Randy Weaver
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Randall Claude Weaver (born January 3, 1948) is a white separatist[1] who was at the center of a deadly confrontation with U.S. federal agents at Ruby Ridge.
Randy Weaver was the only boy of four children born to Clarence and Wilma Weaver, a farming couple from Villisca, Iowa. The Weavers were deeply religious and had a difficult time finding a denomination which matched their views; hence they often moved around from Evangelical, Presbyterian, and Baptist churches. As Weaver grew up he earned decent grades in school and enjoyed a variety of sports. He professed his faith in Jesus at age 11. He is now an agnostic.[citation needed]
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[edit] Early life
Graduating from high school in 1966, Weaver enrolled in Iowa Central Community College, where he met Vicki Jordison. Following a school dance, the two started dating and grew very close. Jordison was a year younger than Weaver and had grown up in Fort Dodge, Iowa, just 50 miles north of Weaver's childhood home. Similar to Weaver, Jordison had also been raised with conflicting religious teachings. Her mother was a Congregationalist and her father a member of the Reorganized Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. Throughout her childhood, her father would often attempt to foretell current events as he compared the Bible’s prophecies with the newspaper. As she grew into a young woman, Jordison was considered highly intelligent by her peers. She excelled in school and eventually became vice-president of the Pleasant Valley Future Business Leaders of America and an active member in the Pixies 4-H group. Her younger sister, Julie, later stated that she was the kind of person that everyone liked and envied. In 1967, Jordison graduated from Fort Dodge High School and enrolled in Iowa Central Community College.
[edit] Vietnam
When the war in Vietnam started to escalate, Weaver had a strong desire to serve his country in the military. In October of 1968 he dropped out of school and joined the United States Army. He excelled in the military and quickly qualified for the Green Berets. Weaver was promoted to the rank of sergeant following his training.
Weaver's first assignment was at Fort Bragg in North Carolina, an assignment which he resented. He could not understand the point of being trained as a Green Beret without being able to apply his skills in combat. Friends later said that he became bitter over the fact that men who wanted nothing to do with the war were sent to Vietnam regularly, yet he, who had volunteered to go, sat at an Army base with non-combat duties [citation needed]. As Weaver waited for deployment to Vietnam, Vicki Jordison was finishing her college studies, earning a two-year degree in business and obtained a job at the United Way.
In 1970 Weaver secured a temporary leave from Fort Bragg and returned to his hometown for a visit. He had already decided to finish up his duties with the Army as quickly as possible and wanted to inform his family of his plans. It did not take long for him to look up Jordison. Within weeks, they were engaged to marry.
[edit] After the war
On October 8, 1971, following three years of duty, Randy Weaver received an honorable discharge from the Army. In November 1971, Weaver and Jordison were wed during a small ceremony at the First Congregationalist Church in Fort Dodge, Iowa. In an attempt to please Vicki's family, two ministers conducted the ceremony, one from the Reorganized Church of Latter Day Saints and the other a Congregationalist pastor.
Following the wedding Randy enrolled at the University of Northern Iowa to take criminal justice classes, intending to become an FBI agent. Nonetheless, the young couple found the cost of school prohibitive and Randy eventually dropped out.
[edit] 1980s
After a string of lost jobs and a failed Amway franchise, the couple became convinced that the "Zionist Occupation Government" was about to launch an all-out war against its own citizens [citation needed], so they spent $5,000 on a 20-acre parcel in remote Idaho and tried to raise a family beyond the reach of "the imminent New World Order".
The Weavers built their cabin out of scrap lumber on Caribou Ridge, near Ruby Creek, eight miles from Bonners Ferry. They homeschooled their children and allegedly decorated their property with signs proclaiming "White Power is Supreme" and "Bow Down to Yahweh".
Then Weaver started associating with committed white supremacists. In July 1986, Randy attended the World Congress of Aryan Nations at their headquarters near Hayden Lake, Idaho. In all, he would attend at least three Aryan Nations functions during his time in Idaho.
[edit] Ruby Ridge
Main article: Ruby Ridge
Randy Weaver was initially arrested by BATF agents on charges relating to posession of an illegally shortened shotgun in January 1991. This was compounded by Weaver's failure to appear in court to answer these charges; he was served with court papers that incorrectly identified the date for his appearance. A bench warrant was issued for Weaver's arrest, and the U.S. Marshals Service was directed to serve it; the assistance of the Marshals Special Operations Group was requested for this purpose. During this period, Weaver isolated himself on his property and became increasingly suspicious of the federal government, vowing to fight rather than surrender peacefully. A plan for voluntary surrender was drawn up by the Marshals Service during October 1991, but refused by the U.S. attorney involved in the case.
After long-term surveillance of the Weaver property in preparation for an arrest, the Deputy Director of the Special Operations Group of the Marshals Service recommended against a tactical assault on the Weaver compound. He recommended that the indictment be dismissed and then refiled later under seal, so Weaver would be unaware of the new indictment, in hope of causing Weaver to drop his guard. An undercover operation could then be executed to arrest Weaver without incident. His recommendation was not passed on, and on August 21, 1992, several well-armed U.S. Marshals went to the Weaver property to clandestinely survey it; they hoped to update their information about the property, as it had last been surveyed in May 1992. The group had strict orders that they were to avoid all contact with the Weaver family. According to a Department of Justice report on the incident, the Marshals were detected by the Weavers' dogs and began to retreat. Randy Weaver, his 14-year-old son Sam and his house guest, family friend Kevin Harris, left the house to investigate, all carrying firearms. The DOJ report corroborates this with a statement dictated by Randy Weaver to his daughter, in which he says that "Approximately 11:30 Friday morning....the dogs started barking like they always do when strangers walk up the driveway. Randy, Kevin, and Sam ran out to the rock with their weapons." Eventually the Marshals stopped retreating and took up defensive positions in the woods.
The sequence of events during the ensuing shootout is disputed, with Weaver and Harris saying that the camoflauged Marshals fired first and did not identify themselves. The Marshals' version of events is they were fired on first after identifying themselves. In the ensuing exchange of gunfire, the dog was killed, Sam was fatally shot in the back and arm, and Harris shot and killed U.S. Marshal William Degan.
The next day, an FBI sniper named Lon Horiuchi shot and wounded Weaver from the back while Weaver, Harris, and Weaver's 16-year-old daughter were outside, attempting to visit the body of Sam Weaver, which was placed in a shed after being recovered the previous day. As the three ran back to the house, Horiuchi fired again, in an attempt to shoot Kevin Harris, but the shot went through the open door of the cabin. It hit Weaver's wife Vicki in the head and instantly killed her, while only wounding Harris. Vicki Weaver was holding her 10 month old baby Elishiba at the time. Much later a robot vehicle approached the cabin and announced the presence of law enforcement. According to the Weavers, this was the first announcement of the source of the violence. Much controversy was later generated by the fact that, after the first day's events, the FBI had changed the rules of engagement; specifically, "deadly force could be used against any armed adult male if the shot could be taken without a child being injured."
A stand-off ensued for ten days as several hundred federal agents surrounded the house, in which Weaver and his three surviving children remained with Harris and the body of Vicki Weaver. The FBI engaged in psychological warfare. They repeated over the bullhorn such things as “Good morning Mrs. Weaver,” “We had pancakes this morning. And what did you have for breakfast? Why don't you send your children out for some pancakes, Mrs. Weaver?” The FBI maintains that they were unaware that Vicki Weaver was dead.
The area was surrounded by protesters angered at the heavy-handed nature of the authorities' actions. James "Bo" Gritz, then a third-party presidential candidate who had formerly been Weaver's commanding officer during the Vietnam War, served as a mediator between Weaver and the government. Eventually, Weaver elected to abandon the stand-off and surrender.
[edit] Aftermath of the Ruby Ridge Incident
Weaver was charged with multiple crimes relating to the Ruby Ridge incident, including the original firearms charges and murder. Attorney Gerry Spence handled Weaver's defense, and argued successfully that Weaver's actions were justifiable as self-defense. The jury acquitted Weaver of all charges except that of failure to appear, for which Weaver was fined $10,000 and sentenced to 18 months in prison. He was credited with time served plus an additional three months, and was then released. Subsequently, the government paid $308,000 to Kevin Harris (who was acquitted of all criminal charges), $100,000 to Randall Weaver, and $1,000,000 to each of the surviving Weaver children to settle their lawsuits against the government.
In 1996, Weaver offered to "help end the standoff between" the Montana Freemen and the FBI, but his offer was declined.[2]
In 1997, the District Attorney for Boundary County, Idaho charged Horiuchi with involuntary manslaughter, but the indictment was removed to federal jurisdiction based on the Supremacy Clause and eventually dismissed at the federal prosecutor's request.
[edit] References
[edit] See also
[edit] External links
- Chapter two of From Freedom to Slavery by Gerry Spence
- "Idaho vs Randy Weaver" from the CourtTV Crime Library
- Summary of an Appeals Court ruling on Horiuchi; includes Special Rules of Engagement and a dissent by Judge Alex Kozinski
