Gordon Kahl

Davey Crockett

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Does anyone remember this event ? There are two sides to every story and this one gets thick for me. I remember like yesterday when my old man said , I know that guy. My Dad was into antiques and that was the hay day for small farm auctions and at a Medina auction Gordon noticed he was buying antiques and walked up to my dad and offered to sell him an old wood stove. After the auction they went to Gordons farm and he bought it and they loaded it and went in the house and had coffee. My Dad said he was one of the nicest guys he had ever visited with. There was an interesting post on KX news Facebook page tonight where family was posting.

The story for you young whippersnappers .




I just hope we can learn from it . It's important to exercise our rights but be careful where you draw that line in the sand and be aware what is on the other side of that line.
 


NDbowman

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I was pretty young when this all took place but remember my parents talking about it. My parents also saved quite a few newspaper clippings from when it happened. A few winters ago I got interested in the story so read about it online and in books. Probably the best book on the subject is "Its all about Power" written by Darrell Graf and Steve Schnabel who were both policeman in Medina when it took place. Very interesting and sad to see how Graf and Schnabel were treated after this. That book I think shows the real side of things. The other book I've read is "Bitter Harvest". Also another good read on the subject, gets a little more into what happened afterwards when Kahl was killed and the cover up.
 

Obi-Wan

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Didn't they kill his dog and shoot up his vacant house in rural ND when they were looking for him after the standoff
 

PrairieGhost

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I was working in my office when the FBI walked in with a friend of mine from the ND Crime Bureau and asked me to do air photos of the crime scene. Also the lady in the farm yard where they shot from the corner of their house grew up a mile from my wife, and it was a frightening experience for them.

It was thoughtful of the marshals to stop them out of town, but foolish to do it armed only with pistols. One of our deputies was shot, but when Gordan walked up to finish him off he seen the country uniform and walked away.

A number of things made me scratch my head. The FBI guys were very pleasant, but I found some of the marshals downright rude. When I told one he was an ahole the FBI guy standing behind him got a big smile on his face. I thought he agreed with me.

As for Gordon I don't believe he was a racist as they portrayed in the tv movie, but he sure was a hypocrite. He cashed every gov check that came his way, but would not pay his taxes. I'm sure like others he could be kind to people he liked, but willing to murder others. Some may say he was fighting for his rights, but that's not true. Unfortunately when you take, but will not give, and break the law in doing so you are fighting for greed.
 
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eyexer

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I remember it too. But vaguely. Read some stuff on it. Crazy deal. But I think of him and his deal every year when I get my taxes together. If he hadn’t killed police officers I think he would have gotten a lot of support.
 


BP338

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Wow, interesting story. I've never heard of this before. Foggy deal for sure. Two things that I feel I can take away from this. One, extremism is bad. In any aspect of life. Moderation in ALL things. In order to live in a free, peaceful society, we have to balance between give and take. You may have to abide by a law that doesn't really suit you, but it helps in other places. Be careful what lines you cross and what stances you take. Is it just good for me? Or can it help everyone as a whole? Two, I feel like there were procedures that may not have been followed exactly by law enforcement. I'm not saying that they did anything illegal or morally wrong. I won't take a stance on who's wrong or right. But, if they had procedures, they weren't followed. If they didn't have procedures, they needed them bad. Doing routine things can kill you. Simple task, let your guard down, die...This apply's to many aspects of life. Most of the time, rules, policies, best practices, and restrictions are written in blood.

Thanks for sharing!
 

JayKay

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My dad had told me about this many times. He came upon the site shortly after it all went down. The authorities apparently had an ambulance ready, just down the road? Or at least that's the story he told.
 

Sum1

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0C2145DE-1413-4543-A711-29998F636558.jpeg
When is see crap like this I wonder if maybe ole Gordy wasn’t on to something. Tyranny is prevailing while good men do nothing. There is something really wrong here.

- - - Updated - - -

My dad had told me about this many times. He came upon the site shortly after it all went down. The authorities apparently had an ambulance ready, just down the road? Or at least that's the story he told.
Everyone should read that book those two officers wrote. The US marshals thought they were gonna make an example out him is what I took out of it and it backfired.
 


ND 41 Hunter

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I was going to college in Minot at the time and as I was heading back at night and I was stopped just south of Minot. I had an officer with a flashlight in my eyes and I could just make out another officer with a shotgun pointed at me off to the right. I remember he was nervous as hell, but after a couple of questions and a quick peak in the back seat of my car he sent me on my way.
 

PrairieGhost

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BP338 your right about radicals. To give you an idea what some of these people are like they offered a $50K reward for anyone that killed the deputy that Gordon let go. I knew people on both sides of this conflict. It was a perfect storm and the officers killed had families too, and were only doing their job. Gordon's group didn't talk to enough people to keep perspective. Although I don't understand how anyone could justify cashing all the checks he received and not paying taxes. Not only were there no winners, but everyone involved lost something, life, freedom, reputation etc. The guys writing the stories were not squeaky clean either. I knew doctor Martin in Median also. Very nice guy with some messed up ideas. What a tragedy all around.

Greed is a killer. Probably Bundy's problem.
 
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fly2cast

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I don't care how nice he was or how right his opinions were or how mean the federal guys were, you don't handle things that way. You handle things the legal way and take your lumps in life. I've worked in the Medina/Heaton area and I do not like it. There are a bunch of whiners there that like to complain about everything the government does.
 


KDM

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Whenever anyone makes a stand against the state, the incident very often becomes VERY SHORT ON FACTS while conversely becoming VERY LONG ON MOUTH. Lots of stories about what happened, mostly spread by those NOT INVOLVED, but very few facts on who did what, when, where, why, and how. Everything was focused on the "Radical" Gordon Kahl and how terrible he and his ideas were. LE did nothing wrong and were "Only doing their job". I love that statement. We will never know. Ruby Ridge and Waco Texas are a couple of other events that spring to mind that had the same narrative. I think LE made some horrible violations of Mr. Kahls rights as well as epic violations of their own procedures, but refuse to admit it. I think Mr. Kahl also made some horrible decisions that had obviously had disastrous consequences for many people. When one side is silenced "Killed", all you get is the opposing side of the story. When I only get one side of the story, I tend to believe NOBODY.
 

BrokenBackJack

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Gordon and his family were long family friends and also was my ex-wifes uncle.
He was a super nice guy and a heck of a mechanic and would do anything for anyone. He was super honest too as he was a man of his word.
What so many of you read and heard isn't Gordon at all. Also as far as government payments he wouldn't take them when they were offered to him. The ACS office would keep trying to get him to sign his farm up to the programs and he wouldn't do it. We know this for a fact so like i said everything you heard isn't correct. Once when they came out and arrested him for not doing income tax he proved to them he didn't owe any tax but he still wouldn't file his income tax and that is what the whole thing was about not filing as he didn't owe. So that part of their story isn't correct either. He did serve time in Federal prison for not filing and said he wouldn't go back to prison ever.

The real terrible thing about the whole situation is at any given time they could have grabbed him walking down the street in Carrington or Sykeston but they wanted to make a tax time statement and it back fired on them. Sad deal people were injured and some died and many lives were ruined. No one came out a winner in this deal for sure.

Gordon was very head strong and i mean head strong when it came to government and taxes. We would go round and round about it as we both didn't like taxes but for me how do you run local, state, and federal governments without taxing? It really turned out to be a bad situation and other tries at taking down people like KDM stated above.
 
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Allen

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He was assassinated by the FEDS. Bottom line is there is no winning when it comes to armed confrontation with the FEDS.


Wrong on first statement, and I completed your second for you. If the govt were to allow Kahl, the Whackos in Waco, or the Dumbass up on Ruby Ridge to win in a shootout, all it would do is encourage more people to take up arms against the govt. Anyone here really want to live in anarchy?
 

eyexer

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I don’t understand why the feds didn’t just seize his assets and sell them for the taxes owed? They obviously felt he owed taxes. They could have seized his bank records etc. granted a lot of stuff wasn’t done financially back then like today. But there still had to be some kind of paper trail of some sort.
 

BrokenBackJack

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I don’t understand why the feds didn’t just seize his assets and sell them for the taxes owed? They obviously felt he owed taxes. They could have seized his bank records etc. granted a lot of stuff wasn’t done financially back then like today. But there still had to be some kind of paper trail of some sort.

Read my statement above as he proved to the IRS he didn't owe any taxes. They got him for not filing his taxes. They always stated for taxes owed as it sounded better and people wouldn't be so quick to give sympathy.
Don't get me wrong as i feel this whole thing could have been avoided and Gordon could have and should have done things differently. Trouble is he kept telling more and more people about not paying taxes and the Government didn't want to hear that and Gordon wouldn't quit and believe me they kept telling him to just not be vocal about it but he wouldn't listen.
 


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