 0:16:04.880 State of Idaho that she addressed as the servant of 0:16:04.880 --> 0:16:07.960 the Queen of Babylon and saying that we refused a 0:16:08.000 --> 0:16:10.920 bow to your evil commandments, whether we live or whether 0:16:10.960 --> 0:16:14.000 we die. So she, you know, she sent a clear 0:16:14.040 --> 0:16:18.360 message that like, we're not fooling around here. And I 0:16:18.400 --> 0:16:20.320 know we were on your radar, but you might as 0:16:20.320 --> 0:16:23.200 well really put us on your radar because we're not 0:16:23.280 --> 0:16:25.320 coming with you and you can't make us. 0:16:25.520 --> 0:16:28.240 Or take us off your radar. Don't even mess with us, 0:16:28.640 --> 0:16:28.840 you know. 0:16:29.560 --> 0:16:32.360 Yeah, ideally, So Randy. 0:16:32.320 --> 0:16:34.440 Had a trial set. He remember he's been out, he's 0:16:34.480 --> 0:16:37.600 out on bail, but he still has to go to 0:16:37.640 --> 0:16:40.640 court to face these firearms charges. And again he sold 0:16:40.760 --> 0:16:44.400 firearms to an undercover federal agents of it was a 0:16:44.440 --> 0:16:47.160 federal law that he broke. So these are federal charges 0:16:47.200 --> 0:16:51.000 and they can be pretty serious, but it was still, again, 0:16:51.120 --> 0:16:53.720 like you said, it was pretty small potatoes as far 0:16:53.760 --> 0:16:57.600 as firearms charges go. We're just charges that you could 0:16:57.640 --> 0:17:00.600 face in general at the time. Right, Ye's enough that 0:17:00.880 --> 0:17:02.800 you know. They had a trial set for him, and 0:17:03.040 --> 0:17:06.240 it was set for February nineteenth, nineteen ninety one, and 0:17:06.440 --> 0:17:08.960 for some reason or another, it was moved by one 0:17:09.080 --> 0:17:12.280 day to February twentieth, nineteen ninety one. Well, when the 0:17:12.320 --> 0:17:14.640 government does that or the court system does that, they 0:17:14.640 --> 0:17:18.280 have to alert you. So they sent Randy a letter saying, hey, 0:17:18.720 --> 0:17:23.560 we've moved your trial date to March twentieth, And of 0:17:23.560 --> 0:17:26.199 course it wasn't March twentieth, it was February twentieth, And 0:17:26.240 --> 0:17:29.240 there was essentially a typo that the author of the letter, 0:17:29.280 --> 0:17:32.760 a probation officer, had written. And so, of course Randy 0:17:32.760 --> 0:17:35.480 Weaver didn't show up on February twentieth, and a bench 0:17:35.520 --> 0:17:38.000 warrant was issued for his arrest for failure to appear. 0:17:38.800 --> 0:17:42.159 Yeah, so this has been sort of debated here and 0:17:42.200 --> 0:17:45.080 there about the mistake and the error that he didn't 0:17:45.080 --> 0:17:46.879 even have the right court date to begin with. But 0:17:47.480 --> 0:17:51.720 all indications point to the idea that he was not 0:17:51.800 --> 0:17:54.439 going to come anyway. So I'm not saying it like 0:17:54.440 --> 0:17:57.320 didn't matter at all, But they said, hey, we're not coming. 0:17:57.440 --> 0:17:59.560 I don't think he'd planned on coming even if he 0:17:59.600 --> 0:18:02.280 had the right date. But the long and short of 0:18:02.320 --> 0:18:06.280 it is he didn't go. And so they you know, 0:18:06.400 --> 0:18:08.480 they were really on their radar. Now they're like, we've 0:18:08.480 --> 0:18:12.240 got a real situation here. And this is when this long, 0:18:12.600 --> 0:18:17.840 like really long surveillance program started in the summer of 0:18:17.920 --> 0:18:22.280 nineteen ninety one, when they kind of staked out around 0:18:22.280 --> 0:18:25.160 the property and around the house with you know, binoculars 0:18:25.160 --> 0:18:27.720 and things and surveillance cameras that they'd set up in 0:18:27.720 --> 0:18:30.399 the woods, and they were just tracking what this family 0:18:30.480 --> 0:18:33.480 was doing. They had a couple of plans. 0:18:33.160 --> 0:18:36.000 To go in non violently. 0:18:36.359 --> 0:18:38.399 One of them was to cut the water supply I 0:18:38.400 --> 0:18:40.399 guess from the spring to the house to flush them 0:18:40.440 --> 0:18:42.879 out because at a certain point they weren't even like 0:18:42.960 --> 0:18:44.880 leaving the house. You know, they were having food brought 0:18:44.880 --> 0:18:46.960 in and stuff because they knew what was going on. 0:18:48.119 --> 0:18:51.760 Another plan they had was they were believers in the 0:18:51.880 --> 0:18:55.000 minstrual cycle meeting. You were unclean and filthy, So when 0:18:55.000 --> 0:18:57.040 you had your minstrual cycle in that family, you had 0:18:57.040 --> 0:19:00.640 to go stay in the birthing shed on the property, 0:19:00.680 --> 0:19:03.359 one of the outbuildings during the duration of your menstruation. 0:19:04.000 --> 0:19:07.000 So they were like, all right, when Sarah, the oldest 0:19:07.000 --> 0:19:10.000 teenager has her next mentro cycle, she's going to be 0:19:10.119 --> 0:19:12.560 sent to the shed, and when the kids bringing food 0:19:12.560 --> 0:19:16.159 and stuff out there will grab them and that they'll 0:19:16.280 --> 0:19:18.760 immediately give up because we have the kids. But then 0:19:18.920 --> 0:19:21.400 I guess someone said, well, wait a minute, that's kidnapping. 0:19:21.520 --> 0:19:22.959 Yeah, you can't do that. 0:19:23.000 --> 0:19:24.639 We don't have a warrant for any of the children, 0:19:24.720 --> 0:19:26.520 So that's we can't go with that plan. 0:19:26.840 --> 0:19:28.320 So they went with the worst plan. 0:19:29.800 --> 0:19:31.679 They did go with the worst plan, but they it 0:19:31.760 --> 0:19:33.960 was in very very It was a terrible plan in 0:19:34.080 --> 0:19:37.560 really slow motion that played out over a really long time, 0:19:37.960 --> 0:19:41.240 throughout which so many people had so many chances to 0:19:41.240 --> 0:19:43.320 be like, guys, wait a minute, what are we doing. 0:19:44.320 --> 0:19:47.200 This is like a fairly small federal firearms charge. The 0:19:47.240 --> 0:19:49.760 guys sold two salt off shotguns and then didn't appear 0:19:49.760 --> 0:19:52.920 in court, Like, we're spending millions of dollars on this, 0:19:53.040 --> 0:19:56.960 bringing huge resources to bear and it doesn't really make 0:19:57.000 --> 0:20:01.560 sense until you find that the eight which was originally 0:20:01.920 --> 0:20:05.640 the people with this case, they brought in the federal marshals. 0:20:05.640 --> 0:20:09.520 The marshals eventually brought in the FBI, and the ATF 0:20:09.600 --> 0:20:13.080 told everybody else that number one, Randy Weaver was among 0:20:13.160 --> 0:20:17.440 the biggest firearms suppliers in the United States. 0:20:17.880 --> 0:20:19.600 Yeah, not true at all, with. 0:20:19.520 --> 0:20:22.200 No evidence whatsoever. The only thing that they had him 0:20:22.200 --> 0:20:25.159 on record doing was selling two saud off shotguns. And 0:20:25.200 --> 0:20:28.120 the other thing that they told the ATF told everybody 0:20:28.680 --> 0:20:31.000 was that it was responsible for a string of bank 0:20:31.080 --> 0:20:34.840 robberies in Montana. There's no evidence whatsoever that he ever 0:20:34.920 --> 0:20:37.879 robbed a banker, had anything to do with these bank robberies. 0:20:38.359 --> 0:20:42.199 And yet those two pieces of information transformed this from 0:20:42.520 --> 0:20:45.800 there's some weirdo family up in the mountains with guns 0:20:46.520 --> 0:20:49.400 who and the dad has a couple of he sold 0:20:49.400 --> 0:20:51.199 a couple of sawed off shotguns, and then come to 0:20:51.240 --> 0:20:54.680 court to we need to literally bring the FBI, the 0:20:54.760 --> 0:20:58.959 Secret Service, the Marshals Service, everybody to camp out for 0:20:59.000 --> 0:21:01.920 almost a year observing this house to figure out how 0:21:01.920 --> 0:21:03.160 to get that guy out of there. 0:21:03.920 --> 0:21:07.199 Yeah, it was an extreme reaction. I don't think there 0:21:07.200 --> 0:21:09.120 are a lot of people that would disagree with that. No, 0:21:09.400 --> 0:21:12.639 so they're watching this house. The house, like we mentioned, 0:21:12.720 --> 0:21:14.800 is very depensable. This is the house on the hill 0:21:15.440 --> 0:21:18.560 where they were to be safe from the dreams. When 0:21:18.600 --> 0:21:20.880 they did go out, they would send usually they would 0:21:20.880 --> 0:21:24.440 send the kids out ahead, supposedly with guns, to kind 0:21:24.440 --> 0:21:28.400 of investigate and see what was going on. They had 0:21:28.680 --> 0:21:32.360 neighbors recording license plates of people who came and went. 0:21:33.320 --> 0:21:35.280