Ruby Ridge

{{expand}}{{sources}} [[File:Surveillance photograph of Vicki Weaver 21 Aug 1992.jpg|right|thumb|165px|21<sup>st</sup> August 1992 surveillance photograph of Vicki Weaver.]]{{conspiracynav}}
'''Ruby Ridge''' is a place in [[Idaho]] most known for a siege involving [[gun]]s and the [[FBI]] and [[fundie|crazies]] and [[bullshit|such]]. It remains a favorite of [[conspiracy theory|conspiracy theorists]].

==Background== 
===Origins===
In 1983, the Weaver family of [[Iowa]], composed of ex-Green Beret and factory worker Randy Weaver, his wife Vicki, and their children, moved to a cabin in isolated Boundary County, [[Idaho]] in order to protect themselves from the corrupt world, to escape the apocalypse, and to [[homeschool]] their children. Here, Randy Weaver started getting into [[white supremacy]], the [[sovereign citizen]] movement, and various [[tax protester]] ideas.

Weaver came to the attention of several US law enforcement agencies when he refused to pay his taxes. He and his family once visited a local meeting of the [[Aryan Nations]]. Weaver was later approached by an undercover Alcohol Tobacco and Firearms (ATF) agent who bought a pair of illegally sawed off shotguns from him, then tried to enlist him in infiltrating the Aryan Nations in exchange for dropping the firearms charges. Weaver refused, and in 1991, Weaver got arrested and booked for the crime. He made bail, and a trial date was set for February 19th but moved to the 20th. Unfortunately, a clerical error resulted in Weaver getting a letter that said his trial was supposed to begin in ''March''. As a result, Weaver got in trouble for accidentally skipping bail as a result of miscommunication, which only intensified his distrust of the government.

His wife Vicki had a habit of sending "apocalyptic" letters to government officials (she once called a U.S. attorney a "Servant of the Queen of Babylon"), the content of which caused law enforcement officials to view her as a "religious zealot prepared to kill her own children rather than surrender".<ref>[https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/politics/1995/09/03/standoff-at-ruby-ridge/3704b446-abed-4cf9-9a89-7b19208079b9/?utm_term=.99c1aba6ebea STANDOFF AT RUBY RIDGE] Washington Post, 9-3-1995</ref>

==The incident==
US marshals spent over a year trying to get Weaver, who was now a federal fugitive, to turn himself in after he and his family fortified themselves in their cabin. Marshals installed surveillance cameras around the property to help them formulate a plan to arrest Weaver. On April 18, 1992, a 
[[black helicopters|black]]
 helicopter that was flying over the property for [[Geraldo Rivera]]'s TV show ''Now It Can Be Told'' was allegedly fired on by the Weavers. On August 21, six marshals were sent to scout the area for places to ambush and arrest Weaver. Weaver's dogs were alerted, leading to a confrontation between the marshals and Weaver, one of his dogs, his 14-year-old son Samuel, and his friend Kevin Harris. The dog and Samuel were killed in the ensuing firefight, as well as one of the marshals. A 12-day siege by the FBI ensued, culminating with Randy being wounded and Vicki being killed. Eventually, after mediation from [[Bo Gritz]] and the promise of legal representation from Gerry Spence, Weaver surrendered, was found not guilty of all charges except failure to appear (for which he only ended up paying a fine), and later received a large settlement in exchange for dropping a suit against the government.
==An "enduring" legacy==
This incident, combined with the [[Waco]] siege a year later, led many on the far right [[militia movement]] to believe that the government was out to get them, and inspired [[Timothy McVeigh]] to blow up the Alfred P. Murrah building in Oklahoma City.

You can go have a look if you like. It's somewhere near Bonners Ferry, Idaho. The locals probably grew sick of people asking for directions to the cabin site long ago, though.

During that period, Randy Weaver said his religion was "Yahweh separatist", which is a nice way of saying "[[Christian Identity]]," but after the trial he renounced most of his former beliefs and professed to be an [[agnostic]]. Weaver died on 11 May 2022.<ref>[https://text.npr.org/1098652910 Randy Weaver, participant in Ruby Ridge standoff, dies at 74]. NPR, 13 May 2022.</ref>

==External links==
*{{wpa|Ruby Ridge}} for a much more detailed account of this man's problems.

==References==
{{reflist}}

[[Category:Conspiracy theories]]
[[Category:Militia movement]]

Categories: Conspiracy theories, Militia movement