LeRoy Schweitzer | Led separatist group, 73
LeRoy Schweitzer, 73, the former head of the Montana Freemen, an antigovernment separatist group that held the FBI at bay for 81 days in 1996, was found dead in his cell Tuesday at the federal Supermax prison in southern Colorado. He appears to have died of natural causes, but an autopsy will be performed.
LeRoy Schweitzer, 73, the former head of the Montana Freemen, an antigovernment separatist group that held the FBI at bay for 81 days in 1996, was found dead in his cell Tuesday at the federal Supermax prison in southern Colorado. He appears to have died of natural causes, but an autopsy will be performed.
Schweitzer was a founder and leader of the small, heavily armed Freemen group. His arrest in 1996 prompted 16 group members to barricade themselves in a 960-acre ranch compound in Jordan, Mont., for 81 days. The standoff with the FBI ended without a shot fired.
He was a former owner of a crop-dusting business and was a partner in a real estate company when he organized the militia group. The Freemen didn't recognize the federal government, and they attempted to curdle the nation's banking industry by writing billions of dollars' worth of bad checks that came to be known as "Schweitzer checks."
Schweitzer was later convicted on 25 counts, including conspiracy, bank fraud, threatening a federal judge, illegal possession of firearms, and participating in the armed robbery of an ABC-TV crew covering the Freemen.
At his sentencing in 1997, Schweitzer stood gagged, chained, and handcuffed. When U.S. marshals lowered his gag, Schweitzer said he was a citizen of "the country of Montana," not the United States. - AP