On a 20-acre mountain tract above Ruby Creek in northern Idaho stands a primitive house that federal authorities once thought was the booby-trapped fortress of white separatists so dangerous that dislodging them would involve tanks, snipers, SWAT teams and between 200 and 400 federal, state and local law-enforcement agents and National Guard personnel.
The place was not a stronghold, as they learned, but simply the outpost of Randall and Vicki Weaver, isolationists who so distrusted the U.S. government, which they called "the beast" or ZOG (Zionist Occupied Government), that they routinely carried guns, believing that one day they would be routed from their land.Tragically, their expectations of an impending Armageddon came true.
Sunday and Tuesday night, CBS's "Ruby Ridge: An American Tragedy," based on Jess Walter's book, recounts the Weavers' bloody 11-day standoff with the very force they feared.
Laura Dern plays Vicki Weaver, whose paranoia alarmed her own parents (played by Dern's mother, Diane Ladd, and G.W. Bailey); and Randy Quaid is Randy Weaver, who had Army Special Forces training but had not seen combat.
Wounded in the initial shootout at Ruby Ridge, he never fired at anyone during the siege. Darren Burrows plays Kevin Harris, a friend who lived with the Weavers.
The movie focuses first on the Weavers and the development of their racial and religious views, then looks - with less clarity - at how the situation at the Justice Department offices got out of hand.
Viewers may have trouble keeping straight the many law-enforcement personnel, informants and neighbors. The names of most have been changed - for example, Deputy U.S. Marshal William F. Degan, who was killed by Harris, is "Danny Barnett" - or they became composite characters.
Walter, an ex-reporter for the Spokane (Wash.) Spokesman-Review, described Randy Weaver as "a likable racist" but said Weaver was not happy with his book, "Ruby Ridge: Every Knee Shall Bow," mainly because Weaver thought his racial and religious beliefs had little to do with the situation. But Walter said Vicki's parents believed it was accurate.
"I think it does accurately reflect this case," said Walter. "It presents both sides. The ATF and FBI also come off as making human mistakes. This was a game of dominoes: Once they started falling, this case got so out of hand.
"The Weavers were on the radical fringe. (They) were firing guns and writing letters (to government agencies) that were basically challenges. Now the FBI doesn't fall for that stuff, so that they don't make these people heroes."
Walter said he was glad the film-makers retained "the moral ambiguities. I was afraid they would put white hats on some people and black hats on others. In this case there were no good guys."
The Weavers moved from Iowa to Idaho's Selkirk Mountains in 1983, intending to shield their children from what Vicki called the "moral rot" of American society.
As their far right-wing beliefs grew, the Weavers aligned themselves with a white supremacist group called Christian Identity and attended Aryan Nations rallies.
There Randy Weaver met an informant for the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms, which had been watching for weapons violations. Weaver sold sawed-off shotguns to the informant in October 1989, a transaction that was taped, then was indicted in December 1990 for the illegal sale of the guns, his first criminal offense.
But when he did not turn up for his trial in February 1991, the U.S. Marshal's Service sent its special-operations group, a unit that handles dangerous fugitives, to begin surveillance.
On Aug. 21, 1992, Harris, Weaver and Weaver's son Samuel, all carrying rifles, were following the family's dog down a path when they met three heavily armed marshals in jungle camouflage who wore neither badges nor bulletproof vests. Fearing arrest, Randy Weaver fled. After a shootout, Sam, 14, and a marshal, Degan, 42, lay dead.
Believing that others were pinned down under fire, the FBI sent 51 anti-terrorist snipers and assault commandoes and gave the snipers freedom to shoot on sight any armed adult.
By the close of the next day, not only were Sam Weaver and Degan dead, but so was Vicki Weaver, killed by a bullet that passed through the cabin door as she stood holding her infant daughter.
Harris and Randy Weaver, both wounded, stayed in the house with Sara, 16; Rachel, 10; and Elisheba, 10 months old; and Vicki's body. Officials, who did not know she was dead, continued calling to her to give up.
Eventually, with an appeal by former Green Beret James "Bo" Gritz (played by Bob Gunton), and because Harris needed medical aid, Weaver gave up. Charged with the marshal's murder, Harris and Weaver were defended by Wyoming attorney Gerry Spence (Joe Don Baker).
Harris and Weaver were acquitted of all charges - the jury said Harris had killed Degan in defense of the boy - except Weaver's failing to appear in court and violating the terms of his release.
In 1995 the Justice Department paid Weaver and his daughters $3.1 million for the wrongful deaths of Vicki and Sam.
As a result of a subsequent internal investigation, several FBI officials were censured and/or suspended.
Last March the six marshals who participated in the standoff were honored with awards for valor.