Gordon Kahl

Gordon Wendell Kahl (January 8, 1920 – June 3, 1983) was an American involved in two fatal shootouts with law enforcement officers in the United States in 1983.[1]

Early life

Raised on a North Dakota farm,[2] Kahl was a highly decorated turret gunner during World War II.[3] After the war, "he had a 400-acre (1.6 km2) farm near Heaton, Wells County, North Dakota,[4] [but] bounced around the Texas oilfields in later life as a mechanic and general worker."[2]

In 1967, Kahl wrote a letter to the Internal Revenue Service stating that he would no longer pay taxes to the, in his words, "Synagogue of Satan under the 2nd plank of the Communist Manifesto." During the 1970s, Kahl organized the first Texas chapter of the Posse Comitatus, although he later left the group and was not a member at the time of the 1983 shootouts. In 1976 he appeared on a Texas television program stating that the income tax was illegal and encouraging others not to pay their income taxes.

Criminal conviction and prison

On November 16, 1976, Kahl was charged with willful failure to file Federal income tax returns for the years 1973 and 1974, under 26 U.S.C. § 7203. He was found guilty, and was sentenced to two years in prison and a fine of $2,000. Kahl served eight months in prison in 1977. One year of the sentence was suspended, as was the fine, and the court placed Kahl on probation for five years. Kahl appealed his conviction, but the conviction was affirmed in 1978 by the United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit,[5] after Kahl's release from prison on probation.

Activity after prison

Following his parole from prison, Kahl became active in the township movement, an early version of the sovereign citizen movement belief which later became well-known because of the Montana Freemen standoff. This movement sought to form parallel courts and governments purportedly based on English common law, and to withdraw recognition of the U.S. federal government. Township movement supporters as well as the Posse Comitatus attempted to organize among farmers in the American Midwest during the 1980s farm crisis.

Shootout near Medina, North Dakota

On February 13, 1983, U.S. Marshals attempted to arrest Kahl as he was leaving a meeting of township supporters in Medina, North Dakota for violating his parole.[6] In the car with Kahl were his wife Joan, his son Yorivon, and three others who had been at the meeting. According to Scott Faul's testimony, both Gordon Kahl and Yorivon Kahl were armed with Ruger Mini-14 rifles.[7] The conflict began when federal marshals created a road block a few miles north of Medina. During the ensuing shootout, U.S. Marshal Kenneth Muir and Deputy Marshal Bob Cheshire were killed.[8] Kahl then took the vehicle of a Medina law enforcement officer and fled to Arkansas.

Smithville, Arkansas shootings

A tip was received by authorities from the youngest daughter of a property owner, whose land Leonard Ginter and his wife Norma Ginter lived on. Kahl hid in their earth-bermed passive solar home in Smithville, Arkansas. Another shootout ensued on June 3, 1983, in which Kahl and Lawrence County Sheriff Gene Matthews died. Despite Federal Marshals and FBI SWAT teams firing thousands of bullets into the home before setting it alight, Kahl was killed by a single .41 Magnum bullet fired by Sheriff Gene Matthews,[9] who died on an operating table[10] critically wounded by a bullet from Kahl's Mini-14.[11]

Aftermath

Edwin C. Udey, Arthur H. Russell, Leonard Ginter, and Norma Ginter were indicted for harboring and concealing a fugitive, and for conspiracy to do the same. They were convicted of all the charges. The convictions were upheld on appeal.[12] Leonard was convicted and sentenced to a federal prison, while Norma's sentence was suspended. Leonard was released in February 1987.[13]

Leonard and Norma Ginter were each additionally charged with the capital murder of Sheriff Gene Matthews in relation to the federal harboring trial in state court.[14] The capital murder charge was later dropped.[15]

Yorivon Kahl and Scott Faul received prison sentences on charges in connection with the Medina shootout.[1] Joan Kahl was acquitted.[16] Yorivon Kahl is imprisoned at the United States Penitentiary at Terre Haute, Indiana, and is scheduled for release on February 12, 2023.[17] Scott Faul is imprisoned at the Federal Correctional Institution at Sandstone, Minnesota, and is scheduled for release on February 14, 2023.[18]

A 1991 movie based on these events was called In the Line of Duty: Manhunt in the Dakotas (aka Midnight Murders, and in the Netherlands as In the Line of Duty: The Twilight Murders), starring actor Rod Steiger as Kahl and Michael Gross as the head FBI agent.[19] The events also inspired the making of the documentary film Death & Taxes, which was released in 1993.[20] In "Downtown Owl: A Novel," a book by Chuck Klosterman set in North Dakota in 1983 and 1984, the saga of Gordon Kahl is a constant topic of discussion among the residents of the fictional town of Owl, North Dakota.

Notes

  1. 1 2 Tony Spilde, Changing lives in 30 seconds, Bismarck Tribune
  2. 1 2 Don L. Richards, Death and Taxes at the Wayback Machine (archived October 27, 2009) New York FLP News, No. 6, April 1984
  3. ↑ King, Wayne (August 21, 1990). "A Farmer's Fatal Obsession With Jews and Taxes". The New York Times.
  4. ↑ Ghosts Of North Dakota at the Wayback Machine (archived August 28, 2008)
  5. ↑ United States v. Kahl, 583 F.2d 1351, 78-2 U.S. Tax Cas. (CCH) paragr. 9842 (5th Cir. 1978), at .
  6. ↑ Shootout in a Sleepy Hamlet TIME, June 13, 1983
  7. ↑ Doug Ketcham & Associates, Fargo (701) 237-0275
  8. ↑ Officials Remember Medina Shootout 25 Years Ago Today KFYR-TV, Bismarck, N.D., February 13, 2008
  9. ↑ "Wickstrom says Kahl's death will stimulate Posse's growth". The Milwaukee Sentinel. 6 June 1983. p. 12 (part 2).
  10. ↑ Shootout in a Sleepy Hamlet TIME, June 13, 1983
  11. ↑ Wayne King (21 August 1990). "Books of The Times; A Farmer's Fatal Obsession With Jews and Taxes". New York Times.
  12. ↑ United States v. Udey 748 F.2d 1231 (8th Cir. 1984)
  13. ↑ Federal Bureau of Prisons, United States Department of Justice, Leonard G. Ginter, prisoner number 03063-010
  14. ↑ UPI, AROUND THE NATION; Bail Denied for Couple Accused in Fugitive Case New York Times, June 7, 1983
  15. ↑ Ginter v. Stallcup 869 F.2d 384 (8th Cir. 1989)
  16. ↑ Profile: Joan Kahl History Commons
  17. ↑ Federal Bureau of Prisons, United States Department of Justice, Yori Von Kahl, prisoner number 04565-059
  18. ↑ Federal Bureau of Prisons, United States Department of Justice, Scott Faul, prisoner number 04564-059
  19. ↑ Internet Movie Database: In the Line of Duty: Manhunt in the Dakotas
  20. ↑ Death & Taxes

References

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