NORTH DAKOTA — Monday, Feb. 13, marked the 40th anniversary of one of North Dakota's darkest days.
It was near Medina, North Dakota, on this date in 1983 that tax protesters and far-right, anti-government supporters killed two federal law enforcement officers in a shootout near a roadblock just north of town.
Gordon Kahl was no stranger to law enforcement. He had gone to prison for not paying his taxes. He, along with others in North Dakota, were members of Posse Comitatus, a right-wing, anti-semitic, anti-government, anti-tax group.
"It's a Jew campaign to conquer the world and destroy Christianity and the white race," said Gordon Kahl in a recording shared with WDAY News after the shootout. The recordings are believed to be from the early 1980s.
But as North Dakota U.S. Marshals tried to arrest the then 63-year-old Gordon Kahl for parole violations, chaos broke out.
ADVERTISEMENT
"Officer hit, officer hit, let's go guys, I am hit bad," Deputy US Marshal Bob Cheshire yelled over law enforcement radio that day.
North Dakota U.S. Marshal Ken Muir was shot and killed, as was Deputy U.S. Marshal Bob Cheshire.
"5206 is DOA, 5200 is DOA, 5207, badly injured," said Deputy U.S. Marshal Carl Wigglesworth over the radio.
"I think what bothered me the worst is when I came around the backside of the Ram Charger, and found Bobby Chesire. The condition he was in, that bothered me worse than anything. He had no head. From his eyes up, he was gone," Wigglesworth said in an interview with WDAY News in 1993.
Gordon Kahl stole a police car and took off, leaving his injured son Yorie Kahl — one of the suspects — at the Medina Clinic before heading south. Hours later, his wife Joan Kahl made a public plea.
"Others are going to be hurt, I don't want you dead too. Please, I can't take anymore," Joan Kahl said, hours after the killings.
While Yorie Kahl and Scott Faul were arrested, Gordon Kahl found safe houses to stay and ended up in Arkansas, where law enforcement were tipped off. There was another shootout, and Gordon Kahl shot and killed a sheriff just moments before the house went up in flames. Gordon Kahl was still inside and had been shot. He was found dead in the burned-out home.
Yorie Kahl, now 69, is still in federal prison. Scott Faul, who is the same age as Yorie Kahl, remains in prison. Both have tried but failed to get released.
ADVERTISEMENT
"We weren't criminals, it was a necessary thing to do. If they had put their guns down, that would've been the end of it," Yorie Kahl told WDAY News in a 1993 interview from federal prison.
The Trust Project
