Ruby Ridge | 64
History of the 90s
Kathy Kenzora
4.7 • 610 Ratings
🗓️ 23 February 2022
⏱️ 29 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Randy Weaver and his family moved to a remote cabin in Northern Idaho when their extreme views on race and religion became an issue with friends and family back in Iowa.
They wanted to live off the grid, isolated from society but after Weaver failed to appear in court on charges of selling illegal sawed-off shotguns, law enforcement began a surveillance operation on their property.
In August 1992 the operation exploded into a deadly firefight and ignited an 11 day siege that became a rallying call for the radical right.
On this episode of History of the 90s, host Kathy Kenzora looks back at the events at Ruby Ridge and explains how they sparked the birth of the modern militia movement that still exists to this day.
Guest:
Lane Crothers, Professor at Illinois State and author of Rage on the Right
Twitter: @LaneCrothersISU
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Hey there, it's Kathy. I just wanted to let you know that you can listen to History of the 90s |
| 0:04.7 | early and ad-free on Amazon music included with Prime. |
| 0:09.4 | As the sun came up on August 21st, 1992, a small group of U.S. Marshals reached their outpost |
| 0:16.8 | in the thick woods of northern Idaho. |
| 0:20.1 | From their vantage point, they could see a mid-sized ramshackle cabin, isolated from the outside world |
| 0:26.0 | atop a mountain ridge. |
| 0:28.5 | Around 7 a.m., the family living inside the cabin began to stir. |
| 0:33.4 | For them, it was a normal day. |
| 0:35.8 | They made trips to the outhouse and completed chores. |
| 0:38.8 | The kids played with the family dog. |
| 0:41.5 | Nothing seemed out of the ordinary. |
| 0:44.2 | Except everyone that came out of the cabin was armed, including the children. |
| 0:49.9 | U.S. Marshalls snapped photos of the mother, who was pacing nervously back and forth in a long |
| 0:55.6 | white nightgown, lost in thought, as if she knew trouble was on the horizon. |
| 1:01.5 | I'm Kathy Kinsora, and this is History of the 90s, a podcast about a decade that changed the |
| 1:07.6 | world. In this episode, we look back at an event that ignited simmering anti-government sentiments |
| 1:14.1 | and gave birth to the modern militia movement in the United States. |
| 1:19.0 | This is the story of Ruby Ridge. |
| 1:26.2 | The Weaver family moved to Ruby Ridge in the northeast corner of Idaho in March 1984. |
| 1:33.4 | Randy Weaver bought the land the year before, and he built a cabin for his growing family. |
| 1:39.1 | With no electricity or plumbing, the cabin was pretty basic. |
| 1:43.2 | But it did have something that Weaver was desperately looking for. |
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