|
Spokane.net
November 14, 1999
Waco woven into Idaho couple's lives
Gun dealer for Koresh, friend of Davidians speak, testify about siege
By Bill Morlin - Staff writer
Former gun dealers Henry McMahon and Karen Kilpatrick live in a small apartment in Bonners Ferry, Idaho, in the shadow of Ruby Ridge.
But their lives are occupied by another symbolic location in the anti-government movement: Waco, Texas.
McMahon was the gun dealer who sold Branch Davidian leader David Koresh 223 legal firearms. Kilpatrick was a close friend of several Davidians.
Now, six years after the deadly standoff at Waco, the couple still find themselves tied to the controversy that continues to burn.
They expect to be called as witnesses early next year in the suit brought by surviving Davidians against the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms.
McMahon, 37, and Kilpatrick, 42, also are in contact with former Republican Sen. John Danforth, who's directing a new inquiry into events at Waco.
Whenever there's an opportunity, the Bonners Ferry couple speak out against the government. McMahon spoke at a Soldier of Fortune convention and testified before Congress.
McMahon and Kilpatrick will tell anyone who will listen that they were mistreated, assaulted and wrongfully detained by ATF agents for three weeks after the Davidian siege began in February 1993.
The ATF disputes that.
The FBI also found no merit to their claims of civil rights violations.
Yet another arm of the federal government, the Social Security Administration, says the couple are victims of government-caused stress.
Both now suffer from post-traumatic stress traceable to the ATF raid at the Davidian compound, a federal administrative law judge ruled in 1997.
The pair have been unable to find and keep jobs because of stress related to the Waco siege, the judge determined.
With those findings, the judge ruled that both McMahon and Kilpatrick are entitled to Social Security disability payments. Government Davidian siege began in February 1993.
The ATF disputes that.
The FBI also found no merit to their claims of civil rights violations.
Yet another arm of the federal government, the Social Security Administration, says the couple are victims of government-caused stress.
Both now suffer from post-traumatic stress traceable to the ATF raid at the Davidian compound, a federal administrative law judge ruled in 1997.
The pair have been unable to find and keep jobs because of stress related to the Waco siege, the judge determined.
With those findings, the judge ruled that both McMahon and Kilpatrick are entitled to Social Security disability payments. Government attorneys didn't appeal the decision.
The couple's combined disability checks put them close to the national poverty level of $14,000 a year -- only about a quarter of what they made as weekend gun dealers.
David Koresh calls
Kilpatrick met McMahon in 1988 while she worked as a computer technician in Pensacola, Fla. An Air Force veteran, McMahon was working in a gun store there and was a federally licensed firearms dealer.
Soon the two started their own business, selling guns at weekend gun shows throughout Florida.
By August 1990, they decided to move to Hewitt, Texas, a suburb of Waco, where they started Hewitt Handguns. They sold firearms at weekend gun shows from Houston to Amarillo.
"There's a gun show somewhere in Texas every weekend," Kilpatrick said.
The pair showed customers how to dismantle and clean handguns, and particularly catered to women.
"We really built up a good reputation," Kilpatrick said.
McMahon said he sold 4,000 guns in Texas and 36,000 while in Florida. He specialized in collectible firearms and "military-style" rifles _ the term he uses instead of calling them assault rifles.
The couple's customers included country singers Hank Williams Jr. and Mark Chestnutt, and retired Detroit Lions football player Keith Ferguson.
In early 1991, McMahon said he got a call from a man named David Koresh in Waco.
Koresh didn't know much about firearms, but asked a lot of questions. He was particularly interested in assault rifles. The prices of those rifles were increasing because of a federal import ban.
McMahon didn't sell firearms out of his house for security reasons, but agreed to meet Koresh at a shopping mall.
Koresh bought a Ruger Mini-14 assault rifle for $500, McMahon said.
Within a month, Koresh called McMahon again, this time asking about an AK-47 assault rifle.
Koresh bought seven of the semiautomatic firearms, for about $700 apiece, and remarked that the same rifles were selling for twice that in Los Angeles.
McMahon and Kilpatrick said that comment made them wonder if Koresh was reselling the guns in Southern California.
"He told us to come out to (the Davidian compound at) Mt. Carmel and he'd show us the guns, and that's what we did," Kilpatrick said.
About a year later, the pair began taking Koresh to weekend gun shows in various Texas cities where they sold firearms.
"He was overwhelmed by the size of these gun shows," Kilpatrick said. "He steadily bought guns from us, and wanted to know how to make money in the gun business."
ATF gets involved
McMahon and Kilpatrick started visiting the Davidian compound regularly, and were even invited to Thanksgiving dinner there. They sat through Koresh's 10-hour-long Bible studies, but never moved to the compound.
They did buy a rebuilt Camaro from Koresh and his followers, who operated a business, "The Mag Bag," that specialized in restoring those cars.
Kilpatrick said she became friends with others living at Mt. Carmel, and even changed baby diapers there. She said she saw none of the child abuse federal agents alleged occurred at the compound before the ill-fated raid.
McMahon said he brokered a $67,000 gun purchase from an Indiana firearms dealer, with the purchase money advanced by Koresh and another man. Those weapons eventually were sold at Texas gun shows.
McMahon also directed the Davidian leader to other businesses where Koresh bought military clothing and freeze-dried rations.
Then on July 30, 1992, ATF agents showed up at McMahon and Kilpatrick's home, wanting to do a compliance check on their firearms records. They asked about the number of firearms McMahon had sold to Koresh, including 104 "receiver" units -- a key component of a firearm -- McMahon purchased from Olympic Arms, in Olympia.
The receivers could be assembled with various caliber barrels, stocks and firing mechanisms to become fully automatic machine guns.
Investigators later said Koresh illegally converted some of his firearms to machine guns and was preparing for an Armageddon showdown.
"The ATF was asking me all these questions about David Koresh. Why does he need so many guns? What's he going to do with them?" McMahon recalled.
Disturbed with the questions, McMahon said he picked up his telephone and called Koresh.
"I said, `David, the ATF is here asking questions about you,"' McMahon said. "He told me, `If they want to see my guns, tell them to come out here."'
McMahon said he offered the phone, with Koresh on the line, to the two ATF agents, who were upset the call had been made.
The agents returned to McMahon's home in early August 1992 and got a list of serial numbers of the guns he had sold Koresh.
Later that month, after three people died in the Randy Weaver standoff at Ruby Ridge, McMahon recalled that he and Koresh "talked about a government that we both thought was out of control."
Scooped up by agents
By December 1992, McMahon and Kilpatrick decided to move back to Pensacola, Fla., where they began working for another gun dealer. They had no further contact with Koresh.
Then, on Feb. 28, 1993, while returning from a gun show, they heard a brief radio news report about the ATF raid at the Davidian compound. The couple were so stunned that they pulled off the freeway to find a phone. Kilpatrick called her parents in Pensacola to find out more about the ATF raid.
The day after the raid, federal agents contacted McMahon again about the firearms he sold to Koresh. He said ATF agents told him and Kilpatrick that they needed to go into hiding to avoid the press and FBI.
McMahon said he never was told why ATF agents wanted to keep the couple away from FBI agents who were in charge of the siege.
"The ATF flew us to Portland, and then we drove down to Salem to stay with my parents," McMahon said. His father was postmaster there.
After three weeks, the ATF flew the couple to Waco, where they were questioned about the Davidian compound as the standoff with the FBI continued. It was there that Kilpatrick alleges she was assaulted by an ATF agent.
Ultimately, the ATF flew them back to Pensacola, but they were never given per diem or compensated for the three weeks of lost employment, Kilpatrick said.
Unable to find jobs in Florida, they were offered jobs operating a restaurant near Bonners Ferry, and decided to move to North Idaho in late 1993.
When the restaurant closed, they worked briefly at a private school, but lost those jobs, too, they said, because of their involvement in the Waco controversy.
They sued the ATF and 14 of its agents in 1995. But their suit, filed in U.S. District Court in Texas, stalled and eventually was dismissed when the pair couldn't come up with $30,000 their attorney demanded.
They were represented by attorney Kirk Lyons, of Black Mountain, N.C., who has defended white supremacists and anti-government extremists.
ATF headquarters spokesman Jeff Roehm said privacy laws prevent the agency from publicly discussing allegations made by McMahon and Kilpatrick.
"Mr. McMahon and Ms. Kilpatrick choose not to pursue their complaint in the public arena of the courts," Roehm said.
About the time they abandoned their lawsuit, the couple filed for Social Security disability, claiming they couldn't hold down full-time jobs.
McMahon and Kilpatrick hope the new Danforth inquiry will address their concerns.
"Our lives have really changed over this," Kilpatrick said. "People are so cruel to us. They just don't know what really happened.
"We still don't know what to do with our lives, where to turn next. Wherever we go, this comes back to haunt us."
© 1999 Spokane.net
|
