A Brief History On April 19, 1985, around 200 Federal law enforcement officers began a siege of “The Farm,” a compound of the Covenant, Sword and the Arm of the Lord (CSA), a right wing white supremacist paramilitary survivalist organization. You may recall that April 19 (1993) is the date of the great fire and mass deaths at the Waco Branch Davidian conclusion of another Federal siege, and that April 19 (1995) is the date of the Oklahoma City Federal Building terrorist bombing. If this is not enough domestic terror related events for one date, you can recall the April…
Browsing: Crime
Read More
A Brief History On April 16, 1881, Legend of the Old West and buddy of Wyatt Earp, Bat Masterson, fought his last gun fight in Dodge City, Kansas. This archetypical macho man of the Wild West was a renowned gunfighter, lawman, scout, Indian fighter, and buffalo hunter, yet he is best remembered for wearing a suit jacket and a Derby hat! Digging Deeper Born in 1853 in Quebec, Canada, you may be surprised to know Bat was not even a native born American. Of Irish stock, the Masterson family were farmers in Canada, New York, and Illinois before ending up…
A Brief History On April 13, 1873, on Easter Sunday, the holiest day on the Christian calendar, between 60 and 150 African-Americans were slaughtered by irate Louisiana White Democrats angry about having lost the Civil War and Reconstruction efforts to place free Black persons in government and militia positions. Digging Deeper With the status quo severely upended after the Civil War, disaffected White people believed that Northern interference was adversely affecting the welfare of the White Democrats. The 1872 gubernatorial election had been hotly contested as had local elections, with Blacks being allowed to vote in large numbers and ex-Confederates…
A Brief History On April 11, 1986, a tragic shootout between 8 FBI agents and 2 bank robbers in Miami, Florida, resulted in the deaths of 2 agents and both suspects, and the wounding of 5 other agents. The failure of the FBI tactics and firearms resulted in a revolution in police firepower. Digging Deeper The subjects had murdered another man and stolen his car, and then went on a robbery spree. Both suspects were US Army veterans (one had also served in the Marine Corps) and may have been responsible for the murders of their wives. Neither man had…
A Brief History On April 6, 1970, a California Highway Patrol (CHP) traffic stop turned deadly when two CHP officers stopped a car containing two criminals and those two officers were killed in the shootout. The next two CHP officers on the scene were also shot and killed, with one suspect later committing suicide when surrounded and the other later killing himself while in jail doing a life term. The horrible results of what is known as the Newhall Incident resulted in a rethinking of police firearms training and equipment in California. Digging Deeper Analysis of the shootout found that…