Chris Jennings

They're from the very center of the country.

They came from these pious or deeply rooted Iowa families.

She grew up on a farm.

His father was a salesman, but he grew up working on farms in an agricultural area.

And it wasn't really until they got together that they got interested in sort of fundamentalist faith and particular interest in prophecy.

But they were, I would say, a rather happy family.

They had three of their children were born in Iowa before they moved to Idaho.

And a fourth was born in Idaho.

And, you know, she had worked as a secretary at Sears.

His main job as an adult was working at the John Deere & Co.

Foundry in Waterloo, which was a huge tractor works.

And they had, I would say, a quite good 1970s living there in Iowa.

Well, it happened gradually.

Their beliefs became more intense and they became interested in what at the time was known as Christian survivalism, which was a popular belief.

You know, for people who thought that the end was nigh, many of them believed in what's known as the rapture, the idea that true Christians will be taken out of the world in advance of the coming chaos and bloodshed.

But the Weavers, like others who did not subscribe to a belief in the rapture,

Started thinking about sort of material ways of surviving the coming tribulation.

So that meant they were preserving food.

They were learning to live off the grid.

They were arming themselves quite heavily.