But do you know what happened in Ruby Ridge, Idaho in August 1992?
It's interesting because merely 8 months before the Waco Siege, the Weaver Family experienced A LOT of the same tactics that were used on the Branch Davidians.
Oh, and several of the same ATF agents were at both sieges.
And both sieges started with the shooting deaths of dogs.
So yeah, lets get into this.
Randy Weaver and his family lived in a mountainside cabin where they homeschooled the kids and lived off the land. Their family friend, Kevin, lived with them on and off for nearly a decade. He was visiting the Weavers that fateful day in August. Randy, Kevin, and 14 year old Sammy, wandered down a trail to find whatever or whoever their dog was barking at. They heard a gunshot....suddenly the barking stopped. Randy yelled to the boys to come home. Sammy was running home when he was shot in the back.
The Weavers had no idea what was happening or why their dog and 14 year old son were both dead. They huddled in the house, waiting to see what would happen next. The next day, Randy went to check on his son's body in the shed. When suddenly, he was shot in the back. He started yelling for everyone to get back inside....his wife, Vicki was holding the door open with their toddler in her arms. A gunshot soared through the door, striking Vicki in the head, killing her instantly. That same bullet then hit Kevin and broke several of his ribs before lodging near his heart.
Randy kept his family inside the cabin for 10 days.
They waited to see who would be killed next.
During those 10 days, ATF and FBI agents mentally tortured the Weavers. They brought out bullhorns and floodlights. They shouted to Randy to just surrender. They pleaded with a dead Vicki to come out with the kids. There were helicopters and snipers surrounding the property. The Weavers learned what was going on outside their home by listening to the news reporters slander their names.
Randy has acknowledged that his actions put him in the line of fire. He was coerced to make two sawed-off shotguns to sell to an acquaintance named Gus. Little did he know, Gus was a federal informant. After Randy was arrested for this gun sale, he was propositioned to become an informant too. After adamant refusal, the ATF then began watching the Weaver's cabin was a year and a half.
This should have never happened.
But it did, twice.
I am just astonished by all of the events leading up to the siege and everything that happened during those 10 days. Three people senselessly lost their lives. Vicki, Sammy, and a U.S. Marshall who was killed after Sammy hit the ground.
The Federal Siege at Ruby Ridge was written by Randy Weaver and his oldest daughter, Sara. It details everything they experienced before, during, and after the siege. It even includes court documents from Randy and Kevin's trials and any subsequent investigations into the Ruby Ridge Siege.
Looking for other books the mention Ruby Ridge?
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