00:00:07
by an unspeakable act eight the apocalypse would occur soon more white supremacist groups more anti-government
00:00:15
groups David KES Ruby Ridge Siege Timothy McVey more than 80 people dead bombed a
00:00:25
federal building in Oklahoma City eight by an unspeakable act there is so little
00:00:32
hope left the standoff at Ruby Ridge was in August 1992 Siege of a modest cabin belonging to the Weaver
00:00:44
family in boundary County Idaho it is said to have been the spark that ignited the American extremist far right-wing
00:00:53
militia movement it gained momentum in the 1990s when over 100 government officials
00:01:02
swarmed the Mountaintop Retreat of a family of three adults and four children to evaluate the supposed threat
00:01:11
they posed unimaginable chaos and bloodshed would ensue after an 11-day Siege three people
00:01:20
would be dead including a child and a law enforcement officer two more would be wounded a
00:01:29
family would be shattered and a community would be outraged and scarred this incident along with the
00:01:39
tragic events at Waco Texas which would occur the following year would be the Catalyst of an ongoing movement
00:01:48
comprised of extremist militia groups which include among others survivalist nationalist white separatist
00:02:01
neo-nazis and white supremacists all who continue to view themselves as Defenders of traditional
00:02:08
freedoms against perceived government oppression it is worth considering that if the events at Ruby Ridge in Waco had
00:02:18
been more effectively handled by those in charge America could be shaped quite differently today this is the standoff
00:02:28
at Ruby Ridge and this is true CME [Music] [Music] garage Randall Claude Weaver commonly
00:02:50
known as Randy was born on January 3 1948 he grew up in the small conservative religious farming community
00:03:01
of valisa Iowa as one of four children to Wilma and Clarence Clarence was a feed salesman growing up Randy and his
00:03:11
siblings were exposed to a variety of Christian fundamentalist teachings as the Weaver parents explored many
00:03:19
different sects within the Christian faith while trying to determine the proper fit for their family although the
00:03:26
Weaver family was undoubtedly religious and could be described as conservative Evangelical Christians they
00:03:36
would not be viewed as extremist or radical Randy attended Jefferson High School where he excelled in sports
00:03:45
particularly football and baseball Vicky Weaver was born Victoria Jean jordanson
00:03:52
on June 20th 1949 and grew up on a farm near Fort Dodge Iowa she too came from a
00:04:00
Conservative Christian religious background her family were members of the reorganized Church of Jesus Christ
00:04:09
of the latterday Saints Vicky's family frowned upon drinking or swearing but they were not extreme fundamentalist
00:04:16
zealots just God-fearing residents of their small town farming Community known for her gentle and creative nature Vicki
00:04:25
enjoyed making crafts and was particularly skilled at sewing she was also an active member of the 4H Club
00:04:34
following his graduation from Jefferson High School in 1966 Randy attended Iowa Central
00:04:41
Community College for a few years then in 1968 he left College to enlist in the armed forces against the divisive and
00:04:51
turbulent backdrop of the Vietnam War and folding overseas Randy found himself stationed at Fort Bragg in North
00:05:00
Carolina much to his disappointment nevertheless he excelled as a soldier gaining significant skills in training
00:05:08
many sources reference him as a former Green Beret though the exact timeline of his association with that Elite unit
00:05:17
remains uncertain in 1970 while on leave and visiting his hometown Randy reconnected with Vicky Jean jordison a
00:05:27
former College girlfriend of his so similarly raised in fundamentalist Christian households the couple's
00:05:33
relationship quickly became serious Randy and Vicky married in November of 1971 in a ceremony at the First
00:05:42
Congressional Church in Fort Dodge Iowa a month prior on October 8th Randy had been honorably discharged from the Army
00:05:52
at the rank of Sergeant convinced that this ongoing Strife is a sign that end times are coming Vicki's beliefs had
00:06:01
made a hard right turn as she delved deeper into the Bible anticipating the apocalypse sharing these increasingly
00:06:10
extreme fundamentalist Christian beliefs with Randy she speaks of a reoccurring Vision that she is having she prophesies
00:06:19
that their family will only be safe if they leave Iowa and build a house on a hill which she envisions as their
00:06:28
glorious Mountaintop Retreat it is here where they will be protected from the what she would eventually refer to as
00:06:38
Zog the Zionist organized government or as she would put it a Jewish run government and the corrupt
00:06:47
civilization in which they were currently existing well that's a lot to uh take in
00:06:55
mhm we're fighting for God against Zog but we're also afraid of God an Zog yes increasingly influenced by Vicky's
00:07:06
zealotry and a steadily progressing mistrust of the government Randy joins his wife in her radical views the couple
00:07:16
become full-blown religious extremists convinced that the biblical end times are near now serious about bringing
00:07:25
Vicki's Vision into reality Randy begins accumulating in guns and weapons as he believes he will need these guns and
00:07:34
weapons to eventually keep his family safe when the end times begin yeah so in preparation of this now survivalist
00:07:45
lifestyle Vicki began studying farming and gardening techniques to become self-sufficient and Randy began amassing
00:07:54
weapons to protect his family now fully convinced of impending doom biblical end times and harboring a deep
00:08:02
mounting mistrust of the federal government the Weaver family relocated to the state of Idaho this in
00:08:10
1983 they settled in boundary County Purchasing a property for $5,000 located on an isolated beautiful Hilltop in the
00:08:21
sil Kirk mountains overlooking Ruby Creek then in 1984 Randy with his own hands built home
00:08:30
this was a small but well-built cabin construction constructed of plywood and scrap lumber on Ruby Ridge adding
00:08:38
several out buildings on their 20 acre property after completing the main structure the family eagerly embraced a
00:08:46
survivalist lifestyle growing vegetables homeschooling the children and Es skewing taxes and other types of
00:08:54
governmental interference see I can get behind some of this stuff hey let's get 20 20 acres sounds good to me I would
00:09:01
love 20 acres let's build our Dreamhouse sure on a Hilltop I would love that let's let's name it Ruby Ridge that's
00:09:09
great I even like the collecting of the guns well you know to each their own I was going to say hey we're going to have
00:09:16
our own garden oh grow own fruits and vegetables mhm now homeschooling kids that seems like a nightmare but I guess
00:09:25
if you're far enough out I recently planted an apple tree in the backyard so maybe I'm on my way you're on your way
00:09:33
you're just going to have to start having visions of the end time and Es sking taxes again like I said all these
00:09:41
guys are idiots because they should know the end times are going to happen and pawy and we got to look out for the the
00:09:48
lizard Lord zorp Randy had even included what he referred to as a 300 yard radius
00:09:58
air quotes kills Zone on the property and look this is not the kind of thing you want to start telling your
00:10:05
neighbors but he told locals that anyone breaching his 300 yard radius Kill Zone
00:10:13
would suffer the consequences of death in the late 80s and early 90s in the rural area a lot of
00:10:23
rural areas but included in this is boundary County where they are living there was an Emer urging movement of
00:10:30
anti-governmental sentiment leading to the formation of various survivalist Nationalist and militia groups the law
00:10:39
of the land in this region was the boundary County sheriff with locals persistently ignoring Federal and even
00:10:47
State decrees Randy and Vicki who had become increasingly extremist unapologetically identified as white
00:10:56
separatist as did many of their neighbors and while the Weavers didn't consider themselves to be white
00:11:02
supremacists or members of the Aryan Nation they weren't necessarily opposed to mingling with them at local
00:11:10
Gatherings now the Weavers moved up and set up their family cabin and camp at what was called Ruby rid
00:11:19
sometime later the family takes in a young man named Kevin Harris he's a teenager at the time who had experienced
00:11:27
a rough upbringing and a deeply troubled home life but it didn't seem like they were trying to build a community really
00:11:36
it seemed like they wanted to have their own land and you can see how some of these people start diving into this we
00:11:43
have the IRS there is no law that states an individual has to pay taxes but they
00:11:50
can put you in jail if you don't pay taxes and then property taxes I think a lot of people find to be a joke because
00:11:59
you own the property you own the house and you're forced to pay a tax on something you already own and in many
00:12:08
places if you make improvements to that property you have to pay additional taxes yeah so the nicer I make it the
00:12:14
more I have to pay you but I own the land that's why my place is a real [ __ ] hole that's why that's why I go around
00:12:21
and break [ __ ] all the time the county auditor is listening my place is a dumb
00:12:26
it's a real dumb but I do have that apple tree so but so you can see how and then if
00:12:33
you have your own land like 20 acres you don't want anybody you don't want the sheriff for you're not buying those 20
00:12:42
acres to have a HOA fee they really wanted to live out there build their family and be left alone is really my
00:12:50
feel of this whole situation now as for bringing in this teenager with the deeply troubled upbringing right uh this
00:12:58
to me just appears to be a good deed so this kid Kevin Harris teenager at the time when he kind of gets taken under
00:13:06
the wing of Randy Weaver so this guy his father had died when he was only two years old and Kevin's young mother was
00:13:15
unable to cope with raising children without the father being there right so this kid is rudderless and he is growing
00:13:24
into his teenage years and he starts to get in trouble and he starts to struggle
00:13:30
with things like drugs so Randy met Kevin through friends in the mid 80s and his heart went out to
00:13:37
this fatherless young man and Kevin was seeking a positive influence but also the the family
00:13:46
probably needed extra help for what they were trying to build possibly but my understanding here is that the early
00:13:55
part of this relationship there were no like formal arrang Ms that were made that Kevin Harris had free access to
00:14:02
come and stay at the property when he chose to do so right coming and going as he pleased but eventually he will
00:14:10
basically move in with the Weaver family and then as this relationship carries on
00:14:17
he's ultimately viewed as a member of the household now I wish I could tell you that they lived a quiet life didn't
00:14:26
bother anyone and nobody bothered them but that wasn't the case Ruby Ridge was up on a hillside above Ruby Creek
00:14:35
opposite Caribou Ridge which was another property now in 1984 Randy Weaver and one of his
00:14:43
neighbors this is Terry Kennison had a dispute over a $3,000 land deal Kennis lost the ensuing lawsuit and on top of
00:14:54
the $3,000 kenis was ordered to pay Randy we Beav an additional $2,100 in court cost and
00:15:03
damages so this neighbor Terry Kennison was now into Randy Weaver for $5,100 and I've got to believe that this
00:15:12
was some sort of retaliation but what the neighbor did was he started writing letters to the
00:15:19
FBI the Secret Service and the county sheriff alleging that Randy Weaver had openly
00:15:26
threatened to kill Pope John Paul II President Ronald Reagan and the governor of Idaho in
00:15:36
1985 the FBI and the Secret Service decided to launch investigations into these allegations that Randy Weaver had
00:15:44
made threats against Ronald Reagan and other government officials well we know that the Weavers have land and we also
00:15:51
know that he's collecting firearms and thus if these threats are real if he did make them
00:15:59
then you have to take them seriously in February of ' 85 the Weavers were interviewed by FBI agents Secret Service
00:16:07
agents and the boundary County Sheriff the Secret Service had been told that the that Randy Weaver was a member of
00:16:16
Aryan Nations and that he had a large cash of firearms at his residence but like you said they that connection
00:16:24
wasn't true because they weren't white supremists but maybe they just dealt with
00:16:31
other I don't I don't see that's a troubling thing with this story so you could you could look at it a couple
00:16:38
different ways where people on the outside that didn't know Randy Weaver and didn't know the family I think you
00:16:44
could easily believe that maybe he was a member of the Aryan Nations or other other extremist groups because
00:16:53
from the outside it might give the appearance of such because he is associating with people that are members
00:16:59
of these other groups right now if you knew him real well then you might just go well he he just happens to know these
00:17:06
people and he's friendly with these people now I I also want and I don't want every resident of the great state
00:17:13
of Idaho to come after yours truly here but if you go back in time and especially in this region there were a
00:17:21
lot of people that were involved in those types of groups or associated with people that were involved with those
00:17:27
groups so this is not like a a an incredibly rare thing here in that area at the time well and sometimes with
00:17:35
these extremist groups in your community you might not agree with anything that they believe in but by going against
00:17:44
them all you're causing is trouble for yourself well and here is something that's not going to look favorably upon
00:17:53
Randy Weaver and his family so Weaver denies that he's a member of the ARA Nation
00:17:59
or any of these extremist groups when he's interviewed by the different government agencies he also denies the
00:18:05
allegations that he has a large cache of firearms and again that's a pretty general term where it's open for
00:18:13
interpretation right your opinion of a large arsenal of firearms might be different than my opinion of a large
00:18:20
arsenal of firearms where some people might say oh that guy's got he's got like eight or nine guns that's a great
00:18:26
big collection to some people that's a huge collection and to gun collectors that's not even a real collection at all
00:18:33
yeah I and I know this being a guitar collector I mean for some people they they see a handful of my guitars and
00:18:40
they go you have a problem and I go you haven't seen the other room yet now what
00:18:45
they could determine was that on at least three or four occasions the Weavers did attend Aryan
00:18:53
Nations meetings at Hayden Lake Idaho remember Hayden Lake Idaho is location that we talked about when we covered
00:19:01
Richard Snell and those late night meetings that were reportedly going on about attempting to wanting to overthrow
00:19:10
the government and Destroy large Federal buildings so no doubt if they're attending these let's say meetings I'm
00:19:20
I'm going to use air quotes here to say meetings right because these could simply be Gatherings and this could be
00:19:25
simply their way of socializing I know know that sounds very strange it's not a place that I would ever choose to
00:19:32
socialize in but this is not Hayden Lake Idaho it's it's difficult to say what their intentions are in attending these
00:19:41
meetings or if they're just they're just Gathering and socializing the rumor was
00:19:45
that they brewed a mean cup of coffee and had great cheese danishes well and but I think it's also very easy for one
00:19:53
to see this observe this activity or be made aware of this activity and go well these guys are extremist right th this
00:20:02
they could be a violent militia type the investigation did note that Randy Weaver
00:20:08
associated with members of the Covenant The Sword and the arm of the Lord Randy and Vicky Weaver filed an affidavit with
00:20:16
the county courthouse alleging that their personal enemies were plotting to provoke the FBI into attacking and maybe
00:20:24
even killing the Weaver family basically they're saying this this guy made all this stuff up claimed that we made all
00:20:31
these horrible threats against these people in power and now we're being investigated and really we've not done
00:20:38
any of this activity this guy is just full-on revenge against us and my family right on May 6th of that same year the
00:20:47
Weaver sent President Ronald Reagan a letter claiming that their enemies may have sent Reagan a threatening letter
00:20:56
forging Randy's signature years later in 1992 the prosecutor cited the 1985 letter as an overt Act of the Weaver
00:21:05
family conspiracy against the federal government now we have the Bureau of Alcohol Tobacco and Firearms the ATF
00:21:13
they first become aware of Randy Weaver and his family in July of 1986 when he was introduced to a confidential ATF
00:21:22
informant at a meeting at the world Aryan Congress the informant portrayed himself as a weapons dealer working with
00:21:32
motorcycle gangs over the next couple of years Weaver and this informant they did
00:21:38
meet several times and in July of 1989 Randy Weaver invited this informant to his home to discuss forming a group
00:21:47
to fight the Zionist organized government or Zog referring to the United States government in October of '
00:21:55
89 the ATF claimed that Weaver sold the informant two saloff shotguns with an overall length of the
00:22:05
guns shorter than the limit set by the federal law so the ATF is saying we did a sting
00:22:12
operation this guy was dumb enough to sell some illegal Firearms to our officer who was undercover So Randy
00:22:21
Weaver was indicted for making and possessing illegal Firearms this is now 1990 do note though he wasn't charged with
00:22:31
selling them just charged with making and possessing illegal firearms on February 5th 1991 Randy Weaver's trial
00:22:38
date was changed and this could be really a huge Domino here Captain this could be
00:22:47
something that that really started the fire well we know it wasn't Billy Joe Randy Weaver's trial date was changed to
00:22:56
February 20th the clerk of courts sent letters to different parties to inform them of the date change of Randy
00:23:04
Weaver's court appearance however for whatever reason they didn't send a letter directly to Randy Weaver they
00:23:11
sent a letter to his representation so now the representation is in charge of informing Randy Weaver
00:23:19
that the court date has changed to February 20th right when Randy Weaver receives correspondence telling him of
00:23:27
the date change the letter he receives erroneously says that Randy Weaver's trial date was March 20th 1 month
00:23:39
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00:29:02
air cheers to you Colonel cheers to you captain now look you don't have to be Sherlock Holmes here to figure out since
00:29:12
they told him the wrong date one month later Randy Weaver did not show up to court on February
00:29:21
20th and this started the next Domino which they put out a Ben warrant for Randy Weaver and his failure to appear
00:29:31
in court around the same time in early 1991 this is kind of throwing gasoline on the fire there was a letter that was
00:29:43
sent to the US attorney in early 1991 from the Weaver family specifically Vicky Weaver ry's wife and in the letter
00:29:54
Vicki promised that they meaning the Weaver family quote will not bow to your evil Commandments whether we live or
00:30:01
whether we die end quote not really a threat but it sounds quite threatening yeah now because he failed to appear in
00:30:09
court this gets the US Marshal Service involved in the whole situation they were now responsible to arrest and bring
00:30:17
in Randy Weaver but they're checking up and asking around about him and the Intel that they're getting is telling
00:30:25
them that the Weavers had a lot of guns and that they were incredibly hostile that they would not be Randy Weaver
00:30:32
would not be taken easily so the US Marshals brought in the services Special Operations group to
00:30:42
watch and surveil the Weavers now I found this incredibly strange and odd here captain that all this talk in fear
00:30:52
of Zog yeah but the Marshall service they do abbreviate the services Special Operations group as
00:31:03
SOG so while Vicky Weaver was having all these visions and dreams that her family
00:31:10
needs to be afraid of Z and and and and hide out in the hills and live a survivalist lifestyle I found it very
00:31:19
strange that it wasn't Z that was coming for them it was some form of Z if you will I'm just kind of tongue and cheek
00:31:28
saying that but it was sogg that ultimately would be coming after the Weavers no and I I believe in this stuff
00:31:36
I believe especially people that have recurring dreams it it becomes well did you have the reoccurring dreams because
00:31:45
something bad was going to happen or did the reoccurring dreams help fa facilitate the bad thing happening speak
00:31:53
of the devil and he shall appear right you know and I believe that I believe if you if you're
00:32:00
negative you're going to attract uh negativity if you're positive you'll attract
00:32:06
positivity that's why we say be good and be be kind that's right good vibes in the garage Good Vibes brother it's easy
00:32:13
when you got a lot of beer yeah all right or other stuff so we talked briefly about the Marshall service the
00:32:20
US Marshall service surveilling the Weavers which they did for the better part of 1992 gathering information on
00:32:27
the Family plus the family friend Kevin Harris who was living on the property with the Weaver family yeah but my
00:32:33
problem with this whole scenario is it doesn't seem like any members of the Weavers have like a criminal history and
00:32:42
the father like you said he he served in Vietnam right no I I don't believe he was ever called to action he enlisted
00:32:50
while Vietnam was ongoing but either way he's he's a he attempted to serve his country yeah
00:32:58
yeah well I mean you serve your country once you sign up whether you serve u in just a department or at a a base locally
00:33:09
or you you actually fight in a war you're still serving your country yes you can be called at any time so do you
00:33:16
think it's just these quote unquote he said she said threats well let's review this because this is you're sharing a
00:33:27
lot of what I am feeling about this part of the story yeah so what you have here
00:33:34
is there's mounting pressure for the federal agents to take some form of action so at some point they're going to
00:33:41
decide to make a move now on August 17th 1992 us Marshalls SOG team gathered at Sandpoint Idaho to establish a command
00:33:51
post this up on the on the sweetzer mountain the intention was to more closely survey the family to assess
00:34:00
their Threat Level to the public over the next few months agencies considered various plans to coule Randy to
00:34:10
surrender it was important to remember that Randy's only offenses were selling two modified shotguns and failing to
00:34:17
appear in court so this reaction so Overkill seemed ludicrously disproportionate considering Randy was
00:34:26
not a d dangerous arms dealer he was simply a religious zealot with a belief in white separatism and a deep mistrust
00:34:34
of the federal government yeah but don't you think that law enforcement could have just made contact with him and to
00:34:40
say Hey you missed your your trial date your court date yes because if they would have just made contact and they
00:34:47
didn't have to make contact to him directly they could have made contact to his lawyer it's an overreaction is an
00:34:55
understatement and but beyond that there are things that the the Weavers are also
00:34:59
doing things that don't I mean they're not paying their taxes right they're they're doing things that don't that are
00:35:04
suggestive that they are what the the government agencies fear that they are right but but by having that fear you
00:35:14
could sometimes see things that aren't there exactly now they're going to decide to
00:35:22
make their move this the US Marshals due to favorable weather conditions on August 21st the sog team members
00:35:30
proceeded up the mountain toward the Weaver cabin to confront the family of three adults and four children agents
00:35:38
were heavily armed with M16 rifles a sniper rifle a shotgun and a suppressed 9mm Colt carbine along with their
00:35:48
personal service weapons in the early hours of August 21st 1992 the so team armed and camouflaged approached the
00:35:57
Weaver's cabin on Ruby Ridge they proceeded further up the mountain trail to a fork in the woods and decided to
00:36:04
split into two thre man teams so they got a a unit of six going up there now they're going to split into two thre man
00:36:13
teams one group is called the observation post op they went left to set up surveillance about half a mile
00:36:21
from the structure in which the Weaver family is living the cabin meanwhile the Recon or reconnaissance
00:36:28
team they were going to approach the cabin from the right side but stopping about 250 to 300 yard from the Weaver
00:36:38
driveway at approximately 10:15 a.m. the teams have exchanged information but they captured the attention of the
00:36:48
family dog so they they got to their positions where they wanted to be positioned they've radioed each other to
00:36:55
let them know hey we're we're all in position here but while this is going on the dogs the
00:37:01
Weaver's dogs are now aware that there's movement on the property dogs don't typ
00:37:07
typically like that they tend to start barking and making a lot of noise which alerted ultimately alerted Randy and
00:37:14
Kevin and Randy's son Sammy to the presence of someone the US Marshals being on their property so Randy decides
00:37:23
to go in One Direction sending Kevin and Sammy led by the Weaver yellow lab named
00:37:30
Striker off in a different direction so Kevin and the son Sammy and the dog they run off to where the Recon team had
00:37:40
positioned themselves this is going to start a confrontation both groups are armed now I cannot say this loudly
00:37:48
enough there are conflicting reports on who fired the first shot right I don't know that we've ever figured out who
00:37:54
fired the first shot but you want to talk about domino effect this is a one hell of a domino here
00:38:01
somebody fired a shot I don't know if it's a a man thing or mainly a man thing but had a lot of friends growing up
00:38:08
where we're like hey you know it would be great to have 5 Acres or 10 acres and I always thought one of the bonuses of
00:38:15
of having land was whoever's there should be there and whoever and people that aren't supposed to be there you
00:38:23
know very quickly like we in a neighborhood if somebody walks through your neighbor's yard you don't you know
00:38:31
right away you might not know if it's the neighbor or if it's the neighbor son or it's is it a family friend you know
00:38:38
what I mean but if you own a bunch of land and somebody is on your property at night you know they're not supposed to
00:38:45
be there and so you have this situation where you have law enforcement coming up
00:38:51
on a a family that in their eyes they've done nothing wrong he hasn't missed a court Dee in his eyes and he doesn't
00:39:01
know that they're being surveilled by law enforcement so this is a tricky situation because if somebody's showing
00:39:10
up to your property armed with fatigues on you would think on some level he has the right to protect himself and protect
00:39:19
his family he he does have some awareness that they're being watched because the US Marshals were what they
00:39:26
were initially hoping for is for the Randy weaver or the Weaver family to come down the mountain to
00:39:33
them and surrender right they didn't want to have to go up the mountain but at some point they they decided we got
00:39:40
to do something I'm skipping over some stuff intentionally because there there was a lot going on in behind the scenes
00:39:48
if you will during the course of this US Marshals want to bring him in on a bench
00:39:53
warant and Randy Weaver doesn't want to come down the hill right and and on top of that you have the nasty neighbor who
00:39:59
likely set a lot of this [ __ ] into motion to begin with who is still continuing to throw Randy Weaver and his
00:40:07
family under the bus M making additional claims about them while they're essentially hold up
00:40:14
in their cabin right regardless this is where we find ourselves with this confrontation that's about to go down
00:40:21
and again with conflicting reports later accounts of this incident would vary law
00:40:27
enforcement maintaining that they had identified themselves as US government agents they also claimed that Kevin
00:40:34
Harris fired the first shot hitting Marshall Degan who would later die as a result Marshall
00:40:43
Cooper one another member of this three-man team position there the Recon team returned fire hitting Kevin
00:40:51
meanwhile Marshall rodri unsure of who fired first shot the dog striker fearing that it might the dog might
00:41:00
attack or further reveal their position right now seeing his dog shot of course anybody's going to react to that
00:41:08
especially a boy Sammy Weaver fired shots at the Marshall shouting you son of a [ __ ] you killed my dog Randy
00:41:16
Weaver remember he's elsewhere he's positioning himself elsewhere in the chaos he starts firing his handgun into
00:41:22
the air and instructing his son shouting at his son Sammy to go home so Sammy responds that I'm coming dad you know or
00:41:32
I'm going to go home but he is fatally wounded in this gunfire that continues back and forth a short time after the
00:41:41
gunfire subsided the shattered Weaver parents retrieved the lifeless body of their 14-year-old son Samy and
00:41:48
transported him to one of their out buildings right grieving their loss the family took refuge in the cabin Randy
00:41:57
and Kevin's account of the incident would differ from that of law enforcement they insisted that the
00:42:02
marshals did not identify themselves and that the government fired the shots first killing the dog and then setting
00:42:10
off a chain reaction of deadly events the following day multiple federal agencies descended upon the scene with
00:42:19
armored tanks helicopters and personnel carriers yeah don't bring a shotgun to a tank fight no
00:42:28
this is this is really starting to look like a small family who's now facing a full-on army so essentially they set up
00:42:38
a military encampment at the base of Ruby Ridge this with hundreds of federal agents they had hostage negotiators
00:42:47
state police and military personnel meanwhile anti-government demonstrators began gathering in support of the Weaver
00:42:55
family as great locals and other supporters of the Weavers protested near the roadblock they were angrily calling
00:43:04
for government to for the government to stop their interference into the business of private citizens news crews
00:43:10
and media Outlets set up the base of Ruby Ridge to capture every minute of this standoff during this time the FBI's
00:43:18
hostage rescue team who had been called into assist submitted a proposed revision to the FBI standard Rules of
00:43:28
Engagement this amendment would allow agents to use deadly force to neutralize any perceived Threat by an adult
00:43:36
observed to be carrying a weapon so this is different from their standard rules of engagement standard rules had
00:43:42
restricted the use of deadly force only in the event an agent or another is in is in imminent danger of death or
00:43:51
serious bodily harm this seems like extreme here however if you're if you really want to analyze
00:43:59
this situation and dissect it really all the FBI is doing in this moment is they're they're they're lifting this a
00:44:08
little bit because they they don't want their agents and people there to be involved in and have to assess the
00:44:13
situation one of the US Marshals was already killed right and to me that's once that agent is killed that's your
00:44:22
assess then you make your then you assess the situation it's a deadly situ period exactly that's exactly right so
00:44:30
now they're operating under these amended Rules of Engagement an FBI sniper but is the family firing back cuz
00:44:38
it just seems like they retreated and there's no fire coming and we have no fire coming from the father he shot his
00:44:45
gun up in the air yeah and this is the following day so essentially this is like a ceasefire without either side
00:44:51
telling each other they're not going to be shooting at each other right but I mean this situ is horrible the
00:44:57
kid's dead and Marshall's dead the dog's dead yeah but it it's it's not going to
00:45:03
get any better so now operating under these amended Rules of Engagement an FBI sniper positioned about 200 yards from
00:45:12
the Weaver cabin fired two shots so keep in mind this sniper not only is not in threat of
00:45:21
imminent danger or death or seriously B bodily harm this FB I sniper 200 yard away from the Weaver cabin likely was
00:45:30
even undetected right by the Weavers or Kevin Harris or anybody there so he fires Two Shots the first shot wounded
00:45:38
Randy Weaver that very likely was a goal of theirs the second shot was intended for Kevin Harris remember so now you
00:45:47
would have hit all three members that were engaged in gunfire with your agents right Sammy the kid's dead Kevin Harris
00:45:56
two fired shots and Randy Weaver the Father Dad husband of the whole Weaver family the second shot intended for
00:46:05
Kevin Harris struck and killed Vicky Weaver the wife mother as she stood in the doorway of their cabin holding their
00:46:13
10-month-old daughter Jesus and somehow you want to talk about JFK magic bullet theory this bullet strikes and kills
00:46:23
Vicky Weaver but eventually finding its way finding its Mark to hit Kevin after it
00:46:31
passed through Vicky's head Vicky's lifeless body would would lay under the kitchen table they they they pulled her
00:46:39
inside while the surviving family members were remain barricaded inside that same cabin in an attempt to
00:46:47
persuade the Weavers to surrender Federal negotiators sunk to even lower depths FBI negotiator Fred
00:46:58
Lanley cruy taunted the family addressing Mrs Weaver and inviting her and the children to come out and eat
00:47:08
pancakes these unbelievably pitless remarks directed at a Woman They surely knew was dead caused the family to break
00:47:17
down in tears there was a phone placed outside of the cabin door which would ring every 15 minutes and
00:47:26
negotiators continually scream threats through a bullhorn at the family warning that the
00:47:34
Weavers would die if they did not exit the cabin and come down The Negotiator reportedly continued mockingly
00:47:42
addressing Vicki and asking about the baby and offering help the callousness with which they treated the Weavers who
00:47:52
had just lost two family members to incredible and largely senseless violence is and was profoundly
00:48:01
disturbing by August 25th the crowds of anti-government sympathizers and supporters of the Weaver family had
00:48:09
grown and five armed skin heads were arrested in route to the cabin these guys were going to go up there and even
00:48:16
though the Weavers didn't request their assistance apparently these skin these skin heads were going to go up there and
00:48:22
start fighting back against the government they were arrested as the days wore on it became increasingly
00:48:29
evident that Randy and his daughters as well as Kevin Harris were never going to
00:48:33
willingly surrender as a last resort federal agents brought in BO Gertz a former
00:48:42
Green Beret and prominent figure who shared many of the same beliefs as the Weaver Clan federal agents hoped that
00:48:52
gerz would be able to persuade Randy and the remaining occupants of the cabin to
00:48:57
surrender peacefully before they enacted a fullscale attack on the cabin Randy eventually allowed gz to enter the cabin
00:49:07
and he was ultimately successful in securing ry's agreement to not only remove Vicky's body from the cabin but
00:49:14
to rescue Kevin Harris as well allowing the Gravely wounded young man to receive
00:49:20
much needed medical attention finally on August 31st Randy Weaver agreed to surrender to Federal officials and he
00:49:30
and his three daughters exited the cabin both Randy and Kevin were arrested Kevin
00:49:37
for the murder of Deputy Marshall Degan and Randy for aiding and abetting in total the men faced 10 counts including
00:49:46
murder aiding and abetting murder conspiracy and assault the standoff lasted 11 days I mean this is a
00:49:56
difficult situation because obviously horrific I don't agree with some of the thoughts or ideology of the Weavers but
00:50:04
it doesn't seem like they were posing any threat to the community or or to themselves and it just doesn't seem like
00:50:14
there was enough communication from law enforcement to Warrant this kind of or this type of surveillance or this type
00:50:23
of attack it's uh it's very strange it's it's horrible because you have this horrific situation where it's this
00:50:32
Beyond overreaction right overreaction would be an understatement yeah but hold on In fairness we don't know exactly
00:50:40
what information law enforcement was being fed well no that's what I'm getting to Beyond
00:50:46
overreaction however they believed that this family was in fact a threat to the public and a threat to government
00:50:55
agencies and so when every when nobody's right everybody's wrong and this situation just I mean it could have been
00:51:04
handled differently by all parties involved absolutely yeah and it's sad that it wasn't the Weaver case would be
00:51:11
prosecuted by us attorney Ron hoen and would be tried in Boise Idaho with judge Edward
00:51:20
Lodge and Randy and Kevin would stand trial together jury selection began on April 13th 1993 and the trial started
00:51:28
the very next day ultimately here Captain this trial would last about 36 Days the prosecution called a total of
00:51:37
56 Witnesses while the defense led by famed defense attorney Jerry Spence called zero coincidentally the trial
00:51:48
coincided with the violent and fiery ending to the Waco Siege and this I'll ultimately and and
00:51:57
for many other reasons why is forever linking both events the state's case to describe it it's been described as
00:52:06
chaotic with contradictory Witnesses and attempts to portray the Weavers as racist really what the prosecution wants
00:52:15
to put together here because you have a situation where a jury could be sympathetic to Randy Weaver and Kevin
00:52:22
Harris right Kevin Harris almost died Randy Weaver lost his son and his wife and his dog yeah and their home was
00:52:32
essentially besieged by by an army of government agencies yeah and even though I don't agree with racist beliefs and
00:52:44
racist thoughts or actions It's seems like a very dumb defense to say well we we're going to
00:52:53
say that they're they were racist but that doesn't that still doesn't justify your actions yeah the the state wants to
00:53:02
present these people as just bad all around like they were horrible terrible people before we went up the hill right
00:53:08
and the result was they were going to shoot whoever came up there it just so happened to be that it was our US
00:53:15
Marshals and now we've lost a US Marshal and look it wasn't a great trial again it it it appears that the trial in ways
00:53:25
mired the standoff where when nobody's right everybody's wrong yeah part of this too that gets lost in the sauce
00:53:33
here is Randy Weaver may have found himself in a whole lot of trouble because at some point he was approached
00:53:41
remember we mentioned gerz who girts was the guy that really put an end to the standoff he was somebody that was
00:53:49
friends or friendly with Randy Weaver gz was somebody that the ATF wanted to bring down okay gerz was the one that
00:53:57
was directly involved and a member of all of these extremist groups several of them and several of the hate groups and
00:54:05
he was also involved in a lot of the arms dealings from my understanding here Captain the ATF initially reached out to
00:54:14
Randy Weaver well before any of this mess started to try to get him to be an informant for for them for their agency
00:54:22
to take down girts and people like girts right but Weaver is like hey I'm not going to be a
00:54:28
snitch and so then you also wonder is there motivation from them to take out Weaver so he doesn't snitch on what
00:54:37
they're trying to do possibly but but more so what I think played out with this situation is the US Marshals were
00:54:45
not informed of any of this attempting to recruit Randy Weaver as an inform it and and he didn't comply right he didn't
00:54:54
do what they wanted him to do but he didn't get violent when they asked him if he wanted to be an informant he just
00:54:59
said I'm not going to be a part of this right not going to be a snitch they they
00:55:02
really seem like a family that had their own beliefs and didn't want to be a part
00:55:06
of this Society you know when I look at this case under multiple lenses one of the lenses I'm looking at it under is is
00:55:19
there a chance that had the marshals and other agencies this is why these agencies got to talk and communicate
00:55:25
more it is is there a chance that had the US Marshals known that Randy Weaver did speak with the ATF did engage and
00:55:34
have conversations with them just didn't comply but didn't do it in a violent manner would this thing have started off
00:55:41
differently right would they would they not have felt like we need to surveil this whole family for days and days and
00:55:48
one of the things that we were talking about off air was the idea of if you're law enforcement
00:55:56
and you're going to do a raid on let's say drug dealers you might have this idea you
00:56:04
might have some fear that they're going to put up a fight so you outman them you
00:56:08
outgun them you make sure that if there is a fight that uh you're going to win but when you're dealing with people
00:56:16
that have odd views on reality I mean even just hearing that the wife had these Visions or or dreams
00:56:27
that their family would be attacked then you have to wrestle with the idea of okay we can outgun them we can outman
00:56:35
them but are we stepping into a situation that if they're losing if the Weavers are losing do they
00:56:43
have some kind of system that will just blow us all up and I think that would lend to you
00:56:51
know that fear would lend to law enforcement agents making bad decisions and decisions out of fear well
00:57:01
and ultimately the public sided with the Weavers and the way that this trial played out is in agreeance with that and
00:57:13
is suggestive that the public did side with the Weaver so in July of 1993 we have a jury of 12 they issued their
00:57:22
verdict the jurors had concluded that the US Marshals were the ones who in fact fired the first
00:57:28
shot remember the defense called zero Witnesses the prosecution called 56 so it was all the prosecutions
00:57:37
witnesses and piecing together their stories that the jury concluded that it was the US Marshals that fired the first
00:57:44
shot right killing the dog which the jury then says set off the chain of events leading to the tragic
00:57:51
deaths of three people and the jury ultimately found for the defense acquitting Kevin Harris
00:57:59
outright on all accounts Randy Weaver was also found not guilty on all felony federal charges but
00:58:09
he was convicted of two minor charges failing to appear in court and violating his bail conditions so in October Randy
00:58:18
Weaver was sentenced to 18 months in jail however he had already served 14 months in jail while awaiting trial
00:58:26
right he was also fined $10,000 this verdict was a scathing pronouncement of the Public's
00:58:33
overwhelmingly critical perception of the federal government's abuses denouncing its use of entrapment and
00:58:40
manipulation to further its goals Randy served his sentence and was released on December 17th
00:58:49
1993 he reunited with his children who were staying with family members in Iowa the Weavers relocated to Montana where
00:58:59
the surviving family members filed a $300 million lawsuit against the federal government for the wrongful deaths of
00:59:06
Vicky and Samuel Weaver in August of 1995 the government settled the suit awarding Randy
00:59:15
$100,000 and $1 million each to his three remaining children 5 years later Kevin Harris received a $380,000
00:59:26
settlement for his pain and suffering in 1993 the government launched an investigation into the actions of
00:59:33
federal agents involved in the Ruby Ridge standoff to determine if any misconduct or excessive force was
00:59:40
used by June of 1994 the Department of Justice delivered a report condemning the agent's actions and recommending
00:59:50
reforms the next spring details of this 542 two-page report were leaked to the press and in the fall of 1995 Randy
01:00:01
Weaver testified at a US Senate Judiciary hearing about the Ruby rdge incident Randy reflected that he had
01:00:09
been given a second chance he would have come down the mountain to attend his court appearance thereby avoiding the
01:00:16
ensuing Bloodshed and horror he maintained that while he still believed in the separation of the races he
01:00:23
emphatically denied being a racist or white supremist in that he did not consider himself to be superior to other
01:00:30
races he ended by reiterating his grief and frustration over not being able to bring his wife and sons Killers to
01:00:39
Justice now on that front in 1997 Lon heroi the FBI sniper responsible for Vicky Weaver's death was
01:00:50
charged with involuntary manslaughter so the case moved from state to the federal
01:00:55
court where the charges were initially dismissed due to Federal immunity given the situation we talked about the Rules
01:01:03
of Engagement this dismissal was later reversed but the charges were ultimately dropped in 2001 due to the time that had
01:01:12
passed making a conviction very unlikely in May of 2022 in online Facebook post uh of Randy
01:01:23
Weaver's daughter Sarah she posted that her father had passed away the previous day so this would be May 11th after
01:01:30
suffering a brief illness in April of that year no cause of death is given he was 74 years old at
01:01:39
the time of his death and Sarah eulogized her father simply with the line love you always Dad the tragedy at
01:01:48
Ruby Ridge poses an age-old question was self-described white separatist Randy Weaver a radical
01:01:58
right-wing extremist or the victim of blatant and egregious governmental overreach resulting in disastrous
01:02:07
consequences public sentiment in the 1990s decided in favor of the latter and upon examination it seems that in truth
01:02:17
it is possible to be both we can only hope that the bitter Lessons Learned at Ruby Ridge are never forgotten
01:02:25
particularly through the 2025 lens of the deeply divided state of our [Music] nation want to thank everybody for
01:02:39
joining us here in the garage each and every week for everything True Crime Check out True Crime
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01:03:01
kind and don't live [Music] [Applause] [Music]