Chris Jennings

They were just trying to maintain the cover of their own informant whose cover within the world of the Aryan nations was as a gun runner.

So by buying guns from Randy, he was able to sort of keep Randy around and get to know him a little better with the hope that

That Randy might help lead them to a more overtly dangerous character.

There was a lot of federal interest in the Aryan Nations at the time because there had just been this big spate of violent terrorism that had originated more or less from within the wider community of inland Northwest white supremacists.

Correct.

The whole thing probably would have gone away.

Randy was a small fish and they were actually more interested in his friend who was making noises about starting some kind of group to bring the fight to the feds, which wasn't something that particularly interested Randy.

So two ATF agents approach Randy.

Randy, to them on paper, looks kind of like a good candidate for someone who's an informant.

He's friends with a lot of these guys, but he's not a real true believer.

He clearly doesn't want to be a terrorist.

But Randy refuses to become an informant and what's more, refuses to have sort of any further dealing with the government.

So criminal charges are brought before a grand jury in Idaho for the illegal weapons sale, which again, it's worth saying if Randy had gone to court, it probably would have been a pretty minor punishment.

Gun-friendly Idaho jury, he probably would have gotten work release or probation or something like that.

Well, they drove up once and Randy and Vicki were away visiting a friend and the kids were standing in the road, armed.

The marshals, they were in their office clothes and they were not prepared for any kind of

confrontation and the kids looked rather ominous to them.

So they turned around and went away.

And I would say to the credit of the U.S.

Marshals, they ended up being about a year and a half sending rather gentle pleading notes up the hill through friends, through intermediaries saying, just come down and talk.