Latest / Wicked and Grim: A True Crime Podcast / The Ruby Ridge Incident - Part 2
Transcript
- 0:07Speaker 1: In the last episode of Wicked and Grim, we discussed
- 0:10Speaker 1: part one of Ruby Rich. Today we expand further and
- 0:14Speaker 1: dive into part two.
- 0:16Speaker 2: My name's Ben and I'm Nicole, and you're listening to
- 0:19Speaker 2: Wicked and Grim, a true crime podcast. Warning.
- 0:24Speaker 1: The following podcast and material intended for a mature audience
- 0:31Speaker 1: listener discription. I want to start off and just let
- 0:54Speaker 1: everyone know there may be some noises from our MIC's today.
- 0:59Speaker 1: We have a new micro our phone stands and are
- 1:01Speaker 1: trying to get used to them. So if you hear
- 1:02Speaker 1: things like this, we're sorry. We are very sorry. We're
- 1:06Speaker 1: trying to get used to them. We will do our
- 1:07Speaker 1: best to make absolutely no noise with them.
- 1:10Speaker 2: I feel like, well they're tabletop MIC's, so they're I
- 1:13Speaker 2: feel like a little bit more sensitive too.
- 1:15Speaker 1: They are. Yeah, So where we got these so we
- 1:17Speaker 1: can actually get ready to record the episodes for video
- 1:20Speaker 1: and put them up on YouTube. So this way our
- 1:22Speaker 1: MIC's are out of our face.
- 1:24Speaker 2: Pretty exciting.
- 1:24Speaker 1: So yeah, so yeah, that we're we're getting really close.
- 1:27Speaker 1: We're gonna be recording some episodes here and we'll let
- 1:29Speaker 1: you know when it's available over on YouTube. If you
- 1:31Speaker 1: want to go subscribe early feel free to check it out.
- 1:33Speaker 1: It's Wicked Life link down below. We're doing blogs and
- 1:35Speaker 1: stuff over there too. So yeah, we also got to
- 1:39Speaker 1: thank some patrons.
- 1:40Speaker 2: We do.
- 1:40Speaker 1: We have two to thank, we do so we have
- 1:42Speaker 1: Joe Burrow and Julia Schroeder.
- 1:45Speaker 2: Awesome, Thank you guys, Thank you so much.
- 1:47Speaker 1: We both signed up and are getting that extra behind
- 1:49Speaker 1: the scenes content. We just did a little pre show
- 1:52Speaker 1: that we uploaded over on Patreon.
- 1:54Speaker 2: It wasn't really that little. It was like thirteen minutes,
- 1:57Speaker 2: fair enough.
- 1:57Speaker 1: When we do a pre show, our target is about
- 1:59Speaker 1: like ten minutes, just like a little warm up, you know,
- 2:01Speaker 1: checking the mic levels and just bullshit and shooting the shit.
- 2:03Speaker 2: We had a lot to say.
- 2:05Speaker 1: I guess, so, I guess so, so you want to
- 2:07Speaker 1: go check that out. You could check it out over
- 2:08Speaker 1: on Patreon. But I know Nicole is really antsy.
- 2:13Speaker 2: I know the day has come four part two of shit.
- 2:18Speaker 2: I forget what's it called, like the Ruby Ridge incident? Okay,
- 2:23Speaker 2: I probably would not have remembered that, but anyway, we
- 2:25Speaker 2: left kind of like at quite the scene, and this
- 2:30Speaker 2: has been all my mind all week.
- 2:32Speaker 1: We did leave it quite the scene, and apparently I
- 2:34Speaker 1: got in shit a few times from Nicole because this
- 2:37Speaker 1: has been not an easy one for her to get through.
- 2:39Speaker 2: Apparently I had to resist the urge to look up anything.
- 2:42Speaker 1: Did you were you contemplating it maybe.
- 2:45Speaker 2: For like a brief second? Wow, I didn't know.
- 2:49Speaker 1: Well, I'm glad you didn't. I'm gonna do a little
- 2:52Speaker 1: quick recap, just like a like a twenty second little
- 2:55Speaker 1: like in your face. Here's what happened last episode. Uh So,
- 2:58Speaker 1: in part one, we discussed Randy Weaver and his family.
- 3:01Speaker 1: We talked about how he and his wife, Vicki, had
- 3:04Speaker 1: moved to an isolated ridge which is now dubbed Ruby Ridge,
- 3:07Speaker 1: to live off grid and raise a family together. However,
- 3:10Speaker 1: despite a dispute with neighbors and an undercover FBI agent
- 3:15Speaker 1: who managed to course Randy into selling illegal firearms, had
- 3:19Speaker 1: him in quite a tough spot who was facing charges
- 3:21Speaker 1: and refused to work out a deal with the FBI
- 3:24Speaker 1: as an informant. This unfortunately led Randy to missing his
- 3:28Speaker 1: trial and seeking refuge in his secluded property. Authorities knew
- 3:33Speaker 1: Randy could be ready to fight at any moment and
- 3:36Speaker 1: tried to apprehend him, so by doing so, they began
- 3:39Speaker 1: intense surveillance and even sent a military reconnaissance team with
- 3:43Speaker 1: N sixteen rifles. Fully kitted up in Gillie suits. The
- 3:47Speaker 1: team closed in in the home a cabin perched in
- 3:49Speaker 1: the middle of their property, and attempted to gain the
- 3:53Speaker 1: family dog, Striker's attention by throwing a rock. The plan worked,
- 3:57Speaker 1: and they got Striker's attention and now the dog along
- 4:00Speaker 1: with Randy, Sun, Sammy, and a family friend, Kevin, who
- 4:03Speaker 1: was living with them, and they were headed out of
- 4:06Speaker 1: the house and headed straight towards the concealed men with
- 4:09Speaker 1: rifles in hand.
- 4:10Speaker 2: Gosh, okay, and just so that when he missed his
- 4:14Speaker 2: court hearing, that was because the parole officer had told
- 4:18Speaker 2: him the wrong date though too right correct. Yeah. So see,
- 4:21Speaker 2: there's there's so many pieces to this that just seems
- 4:23Speaker 2: so almost unfair.
- 4:25Speaker 1: I guess, oh, it's it's a big case. Yeah, and
- 4:29Speaker 1: like you say, it is very unfair to say.
- 4:33Speaker 2: Yes, okay, so frig I oh, now that we're here, I'm.
- 4:37Speaker 1: Almost just like, shit, you're just nervous.
- 4:39Speaker 2: I don't know if I want to know what happens. Well,
- 4:41Speaker 2: I don't feel like it's going to be good.
- 4:43Speaker 1: No, no, okay, Well, well I'm gonna divulge what happened,
- 4:47Speaker 1: and I'm going to tell you if it was good
- 4:48Speaker 1: or bad. Well, I'm sure you can hear that for yourself.
- 4:51Speaker 1: But here we go. You ready, Yeah, okay, let's do this. So,
- 4:56Speaker 1: as the two boys and the dog were headed in
- 4:58Speaker 1: the direction of the reconnaissance team, the Marshalls hutting in
- 5:01Speaker 1: the bush. They initially the reconnaissance team initially withdrew the
- 5:07Speaker 1: defense into the woods. So the boys were coming out
- 5:09Speaker 1: of the cabin with guns and hands and the dog
- 5:12Speaker 1: coming as well, and they kind of backed up and
- 5:13Speaker 1: headed back towards the bush. So they hadn't been seen yet,
- 5:18Speaker 1: but they managed to reach a pivotal wide junction on
- 5:20Speaker 1: a trail, and this was positioned about five hundred yards
- 5:24Speaker 1: west of their cabin. However, the dog striker was now
- 5:28Speaker 1: sniffing about and knowing something was going going wrong or
- 5:32Speaker 1: someone was around, so Sammy and Kevin trailed behind him
- 5:37Speaker 1: through this thick foliage. Now, the following events are debated
- 5:42Speaker 1: to this day, with conflicting accounts from the agents and
- 5:45Speaker 1: the weavers on what exactly led the unfolding events. But
- 5:51Speaker 1: we're going to go with the events that are most
- 5:53Speaker 1: recognized as truth.
- 5:55Speaker 2: Okay, yes, sir so.
- 5:57Speaker 1: According to the agents, one scout claimed to have doubted
- 6:00Speaker 1: quote back off US Marshal upon seeing Sammy Weaver approaching,
- 6:05Speaker 1: while another asserted to have shouted stop us Marshal as
- 6:09Speaker 1: they approached. Whatever the case, it was roughly a minute
- 6:13Speaker 1: later when Sammy and Striker emerged from the trees near
- 6:17Speaker 1: one of the marshals, with the dog Striker approaching one
- 6:20Speaker 1: of the concealed marshals who is hiding in a bush.
- 6:23Speaker 1: In this critical moment, that very marshal opened fire upon
- 6:28Speaker 1: the dog from his concealed position, as he apparently feared
- 6:32Speaker 1: Striker was going to attack him, and he fatally shot
- 6:36Speaker 1: him all on a whim. No, yes, he opened fired
- 6:42Speaker 1: and killed Striker.
- 6:44Speaker 2: Just like that, just like that. Oh my gosh, I'm pissed.
- 6:49Speaker 1: Yeah, the dog, the dog. If anyone knows, Nicole it
- 6:53Speaker 1: all you never hurt the animals.
- 6:55Speaker 2: Well no, And they were the ones that provoked the dog.
- 7:00Speaker 1: They were They were the ones who threw the rock
- 7:02Speaker 1: at a cabin to get the dog's attention. Yeah, so
- 7:04Speaker 1: now the dog is, hey, you have my attention, what's up?
- 7:07Speaker 2: And they shot him and the dog literally has no
- 7:10Speaker 2: idea what is going on with anything? Correct, hole just
- 7:13Speaker 2: knows that someone's on the prom Okay, oh yeah, I'll
- 7:16Speaker 2: keep well.
- 7:16Speaker 1: And not only this, Sammy is standing right there and
- 7:20Speaker 1: watched his dog get shot.
- 7:22Speaker 2: Oh, I would actually probably lose my mofal mind.
- 7:28Speaker 1: Striker got shot right in front of his eyes by
- 7:30Speaker 1: something that was just hiding in a bush. So Sammy
- 7:33Speaker 1: didn't even know who or what shot his dog.
- 7:35Speaker 2: Shit.
- 7:36Speaker 1: He did yell out, quote, you've killed my dog, you
- 7:40Speaker 1: son of a bitch, and then he aimed his rifle
- 7:43Speaker 1: into the underbrush in the direction from the concealed shot,
- 7:47Speaker 1: and he pulled the trigger.
- 7:50Speaker 2: Oh my gosh, okay, that is it's getting wild here.
- 7:54Speaker 2: But honestly, like, okay, maybe I shouldn't keep talking. But
- 7:58Speaker 2: if I was armed and in situation, I would lose
- 8:01Speaker 2: my shit too.
- 8:02Speaker 1: Well, and put it this way, you're probably only assuming
- 8:05Speaker 1: that you're next. You don't know who's in the bush.
- 8:07Speaker 1: You don't see them. This is a kid who watched
- 8:10Speaker 1: his dog get shot and is now in his self
- 8:12Speaker 1: defense position because he had no idea who's in there.
- 8:16Speaker 2: Well, yeah, and that dog is like a family member.
- 8:18Speaker 1: Yeah. Now, as I mentioned earlier, the Marshals did allege
- 8:22Speaker 1: that one of them shouted back off us Marshall and
- 8:24Speaker 1: the other one shouted stop us Marshall, but no one
- 8:28Speaker 1: can clarify. It's just these two just saying, yeah, I
- 8:31Speaker 1: said something.
- 8:31Speaker 2: Well and to a kid, what does that mean?
- 8:33Speaker 1: Even even if they did, Yeah, even if they did,
- 8:36Speaker 1: how do they know if he heard them?
- 8:38Speaker 2: Yeah?
- 8:39Speaker 1: Clearly, probably not because the kid kept pursuing.
- 8:43Speaker 2: But would a ten year old kid also even know
- 8:45Speaker 2: what that means?
- 8:46Speaker 1: I don't know.
- 8:46Speaker 2: Like, I don't know. If I would have it ten,
- 8:47Speaker 2: i'd be it cool.
- 8:48Speaker 1: I don't know if Sammy's ten. I'm not sure of his.
- 8:50Speaker 2: Age, to be fair, Oh okay, I don't know why
- 8:52Speaker 2: I thought ten.
- 8:52Speaker 1: Well, I do know he is. He is a younger
- 8:54Speaker 1: kid about that age, but I don't know if he
- 8:56Speaker 1: is ten per s. He might could be around fifteen
- 8:58Speaker 1: or something, for all I am sure of. I didn't
- 9:00Speaker 1: actually look up his age. But with the shots now
- 9:03Speaker 1: being fired from two different directions, Kevin quickly dove to
- 9:08Speaker 1: find cover behind a tree stump, and he retaliated with
- 9:11Speaker 1: a single unaimed shot into the bush. Kind of, there's
- 9:15Speaker 1: firing happening over here. I'm just returning fire because they are,
- 9:19Speaker 1: I mean, under siege. We just went over this with Hey,
- 9:22Speaker 1: some strange person in the bush is shooting at us.
- 9:25Speaker 1: And when Kevin shot into the bush, he hit one
- 9:28Speaker 1: of the marshals and killed Deputy US Marshall William Francis
- 9:33Speaker 1: aka Bill Degan.
- 9:35Speaker 2: Oh man, is that the one that killed the dog?
- 9:38Speaker 2: Or is that a different one?
- 9:39Speaker 1: I wonder, Hey, I'm not too sure.
- 9:42Speaker 2: Okay, but geez, it's dark out. They're like disguised. This
- 9:47Speaker 2: is a freaking disaster.
- 9:49Speaker 1: Yeah. So, now, responding to the gunfire upon them, the
- 9:53Speaker 1: marshals once again shot in the direction of the boys,
- 9:56Speaker 1: and Sammy Weaver was shot in the arm. Now being
- 10:00Speaker 1: shot himself, he quickly turned and attempted to flee up
- 10:03Speaker 1: the hill towards the house where he'd come from. However,
- 10:06Speaker 1: another shot wrung out from the marshals and hit Sammy
- 10:09Speaker 1: square in the back and looked him to the ground dead. Seriously, yes,
- 10:16Speaker 1: they shot him in the back.
- 10:19Speaker 2: Oh my gosh. Okay, and this is the actual sun right?
- 10:24Speaker 1: Not correct?
- 10:24Speaker 2: Okay, this has just gotten real out of hand here.
- 10:27Speaker 2: I don't think this should be okay at all.
- 10:30Speaker 1: No subsequent ballistic analysts later on revealed that a total
- 10:36Speaker 1: of nineteen rounds were discharged during the intense confrontation.
- 10:42Speaker 2: WHOA, I mean, I knew something kind of like this
- 10:46Speaker 2: maybe would have gone down, but this is brutal.
- 10:50Speaker 1: It's intense. I can't imagine being in that situation, let
- 10:53Speaker 1: alone a child or a kid or a teen being
- 10:55Speaker 1: in that situation. Kevin understandably is now like scared shitless,
- 11:00Speaker 1: so he brought to his feet and he managed to
- 11:02Speaker 1: run back to the cabin in the whole aftermath of
- 11:04Speaker 1: the firefight, and when he got to the cabin, apparently
- 11:07Speaker 1: the cries and screams of the whole Weaver family were
- 11:10Speaker 1: like echoing through the woods as Kevin actually told them
- 11:13Speaker 1: the events of what happened and the fact that Sammy
- 11:15Speaker 1: was now dead.
- 11:17Speaker 2: Gosh.
- 11:18Speaker 1: Randy was apparently so overwhelmed with grief he was rolling
- 11:21Speaker 1: on the floor, pounding his fists and even went outside
- 11:23Speaker 1: and was firing his gun into the air in a
- 11:26Speaker 1: fit of rage. Vicky, his wife, who's kind of like
- 11:30Speaker 1: the being the pillar of family strength in that moment,
- 11:33Speaker 1: did her best to console her distraught husband and the
- 11:36Speaker 1: rest of the family as well.
- 11:38Speaker 2: Wow, well, I mean, they just they literally just killed
- 11:41Speaker 2: two of their family members.
- 11:42Speaker 1: They did, Oh my gosh. Okay, So the Weaver family
- 11:47Speaker 1: soon managed to actually make their way out of the
- 11:49Speaker 1: home and retrieve Sammy's lifeless body. Meanwhile, the agents called
- 11:55Speaker 1: for reinforcements and asserted that they were quote pinned down
- 12:00Speaker 1: gunfire and urgently needed assistance. I mean, strangely, despite their
- 12:04Speaker 1: heightened surveillance around the property and also being right there
- 12:08Speaker 1: apparently pinned down or that's important because if you're pinned
- 12:13Speaker 1: down the same spot, you'd probably see you're down, victim,
- 12:16Speaker 1: you just shot right. The agents claimed they had no
- 12:20Speaker 1: idea Sammy Weaver had died.
- 12:22Speaker 2: Oh, they would have known where they were shooting. I
- 12:25Speaker 2: feel like because they would have had I don't know,
- 12:28Speaker 2: technology or or whatever to be of a see in
- 12:32Speaker 2: the dark and like see their target.
- 12:33Speaker 1: No, this is this is not like in the They
- 12:37Speaker 1: did have like night vision and stuff like that that
- 12:40Speaker 1: they were equipped with, but it was more so like
- 12:42Speaker 1: through the trees and the bush and that sort of
- 12:44Speaker 1: stuff was more so the problem. But the problem, a
- 12:47Speaker 1: big thing here is they claimed they were pinned down
- 12:50Speaker 1: by gunfire. Pinned down means you can't move, You're in
- 12:53Speaker 1: this spot, you can't go anywhere, hence why you need backup. However,
- 12:59Speaker 1: they did not. No, Sammy died and the family was
- 13:02Speaker 1: actually able to come to retrieve his body. So they
- 13:06Speaker 1: did not see the family come up, because they would
- 13:08Speaker 1: have shot at them too, and they didn't see his
- 13:10Speaker 1: dead body. They were not pinned.
- 13:12Speaker 2: Down, No, and they weren't. No one was armed at
- 13:16Speaker 2: that towards them at that moment. Really.
- 13:18Speaker 1: Oh they probably were, But if there was a firefight
- 13:21Speaker 1: in the bush and your kid was just killed, I'm
- 13:23Speaker 1: pretty sure you're walking out.
- 13:24Speaker 2: But it's not like they're like hunkered down and just
- 13:27Speaker 2: like you know.
- 13:27Speaker 1: No, they weren't being pinned down. Yeah, but they claimed
- 13:30Speaker 1: they were chase. So the reports of casualties and the
- 13:35Speaker 1: Weavers perceived as armed and dangerous. Additional snipers and special
- 13:39Speaker 1: agents were dispatched to the tents standoff, in a marked
- 13:43Speaker 1: departure from the standoff rules of engagement, which typically mandates
- 13:47Speaker 1: firing only when agents face imminent danger, which arguably that
- 13:53Speaker 1: one Marshall who shot the dog claims because he feared
- 13:57Speaker 1: the dog could have attacked him. We'll just assume he's
- 14:01Speaker 1: right on that, okay, because that's completely up for debate.
- 14:04Speaker 1: But we'll just assume, we'll give him the benefit of
- 14:05Speaker 1: the doubt, so assume that you can only fire when
- 14:11Speaker 1: faced with imminent danger. However, the FBI decided to alter
- 14:14Speaker 1: the rules in this scenario. Now now agents and snipers
- 14:18Speaker 1: were authorized to shoot quote, any adult male with a
- 14:23Speaker 1: weapon if the shot can be taken without endangering children.
- 14:27Speaker 1: That's regardless of any immediate threat to the agents whatsoever.
- 14:32Speaker 1: The approval of legitimacy to this charge remains subject of debate.
- 14:37Speaker 1: There's some paperwork that says it was never approved, but
- 14:41Speaker 1: they did it anyways, And someone some saying that this
- 14:44Speaker 1: guy is the one who told us to but he's
- 14:46Speaker 1: then going back and saying I didn't. It's a whole
- 14:48Speaker 1: convoluted thing. But regardless, that was the situation at the.
- 14:53Speaker 2: Time, and that one boy should never have been shot.
- 14:57Speaker 2: Really no, there's no way that that would have been
- 14:59Speaker 2: a proved I don't see. I can't see that in it.
- 15:02Speaker 1: There was no immediate threat. His back was turned, he
- 15:06Speaker 1: was running.
- 15:06Speaker 2: Yet, Oh my gosh, that just gave me a visual.
- 15:10Speaker 2: That's actually sad as well.
- 15:12Speaker 1: It really is.
- 15:13Speaker 2: Oh.
- 15:14Speaker 1: Now, the family was preparing to pray over Sammy's body
- 15:17Speaker 1: before they buried him, and they currently had him in
- 15:20Speaker 1: the berthing shed, the one that we had talked about
- 15:22Speaker 1: in the last episode. So Randy, Sarah, and Kevin were
- 15:27Speaker 1: armed as they needed to be, and unfortunately now they
- 15:30Speaker 1: became the focus of the waiting snipers who were called
- 15:33Speaker 1: in as backup. So these three were leaving the house
- 15:36Speaker 1: to head out to the shed to where Sammy's body was,
- 15:41Speaker 1: and as the three approached the shed to morn, a
- 15:43Speaker 1: shot rang off through the air and Randy was hit
- 15:47Speaker 1: near his armpit by a sniper's bullet. Sarah quickly leapt
- 15:51Speaker 1: leapt into action and shielded her father from another shot
- 15:54Speaker 1: as they rushed back towards the house, where Vicki, his wife,
- 15:58Speaker 1: held the door wide open with her ten month old
- 16:02Speaker 1: Elisabeth in her arms. Now Randy and Sarah made it inside,
- 16:07Speaker 1: but as Kevin entered, sniper lown Rouchie fired again towards
- 16:12Speaker 1: the open door of the house. While he claims he
- 16:15Speaker 1: was aiming for Kevin, the bullet tragically hit another target. First. Heartbreakingly,
- 16:22Speaker 1: the shot tore through Vicky Weaver's face, killing her instantly,
- 16:26Speaker 1: before it followed through and hit Kevin in the chest.
- 16:30Speaker 2: Okay, so sorry, who's Vicky? Is that the mom?
- 16:32Speaker 1: That's Randy's wife? Yes, okay, as she is holding their
- 16:36Speaker 1: ten month old child in her arms.
- 16:37Speaker 2: Holy shit, and it hit her where in the face,
- 16:41Speaker 2: so she's gone dead. And then hit Kevin in the chest.
- 16:46Speaker 2: And isn't Kevin also a kid? Technically I think would
- 16:50Speaker 2: he be considered an ask?
- 16:51Speaker 1: Probably an adult because a little bit of a spoiler
- 16:55Speaker 1: alert here, he was tried later as an adult. Okay,
- 16:58Speaker 1: so I'm not too certain on it age, but he
- 17:00Speaker 1: is not. He is definitely of an adult age, but
- 17:03Speaker 1: he's still certainly young.
- 17:04Speaker 2: Oh my gosh, this this does not seem okay, this
- 17:08Speaker 2: does not seem.
- 17:09Speaker 1: Okay, No, it's not.
- 17:11Speaker 2: So now the dog's dead, the kid's dead, and now
- 17:15Speaker 2: the wife's dead as well.
- 17:16Speaker 1: Yep, and Randy and Sarah were now forced to drag
- 17:20Speaker 1: Vicki's lifeless body into the house with her arms still
- 17:24Speaker 1: wrapped around and cradling the infant.
- 17:27Speaker 2: Good okay, wow, goodness gracious.
- 17:31Speaker 1: So they laid her down in the kitchen, and due
- 17:33Speaker 1: to the family now being pinned down by military snipers
- 17:36Speaker 1: in their home, this is where she would remain for
- 17:39Speaker 1: several days.
- 17:43Speaker 2: Okay, oh, this just keeps getting worse.
- 17:48Speaker 1: Yeah, they couldn't leave the house.
- 17:50Speaker 2: And literally, oh my gosh, she's just like in front
- 17:53Speaker 2: of the family just having this. It's like she's, you know,
- 17:57Speaker 2: decome decomposing. Oh. I can't even say it, like I
- 18:00Speaker 2: just okay. Oh that's so so bad, it's horrible. Mm hmm.
- 18:06Speaker 2: And then they weren't able to lay Zam to rest
- 18:09Speaker 2: like they wanted either.
- 18:10Speaker 1: He's currently laying in the shed.
- 18:14Speaker 2: Okay.
- 18:16Speaker 1: So, Kevin, though, was now gravely injured. He had a
- 18:19Speaker 1: shot to the chest, and over the course of the
- 18:22Speaker 1: following days while he was tended to, he pleaded with
- 18:25Speaker 1: Randy to end his pain and misery. Randy, however, refused
- 18:32Speaker 1: to give up on him.
- 18:34Speaker 2: Well, yeah, he needed medical attention, I guess he did.
- 18:37Speaker 1: But they couldn't get it. They were pinned down. The
- 18:40Speaker 1: only way they could do this was by handing themselves
- 18:44Speaker 1: over to the FBI. And who knows what's going to
- 18:47Speaker 1: go on. Yeah, yep, now get this though, this is
- 18:51Speaker 1: really fucked up. You're going to hate this. After the
- 18:53Speaker 1: second confrontation, federal agents armed with radio equipment because remember
- 18:58Speaker 1: they had like speakers under this home. They had shit going.
- 19:01Speaker 2: All over right, Oh, so they would know the dire
- 19:04Speaker 2: situation in there, Oh they would holy fuck.
- 19:06Speaker 1: Okay, but get this armed with all this equipment, they
- 19:12Speaker 1: taunted the besieged Weavers by probing into their daily lives.
- 19:16Speaker 1: The following morning, they took to the radio and speakers
- 19:19Speaker 1: by saying very loudly to them, quote, we had pancakes
- 19:23Speaker 1: for breakfast today. How about you, VICKI, What did you
- 19:27Speaker 1: eat today? How did you sleep last night? Vicky? Oh
- 19:34Speaker 1: my gosh, isn't that beyond fucked?
- 19:37Speaker 2: That is just almost inhumane? This is this is now.
- 19:42Speaker 2: The FBI claimed they didn't know about Vicky's death, but again,
- 19:46Speaker 2: they had the surveillance. They had a sniper who shot
- 19:48Speaker 2: her in the face. They would have saw it.
- 19:51Speaker 1: Bull shit.
- 19:52Speaker 2: Yeah they would have heard. Yeah, there's no way that
- 19:54Speaker 2: they wouldn't have heard.
- 19:55Speaker 1: There's no way.
- 19:57Speaker 2: Absolutely, that is disgusting. I am so fucking disgusted right now.
- 20:02Speaker 1: This is so you're telling me a trained sniper wouldn't
- 20:05Speaker 1: know he hit a target, a trained military sniper.
- 20:09Speaker 2: A target that was literally holding a baby.
- 20:11Speaker 1: Yeah, and one that the family had to drag into
- 20:15Speaker 1: the house and probably before they closed the door.
- 20:18Speaker 2: Mm hmm man, this is so. I don't know why
- 20:23Speaker 2: I was wanting to hear more of this.
- 20:27Speaker 1: This is fucked now. In another odd turn, the agents
- 20:31Speaker 1: actually deployed a robot to go up and try and
- 20:35Speaker 1: connect with the family. However, the robot was carrying a phone,
- 20:39Speaker 1: you know, to talk as well. It was armed with
- 20:42Speaker 1: a gun to establish communication. And why the fuck does
- 20:46Speaker 1: a robot have a gun?
- 20:47Speaker 2: Well, who's supposed to go out to greet the robot?
- 20:50Speaker 2: Because anyone that would, unless it's a child who could
- 20:54Speaker 2: still probably be hurt, Like, they're not going to go out.
- 20:57Speaker 1: There, exactly like the whole we were. Everyone inside the
- 21:00Speaker 1: house was extremely skeptical of this, Like this is a
- 21:03Speaker 1: fucking trap. Even the agents aren't going to shoot us.
- 21:06Speaker 1: Why the fuck does the robot have a gun? If
- 21:09Speaker 1: I go out there and try and grab the phone,
- 21:10Speaker 1: it's gonna shoot me, yeah, or someone.
- 21:12Speaker 2: Like it's because in their mind too, the kids wouldn't
- 21:16Speaker 2: weren't even safe.
- 21:17Speaker 1: No, so yeah, uh so, Like they're skeptical because there's
- 21:23Speaker 1: even radio reports now going out and like this is
- 21:26Speaker 1: news radio reports, right, Like so the news knows about this,
- 21:29Speaker 1: and they are saying how Randy had killed a federal agent.
- 21:33Speaker 1: But I mean it was Kevin who had shot into
- 21:35Speaker 1: the bush in retaliation and self defense and did kill one.
- 21:38Speaker 1: So one agent is dead, but they are blaming it
- 21:40Speaker 1: on Randy purposely killing an agent.
- 21:43Speaker 2: Yeah, and they did not also probably state that one
- 21:45Speaker 2: of the agents killed the kid no who was running
- 21:49Speaker 2: away no fear.
- 21:50Speaker 1: Or the mother who was holding a ten month old child. Yeah.
- 21:54Speaker 1: So yeah, they're basically suspecting this is a whole trap,
- 21:56Speaker 1: and they're like, if we take any anything, it's probably
- 22:00Speaker 1: going to lead to our downfall or even a potential
- 22:03Speaker 1: death right. And of course, how are they going to
- 22:05Speaker 1: paint that in the public's eye. It's just they knew
- 22:08Speaker 1: they were fucked. They knew they were screwed. They didn't
- 22:10Speaker 1: know what else to do. But eventually the standoff saw
- 22:14Speaker 1: an individual by the name of Bo Gritz who was
- 22:16Speaker 1: a former renowned Green Beret, and if you remember from
- 22:19Speaker 1: last episode, Randy went through Green Beret training, so Bo
- 22:26Speaker 1: was called in to negotiate with Randy. Over three intense days,
- 22:30Speaker 1: Bo succeeded in persuading Randy to come down from the
- 22:33Speaker 1: mountain home. The breakthrough came when Bo assured Randy of
- 22:37Speaker 1: assistance in obtaining a complete and fair trial. That's what
- 22:42Speaker 1: he wanted because he knew if he just gives up,
- 22:44Speaker 1: He's like, I'm going to be shot killed. Who knows
- 22:46Speaker 1: what they're going to paint me as, I'm just going
- 22:48Speaker 1: to be locked away? What about my family? What about
- 22:49Speaker 1: my home? All these questions? Right, So BO assisted and
- 22:52Speaker 1: ensuring no, you're going to get a fair trial, the evidence, everything,
- 22:57Speaker 1: you name it.
- 22:59Speaker 2: Well, I mean I can't imagine that this just amplified
- 23:02Speaker 2: for him too, because now his kids there's no one else. Yeah,
- 23:06Speaker 2: they don't have a mom.
- 23:07Speaker 1: Correct. So BO did succeed in getting Randy to come down,
- 23:12Speaker 1: and Kevin was also safely brought down from the mountain
- 23:15Speaker 1: for medical treatment and survived as injuries.
- 23:18Speaker 2: That's good.
- 23:19Speaker 1: On the second day of negotiations, Bo actually contacted an
- 23:23Speaker 1: attorney whose name is Jerry Spence, who expressed a serious
- 23:27Speaker 1: interest in taking Randy's case. And I'm sure that would
- 23:29Speaker 1: have been part of the negotiations of a fair trial
- 23:31Speaker 1: as well. Yeah, is I have this individual who's willing
- 23:34Speaker 1: to potentially defend you, right, Yeah. So on the day
- 23:38Speaker 1: Randy surrendered to law enforcement, he met with Jerry Spence,
- 23:42Speaker 1: who Jerry, by the way, is known for his western
- 23:45Speaker 1: courtroom attire, which I absolutely fucking love. I just see
- 23:48Speaker 1: him in like in my head, I picture a cowboy
- 23:49Speaker 1: hat and a bolo tie and he's just loving life.
- 23:53Speaker 1: But more importantly, he's also known for it never losing
- 23:57Speaker 1: a criminal jury trial.
- 23:59Speaker 2: Oh okay, so got a good lawyer?
- 24:02Speaker 1: Yes, so Jerry began the meeting. He's not. I mean,
- 24:06Speaker 1: he did actually represent him in court, but as of
- 24:08Speaker 1: right now, they're just talking about the representing, Like, can
- 24:11Speaker 1: I represent you?
- 24:12Speaker 2: Are?
- 24:12Speaker 1: We're going to take this right, okay. So Jerry began
- 24:14Speaker 1: the meeting by expressing his disagreement with how the Weaver's
- 24:18Speaker 1: political and religious beliefs were. However, he emphasized his commitment
- 24:24Speaker 1: to Randy's right to a fair trial, and after listening
- 24:26Speaker 1: to Randy's story, he agreed to defend him in court
- 24:30Speaker 1: for free.
- 24:32Speaker 2: Okay. So he obviously if he thought that this was
- 24:36Speaker 2: a lose in battle, he probably wouldn't have offered to
- 24:39Speaker 2: do it.
- 24:40Speaker 1: Probably not.
- 24:41Speaker 2: Yeah, he knew that he had a strong case.
- 24:43Speaker 1: But not even necessarily a strong case though is I mean,
- 24:47Speaker 1: I'm sure that was part of it, but a bigger
- 24:49Speaker 1: part here, which I'm going to talk about here. I'll
- 24:53Speaker 1: do it right now. So this next paragraph I have
- 24:55Speaker 1: says in a letter to a Jewish friend attempting to
- 24:58Speaker 1: dissuade him from that she's taking the case. The friend
- 25:01Speaker 1: was like, don't fucking take this case. Jerry actually asserted
- 25:04Speaker 1: that the defense goes beyond what he's talking about, because
- 25:09Speaker 1: he didn't want him to take this case because hey,
- 25:11Speaker 1: Randy's a potential racist and all these groups he's a
- 25:13Speaker 1: part of and stuff and very radical. Yeah, so Jerry's like,
- 25:16Speaker 1: this is beyond the whole radical and racial separatism and
- 25:20Speaker 1: everything that it may represent. This was about a whole
- 25:23Speaker 1: greater concern of a government losing respect for an individual's rights.
- 25:27Speaker 1: So it wasn't that he was defending him because he's like,
- 25:30Speaker 1: we can win this. He's defending him because it's the
- 25:32Speaker 1: right fucking thing to do.
- 25:34Speaker 2: Wow, which, honestly, with everything that Randy has gone through, like,
- 25:38Speaker 2: thank goodness that he got this big time.
- 25:42Speaker 1: Oh definitely, And for that alone, I want to make
- 25:44Speaker 1: Jerry our badass of the day because that is fucking badass.
- 25:48Speaker 2: Yeah.
- 25:48Speaker 1: Not only is he taking this case, he's fighting against
- 25:50Speaker 1: the government, he's doing it for free. He also stood
- 25:53Speaker 1: up to a peer who's like, don't do this because hey,
- 25:56Speaker 1: he's racist against our people. He's like, it's not about that, bitch.
- 25:59Speaker 2: Yeah. I feel like a lot of the lawyers too,
- 26:02Speaker 2: probably would have just ran for the hills probably this
- 26:04Speaker 2: kind of case.
- 26:05Speaker 1: Yeah. So, the trial of Randy Weaver and Kevin Harris,
- 26:08Speaker 1: because Kevin was also being brought to court because hey,
- 26:11Speaker 1: he shot someone, right, began on April twelfth, nineteen ninety three,
- 26:15Speaker 1: in a heavily attended courtroom in Boys, Idaho. The courtroom
- 26:19Speaker 1: had heightened security measures, including metal detectors, X ray machines
- 26:23Speaker 1: and federal marshals who were armed and ready. It was
- 26:26Speaker 1: all in anticipated because it was a very potentially heated trial, right,
- 26:32Speaker 1: so there could be potential issues, so they wanted to
- 26:34Speaker 1: make sure that they were ready for anything that could occur.
- 26:37Speaker 1: So the jury okay, but I do have to say,
- 26:39Speaker 1: and that's kind of also bullshit because at the same time,
- 26:42Speaker 1: it's like, oh, federal marshals are on the stand, so
- 26:46Speaker 1: we're gonna have federal marshals defend the court. Now, that's
- 26:50Speaker 1: kind of bias, But.
- 26:51Speaker 2: Hey, I did think that, But I was like, I'll
- 26:53Speaker 2: just keep listening.
- 26:54Speaker 1: Yeah, so regardless. The jury was comprised of seven women
- 26:58Speaker 1: and five men who are arranging from age of thirty
- 27:01Speaker 1: one to seventy two years old, including individuals with varied
- 27:05Speaker 1: educational backgrounds from high school dropouts to MBAs, so they
- 27:09Speaker 1: had quite the diverse jury at hand.
- 27:11Speaker 2: That's good.
- 27:12Speaker 1: In the prosecution's opening statement, attorney Howen and Lindquist portrayed
- 27:18Speaker 1: Randy as a racist planning to wage war against the
- 27:21Speaker 1: government since nineteen eighty two. They also painted him as
- 27:25Speaker 1: a hate filled extremist, emphasizing the threat of violence that
- 27:29Speaker 1: he posed to the people around him. Representing Kevin Harris,
- 27:35Speaker 1: David Nevin presented a very good self defense theory in
- 27:40Speaker 1: his opening statement. He's like, hey, self defense, It's basically it, right.
- 27:46Speaker 1: Jerry Spence, the one that we were talking about, who
- 27:48Speaker 1: is our badass of the day, concluded the opening statements
- 27:52Speaker 1: and personalized Randy to the jury, seeking to invoke empathy
- 27:56Speaker 1: and painted a very compelling picture of Randy as a
- 27:58Speaker 1: loving and devoted family man striving to protect his family
- 28:01Speaker 1: to lead a peaceful life.
- 28:04Speaker 2: Yeah, okay, good.
- 28:06Speaker 1: Where do you think this is going to go? How
- 28:08Speaker 1: do you think it's gonna end?
- 28:09Speaker 2: Up. Oh my gosh. Honestly, I don't have the faintest clue.
- 28:15Speaker 1: Okay, understandable, you're up. I mean, we're up up against
- 28:20Speaker 1: such a interesting foe in the courtroom here, the government, right, So.
- 28:24Speaker 2: Yeah, like I feel I mean, I know the way
- 28:27Speaker 2: I want it to go, but I feel like it
- 28:29Speaker 2: probably won't go that way. I mean, I want Randy
- 28:33Speaker 2: to to be acquitted, yeah, like not guilty or whatever,
- 28:37Speaker 2: but I feel like that it would be way too
- 28:40Speaker 2: good to be true.
- 28:42Speaker 1: Yeah, well, there is a whole lot surrounding this case.
- 28:47Speaker 1: One of the things that was happening quite frequent was
- 28:51Speaker 1: the government was actually hiding evidence and only bringing it
- 28:54Speaker 1: up when it benefited them, and all the stuff needs
- 28:57Speaker 1: to be on the fucking table, right.
- 28:59Speaker 2: Yeah.
- 29:00Speaker 1: They would frequently be like, actually this thing and then
- 29:02Speaker 1: they're like, what the fuck is this? Like, we need
- 29:04Speaker 1: to have all this out in the open. So that
- 29:06Speaker 1: was a very uh FRA's dirty it is. It was
- 29:08Speaker 1: a very frequent and dirty thing that they were doing
- 29:10Speaker 1: in the court. But the government actually started this case
- 29:14Speaker 1: by calling us Marshal Larry Cooper a witness to the
- 29:18Speaker 1: death of Agent Degan and Sammy Weaver, which also tells
- 29:23Speaker 1: me right there. He was a witness to the death
- 29:25Speaker 1: of Sammy Weaver. He saw, he saw, they didn't know
- 29:27Speaker 1: he was dead, like, you know, are you fucking kidding me?
- 29:30Speaker 1: Clearly you did. Anyways, Cooper testified that Kevin Harris shot
- 29:34Speaker 1: Degan first, triggering the subsequent exchange of gunfire. He was
- 29:39Speaker 1: the first to pull the trigger.
- 29:41Speaker 2: Oh my gosh, he's just up there lying yep, like
- 29:44Speaker 2: under oath. Still yep. Okay, that is not all right.
- 29:48Speaker 1: Now, get this though, in response to a defense request,
- 29:52Speaker 1: Cooper appeared in court the second day dressed in the
- 29:55Speaker 1: same camouflage uniform that he wore in August twenty first,
- 29:59Speaker 1: the night of the shootout, and carried the same gun
- 30:02Speaker 1: he had that day. So the whole defense was aimed
- 30:05Speaker 1: to make the jurors experience what Kevin and Sammy would
- 30:08Speaker 1: have experienced and witnessed. These kids out in the bush
- 30:11Speaker 1: see this. Yeah, you're telling me they're not gonna try
- 30:15Speaker 1: and fight for their life.
- 30:16Speaker 2: Mm hmm. Well, and the fact that one of them
- 30:19Speaker 2: just killed their dog yep, right, which honestly to anyone
- 30:23Speaker 2: is a big deal, but especially a kid, I feel for.
- 30:25Speaker 1: Sure, And I mean the dog plays such a big
- 30:28Speaker 1: part of this. Like even during cross examination, Cooper struggled
- 30:31Speaker 1: he had a silencer on his gun, and he struggled
- 30:34Speaker 1: to explain like why the silencer actually had been on
- 30:37Speaker 1: the gun at all. But he did admit to having
- 30:40Speaker 1: orders orders to lure the dogs away from the Weaver's
- 30:44Speaker 1: home and shoot them, removing them from quote the outside
- 30:49Speaker 1: of the picture.
- 30:50Speaker 2: Oh my gosh.
- 30:52Speaker 1: So Jerry Spence, our defending attorney, underscored Striker's role by
- 30:56Speaker 1: asking this question quote Now, the dog dog's biggest crime
- 31:01Speaker 1: was that he was following you. Isn't that true?
- 31:06Speaker 2: Yeah, he didn't do anything. He didn't do a single thing. No,
- 31:10Speaker 2: we don't even know if he would have attacked them.
- 31:12Speaker 1: No, we don't.
- 31:13Speaker 2: Yeah, no idea.
- 31:14Speaker 1: No, he provoked the dog to come here, and when
- 31:17Speaker 1: a dog comes here, you're like, oh shit, I'm gonna
- 31:20Speaker 1: shoot it. Fucking kidding me, Oh my gosh. Another crucial
- 31:24Speaker 1: prosecution witness was Agent Faidley, who was an undercover or sorry,
- 31:29Speaker 1: the undercover operative who solicited Randy to modify the shotguns
- 31:33Speaker 1: illegal and seldom to him that we talked about in
- 31:35Speaker 1: the first episode. So under cross examination, Faidley acknowledged the
- 31:39Speaker 1: difficulty in persuading Randy into breaking the law. He's like, yeah,
- 31:43Speaker 1: it was fuck. It was hard as fuck, Like I
- 31:44Speaker 1: really had to like get him to do this. Damn,
- 31:47Speaker 1: you're begging him, I'm sure. And in a pivotal exchange,
- 31:50Speaker 1: Chuck Peterson, Jerry Spence's co council, prompted fed Faidley to
- 31:55Speaker 1: admit that he received no payment for his undercome. He
- 31:59Speaker 1: would receive no payment for his undercover work unless there
- 32:03Speaker 1: was a conviction.
- 32:05Speaker 2: Oh are you serious.
- 32:06Speaker 1: Yeah, ultimately, only like really incentivizing him to persuade Randy
- 32:11Speaker 1: by any means necessary. And I mean that honestly sounds
- 32:14Speaker 1: a lot like fucking bribery to me.
- 32:16Speaker 2: In my opinion, that doesn't seem right at all.
- 32:18Speaker 1: If you convince him to sell you some shit and
- 32:21Speaker 1: we get a conviction out of it, we'll give you
- 32:23Speaker 1: some money.
- 32:24Speaker 2: Well, it just doesn't make any sense either, because Randy
- 32:26Speaker 2: thought that they were friends, right, Yeah, And like anyone
- 32:30Speaker 2: in that situation where you have a friend someone you
- 32:34Speaker 2: care about, like begging you for something and like repeatedly, repeatedly, repeatedly,
- 32:39Speaker 2: like you're probably gonna cave at some point, and like
- 32:42Speaker 2: help your fucking.
- 32:43Speaker 1: Friend so that there are certain morals that question here
- 32:45Speaker 1: is what to what degree did they go to really
- 32:48Speaker 1: coerce Randy into doing this?
- 32:50Speaker 2: That almost makes me, this, this whole case almost makes
- 32:53Speaker 2: me like emotional because it just doesn't seem.
- 32:55Speaker 1: Oh, it's a roller coaster. Yeah, it's everywhere up, down,
- 32:59Speaker 1: and it's it's just nothing but bullshit on the end
- 33:02Speaker 1: of the government. Now. Closing arguments began on June fifteenth,
- 33:06Speaker 1: nineteen ninety three, and Kim Lindquist, who was leading for
- 33:10Speaker 1: the prosecution, outlined the case's theme for reasons of conviction,
- 33:15Speaker 1: asserting that Kevin Harris had murdered Bill Deacan and portraying
- 33:19Speaker 1: Vicky Weaver's death as a tragic accident. So he attributed
- 33:23Speaker 1: the deaths of Vicky and Sammy to Randy and Kevin
- 33:28Speaker 1: and their desire to attack the government. So to quote him, quote,
- 33:33Speaker 1: this whole thing is a tragedy, but the cause of
- 33:36Speaker 1: the tragedy was the resolve of the Weaver family, and
- 33:39Speaker 1: that translates into murder. So he's basically saying Randy and
- 33:45Speaker 1: Kevin are the ones who murdered Sammy and VICKI Wow, Yeah,
- 33:50Speaker 1: he's saying they're responsible for their deaths.
- 33:54Speaker 2: And it doesn't make any sense though, because the other
- 33:56Speaker 2: people are like highly trained, yes, but yet it was
- 33:59Speaker 2: just like an act accident. Yes, that is so messed up, Yes,
- 34:05Speaker 2: beyond messed up, beyond.
- 34:07Speaker 1: Like you said, these people are supposed to be highly trained,
- 34:10Speaker 1: yet they didn't know two targets were downed. They were
- 34:13Speaker 1: unable to actually coerce these people in a manner that's appropriate.
- 34:20Speaker 1: For example, they set a robot with a fucking gun.
- 34:23Speaker 2: They lied on them.
- 34:25Speaker 1: They changed regulations in order to fire as they please,
- 34:29Speaker 1: and they're lying on trial in under oath on the stand.
- 34:35Speaker 1: Manipulative I think so disgusting. Yeah. So the jury deliberations
- 34:40Speaker 1: commenced on Wednesday, June sixteenth, with jurors sequestering in a
- 34:44Speaker 1: room with green walls. Institutional green walls, very boring and bland,
- 34:49Speaker 1: I'm sure, very standard, and they were shielded from, of course,
- 34:53Speaker 1: the outside world, in any sort of forces or anything
- 34:56Speaker 1: like that. I'm trying to think of a word. Just
- 34:59Speaker 1: wa persuasion, Yeah, there would go any persuasion on one
- 35:03Speaker 1: way or another. Television trucks were filling the parking lots
- 35:08Speaker 1: and reporters anxiously awaited any updates and were ready to
- 35:12Speaker 1: go at any moment. Thirteen tension filled days later, on
- 35:16Speaker 1: June twenty ninth, a juror suffering from post traumatic stress
- 35:19Speaker 1: disorder and a chronic heart condition would no longer be
- 35:21Speaker 1: able to continue serving the jury, which led to their
- 35:25Speaker 1: replacement by an alternate. And now the jury needed to
- 35:27Speaker 1: start from the beginning with their deliberations, and they promptly
- 35:30Speaker 1: requested to review the entrapment evidence once again. So finally,
- 35:34Speaker 1: that leads us to July eighth, where the jury had
- 35:37Speaker 1: finally reached their verdict. The pact and silent courtroom witnessed
- 35:43Speaker 1: an emotional moment as the verdicts were read. Randy Weaver
- 35:48Speaker 1: and Kevin Harris, overwhelmed with emotion, embraced each other upon
- 35:52Speaker 1: hearing the findings. Randy Weaver was acquitted of all charges
- 35:59Speaker 1: except for faar to appear in court and committing a
- 36:02Speaker 1: crime while on bail release. Kevin Harris was completely acquitted
- 36:08Speaker 1: of all charges. When a deputy mentioned taking Kevin back
- 36:13Speaker 1: to jail for processing, his attorney, Nevin firmly stated, the
- 36:18Speaker 1: hell you will. He's going out the front door with me,
- 36:21Speaker 1: and that's exactly what happened. Kevin Harris left that courtroom
- 36:24Speaker 1: that day holding his mother's hand out the front door.
- 36:27Speaker 2: Oh my gosh, that literally gave me goose bumps. I'm shocked. Yeah,
- 36:33Speaker 2: because I don't know, I feel like what I was
- 36:35Speaker 2: worried is that the jury would almost worry about saying
- 36:41Speaker 2: that they weren't guilty.
- 36:42Speaker 1: The repercussions.
- 36:42Speaker 2: Yeah, like, because it's the government. What the fuck are
- 36:45Speaker 2: they gonna like they could attack them or like I
- 36:48Speaker 2: thought some of them might be afraid kind of thing.
- 36:50Speaker 1: No, that's a very reasonable response. Yeah, I mean, it's
- 36:54Speaker 1: not like people haven't been claiming to have been stalked
- 36:56Speaker 1: or harassed by the government before.
- 36:57Speaker 2: Yeah, so whoa, Hey, I mean I'm shocked, but in
- 37:01Speaker 2: the best of ways.
- 37:02Speaker 1: But that's what you were after we talked about it
- 37:04Speaker 1: at the very beginning. You're like, yeah, you want to
- 37:05Speaker 1: be acquitted of all charges, not guilty, and I mean
- 37:08Speaker 1: he's not acquitted at all. But yeah, so, like his
- 37:11Speaker 1: whole acquittal, of course, is relief, but the conviction was
- 37:15Speaker 1: bittersweet because he did actually have to return to jail.
- 37:19Speaker 1: Judge Lodge dismissed the second conviction ultimately, as it had
- 37:22Speaker 1: been proven that Randy committed no crime. During the siege,
- 37:26Speaker 1: but he was sentenced to be between eighteen and twenty
- 37:28Speaker 1: four months for failure to appear in court, which is
- 37:32Speaker 1: well he had that thing earlier in last episode, so
- 37:36Speaker 1: having already served fourteen months, he was now set to
- 37:39Speaker 1: be released sometime before Christmas, and indeed, in December twenty
- 37:44Speaker 1: I'm sorry, December of nineteen ninety three, he finally regained
- 37:48Speaker 1: his freedom, and he promptly flew to Iowa to be
- 37:51Speaker 1: with his daughters and spend their heartfelt Christmas together goodness.
- 37:57Speaker 1: In the aftermath of the trial, in August of nineteen
- 38:01Speaker 1: ninety four, Randy Weaver filed a lawsuit for wrongful deaths
- 38:05Speaker 1: of Sammy and Vicki Weaver. The case settled before trial,
- 38:10Speaker 1: so it didn't even go to court for three point
- 38:13Speaker 1: two million dollars in August of nineteen ninety five. However,
- 38:17Speaker 1: the government refuses to acknowledge any wrongdoing in the event whatsoever.
- 38:21Speaker 1: But they paid out three point five before trial. Yeah,
- 38:24Speaker 1: I'm pretty sure they know they did some shit wrong.
- 38:26Speaker 1: So Kevin Harris also filed a lawsuit, which was settled
- 38:30Speaker 1: for four hundred and thirty eight thousand dollars. Gary Spence,
- 38:36Speaker 1: who represented Randy, as I mentioned, free of charge, was
- 38:39Speaker 1: granted exclusive rights by the Weavers to tell his story.
- 38:44Speaker 2: Okay, wow.
- 38:47Speaker 1: After the trial, the US Senate appointed a special commission
- 38:51Speaker 1: to investigate the incident at Ruby Ridge, and what followed
- 38:54Speaker 1: was a very comprehensive five hundred page document reporting the
- 38:59Speaker 1: government agent during during wrongdoing, sorry, during the siege. So
- 39:04Speaker 1: I mean they say they did no wrongdoing, but there's
- 39:05Speaker 1: a document from the government saying, yeah, you fucked up. Now. Lastly,
- 39:11Speaker 1: astonishingly enough, Lonnie Harochi, the sniper responsible for Vicki Weaver's death,
- 39:18Speaker 1: faced no punishment in the aftermath. Although he was initially
- 39:22Speaker 1: charged with involuntary manslaughter and was being brought to trial,
- 39:26Speaker 1: a new prosecutor elected to fire a special prosecutor and
- 39:32Speaker 1: dismissed the case against them entirely. So he never spent
- 39:36Speaker 1: a day in jail, he retained his job, and he
- 39:39Speaker 1: did not lose a single day's pay for murdering a
- 39:43Speaker 1: woman holding her ten month child as she tried to
- 39:46Speaker 1: hold the door open for her family who was fleeing
- 39:49Speaker 1: from a barrage of bullets. That is the Ruby Ridge incident.
- 39:55Speaker 2: Wow. Way to end on a shit note.
- 39:58Speaker 1: There, I know right, it was a rough case. It
- 40:01Speaker 1: was a rough one to research, but it was I
- 40:04Speaker 1: don't know, it was very different and it it made
- 40:08Speaker 1: my stomach churn. It wasn't like it was uh, I
- 40:11Speaker 1: don't know what. There's some grotesque, disgusting shit that happens
- 40:15Speaker 1: in this world, especially when it comes to murders and
- 40:18Speaker 1: a lot of these trials and convictions that we go through,
- 40:22Speaker 1: but this one, it's just, I don't know. It's different
- 40:26Speaker 1: in a lot of ways because the government is supposed
- 40:28Speaker 1: to be there to help you and they did everything
- 40:31Speaker 1: but help them.
- 40:33Speaker 2: It's scary, it is, yeah, because I feel, oh my gosh,
- 40:39Speaker 2: I mean, you could get yourself in that situation and
- 40:43Speaker 2: there's like there was almost no way out for him.
- 40:46Speaker 1: There wasn't no he was surrounded, he was pinned down,
- 40:50Speaker 1: he was shot at, he was just screwed.
- 40:52Speaker 2: Well. They were just eating pancakes for breakfast.
- 40:55Speaker 1: Like, could god, could you imagine being sitting there grieving
- 40:59Speaker 1: the death of your life who you cannot even take
- 41:01Speaker 1: outside the death of a loved one is just the
- 41:04Speaker 1: person's laying there on the floor, as you said, decomposing,
- 41:07Speaker 1: Uh huh. And there's speakers under your house being like, Hey,
- 41:10Speaker 1: we have pancakes for breakfast today. What'd you eat? What'd
- 41:13Speaker 1: you eat?
- 41:13Speaker 2: VICKI you know, honestly, I am sometimes like a little
- 41:18Speaker 2: bit hot headed, and I sometimes you don't say.
- 41:22Speaker 1: Not a lot of people know that, but I'm married
- 41:23Speaker 1: to you, trust me.
- 41:24Speaker 2: I know I would actually have handled things a lot
- 41:27Speaker 2: differently than Randy. So I honestly feel like he did
- 41:31Speaker 2: a very good job. Oh he did, because I would
- 41:34Speaker 2: have lost my motherfucking mind.
- 41:36Speaker 1: I could see you going like full fucking Rambo, tying
- 41:39Speaker 1: a like bandana around your head, war paint, knifing your teeth,
- 41:44Speaker 1: crawling through the fucking oh yeah.
- 41:46Speaker 2: And it would still be because of my dog. Yeah,
- 41:49Speaker 2: I mean, but they're the dog and then now the
- 41:51Speaker 2: sun and like the wife and stuff. But it's just like,
- 41:55Speaker 2: I feel like I would have just gone on a fucking.
- 41:57Speaker 1: Rampage, understandably, but I think a lot of people would have.
- 42:01Speaker 2: You're also it's hard to say too, because you're like
- 42:04Speaker 2: really mourning deaks and stuff too. And then you have
- 42:06Speaker 2: your own like your family. He was the only parent
- 42:10Speaker 2: figure at that moment, right.
- 42:12Speaker 1: I think a lot of the reason why Randy kept
- 42:14Speaker 1: as cool of a head as he did. Was he
- 42:17Speaker 1: knew that if he gave in, if he shot at them,
- 42:20Speaker 1: if he went out there, he knew it would have
- 42:22Speaker 1: been used against him. And they were already trying to
- 42:25Speaker 1: use things against him. The radio was already saying how
- 42:27Speaker 1: he murdered a US marshal.
- 42:29Speaker 2: And he wanted to be there for his family because like, yeah,
- 42:32Speaker 2: I mean.
- 42:32Speaker 1: Yeah, anything he did would have just given him more
- 42:35Speaker 1: ammunition against him and his family.
- 42:37Speaker 2: Like you're saying he's smart, he is. Yeah, he was thinking, yeah,
- 42:42Speaker 2: two steps ahead. Yeah, Wow, what a story. This is
- 42:45Speaker 2: just like bizarre.
- 42:47Speaker 1: Yeah, you can thank Joe Rogan for me hearing this story. Actually,
- 42:50Speaker 1: I was cruising Instagram and there was a clip of
- 42:52Speaker 1: him on his podcast talking to someone about the Ruby
- 42:55Speaker 1: Ridge incident, and I was like, the what now? And
- 42:58Speaker 1: I gave it a quick Google and I was like
- 42:59Speaker 1: the fuck.
- 43:01Speaker 2: Yeah, I know, I don't. I don't necessarily feel satisfied
- 43:05Speaker 2: right now.
- 43:06Speaker 1: Well, I think there should be some satisfaction in knowing
- 43:09Speaker 1: that there was charges that were acquitted, and there was
- 43:12Speaker 1: lawsuits filed, and they did get some money in return,
- 43:16Speaker 1: though I'm not saying money is in any way, shape
- 43:19Speaker 1: or form a retribution for the lives that were lost,
- 43:23Speaker 1: but it's something to help you move on. And not
- 43:27Speaker 1: only that, it's so fucking good knowing that they didn't
- 43:32Speaker 1: try fighting it because they know the fucking wrong. Well, yeah,
- 43:35Speaker 1: they know what they fucking did.
- 43:37Speaker 2: When something doesn't go to court and like gets paid
- 43:39Speaker 2: up beforehand, there's reasons, yeah.
- 43:42Speaker 1: Very big reasons.
- 43:43Speaker 2: Yeah.
- 43:44Speaker 1: So anyways, hopefully you guys enjoyed this two parter. We
- 43:48Speaker 1: got some more one part is coming for you soon.
- 43:50Speaker 1: We did a two parter recently and now this one,
- 43:53Speaker 1: so we're going to stick to some one parties here
- 43:54Speaker 1: for a little bit before we do another one, So
- 43:56Speaker 1: give you guys a bit of a breather with that.
- 43:58Speaker 1: But if you want to check out some of our socials,
- 44:00Speaker 1: all the links are down below. We're very active on
- 44:02Speaker 1: YouTube now we've got Patreon. We're doing some stuff over there.
- 44:04Speaker 1: Get the exclusive behind the scenes and extra content like
- 44:08Speaker 1: the extra episode at the end of the month every time,
- 44:11Speaker 1: so you can go check all that out.
- 44:13Speaker 2: Good job, thank you job on this one. You did
- 44:15Speaker 2: really good.
- 44:16Speaker 1: It was interesting. I know when I say that about
- 44:19Speaker 1: so many cases, but it's like interesting is such a
- 44:22Speaker 1: word that can describe so many of these in so
- 44:24Speaker 1: many different ways, and that's exactly what this is. Very interesting, intriguing,
- 44:29Speaker 1: and fucking sad, so sad. Anyways, my emotions are beside
- 44:35Speaker 1: the point. We'll talk to you guys next time, and
- 44:37Speaker 1: until then, stay wicked.