GORDON KAHL was a simple farmer who became famous for not filing income tax returns. Imprisoned and hounded by IRS agents who never did prove he owed any amount of money. As Kahl's opposition to the federal system became more vocal, encouraging people to start "township governments," the authorities slowly moved in, prompted by the area's new marshal. Final shootout and manhunt in summer 1983 ended at a remote Arkansas farmhouse, with a body claimed to be Kahl's burnt beyond recognition.


    Gordon Kahl was killed in a massive assault on Ginter's farmhouse in Lawrence County, Arkansas, on June 4, 1983. The events described below are from a typed statement by Kahl, probably written on the day of the described events, February 14, 1983.

    I, GORDON KAHL, a Christian Patriot, and in consideration of the events which have taken place within the last few hours, and knowing to what-lengths the enemies of Christ, (whom I consider my enemies) will go to separate my spirit from it's body, wish to put down on paper a record of the events which have just taken place, so that the world will know what happened.

    I feel that the awesome power which will be unleashed, to silence forever, my testimony, will, if not checked by the power of my God, who is the God of Abraham, and Isaac and Jacob, will cut short my time to leave to the world, these happenings. Therefore, I'm going to make this record, and leave it in the hands of those who I know will bring it to light, even though I may in the meantime be extinguished.

    While urgency, or human weakness, tells me to run, my spirit says write, so this I am going to do. And if my God continues to protect me, I shall write first, and flee from the hands of my enemies later.

    We had just finished our meeting in Medina, concerning how we could best implement the proceedings of the Third Continental Congress, which was to restore the power and prestige of the U.S. Constitution up to and including the 10 Articles of the Bill of Rights, and put our nation back under Christian Common Law, which is another way of saying God's Law, as laid down by the inspiration of God, thru His prophets and preserved for us in the Scriptures, when word was received from someone whose identity I am not able to give, that we were to be ambushed on our return to our homes.

    I realize now that we did not take this warning as seriously as we should have. The reason for this was because it has happened so many times before, when nothing happened. I see now that the many false alarms were to cause us to lower our guard.

    As we pondered what to do, someone suggested that we take two cars instead of one. Consequently, I went with Dave Brewer, and my son Yorie, Scotty Paul, my wife Jean, and Vernon Wagner, went in our station wagon. At this time none of us really expected any trouble, but just to be on the safe side, my son Yorie, myself, and Scotty prepared to defend ourselves, in the event that an attack upon us, should take place.

    As we came over one of the hills just north of Medina, I saw on the top of the next hill what looked like two cars parked on it. About this time they turned on their red lights, and I knew the attack was under way.

    We were just coming to an approach and I told Dave to pull in on it and stop. Our other car pulled in just beyond us and stopped, also. I looked back in time to see another vehicle coming from behind with it's red light on. I picked up my Mini-14, and I got out and got myself and my weapon ready as the vehicle coming from behind skidded to a stop about 20 feet away. The doors flew open on it and the two men who were in the front seat aimed their guns at us. My son Yorie had jumped out of the other car and had ran over to a high-line pole. The two cars which we had seen ahead of us, pulled up and stopped behind us.

    A man got out of the vehicle which had come from behind us, and ran out into the ditch on the east side of the road. During this time there was a lot of screaming and hollering going on but nothing else, so it appeared to be an impasse.

    About this time a shot rang out and the driver of the car who I believe at this time must have been supposedly in command, turned around and stood up so he was looking at his man in the east ditch, and toward the cars which had come from the north and yelled "Who fired, who fired?" The other man who was with him, echoed his question.

    At the time the shot rang out I heard Yorie cry out "I'm hit, I'm hit" I took my eyes off the two men who were yelling "Who fired", and looked over at Yorie. He was still standing, but I could tell he was in pain from the way he stood. About this time, another shot rang out, and I heard Yorie cry out again. I looked over and saw that he was hit again and laying on the ground. I looked back toward the two men and saw the one in the passenger side aim at me and I was sure then that they felt the situation was no longer under their control, and the only thing to do was kill us all.

    Before he was able to fire, I loosed a round at the door behind which he was standing, and while I don't think I hit him, I caused him to duck down behind the door.

    I looked around again toward Yorie, and saw Scotty Paul running over toward him. I turned my head again in time to see the driver of the vehicle which had followed us raise up from behind the door and aim his gun at Scotty. I moved my gun over and fired at him before he could shoot. I didn't hit him either, the bullet striking somewhere near the lower left hand corner of the windshield. He ducked down behind the dash so I could only see his head. About this time the other man raised up and aimed at me again. I shot again striking the door and causing him to duck. This happened several times, with the two men alternating, and my shots causing them to duck each time before they could aim and fire. I don't know how many times I fired, until the man on the passenger side fell, and I was able to tell he was out of the fight. The driver must have seen this as he moved his gun from Scotty's direction toward me.

    I fired several more shots at him each time he raised up to shoot at me. I finally realized this could keep up 'til my 30 round clip was empty. My bullets appeared to be ricocheting off the windshield and door post. I ran around toward the side of the vehicle, firing at the door as I went to keep him down until I got around far enough to get a clear shot at him, at which time I know he was out of the fight also.

    I ran back where I could see the third man from this north-bound vehicle just in time to see him raise up to shoot at Scotty, who had ran over to Yorie. Before he was able to pull the trigger I fired and he fell to the ground. At this time I saw the man who was behind. the front end of the green Mercury, raise up and aim at, Scotty. He saw me swing my gun in his direction, and he ducked down behind his car. I could see his feet or legs beneath the car, and I fired, striking him and putting him out of the fight.

    I ran over to the man in the east ditch, thinking he might still be in fighting condition. When I got nearly to him, he raised up his head and said "Don't shoot me again, I'm all done". He had his hand on his shotgun so I took that and his pistol which was in his holster and threw them in the back seat of the green Mercury. I didn't see the man who had been behind the Mercury, and who I thought I'd hit in the leg, so I don't know where he'd gone to.

   A pickup had pulled up behind the north-bound vehicle, but I didn't notice anyone in it or around it and I assume it was the pickup we saw on the top of the first hill as we came out of Medina, and which I believe belonged to the city, but as to who was driving it, I have no knowledge.

    Scotty tells me he saw one and possibly two men run out into the trees and hide, but I have no way of knowing who they were.

    I think from the reports I've heard on the radio which was in the Mercury, that the car which came from behind, was the one the Marshals were in. If this is so, they weren't the ones who fired the first shots. The two men who were in the front seat were both looking in the direction of the green Mercury when they were shouting, "Who fired?"

    Yorie's .45 auto which he had in his shoulder holster had either a rifle or pistol bullet imbedded in the clip, shattering the grips on both sides. Had he not been wearing it he would have been killed instantly.

    Whether this was the first or the second shot that was fired at him I don't know, One was buckshot and the other was either a rifle or a high-powered pistol from the way the bullet looks.

    I didn't see it, but it sounded as though Yorie's gun fired after he was hit. I think probably his finger tightened on the trigger when he was hit, but I know neither he nor Scotty fired before this, and whether either of them fired afterwards, I don't know. I know that if they did, they didn't hit anyone, as I knew when I hit each one of them, myself.

    I saw a man in the clinic when we took Yorie in, who I think must have been the man in the pickup, who pulled up behind what I think was the marshals' vehicle. He had blood on his face and I think he was probably hit either by a bullet or bullets which glanced off the marshals' vehicle when I was firing at them. I didn't see him, and I know I didn't shoot at him, and I know neither Yorie nor Scotty shot at him.

    Vernon Wagner was unarmed, so I know he didn't shoot at anyone and Dave Brower didn't shoot at anyone either. My wife had nothing to do with it, other than the fact that she had rode along with us, so she could visit with a couple of the other ladies who were coming to the meeting.

    I want the world to know that I take no pleasure in the death or injury of any of these people, anymore than I felt when I was forced to bring to an end, the fighter pilots lives who forced the issue during WW II. When you come under attack by anyone, it becomes a matter of survival. I was forced. to kill an American P-51 pilot one day over Burma, when he mistook us for Japs. I let him shoot first, but he missed and I didn't. I felt bad, but I knew I had no choice.

    I would have liked nothing other to be left alone, so I could enjoy life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness, which our Forefathers willed to us, this was not to be, after I discovered that our nation had fallen into the hands of an alien people, who are referred to us as a nation within the other nations. As one of our Founding Fathers stated, "They are vampires, and vampires cannot live on vampires, they must live on Christians''. He tried to get a provision written into the U.S. Constitution that would have prevented Jews living inside the U.S. He warned his brethren that if this was not done their children would curse them in their graves, and that within 200 years, their people (the Jews) would be setting in their counting houses rubbing their hands, while our people would be slaving in the fields to support them. This has happened exactly as was predicted.

    These enemies of Christ have taken their Jewish Communist Manifesto, and incorporated it into the Statutory laws of our country, and threw our Constitution and our Christian Common Law (which is nothing other than the Laws of God as set forth in the Scriptures), into the garbage can.

    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.

    We are engaged in a struggle to the death between the people of the Kingdom of God, and the Kingdom of Satan. It started long ago, and is now best described as a struggle between Jacob & Esau.

    I would like to write more but the Spirit says this must suffice for now. Should the hand of Elijah's God continue over me, and protect me, I shall someday see this once great nation swept clean of Christ's enemies, and restored to its former greatness. If it should be the will of our Father, and the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, that it is to be, there will be no way Ahab's god and his people can stand before us. Mystery Babylon with all its greatness, will be destroyed. Take heart, my fellow Christian Americans, God has said that there will be a great shaking in the land of Israel. That started this evening. Let each of you who says that the Lord Jesus Christ, is your personal Savior, sell his garment and buy a sword, if you don't already have one, and bring his enemies before Him and slay them.

    If you've been paying tithes to the Synagogue of Satan, under the 2nd plank of the Communist Manifesto to finance your own destruction, stop right now, and tell Satan's tithing collectors, as I did many years ago, "Never again will I give aid and comfort to the enemies of Christ". To those of you who were engaged in the ambush and attack on us and were spared, thank God you have a chance to remove your support for the Anti-Christs who rule our nation.

    To those of you who have been supporting the Edicts and Commands of the Great Whore — Stop now and come out of her, as her time is getting short and when the hour of her judgment comes, that you be not judged with her.

    I must cease now, and move on. If it should be the will of the Father that I have more to do for him, He will protect me, and no devise whatever that is used against me will succeed. To my wife Joan, who has been with me for so long, I know this will be a hard and painful experience; however, remember the prophecy will be fulfilled, and you have now been a witness to some of it. Remember I love you as much today as I did when I first saw you more than 50 years ago. Put your trust in God, and whether I live or die, He will be with you to end of your days.

   To my son Yorie and my dear friend Scotty -- you both displayed the qualities of first rate Soldiers of Jesus Christ. May God bless all of you.

    I must now depart -- I have no idea where I'm going, but after some more prayer, I will go where the Lord leads me, and either live to carry on the fight, or die if that be the case, and for the present at least, I bid you all good-bye.

/s/ Gordon Kahl, Christian Patriot
GORDON KAHL CHRONOLOGICAL INVENTORY OF LIFE EVENTS:

CHILDHOOD:

GORDON WENDAL KAHL b. January 8th, 1920 (son of Fred & Edna Kahl)

+ Oldest of 5 kids.

+ MUSICAL; Took piano lessons as a kid & quit. Played by ear. (Rebel pattern)

+ Installed Wind-generated electricity on farm in '30s.

+ Put headlights on Tractor (excellent mechanic)

+ Loved to Hunt

+ Liked to tease his sisters/practical jokes.

+ Graduated H.S. 1938

+ Went to Govt. CCC Program, 6 mons. in Montana.

+ Met Joan when she was 13. He was 20. (1940)
Managed Heaton Lumber Co.

+ Lost his appendix in his teens just prior to WWII.

WORLD WAR II:

+ Tried to enlist, flunked physical. (Appendix? or Heart?) Passed his physical the second time, right after Pearl Harbor.

+ Joined Army Air Corp., Feb 1, 1942. Started pilot school, but couldn't wait to get to action, quit and became a tail-gunner and flight engineer on B25J Bomber.

+ Wounded by landmine in Africa. (shrapnel in hip) Refused to quit flying.

+ Flew in all 3 Theatres of War, Africa, Europe, Indochina.

+ Shot down confused American plane.

+ Wounded again, Shrapnel in jaw from exploding ammunition.

+ Flew 57 bombing missions.

+ Credited w/shooting down 10 enemy planes.

+ 19 MEDALS = 9 Battle Stars, 4 Bronze Stars, Silver Star, 2 Air Medals, 2 Purple Hearts and a Presidential Unit Citation.

POST WAR:

+ Married Joan January 6, 1945. (She was a Catholic)

+ GK gave Joan a 20-guage shotgun for a wedding gift.

+ They bought 160 acres of farm from GKs uncle, adj. to parents farm.

+ Went to College, dropped out because teacher was a communist. He didn't see why you had to learn other subjects than what you wanted.

+ Had Six kids:
1) Linda b. Oct.1947.
2) Lorna b. June 7, 1951
3) Lonnie b. June 7, 1958
4) Yorie b. August 12, 1959 (Named after a dead war buddy)
5) Fred Von b. Oct. 1960
6) Loreen b. 1963

+ Gordon tried govt. farm training program. Quit, because they wanted him to go in debt, buying a bunch of equipment & dairy barns.

+ Joined Farm Subsidy Program. Dropped out cause he could make more planting the crop than having the govt. pay him not to plant it.

+ GK felt the US Govt. had changed since he went to war. The give-away programs. Discovered Pearl Harbor was rigged.

+ Joined the Mormon Church (1955), got his Mother to join, he quit several years later because they were Mason-like.

+ Joined the John Birch Society. But, quit.

+ 1963 "They took all the silver and gold out of our money" 1963 Kennedy assassination & Loreen born.

+ Had to travel in the winters to warm climates for work to make ends meet w/farm. Didn't believe in going in debt. Los Angeles became to crowded. Went to Texas.

+ 1965 GK went to work for Toots.

+ GK's mother died in 1967. It was around this period that GK was packing up and moving out of the country or to some caves in Idaho.

+ Joined the Christian Constitutional Party (w/Dr. Clarence Martin) (1968+)

+ Sent a letter to the IRS in 1968 saying he was no longer paying Fed Income Tax. It was after he read the book, THE CAT IN THE BAG.

POSSE / TEXAS TRIAL / PRISON

+ (apx. 1975) Joined the Posse Comitatus in Texas. Became the state co- ordinator.

+ FBI-FOIA shows the FBI started investigating GK in 1975.

+ Yori gets busted for changing license tags. (this ties in w/local police chief's testimony in Tax trial)

+ (apx. 1976) Went on TV in Texas. (w/W.M. Rinehart) Said Taxes are illegal.

+ Gordon Forms his own church.

+ IRS indicted GK. (Information filed 11/16/76, Failure to file for 1973 for $9,719.90 & 1974 for $11,950.38)

+ Gordon claims "Selective Prosecution"

+ Went on Trial and lost. (Guilty Verdict April 14, 1977)

+ Psychiatric Exam. (April 27, 1977) by Dr. H.B. Fain @Springfield Medical Center (72 days)

+ Rinehart dies (12/10/77)in prison. Gordon gives Eulogy@funeral.

+ Lost appeal. (11/16/78) Court wouldn't appt. attny. (United Tax Protesters Union didn't pay his attnys. fees as promised)

+ Spent 9 months in prison (Feb. 1 to Aug. 2, 1979) & put on 5 years probation.

PROBATION PERIOD

+ Gordon writes "Rip Van Winkle" letter to editor (re: Feb. 7, 1980 article)

+ Violated terms of probation by not filing (April 15, 1980)

+ SUMMONS (July 2, 1980) Issued for him to appear in TX court.

+ MOTION FOR REVOCATION OF PROBATION (July 21, 1980)

+ GK refused to answer Summons (August 6, 1980)

+ RESCIND ORDER (9/23/80) granting U.S. Attny to withdraw its motion to revoke defendants probation. (I think the reason for the revoking of the first warrant
was that they knew they couldn't prove he was obligated to file an income tax return)

+ IRS FILES LIEN (Nov.1980) on 80 Kahl acres (Herman Widicker tries to pay it off. IRS refuses to say how much he owes)

+ REISSUE TX ARREST WARRANT ORDER (Mar. 30, '81) to show cause. (For some reason they decided to go back after him on a more general reason, "No. 7-You shall report to probation officer as ordered.")

+ BUD WARREN Meeting W/G.K. (April 1981)

+ GK featured in local NEWS Paper article. "WWIII will start!" (April 11, 1981 Harvey Herald article, 701--324-4646 re: Janine)

+ Bud Warren replaced (June 15, 1981) by Ken Muir as ND Marshal.

+ Ken Muir ROAD CREW ARREST ATTEMPT (Late June 21, '81)

+ Deputy Director John Twomey of U.S. Marshals directs Ken Muir not to expend any more time or money on misdemeanor warrant. (Early July 1981)

+ Robert Chesire ATTEMPT (sniper scope, few days off) (Apx. Summer 1981?)

+ PLANE CRASH (Sept. '81) Arrest attempt @ hospital

+ Gordon in exile in Arkansas under AKA Sam.

+ Yorie ARGUES w/ Pellet over gun (Nov. 19, 1981)

+ Lorna says she fished @ Easter (1982) in Ark w/Gordon

+ Yorie & Scott AGAIN ARGUE w/Pellet re: gun (May25,'82)

+ SCOTT FAUL (fall 1982) points gun @ Sheriff Pellet over school summons (check court testimony for date) This was Nov. 30, 1982. Nov. 1982 in Fessenden area, IRS sale of 80 acres of Kahl land. 6 men came to Sheriff Pellet's office. 2 IRS & 4 US Marshals. They informed him that they intended to serve a warrant on GK if he showed up for the sale.

+ GK files an injunction in U.S. District court to stop auction. (clerk never files the document, US Marshal takes it, see Andy M. book for document which is A USM Field Report Memo signed by Wigglesworth talking about a meeting with Judge Van Sykle, was being filed by Mike Philipps for GK)

+ Nov. 8, 1982 IRS has auction of Kahl's 80 acres. Nobody bids.

PRE-MEDINA:

+ APB (Feb. 10, 1983) put out on Rusty Kouba & Gordon Kahl & Scott Faul License number is listed as the car they're in.

+ Darrel Graf attends some Meetings w/gun in guitar case.

+ Graf warns Kapp of the dangers involved w/GK.

MEDINA ROADBLOCK:

# Beautiful Weather

# Meeting @ Doc Martin's Clinic w/ arguments about religion/races.

# Kapp drives by and sees GKs car & calls state radio which put him in touch w/Chesire,

# Chesire calls Muir. Muir calls Warren who refuses to go Wigglesworth goes with Muir. Hopson goes w/Chesire. Chesire converges from Bismarck, Muir from Fargo.

# Kapp stakes out Clinic.

* Scott & Yorie notice Kapp's stakeout.

* Graf gets call from Clinic.

* Chesire gets lost trying to find Kapp.

* Schnable gets hooked into helping Muir set up roadblock.

* Graf gets emergency crew together & orders roadblock moved out of town.

* Yorie & Gordon move cars around to out of sight side of clinic & change clothes & as the two cars leave someone drives up and gives them a warning, "They're setting you up."

* Chesire gets to Kapp just as they're leaving, Kapp gets in back of Ramcharger w/ guns.

* Chesire tells Hopson to take off his badge. (check court test)

* Discrepancy: Yori mentions the ramcharger drives by them as they're heading out of town and does a u-turn to follow them. Kapp's description doesn't mention that.

* GK & Yorie drive over hill and see roadblock almost a mile down. Yorie is watching Ramcharger rushing up behind. They get trapped in the turnaround.

* Graf stops the Lanenga car at top of Cheese Plant hill.

* Yorie runs to Powerpole. Scott runs off towards house. Wigglesworth runs off after Faul.

* Hopson moves up East ditch and tells Broer to get out of car. Broer stays with feet out door.

* Muir stays far away. Chesire radios to come in. Comes down 150 yards away. Muir & Chesire can't communicate because they're on different radio channels. Muir finally moves in about to 50 yards. moved up to 10 yards from Hopson.

* Hopson runs up out of ditch and slams gun on car roof.

* Yorie warns Dad. GK pivots towards Hopson.

* First shot rings out. Kapp says Chesire hit. GK says Yorie hit. Lanenga says it sounded like pistol shot.

* People yell, "Who fired?..." (Chesire, etc.)

* Kapp fires three shotgun blasts into Yorie.

* Kahl's version seems confused.

* Gordon fires at Ramcharger, alternating between Chesire & Kapp's side. Kapp gets injured and goes to ditch. GK describes moving & firing constantly until he gets a clear shot at Chesire and take's him out.

* Scott runs up to help Yorie.

* GK says he then shot Hopson who was rising to aim at Scott.

* Schnable shuttles from front to rear of his car, worried about Faul coming up from behind in woods. And in front constantly seeing GK aiming at him. Finally gets shot in leg and crawls into ditch. (GK in his acct. seems to confuse Schnable & Hopson)

* Kapp tries to reload and has missing finger. He runs...

* Wigglesworth is doing ostrich in woods.

* Kahl doesn't mention shooting Muir in letter. Kennelly claims Chesire shot Muir accidentally in line of GK.

* GK mentions a maintenance truck that pulls up behind Ramcharger during the 9 minute standoff. Why wasn't that guy ever used as a witness?

* Scott loads Yorie into car & buzzes him to clinic followed by GK & Joan.

* Kapp runs up to ambulance at top of hill and yells, "go kill those guys!"

POST MEDINA SHOOTOUT DAY:

* David Broer & Vernon Wagner drive home via the dirt roads. Then arrested in the middle of the night.

* Dr. Martin @ Medina Clinic treats Yorie and Hopson.

* Yorie is yelling for his Mom to take his boots off.

* Kapp is holding his bleeding hand, he yells @ Scott.

* GK comes in with gun in each hand. Doc's wife yells at him to get out with those guns.

* Doc says, we'll give Yorie one more shot and if that doesn't stop the bleeding, he's a goner. It does stop.

* Ambulance ride of Hopson and Yori to Jamestown & major surgery. Yorie loses right kidney & Gall bladder, liver shot up, cut out part of intestines, right lung grazed.

* Joan is arrested at the hospital.

* Yori's wife is refused access to Yorie. She is told he is dead.

* Gordon & Scott abandon car near Kahl farm & get supplies.

* Gordon & Scott hide in barn & Gordon writes Brown bag letter.

* Media kicks into action. TV News announces shootout.

EVENTS FOLLOWING SHOOTOUT:

* Scott Faul turns himself in on Monday. Brings in GK's Brown bag confession.

* Two reporters go thru GK's house.

* Search Warrant delayed till Tues. morning & FEDS then invade the house. Shoot the family dog.

* Yorie is interrogated coming out of anasthesia @ 3am.

* ASHLEY INVASION, Thurs. AM (Feb 17, 1983)

* Doc Martin's home & clinic searched. Guns conviscated.

* Media Blitz.

GORDON ON THE RUN:

* Gordon flies to Arkansas to escape.

* Stays w/Leonard Ginter.

* Goes and stays w/ Art Russel & daughter Karen.

* Goes back to Leonard Ginter's.

THE FARGO TRIAL:

* Case is brought to trial very rapidly.

* No bond.

* Yori tries to get a Constitutional Lawyer: Charles O'Brien, Sr., The Constitutional Christian Law Center, Box 2181, Cheyenne, Wyoming 82001
Judge denies him that right.

* David Broer tries to get Constitutional Lawyer: J. Douglas Alexander, P.O. Box 2095, Sidney, MT 59270, (406) 482-3180

* Judge Benson orders Defense Lawyers not to talk with media. Prosecutors were allowed, under the premise they had to communicate with the media in regards to apprehending GK.

* Judge Benson refuses to recuse himself.

* Judge refused change of venue.

* Judge Benson refused to allow the defense lawyers to ask the prospective jurors questions (Voire dire)

* Joan is coerced into going on TV and pleading for Gordon to surrender.

* Lynn Crooks promises Scott Faul he can take a polygraph and use it in the trial, if he talks with the FBI about where GK might be. They refused to honor that written commitment and the Judge backed Crooks.

* Fed. Prosecutor Lynn Crooks failed to disclose the degree of friendship of relationship between himself and juror August Pankow. Their family were friends and they grew up together in the small farming community of Hankinson, ND (pop. 500). A total of three juror ended up being from Hankinson.

* The foreman of the jury was playing cards with Vernon Wagner's brother on the night of the shootout. Didn't disclose that relationship in voire dire.

* VERN Wagner cuts plea bargain deal. (says in tele interview that the FBI offered to set him up with a new identity and job, relocate, etc.)

* Judge allows Yorie's 3am confession into evidence.

* Judge disallows GK's brown bag description of what went on at the shootout. Govt. handwriting experts confirm it's GK.

* Judge allows the widows to testify.

* Judge allows graphic photos of the dead men into evidence.

* Somebody distributes GK's letter to people around the country (to farmers, posse comitatus)

* Jim Wickstrom, self-proclaimed leader of Posse Comitatus jumps on the PR bandwagon and milks it. Claims he's going to help negotiate bringing GK in.

* Press headlines Faul executing Chesire / Ballistics shows
he didn't.

* Yorie's .45 shows up during closing arguments. Seems they had the tip called in a few days earlier, but the feds didn't follow up on it.

* Judge won't allow the defense attorney's to talk about the gun and the Judge just allows Ramlo, (Joan's Attorney) to mention it in his closing argument.

* Why didn't the lawyer's set up a self-defense approach.

* When the prosecutors played the police radio tapes at the end of the trial, why didn't the defense lawyers examine the radio tapes preceding Medina, i.e. the communications between Muir and Chesire as they were approaching Medina from opposite directions? (Lynn Crooks has a spliced tape)

* US Marshals play softball w/Jury. Wigglesworth involved w/Jury.

MANHUNT FOR GORDON KAHL:

* Friends of Gordon get rousted by FBI around country. (Toots, Roberta Stagg, Mark Stagg, Widicker's, etc.)

* Stays w/Ginters

* Goes to Art Russel's & lives w/Karen & kids.

* Gordon has dinner with Rev. Ed. Udey.

* Karen the Squealer goes to FBI, for $25,000 reward.

* FBI flies over Ginters.

* Sat. May 28, 1983 GUILTY VERDICT COMES IN AT TRIAL.

* Gordon knows they're close and he stays put.

* Friday June 3, 1983...Mixed law enforcement posse (Feds, state, county, locals) moved out to arrest GK.

DEATH OF GORDON KAHL:

* Gordon, Leonard & Norma have beans & franks for dinner w/greenbeans.

* Leonard gets antsy and says he's going fishing. He goes out and gets in his car with fishing pole and rifle. Gets stopped as he's going up the hill out drive.

* They take him to corner of garage and tell him to call out his wife. Leonard yells, "Norma, come on out here, the FBI wants to talk with you!"

* Norma says she heard Leonard yell, but couldn't tell what he was saying, so she went outside & was grabbed by Sheriff Gene Matthews who turned her over to Blasingame.

* Sheriff Matthews rushed in followed by US Marshal Jim Hall & St. Trooper Ed Fitzpatrick.

GOVT. STORY IS THAT:

* Shots fired (two sounding like one simultaneous) and Sheriff Gene Matthews (.41 magnum, Smith & Wesson Model 57 w/4" barrel) and GK killed each other in a face to face gunfight.

* Fitzpatrick rushed outside and blindly emptied his shotgun through the window into the general vicinity of the kitchen. Hitting both GK and the Sheriff.

* US Marshal Jim Hall purportedly carried the wounded Sheriff out to garage where he dumped him, because he was too heavy.

* Surrounding law enforcement then open-fired on the house with thousands of rounds.

* Sheriff Gene Matthews could be heard crying for help from garage but they wouldn't stop shooting.

* 15 minutes later Sheriff Matthews staggered outside and collapsed, dead.

* The Govt. still didn't know if GK was dead, so they shot teargas into house, at which time the house caught fire and burned for several hours.

* They then retrieved the body and Tom Lee took the bullet out of head and gave it to another officer.

* CORONER FAHMY MALEK said he took the bullet out of GK's head. Confirmed through dental records it was Kahl.

* The FBI stated in a memo acquired thru FOIA that they decided not to do a crime scene investigation because of feared hostilities from the locals.

BASIC END OF GOVT. VERSION OF GK DEATH.

POST GORDON KAHL ARKANSAS DEATH EVENTS:

* Norma & Leonard Ginter, Rev. Ed Udey & wife, and Art Russell are all put on trial for harboring GK.

* NY-Times reporter finds Gk's foot in ruins two weeks after the fact.

* Rev. Udey shook his hand and had GK to dinner and he ended up doing 3 years.

* Leonard Ginter does 4 years. Norma gets off. Art Russell gets probation.

* Art's daughter Karen, gets placed in a fed. witness protection/relocation program. She's somewhere in VA.

* Medical Examiner Fahmy Malek loses GK's body parts.

* Local cop testifies at harboring trial that the FBI ordered him to pour diesel fuel down chimney and set it on fire.

* Police photos of the crime scene are lost.

* Police radio tapes are lost that might have the message going out that they thought they'd killed Bill Wade ( the owner of the farmland) instead of Gk.

* Houston Fire Dept. Arson Investigator is hired to inspect death site. He finds evidence that diesel fuel was splattered inside of house. Driven out of County by the County prosecutor

* Jack McLamb, retired Phoenix Police officer brings in group of ten retired police officers and does an independent investigation. The government refuses to convene a grand jury.

* McLamb spends seven years raising money to pay for the exhumation of GK's body to prove the govt. covered up what really happened to GK.

 THE  UNCENSORED  GORDON  KAHL  STORY

    In 1968, Tax Protester Gordon Kahl stopped filing IRS 1040 Income Tax Returns. For 9 years thereafter, the IRS ignored him, but in 1977 after Gordon Kahl spoke on an evening radio talk show regarding the illicitness of the income tax, some 250 phone calls would come into the radio station over the next two days; either supporting Kahl in some aspect, or pledging never to file another tax return.

    And with that, the IRS came down on Kahl like a ton of bricks. They quickly assembled a case against him and two weeks later threw a criminal prosecution against him for violating Title 26, Section 7203 ["Willful Failure to File"]. Gordon Kahl was a low-income farmer not even meeting minimal statutory standards for threshold income levels achieved before being required to file 1040s, but that was not about to stop the IRS, who is good at changing the facts by creating facts.

    Convicted and incarcerated, when out of Leavenworth Federal Penitentiary on parole, Kahl left the Texas judicial district he was confined to by claiming that some aspect of the Restriction Orders was defective. He soon moved to North Dakota -- and there, he met his fate. A criminal Summons issued from a Federal Court in Midland, Texas was served on Gordon Kahl on August 8, 1980, charging him with a misdemeanor. Gordon Kahl responded by informing the Court that he would not be appearing, and the matter was allowed to be deferred until March 31, 1982, when the Justice Department obtained a Federal Arrest Warrant citing his parole violation.

    Then, that Warrant was held up again until July 26, 1982, some 16 months later, when it was sent to the U.S. Marshals Office in Fargo, North Dakota on February 13, 1983. The United States Marshals and the Federal Court in Texas knew of his whereabouts in North Dakota at all times. After a two and one half year delay in the case, the fact that there was a "problem" controlling the prosecution of the case is self-evident.

    If that chronology had been published in the New York Times in the context of discussing some other unfortunate incident that had happened, it would be referred to, very defensively of the Government of course, as mere "bureaucratic bungling," in an attempt to discredit the obvious interposition of the "Lateness of the Hour" operating against the Government to bar the legitimacy of their management of the case.

    Once again Gordon Kahl had attracted the attention of the United States Government. With the personality known as Ronald Reagan acquiescing indifferently as President, and with William French Smith sitting as Attorney General, the word came down the pipeline to get rid of Gordon Kahl, and the stage was set for the kind of confrontation the Feds wanted.

    A violent attack was planned against Gordon Kahl at his farmhouse, and it was going to be well publicized. The attack would be in the form of a roadblock, it would be in the evening hours, and it would occur in a remote rural area. The timing of the attack in February of 1983 was selected to coincide with the Trials of other related criminal prosecutions then going on that would be favorably tipped towards the Government, as the Juries were exposed to what would be surfacing visibly on the news as the Gordon Kahl "incident."

    From his farm in Heaton, North Dakota, both Gordon Kahl, along with his neighbors, and the Chief of Police of Medina, North Dakota, Darrell Graff, all had received several advanced notices that the United States Marshals were planning a very unpleasant reception for Gordon Kahl, and in the case of Darrell Graff, he was told bluntly to stay out of it.

    Rather than meet his adversaries face-to-face to settle the grievance at that lower level, Gordon Kahl improvidently ignored the gathering storm and tossed aside the Warrant, thus giving his adversaries the benefit of intensifying the impending confrontation into an elevated status -- a level that originates out of the barrel of a gun, where they were quite likely to prevail. Although that did not give the United States Marshals the right to come out first and shoot Kahl, it does however require that other people in difficult positions with juristic authorities facing contemplated extermination itself, should not replicate Gordon Kahl's modus operandi.

    On the 14th of February, 1983, Gordon Kahl, accompanied by his wife and son Yori, left a meeting in a commercial Medina, North Dakota district and headed home. Gordon Kahl was under surveillance and he knew it. He could have been picked up at the meeting, but the Feds had a surprise for him and wanted the remoteness of a rural environment. His son Yori detected something adverse and dangerous in the air, and so he took his father's jacket and cap an wore those on himself on the ride home that afternoon.

    Not far from his farmhouse a roadblock had been set up by U.S. Marshal Kenneth Muir. It was a very unusual roadblock in that it had an ambulance and fire truck waiting there. Yes, there was going to be some trouble. The Marshal had not come to arrest, but to murder. Bringing neither the Arrest Warrant, nor any identification, Deputy Muir brought his gun and orders to terminate Gordon Kahl.

    Arriving at the roadblock, Gordon's son, Yori Kahl, fled the pickup truck and ran to a nearby telephone pole for cover. Thinking that Yori was his dad Gordon, Marshal Muir opened the shooting by firing several shots at Yori. Yori did not fall to the ground quick enough to satisfy the killer Marshal, so Marshal Muir kept on shooting until Yori fell. After spending a while at the hospital, Yori Kahl would actually survive to be charged with murder, and later convicted by a jury in a Star Chamber that was highly pressured by the U.S. Marshals and had numerous other fatal irregularities that would never survive reversal on appeal.

    Back at the evening roadblock, after seeing his own son cut down by Marshal Muir, Gordon Kahl grabbed a gun and let Marshal Muir have it, killing him and Deputy Marshal Robert Cheshire. Injured was Deputy Marshal James Hopson. Staying in the background, looking at all of this shooting and profanity being thrown about, was Chief Darrell Graff of the Medina Police Department, who was told in advance that Kahl was going to buy the farm, and that he was to stay out of it. Gordon went over to the telephone pole, dragged his son Yori, white with blood loss and bleeding profusely, over to an unmarked police car, drove him to a hospital back in Medina, and then as a mysterious fog quickly settled in on the Fargo countryside, Gordon Kahl sped away into the night.

    Soon, a swarm of military storm troopers descended on Fargo, in military clothing and using military trucks [see Time Magazine ["Dakota Dragnet"], page 25 (February 28, 1983)]. They were on search and destroy orders. Gordon Kahl was immediately placed on the FBI's ten most wanted list, and was the subject of the most intensive fugitive search in the history of the FBI. It was a massive operation.

    A tight clampdown was put out in North Dakota, accompanied with extensive random stops of motor vehicles, but nothing ever turned up. For Gordon Kahl, thousands of armed forces were called into search the surrounding North Dakota countryside. Every available private bounty hunter known to the FBI was hired and put on the case, but fugitive Gordon Kahl slipped through it all.

    In comparison to what they can do when they feel like it, it is worthwhile noting how J. Edgar Hoover and the FBI never showed any such interest in capturing unknown fleeing killers when President Kennedy was shot in Dallas. No roadblocks, no dragnets, no manhunts, no searching -- nothing but CIA agents carrying Secret Service credentials restraining people from approaching the grassy knoll for about 10 minutes.

   For the next three months, Gordon Kahl had found a home with some friends, Mr. and Mrs. Ginter, and a Mr. Russell, who kept moving him quietly from house to house. It was rather obvious to anyone that if he was ever found, he would be killed immediately.

   In time, Mr. Russell's daughter, Karen Russell Robertson, noticed that her father was hiding Gordon Kahl. Possessed with First Person evidence ["I saw...," "I heard..."], she in turn went to the FBI and spilled the beans. She was given $25,000 and the promise of immunity from prosecution [see the New York Times ["Arkansans Guilty in Tax Rebel Case"], page A19 (October 19, 1983)].

    The rural house where Gordon Kahl was staying was placed under FBI surveillance; but the results were inconclusive. On the morning of June 4th, a special FBI team of animals and savage killers [which is no exaggeration], known as the Delta Force, left their home base on Washington, D.C. and flew into Lawrence County, Arkansas on a private FBI jet. There, they were met by local FBI agents, other FBI agents, the Arkansas State Police, the Sheriff of Lawrence County, Arkansas, his deputies, and a confluence of United States Marshals assembled from across the country. Several Marshals invited to the Kahl execution operation arrived too late and missed it.

    Later in the afternoon, it all began. The quiet, isolated and remote house was cordoned off, roadblocks were set up, and all without Gordon Kahl detecting anything amiss. Soon that afternoon, Mr. Ginter left the house alone and he was stopped down the road. He claimed his wife, Norma Ginter, was in the house alone. Now, the house where Gordon Kahl was living was more closely surrounded, and Sheriff Gene Matthews went to the front door to remove Mrs. Ginter from the scene.

    With her out of the way, the FBI started open shooting, and saturated the house with bullets; but the earth shelter house was made with concrete walls and Gordon Kahl survived through it all without a scratch. The 36 year old local Sheriff, Gene Matthews, was killed incidental to the FBI siege on the Gordon Kahl hideout.

    After a while, as the firing stopped, the FBI cordoned off the house for themselves while the Delta Force animals converged on the house like starved panthers going for a piece of meat. They found Gordon Kahl alive and well inside the home, hiding behind the refrigerator. He was taken to the living room, thrown on the floor, and was worked over with the butt end of their rifles. While numerous bones were being fractured and his teeth were being smashed in, other members of Delta Force went on a rampage in the house, smashing pictures and the television set, over-turning furniture, a copier, and taking a fireman's axe and chopping up a bookshelf.

    While Gordon Kahl was pinned to the floor by the six to eight Delta Force panthers, still under attack from the gun butts, the FBI agent with the fireman's axe turned to Gordon Kahl himself and chopped off his hand. Then he went around and chopped off Gordon Kahl's other hand, and then both of his feet were severed. While screaming with pain and with blood gushing out profusely over the floor where his hands and feet used to be, Gordon Kahl was shot in the head at close range, killing him.

    A local Deputy Sheriff was given the honor of removing the bullet from Gordon Kahl's head [later that week, the deputy would tell a neighbor that he had not eaten in three days]. When local people viewed Gordon Kahl's dismembered body, they became nauseous and sick, stating that the man they just hacked apart was not Gordon Kahl, but Mr. William Wade, who was the owner of the land and resembled Gordon Kahl closely in age and appearance, and was well known to the Sheriff and others personally.

    There was confusion; immediately there was trouble. A massive series of roadblocks were erected again, and the thorough searching of all automobiles over a wide radius was started; it was believed that Gordon Kahl had slipped out once again.

   Local residents monitoring the operation on the police radio band heard a call made for some gasoline to be delivered to the house. Now that the murder of Gordon Kahl had been botched, the Feds were going to cover their own tracks and torch the place. The Delta Force animals left the place with extensive blood stains covering their clothes and took the private FBI jet back to Washington.

    The roadblocks were called off when Mr. Wade, the owner of the land, showed up in town alive and well. The body of Sheriff Matthews was taken to a local hospital, while later in the evening after the fire the Feds had set had died down, the charred body of Gordon Kahl was taken to the local coroner. The dismembered body was later identified as being that of Gordon Kahl. But the bodies and the house were only lightly charred, since the house was fabricated from cast concrete walls and the fire never got that intense. The corpse identified as being Gordon Kahl's was missing teeth, hands, and feet, had a bullet hole in the head (without a bullet), and was extensively covered with tissue bruises and fractured bones. It was very shocking and disgusting, as people who saw photographs of Gordon Kahl's charred remains, taken by the coroner, reported a stark and terrified look on his charred face; he had died in extreme screaming violently from the pain. They had gotten their man.

    Gordon Kahl was later buried with military honors -- for whatever that meant. His wife back in North Dakota received several mean and ugly death threats from the Feds to keep quite or be murdered herself. Meanwhile, the rest of the country went on like Alice strolling through Wonderland; believing that all was well and that the Federal Government is your trusted friend, and that some little Tax Protester over there got what he deserved.

    Back in Arkansas, while shifting through the smoldering ruins in the kitchen, a reporter for the New York Times accompanied by Ray Wade, the land owner's son, found Gordon Kahl's left foot that had been severed off by the axe. It was taken to the local coroner Dr. Fahmy Malak in Little Rock, confirmed as being Gordon Kahl's sliced off foot. However, this was news not fit to emphasize, and the reporter's story was blurred over when printed [see New York Times ["Gunfight Shatters Tranquility of Arkansas Hills"], page 14 (July 3, 1983)].

    Mr. and Mrs. Ginter, who had been harboring Gordon Kahl, were charged not only with aiding and abetting a fugitive, but also were fraudulently charged with the murder of Sheriff Matthews. At Trial, the only evidence introduced against them, outside of the background story, was first person evidence from Art Russell's daughter, Karen Russell Robertson, who reported to the Jury what she had seen her father do. And with that eyewitness evidence, the Ginters and Art Russell were convicted and sentenced to protracted incarceration in a Federal Penitentiary [see New York Times ["Arkansans Guilty in Tax Rebel Case"], page A19 (October 19, 1983)].

    In conclusion, note that a large volume of the continuous reporting that the New York Times and Time Magazine did on the story from February through October, was based, as usual, on the mere replication of whatever the FBI and wire services had told them, as the Government Billboards that they are -- and so their reporting is highly edited, inaccurate, and distorted news. Be advised that there are numerous inconsistencies in those articles between what they have reported [as the Feds are quite good at changing the facts], and what is reported herein. Until their own reporter J.C. Barden actually went to the torched house to dig at facts for himself on the case, some of the real facts never surfaced, and his reported factual details considerably change the character and color of the savage FBI animal attack on Gordon Kahl.

    Incidentally, Mr. Ray Wade, who found Gordon Kahl's foot, was also threatened with being killed himself if he did not remain silent, as were other local residents who also saw different aspects of the bloody reign of FBI terror that went on during that fateful day -- as the FBI once again allowed itself to be defiled by acting ministerially, without and wanting jurisdiction, on behalf of those presiding in Washington who had handed down the extermination orders.