Book Description

On February 13, 1983, the U.S. Marshals Service was summoned to the small North Dakota town of Medina to arrest a man by the name of Gordon Kahl, a known tax protester and former member of the Posse Comitatus. Authors Darrell Graf and Steve Schnabel were both members of the Medina Police Department, Graf being the Chief and Schnabel the Colonel. After finding out that the marshals were on their way to Medina, Graf and Schnabel gathered members of the ambulance squad and rescue squad at the fire hall to prepare for what they thought could be a bloody shoot-out. Kahl had stated on several previous occasions that he would not go back to prison -- he would go down fighting and take at least two enemies with him. The marshals arrived at Medina and eventually cornered Kahl just north of town by a small farmstead. After nine minutes of shouting back and forth to one another, a shot rang out and one of the marshals was fatally wounded. There was a short pause and then a hail of gunfire, which lasted 20-30 seconds. When the smoke cleared two marshals were dead, one marshal critically wounded and two local officers wounded, including Schnabel. Kahl escaped under a heavy veil of fog. On June 3, 1983 law enforcement caught up with Kahl in Smithville, Arkanas. They surrounded the house he was in and a barrage of gunfire ensued. The house was set on fire and virtually everything inside was destroyed, including the body of a man they believed to be Gordon Kahl.