PART 1
The snowball effect. When one thing leads to another and another and it culminates in unnecessary police action, lives taken too soon, and a follower willing to die for "the cause". If you're wondering why Ruby Ridge and The Oklahoma Bombing are included in a cults blog about Waco, just grab a coffee, sit back, and let me tell you a story. After part 2, you will fully understand why the story of Waco cannot be told without the other 2.
Ruby Ridge
Let me start by saying that anyone who reads my blogs knows that they are not just fact, but also my opinion. In the next two blogs, you will see quite a bit of my opinion come into play.
This story begins with Randy and Vicky Weaver. A couple that decided to move to their kids to the mountains of Idaho in the 1980s so that they could homeschool and live a very no fuss life. Vicky was a mother who believed that you lived by the bible. Everything the family did was based on the bible or bible teachings. Before they moved, in 1978, Vicky began to have dreams that they would live on a mountain top, and that the apocalypse was on its way. After the birth of their son, Samuel, the Weavers began selling their belongings and visited the Amish Community, to learn how to live without electricity. They bought twenty acres of land on Ruby Ridge in 1983 and began building their cabin. The property was in Boundary County, on a hillside, on Ruby Creek opposite Caribou Ridge, northwest of nearby Naples. They had no indoor plumbing, electricity, or any type of modern advancements for that time.
The Weaver's cabin abutted the land used by the Aryan Nation. The family would often attend services at their church. A church that was based off of the white race being the supreme race. On February 12, Weaver and his wife were interviewed by two FBI agents, two Secret Service agents, and the Boundary County sheriff and his chief investigator. The Secret Service had been told that Weaver was a member of Aryan Nations (an antisemitic, neo-Nazi, white supremacist terrorist organization) and that he had a large weapons cache at his residence. Weaver denied these allegations, and the government filed no charges. On three or four occasions, the Weavers had attended Aryan Nations meetings at Hayden Lake, where there was a compound for government resisters and white supremacists/separatists.
An undercover ATF agent was introduced to Randy Weaver at the World Aryan Congress.
The informant portrayed himself as a weapons dealer working with motorcycle gangs. Weaver had been invited to the meeting by Kumnick, the original target of the ATF investigation. So, let's start here. The ATF was already infiltrating the Aryan Nation over another suspect. Not Randy Weaver. Be sure to keep this in mind. It was Weaver's first time at this Congress. Over the next three years, Weaver and the informant met several times. In July 1989, Weaver invited the informant to his home to discuss forming a group to fight the "Zionist Organized Government", referring to the U.S. government. Is that true? I have no idea., what I do know is that this informant couldn't get what he needed so he decided he would go after Weaver instead. The Weaver family didn't have much money and the ATF knew that and decided to ask Randy if he would be willing to provide him with a couple of sawed-off shotguns. So now remember, the Weavers did not have much money so Randy would do odd jobs to get money that they needed. The ATF took full freaking advantage of this.
In October 1989, the ATF claimed that Weaver sold the informant two sawed-off shotguns, with the overall length of the guns shorter than the limit set by federal law. FUCKING REALLY? They just wanted to get their hands on Weaver for anything at this point. In November 1989, Weaver accused the ATF informant of being a spy for the police; Weaver later wrote he had been warned by "Rico V." The informant's handler, Herb Byerly, ordered him to have no further contact with Weaver. Eventually, FBI informant Rico Valentino outed the ATF informant to Aryan Nations security. In June 1990, Byerly (ATF) attempted to use the sawed-off shotgun charge as leverage to get Weaver to act as an informant for his investigation into Aryan Nations. So now we know what the ATF was really trying to do and that was get Randy in a position to use him. Or so they thought. Weaver refused to become a "snitch", and the ATF filed the gun charges in June 1990. The ATF alleged that Weaver was a bank robber with criminal convictions. Let me make this clear, at this time Randy Weaver had NO CHARGES on his record. They made this shit up! The 1995 Senate investigation found: "Weaver was not a suspect in any bank robberies. NO SHIT??!! A federal grand jury indicted Weaver in December 1990 for making and possessing, but not for selling, illegal weapons in October 1989. To make a large story short, Weaver was told of the charges against him, and he refused to go to court.
When the Weaver case passed from the ATF to the US Marshall Service, no one informed the marshals that the ATF had attempted to solicit Weaver as an informant. The Marshalls were brought in to capture and arrest Randy Weaver as he was now considered a fugitive from justice. Rumors were running wild at this point and law enforcement was told that Randy had his house booby trapped and that Vicky was threatening to kill all the kids if they police came on the property. Neither were true and have since been debunked.
A team of about 6 Marshalls went up to Ruby Ridge and put-up cameras near the property so that they could watch the comings and goings of the family, how many weapons they may have, and the general comings and goings. On August 21, 1992, six Marshals were sent to scout the area to determine suitable places away from the cabin to apprehend and arrest Weaver. The marshals, dressed in military camouflage, were equipped with night-vision goggles and M16 rifles. Marshall's Art Roderick, Larry Cooper, and William F. "Bill" Degan formed the reconnaissance team, while Marshalls David Hunt, Joseph Thomas, and Frank Norris formed an observation post team on the ridge north of the cabin.
At one point, Roderick threw two rocks at the Weaver cabin to test the dogs' reaction. What did they think the dog was going to do? Lay down and ask for a belly rub? Idiotic mistake number one! The action provoked the dogs and Weaver's friend, Kevin Harris, and Weaver's 14-year-old son, Samuel ("Sammy"), emerged and followed the dog "Striker" to investigate. Harris and the younger Weaver said that they were hoping the dog had noticed a game animal as the cabin was out of meat. The recon team (Roderick, Cooper, and Degan) initially retreated through the woods in radio contact with the OP team, but later took up a hidden defensive position.
Later, the OP team and the Weavers claimed the dogs were alerted to the recon team in the woods after neighbors at the foot of the mountain stated their truck. The recon team retreated through the woods out of sight of the cabin. Sammy and Harris followed Striker on foot through the woods while Randy, also on foot, took a separate logging trail; Vicki, Sara, Rachel, and baby Elisheba remained at the cabin. Randy encountered the Marshals and Roderick claimed to have yelled, "Back off! U.S. Marshal!" upon sighting Weaver, and Cooper said he had shouted, "Stop! U.S. Marshal!" or so he says. By their account, Sammy and Striker came out of the woods about a minute later. When the Marshals' position was revealed by the dog "Striker", a yellow Labrador Retriever, Marshall Roderick shot the dog dead. SMDH. Seeing this, Sammy Weaver reportedly said to the Marshals, "You've killed my dog, you son of a bitch!", and then shot in the direction of Roderick. Marshall Cooper then shot towards Sammy Weaver and Kevin Harris, who both sought cover. Harris, once finding cover behind a tree stump, then returned fire with one unaimed shot, which eventually killed Marshall William Francis "Bill" Degan. Sammy Weaver, now retreating up the hill was then shot in the back and killed by Marshall Cooper. This man shot a CHILD in his back when he was running up a hill. He was no danger to you at that point! WHY??? There were 20 shots fired. UNCESSARILY. When Randy and Kevin came back up to the cabin, Vicky and the girls knew that their Sammy was gone. Vicky walked down with Randy, and they carried their son's lifeless body up to the house. The Marshalls stated they were told that the Weavers were white separatists, and they need not to warn before firing and they may fire their guns on any armed adult. They can and should shoot to kill. THEY SHOT A FUCKING CHILD! Armed or not, they killed a child!!! After said child watched them shoot his dog. Are we counting the fuck ups? I think we are about at 4 right now. They had laid Sammy in a nearby shed and went back into the house. After a while Randy was distraught and wanted to go back outside to look at his son. His friend Kevin went with him. As they were looking at Sammy's body, shots rang out.
Sniper and observer teams were deployed by the Hostage Rescue Team. A sniper aimed for an instant kill shot on Randy, but Randy moved at the last minute and the shot entered his shoulder, exiting through his armpit. He then fled back to the house from the shed where he had been viewing the body of his dead son. A second shot missed Kevin Harris and hit Vicki in the head, who was holding their 10-month-old daughter at the time in her arms, a powerful image often invoked in the telling of the story. This woman heard the shots. Opened up the door to let her husband and his friend in the house, and they shot her dead. THEY MISSED NAD SHOT AN UNARMED WOMAN HOLDING A BABY!!!!! SICKENING! This same second shot hit Harris after exiting Vicki. An internal investigation found that the second shot was out of policy and that the failure to request surrender was “inexcusable.” How does that help now? IT DOESN'T! The people shooting that day are in my book, baby killers.
The standoff lasted ten days and involved between 350 and 400 agents who cruelly named their camp, “Camp Vicki.” They would routinely call out “Vicki, we have blueberry pancakes,” but claimed to not know that she was dead. Supporters of the Weavers and opponents of the ATF and FBI formed a vigil. I encourage everyone to watch the PBS documentary on YouTube about Ruby Ridge. Women were there crying and screaming (as they should have been) at the Marshalls and FBI. I hope anyone that was there and involved in this, you have never had a peaceful night's sleep.
Weaver’s commanding officer from Vietnam, James “Bo” Gritz acted as a mediator between the family and government agents. Radio broadcaster, Paul Harvey. intervened, offering to pay for a robust defense for Weaver if he surrendered. This was what led Weaver to abandon the standoff and surrender himself to federal authorities. After his wife had laid dead in the kitchen for days. After his friend Kevin had almost died from blood loss. After the little girls had brains from their mother splattered among their faces, it was finally over. Ruby Ridge should have been the poster child for "WHAT NOT TO DO IN A STANDOFF SITUATION." We all know that even though the FBI and Marshalls claimed that they 'LEARNED" from this, Part 2 o this blog, will show you they didn't learn shit.
Weaver was charged with ten counts, including the original charges, of illegal firearms sales. His attorney, Gerry Spence, successfully defended Weaver against a host of charges, including murder, by using a self-defense argument. Weaver was ultimately only convicted of the charge of failure to appear, for which he was sentenced to 18 months in prison and a fine of $10,000. He was credited with time served plus three months. Kevin Harris was acquitted of all charges. These were the longest deliberations in Idaho criminal history.
Weaver sued the federal government, which avoided a civil trial by awarding damages of $1,000,000 each to the three surviving Weaver children and $100,000 to Randy. That will never be enough to heal the trauma they endured. Kevin Harris eventually received a settlement of $380,000 after several years of appeals against a government who claimed they would never issue any payment to someone who had killed a federal marshal. Maybe your Marshall shouldn't have shot a child?
It is worth noting that the federal government took active steps to cover their tracks after the Siege of Ruby Ridge. Are any of us REALLY surprised? The chief of the bureau’s Violent Crimes and Major Offenders Section pled guilty to attempting to destroy all copies of the FBI’s internal report on the siege. Federal Judge Edward Lodge penned a lengthy list of misconduct, including fabrication of evidence and refusing to comply with court orders. Fuck up number 785......ridiculous.
One of the biggest changes after the Siege of Ruby Ridge was a change in the rules of engagement. In October 1995, the Senate Subcommittee on Terrorism, Technology and Government Information ordered all federal agencies to standardize their rules of engagement, particularly as pertained to deadly force. Randy and his daughter Sara wrote a book about the events in 1998 entitled The Federal Siege at Ruby Ridge. The family now live in Kalispell, Montana. Sara became a Born-Again Christian in 2012 and forgave the federal agents. These people were just a quiet, Christian family who wanted to be left alone. Hearing her talk in the documentary about what happened to them was horrific and kept me in tears.
There was very little meaningful blowback on the United States Marshals Service or any other parts of the federal government. OF COURSE NOT! The Ruby Ridge Task Force delivered a highly redacted 542-page report. And the six marshals involved in the initial shootout were given the highest commendations awarded by the United States Marshal Service. I just threw up in my mouth.
In 1997, the Justice Department declined to prosecute senior FBI officials for covering up the details of the case. Two FBI agents were prosecuted, one served 18 months in prison for destruction of evidence (wonder why they did that???) and the other had the charges dismissed. The second-in-command of the FBI was demoted, and three other agents were suspended.
In 2000, Weaver visited the former site of the Branch Davidian Church that had been destroyed in another high-profile siege. WACO. Still wondering why, I wrote about Ruby Ridge? Or have you figured out that some of the same people and the same tactics were used in the attack on WACO. Nothing was learned and more destruction and killing of innocent lives were about to come....
Rest In Paradise Vicky and Sammy. You as well Randy, as he just passed away in 2022.
Guys, stay tuned for Part 2. WACO.
Sources:
Ruby Ridge: Standoff - PBS found on You
Tube
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