Blood and Politics (98 page)

  
8.
“What We Believe,”
CSA Journal
7, “We believe that God is raising up a remnant . . . who will rule and reign as his Elect.”

  
9.
J. William Buford, Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms, “Affidavit,” April 3, 1985, p. 3.

10.
Joe Scales, “A Fortress in Arkansas Mines Weapons Bunkers Found at Camp: Covenant Group’s Arsenal Extensive,”
The Kansas City Star
, April 24, 1985.

11.
“Ozark Survivalists Train for Chaos,” Associated Press, November 24, 1981.

12.
“Survivalist Tied to Oklahoma Murder,” Associated Press, April 25, 1985; Scales, “A Fortress in Arkansas.”

13.
“Alliance Member Gerhard Stalhut (with rifle) gives instructions in house to house combat,” photo with cutline,
National Alliance Bulletin
, July 1982. “Survivalism: Response to Racial Chaos,”
National Vanguard
83 (August 1981), pp. 2, 4, 12.

14.
James Ellison attended seminary in Illinois and later became a Church of Christ minister in San Antonio, Texas.

15.
James Ellison, “Video Interview by U.S. Marshals Service District of Columbia,” transcript, July 24, 1995; Kerry Noble,
Tabernacle of Hate: Why They Bombed Oklahoma City
(Prescott, Ont., Canada: Voyageur Publishing, 1998), pp. 25–66 (Noble was the number-two person after Ellison).

16.
William Samuel Thomas, “Interview with Jack Knox FBI et al.,” Sebastian County Jail, May 3, 1985; ATF Special Agents Sheila Stephens and Joe Long, “Summation of Interview,” April 26, 1985 (interviewed eighteen CSA members and six former members).

17.
Bruce Gibson (former CSA member) interviewed by Sgt. Gene Irby, Arkansas State Police, Jack Knox, FBI, Bill Hobbs, FBI, May 7, 1985 (cites Ellison taking two wives); James Ellison, “Transcript of testimony,”
United States v. Robert E. Miles et al.
, 87-20008, pp. 404–406.

18.
Evelyn Rich, communication to Center for Democratic Renewal, n.d., “Duke . . . starts talking about the Bhagwan. Duke and Warner very into the Bhagwan. He has the right ideas because he does not waste his time on the poor. . . . Warner and Duke try to figure out how they can cash in on the Bhagwan” (notes from February 1986 IHR conference in Culver City, California).

19.
James Ellison, “Transcript of testimony,” 87-20008, pp. 584–90.

20.
Singer and Moore, “Of Families, ‘Supremacy’ and Survival.”

21.
“Christian Patriots Discuss Survival in a Time of Crisis,”
The Spotlight
, October 29, 1979; Christian-Patriots Defense League, “Survival Conference and Citizens Emergency Defense System Seminar at Mo-Ark Camp near Licking, Missouri,” invitation and registration packet, n.d.; Monte Plott, “Right-Wing Militancy Growing,”
St. Louis Post-Dispatch
, January 27, 1981.

22.
Pete Miller, “U.S. Citizens Must Learn How to Protect Themselves” and “Gathering by Patriotic Survivalists,”
The Spotlight
, August 30, 1982, p. 13; included photograph of two men posed while dressed in camouflage (with CSA patches) and sighting their rifles.

23.
“Dear Paul Revere Club Member,” newsletter, November 1982, p. 2 (Paul Revere Club was an arm of the Christian-Patriots Defense League).

24.
Jim East, “Veil of Seclusion Anonymity Pierced,”
The Tulsa Tribune
, April 2, 1985; Judy Thomas, “We Are Not Dangerous, Leader of Separatists Says,”
The Kansas City Star
, March 17, 1996; author, notes from visit to Elohim City, March 1996; Robert Millar, interview with author and James Ridgeway, March 1996.

25.
“Survivalism: Response to Racial Chaos,”
National Vanguard
83 (August 1981).

26.
Ibid.

27.
Contra James Coates, who describes William Pierce as “another charismatic denizen of the Survivalist Right,”
Armed and Dangerous
, p. 48.

28.
“A Search for Values Toward a White Ethic,”
National Vanguard
89 (August 1982): 13–18 (quote on p. 13).

29.
Ibid.

30.
FBI PG 100A-18698, National Alliance aka Cosmotheist Community, Mill Point, Pocahontas County, West Virginia, May 1, 1987 ([Pierce] “is utilizing the Cosmotheist Church in effort to gain tax exempt status”); the Church apparently won federal and state tax-exempt status for all of his land in West Virginia, but then lost state exempt status except for 60 acres; William Pierce, “Investment of Powers of Trusteeship,” for an unincorporated church, filed April 7, 1986.

31.
“A Search for Values Toward a White Ethic,” p. 13.

8. Nation and Race: Aryan Nations, Nehemiah Township, and Gordon Kahl

  
1.
“Nehemiah Township Charter and Common Law Contract,” notarized July 11, 1982, filed State of Idaho County of Kootenai, July 12, 1982; signatories included Richard Butler, Thom Robb, Edward Arlt, Roy B. Mansker, and Robert E. Miles.

  
2.
Paul Arras, “Danger from the Extreme Right,” April 9, 2001, web.syr.edu/~paaras/right.html.

  
3.
“Nehemiah Township Charter and Common Law Contract,” p. 4, no. 22; Daniel Levitas,
The Terrorist Next Door: The Militia Movement and the Radical Right
(New York: Thomas Dunne Books, 2002), p. 349.

  
4.
“Announcing the Special Session Aryan Nations Congress,” July 1986, agenda listing the variety of topics to be discussed; Floyd Cochran, interview with author, August 19–20, 1992, Kansas City, Missouri (Cochran had previously been an Aryan Nations officer and lived in the bunkhouse and worked in the offices); the first Aryan Nations Congress was in Hays, Kansas, on April 11, 12, and 13, 1980, per “Congress of Aryan Nationalists” brochure and Howard Richards, letter to the Hays newspaper, n.d., describing his “recording service” for the meeting.

  
5.
Author, visit to Aryan Nations campground site with Kootenai County Undersheriff Larry Broadbent, 1986.

  
6.
Floyd Cochran, interview with author, August 19–20, 1992, Kansas City, Missouri.

  
7.
“Announcing the Special Session Aryan Nations Congress,” July 1986, agenda listing the variety of topics to be discussed; “Announcing the Special Session Aryan Nations Congress,” July 1987, agenda listing nine speakers with eight organizational affiliations; Hylah Jacques, reporting on the 1986 congress, August 1986.

  
8.
Levitas,
The Terrorist Next Door
, pp. 7–8 (for origin of Posse), pp. 10–20 (Gale descended from Jewish parentage).

  
9.
Levitas,
The Terrorist Next Door
, pp. 108–12, pp. 299–300; Leonard Zeskind (unsigned), “Background Report on Racist and Anti-Semitic Organizational Intervention in the Farm Protest Movement,” n.d., Center for Democratic Renewal.

10.
FBI MI 157-2768, “Sheriff’s Posse Comitatus,” Milwaukee, October 4, 1974; FBI 157-33487-32 (and other files in the 157-33487 series), “Sheriff’s Posse Comitatus Marathon County Chapter Extremist Matters,” December 19, 1974, FBI 157-33487.

11.
Levitas,
The Terrorist Next Door,
127–29 (emergence of Wickstrom), pp. 168–242 (shift to the Farm Belt Midwest).

12.
Kevin Ristau and Mark Ritchie, “The Farm Crisis: History and Analysis,”
Shmate: A Journal of Progressive Jewish Thought
16 (Fall 1986): 10–20; “Crisis in Agriculture,”
www.nebraskastudies.org/1000/stories/1001_0100.html
.

13.
Osha Gray Davidson,
Broken Heartland: The Rise of America’s Rural Ghetto
(New York: The Free Press, 1990), p. 17; U.S. Congress, Senate Committee on Governmental Affairs, Subcommittee on Intergovernmental Relations, 1986, “Governing the Heartland: Can Rural Communities Survive the Farm Crisis?” 99th Congress, 2nd Session, Draft Committee Print.

14.
“Responding to the Rural Radical Right,”
When Hate Groups Come to Town: A Handbook of Community Responses
rev. 2nd ed. (Center for Democratic Renewal, 1992), pp. 118–27.

15.
Prairiefire Rural Action, “Rural Crisis Fact Sheet,” n.d., prepared for the United Church Board for Homeland Ministries.

16.
Levitas,
The Terrorist Next Door
, see in particular pp. 168–82, pp. 210–16.

17.
James Wickstrom,
The American Farmer: 20th Century Slave
, n.d., Wisconsin Posse Comitatus; James Wickstrom,
Posse Noose Report
, March 1981; Donald E. Zabawa, “Statement,” witnessed by KBI agents, May 23, 1984; Daniel Resnick, “Commission Urges FCC to Deny KTTL-FM License Renewal Request,”
The Docket
14, Newsletter of the Kansas Commission on Civil Rights (Summer, Fall 1983); William Potter Gale, “Remarks Advocating Violence,” transcript compiled from National Identity Broadcast on station KTTLFM, Exhibit 6.

18.
Kansas Bureau of Investigation, “Testimony of Thomas E. Kelly, Director, Before House Judiciary Committee,” February 21, 1983; Anonymous, “Report,” K.B.I. Ref. no. 99-55879, March 29, 1982; Roger Verdon, “Weskan Training School Taught ‘Killer Team’ Tactics?”
The Salina Journal
, February 20, 1983.

19.
William R. Ritz, “Farm Militants Study Bomb-Making,”
The Denver Post
, February 13, 1983 (cites Eugene Schroder as the organizer); author, notes on Schroder presentation, “Mid-America Constitution Conference, America 96,” June 9, 1996; “Grand Jury Convenes in Wichita, Kansas,”
American Agriculture Movement Newsletter
1, no. 1 (July 1995), (published by a group that claims to be the AAM office in Campo, Colorado); Carrie Fleider, “Minister of Propaganda: Eugene Schroder is a tireless promoter of common-law court theories,”
Intelligence Report
, Spring 1997, pp. 15–17; Thomas A. Burzynski, “Is the Constitution Suspended?,”
The New American
, February 5, 1996 (critique of Schroder from a Birch Society perspective).

20.
William R. Ritz, “Farm Movement Sows Bitter Crop,” “56 Received Instruction on Warfare,”
Denver Post
, February 13, 1983.

21.
Gordon Kahl, “I Gordon Kahl,” handwritten sixteen-page letter, n.d.; this letter was typed and distributed by Aryan Nations with a “commendation” submitted from Nathan Bedford Forrest [Louis Beam], February 25, 1983; “Self-Described Christian Patriot Tells Story the Establishment Media Ignored,”
The Spotlight
, June 20, 1983.

22.
James Corcoran,
Bitter Harvest: Gordon Kahl and the Posse Comitatus, Murder in the Heartland
(New York: Viking Penguin, 1990), pp. 97–100.

23.
Kahl, “I Gordon Kahl”; Corcoran,
Bitter Harvest
, p. 100.

24.
Yorie Kahl, interview transcript beginning: “I’m in Lewisberg Penitentiary,”
www.taoslandandfilm.com/Yorie.html
.

9. Christian Patriots After Gordon Kahl

  
1.
Author, notes and photos from personal observation of rally; “Datebook,”
The Spotlight
, August 15, 1983, p. 21, advertisement for Gordon Kahl Memorial Arts and Crafts Festival; Joseph B. Verrengia, “Kansas Rally a Tribute to Slain Tax Protestor,”
The Kansas City Times
, August 21, 1983; Jake Thompson, “Organizers of Kahl Rally See Themselves as Patriots,”
The Kansas City Times
, August 18, 1983.

  
2.
RGB (Richard Butler), “Announcement of Gordon Kahl Booklet,” n.d., distributed on Aryan Nations letterhead; Len Martin, talk at Cheney Lake rally.

  
3.
Ibid.

  
4.
Author, notes and photos from rally, including “Memo on the Gordon Kahl Memorial Rally.”

  
5.
“Real Owners of Federal Reserve,” Shive handout, no author, n.d. Handouts also included flyers for “Farmers Liberation Army,” Halstead, Kansas.

  
6.
Author, notes and photos from rally.

  
7.
Ibid.

  
8.
Ibid. Libby also handed out flyers for his pamphlet, with a Wichita postal box as a contact address.

  
9.
Chief Justice Roger Brooke Taney,
Opinion of the Court in Dred Scott, Plaintiff in Error v. John F. A. Sandford
; Paul Finkleman,
Dred Scott v. Sandford: A Brief History with Documents
(New York: Bedford Books/St. Martin’s, 1997). Judge Taney held that no black person—free or slave—could be considered a citizen of the United States.

10.
“The Illegitimacy of the 14th Amendment,”
Secessionist
no. 5, American Secessionist Project,
www.secessionist.us/secessionist_no5.htm
; “To Lose Our Sovereignty: Of the Dismantling of a Christian Nation,” Republic vs. Democracy, n.d. (“Adoption of the Fourteenth [Amendment] was secured by military occupation of the Southern States”).

11.
Levitas,
The Terrorist Next Door
.

12.
Robert W. Wangrud, “The Silent Roar,”
Behold!
2, no. 7 (July 1987); Robert W. Wangrud, “Martial Law or Law Martial,”
Behold!
5, no. 3 (March 1990); “To Lose Our Sovereignty: Of the Dismantling of a Christian Nation,” Republic vs. Democracy, n.d.

13.
“To Lose Our Sovereignty: Of the Dismantling of a Christian Nation,” Republic vs. Democracy, n.d.

14.
Russell Carollo, “A Look Back at Suspect’s Lifestyle,”
Texarkana Gazette
, November 17, 1982, reprinted July 2, 1984; Lyle McBride and Bill Webb, “Suspect in Shooting Described as Survivalist,”
Texarkana Gazette
, July 1, 1984; “Mary Snell . . . A Woman of Valor,”
The Jubilee
, May/June 1995 (Richard Wayne and Mary Jo Snell married May 31, 1948).

15.
Arkansas State Police 49-997-84, Sergeant Mike Fletcher to Lieutenant Finis Duvall, July 4, 1984, re: Richard Wayne Snell, “He was a courier for Gordon Kahl . . .”; Alert Recovery, Inc. 3R8-51, 52, 53, report by Don Thornton on August 15, 1983, invoice to Farmers First National Bank; Arkansas State Police ASP-3-A, “Investigator’s Notes,” Inv. Charles Lambert, dictated July 2, 1984 (three felony warrants from Stephenville, Texas); Arkansas State Police ASP-3-A, Inv. Russell Welch, “Interview of Suspect,” August 30, 1984.