Covenant (CSA) - The Siege
Ellison received an eleventh-hour reprieve on the foreclosure when a CSA sympathizer paid off the bank note on his property from monies obtained in an insurance settlement on a house fire, yet that did little to quell his paranoia. Primarily because of Governor Clinton. Following the murder of trooper Bryant, Clinton took steps that would make available to law enforcement a list of suspected or known members of Arkansas’ numerous white supremacy groups. As part of that effort, in early 1985 Clinton convinced the state legislature to pass an antiparamilitary training law designed by the Anti-Defamation League. These efforts placed the CSA squarely in the bull’s eye. Then the unexpected happened.
In March 1985, the FBI received a tip that Order member Randy Evans, along with several other members of the group (Thomas Bentley, James Wallington, and Jefferson Butler) had moved into the CSA encampment to avoid arrests on outstanding warrants out of Washington, Idaho, and Colorado. Also with them was Sue West (aka Jean Carrigan), wife of one Walter West, who had been killed by the Order a year earlier. On March 19, Oklahoma state police found Sue West’s body under a bridge on the Turner Turnpike. Her throat had been slit with a 9-inch knife. Over the next month, Buford’s intelligence would lead the FBI to believe that the homicide was committed by an obscure CSA figure named James Rolston. Back at the compound, Ellison bleached his black hair white to disguise his identity and designed an escape plan from Bull Shoals Lake. This plan involved a steel-plated armored personnel carrier that had been constructed on the chassis of a four-wheel drive truck. Mounted on top was an English-made anti-aircraft machine gun.
The stage was now set for the event that would trigger the siege. On Monday, April 15, Missouri state trooper Jimmie Linegar was conducting random traffic checks along a lonely stretch of highway between the tourist town of Branson, Missouri, and the Arkansas border. At 1:45 p.m., Linegar pulled over a brown 1975 Chevy van and asked the driver for his license. The young man behind the wheel complied, and Linegar returned to his cruiser to run a background check. The name on the license, Matthew Mark Samuels, corresponded to an alias used by a 22-year-old neo-Nazi from Athol, Idaho, named David Tate. Coincidentally, several hours earlier federal authorities in Seattle identified Tate as one of twenty-three people indicted on racketeering and conspiracy charges in connection with the terrorist activities of the Order. Specifically, Tate was wanted for the murder of Walter West.
Sensing trouble, officer Linegar radioed for backup and within minutes trooper Allen Hines rolled up. As the two officers approached the van, Tate opened the door and lurched onto the ground, clutching a .380-caliber Ingram MAC-11 automatic machine pistol. As Linegar reached for his service revolver, Tate opened fire. The bullets slammed into Linegar’s side, killing him instantly. Tate ran to the back of the van and fired three shots at Hines, hitting him in the arm, hip and neck. Then Tate fled into the heavily-wooded terrain.
A massive manhunt was launched involving a combined force of FBI SWAT teams, Missouri state police, and local deputy sheriffs. Armed Cobra gun ship helicopters from the Missouri National Guard flew repeated patterns over the Ozarks while bloodhounds tore through the dense underbrush. FBI agents tried to pick up Tate using sensors aboard a Bureau spy plane capable of detecting living humans in total darkness by their body heat. Roadblocks were set up and Tate’s picture appeared on television and was posted on shops. During the sweep, agents stumbled onto 26-year-old Frank Silva, another Order fugitive, and arrested him at the Safari Campground near Beaver Lake in Benton County, Arkansas. But Tate eluded the dragnet.
Meanwhile, a search of Tate’s abandoned vehicle had turned up a veritable arsenal, including six machine guns, three handguns, a sniper rifle, two assault rifles, dynamite, hand grenades, a pint whiskey bottle filled with nitroclycerine, boxes of silencers, and thousands of rounds of ammunition. Officers also found police scanners, knives, camping gear, ski masks, and four birth certificates for Tate aliases. Along with the indictment against the Order, these discoveries led agents to believe that Tate was making his way on foot to the CSA compound at Bull Shoals Lake (an hour and a half drive from Branson), where he would find sanctuary among the Identity Christians. Buford’s intelligence indicated that Tate had visited the compound back in 1981. “Tate was just a punk kid then,” said Noble. “He came for our national convention with Richard Butler from Aryan Nations.”
News of these events was monitored by Ellison and his followers back at the CSA communications office, sending the group into a state of panic. “By then we had TV, “ Noble recalled, “but we had no idea that he [Tate] was coming to CSA. We were already nervous because we had seen federal cars in Mountain Home and the media was on the road outside the compound everyday.” The paranoia was especially acute among the four Order fugitives who expected the police to use the search for Tate as a pretext to raid the encampment. The Home Guard may not have posed much of a threat to outsiders, but the Order did. Consequently, Ellison vowed not to leave his house until the commotion over Tate had died down. In the meantime, the CSA began to destroy some of their weapons in anticipation of a federal raid.
On Tuesday, April 16, Jack Knox took the FBI’s case to the United States Magistrate in Fort Smith, seeking a search warrant to allow agents to enter the CSA camp. Knox got his warrant, charging Ellison with racketeering, kidnaping, bombing, arson, attempted murder, and a raft of federal firearm violations.
The next day, United States Attorney General Edwin M. Meese arrived in Fort Smith to oversee the government’s unfolding case against Ellison. On Thursday, April 18, Sergeant Gene Irby of the Arkansas State Police, well-known to the CSA residents, appeared at the front gate of the compound and informed Kerry Noble that a federal warrant had been issued for Ellison. After delivering the news to Ellison, Noble returned to the gate and told Irby that Ellison wanted to pray about it overnight. The request was granted. Around ten o’clock the next morning–Friday, April 19–Irby returned to the front gate only to be told by Noble that Ellison was refusing to surrender. The FBI then set up roadblocks, established a siege perimeter, and surrounded the encampment with a massive contingent of twohundred heavily armed agents. A Huey helicopter and an armed personnel carrier were brought in. “At this point,” said Danny Coulson, “the FBI was contemplating the biggest shoot out in its history.”
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