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

Gordon Kahl was born in Wells County, North Dakota, on January 8, 1920. Kahl had one sister, Loreen, who died in 1937 at the age of seven. Raised on a 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 convicted on each count in respective April and June, 1977, 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.

Confrontation and 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.^[8] When the Kahl party met the marshals at the roadblock, a short but intense firefight erupted. The gun battle left US Marshals Kenneth Muir and Robert Cheshire dead, and US Marshal Jim Hopson and Medina Police Department officers Bradley Kapp and Steve Schnabel injured. Yorie Kahl was also wounded during the firefight. The Kahl party fired over a dozen rounds during the gunfight, while the marshals and officers only fired 8. Only three lawmen fired their weapons during the confrontation, and only one, US Marshal Carl Wigglesworth, escaped the gunfight unharmed.^[9]

According to the US Marshals Service, the Kahl party was traveling north out of Medina in two vehicles. Medina police officer Bradley Kapp and US Marshals Robert Cheshire and Jim Hopson followed the Kahl party from behind, while Medina police officer Steven Schnabel and US Marshals Kenneth Muir and Carl Wigglesworth moved south towards Medina in two cars to intercept the Kahl party. At one point, the Kahl party took a wrong turn off of a highway. As they attempted to back out, Cheshire blocked their escape with his vehicle, while Marshal Muir and officer Schnabel blocked the Kahls from the north. It was then that the arrest attempt was made. The lawmen exited the vehicles with their weapons drawn, and ordered Kahl to surrender. Gordon Kahl, his son Yorie, and friend Scott Faul exited their vehicles armed with Ruger Mini-14 rifles. Gordon took cover behind his vehicle, Yorie took cover behind a telephone pole, and Scott Faul ran from the highway towards a set of trees, seeking better cover. US Marshal Wigglesworth ran after Faul, and attempted to cut him off, but became stuck in a thick swamp. Meanwhile, Cheshire attempted to get Kahl to surrender, but Kahl refused, and told the marshals to "back off". The tense standoff continued for several more minutes before a shot was abruptly fired by one of the men.

There is some debate over who fired first, but the US Marshals Service claims that Yorie Kahl, Gordon Kahl's son, fired the first shot at Cheshire from behind a telephone pole. The shot struck Cheshire in the chest, fatally wounding him. Yorie then fired a second shot at Medina police officer Bradley Kapp but missed. Kapp returned fire with a shotgun and fired four times at Yorie, seriously wounding him in the chest and face. As Kapp turned from the downed Yorie, Gordon fired at least one round through the windshield of Kapp's vehicle, wounding Kapp in the forehead with glass fragments. As Kapp fell behind his car door, Gordon fired two or three more times, and a round struck and shattered Kapp's body armor. The fatally wounded Cheshire managed to fire off three rounds from his AR-15, all of which missed. Meanwhile, Scott Faul, taking cover in the nearby woods, fired at least seven rounds at Kapp and Cheshire's vehicle. One of Faul's shots hit the already wounded Cheshire a second time, and a bullet blew off Kapp's index finger. A third shot hit the pavement, and a piece of asphalt struck marshal Hopson in the ear, causing Hopson to suffer permanent brain damage. Wounded and out of ammunition, Kapp retreated to a ditch, but was unable to reload his shotgun due to the wound in his hand. With Kapp down, Gordon turned to face US Marshal Kenneth Muir and Medina police officer Steve Schnabel, just as Muir fired off one round from a .38 caliber revolver. Muir's shot hit the already wounded Yorie Kahl square in the chest, but the bullet struck a revolver Yorie wore on a shoulder holster, and therefore did not enter his heart. Before Muir could fire another shot, Kahl fired one round from his rifle at Muir, killing the marshal with a shot to the chest. Schnabel tried to return fire with his shotgun, but Gordon fired three more rounds at the officer as he tried to aim his weapon. One shot ricocheted, striking Schnabel in the back of the leg. The wounded Schnabel retreated to the side of the road and took cover in a ditch. The entire firefight lasted about 30 seconds.

Kahl then moved towards Cheshire's vehicle. As Kahl approached, the wounded Kapp decided to flee and began running south, back towards Medina. Kahl chose not to shoot the fleeing officer, and instead turned to the fatally wounded Cheshire, who was trying to climb back inside his vehicle. Seeing that Cheshire was still alive, Kahl killed the dying marshal with two more shots to the head. Gordon Kahl then walked over to Muir and Schnabel's vehicles as Scott Faul tended to the wounded Yorie Kahl. Moving to the side of the road, Kahl approached and confronted the wounded Schnabel, but chose not to kill him.^[10] After taking Schnabel's shotgun and revolver, Kahl then took Schnabel's police car and, after leaving the wounded Yorie Kahl at a Medina health clinic, fled to Arkansas. Kahl abandoned the stolen police car just outside of Medina. Yorie Kahl was immediately arrested after being treated at the clinic, while Scott Faul turned himself in to police.

Police manhunt

Following the gun battle, Kahl became a wanted fugitive by the FBI, and both local and federal authorities organized a massive manhunt. Several days after the Medina shootout, a SWAT team surrounded Kahl's farmhouse in Heaton, North Dakota. Unaware that the farmhouse had been abandoned, the SWAT team fired hundreds of shots into the home,killing Kahl's dog, and saturated the house with tear gas. After entering the house, the SWAT team found no sign of Kahl, but discovered numerous weapons, ammunition, and white supremacist literature printed by the Posse Comitatus.

Smithville, Arkansas shootout and death

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. After FBI agents and local police arrived at the Ginter home, Sheriff Matthews entered the home along with another agent. As Matthews entered the kitchen, Kahl emerged from behind a refrigerator, and the two men fired almost simultaneously. Kahl fired at least one round, which severely wounded Matthews in the heart, and Matthews fired a single .41 Magnum round from his revolver, which hit Kahl in the head, killing him instantly. Two FBI agents, hearing the gunfire, fired several shotgun blasts through the house's window, accidentally striking Matthews in the torso with buckshot. After Matthews stumbled out of the house, a SWAT team, unaware that Kahl was dead, began firing thousands of rounds at the house, eventually setting it ablaze by pouring diesel fuel down the house's chimney. Kahl's burned remains were found the following day.^[11] Matthews was taken to the hospital, but died on an operating table^[12] critically wounded by the bullet fired from Kahl's Mini-14.^[13]

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.^[14] Leonard was convicted and sentenced to a federal prison, while Norma's sentence was suspended. Leonard was released in February 1987.^[15]

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.^[16] The capital murder charge was later dropped.^[17]

Yorivon Kahl and Scott Faul received prison sentences on charges in connection with the Medina shootout.^[1] Joan Kahl was acquitted.^[18] Yorivon Kahl is serving a life sentence at the Federal Correctional Institution at Pekin, Illinois.^[19] Scott Faul is serving a life sentence at the Federal Correctional Institution at Sandstone, Minnesota.^[20]

Media

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.^[21] The events also inspired the making of the documentary film Death & Taxes, which was released in 1993.^[22]

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

References

• Corcoran, James (1990). Bitter Harvest: Gordon Kahl and the Posse Comitatus : Murder in the Heartland. Penguin Mass Market. ISBN 978-0-14-009874-7.
• Schnabel, Steve; Graf, Darrell (1999). It's All About Power!: A True and Accurate Account of the Gordon Kahl Shoot-Out With Us Marshals. Mpd. ISBN 978-0-942323-31-3.
• Capstan Turner; A. Jay Lowery (1986). There Was a Man: The Saga of Gordon Kahl. ISBN 978-0-9614465-0-5.
• Death & Taxes (1993 film documentary)
• Anti-Defamation League briefing paper on the Sovereign Citizen Movement
• Minns, Michael (2001). The Underground Lawyer: Millennium Edition. ISBN 978-0-929801-01-8.