Militia Trial: The Tale Of The Tape

After having been in court for a couple weeks, I’ve had the occasion to meet many people associated with the trial, and they have been kind enough to share their observations with me regarding times I’ve missed. I learned several things I’m going to share, but first off, guess how militia leader Schaeffer Cox first met FBI informant JR Olson? You’ll never guess, so I’ll tell you. It was at a political fundraiser for… wait for it… Rep. Tammie Wilson of North Pole. Small state.

I am in court for the second day that JR Olson is on the stand for the prosecution. There are lots of recorded conversations, both audio and video. We’re still talking about the weekend of the big militia conference in Anchorage.  The conversation involves Bill Fulton (FBI informant and owner of Drop Zone military surplus store in Anchorage), Lonnie Vernon (defendant), and JR Olson (other FBI informant). Neither of the two FBI informants knew about the other one, and both of them are waiting for Vernon to say something incriminating. We are in Bill Fulton’s hotel room which is wired. Vernon and Olson have been sent by militia leader Schaeffer Cox in Fairbanks to come down and procure pineapple grenades, fuses and other illegal items from Fulton while they are in town.

Soon into the exchange, the video freezes. Nobody is sure why, but the audio remained good. While we had video,  Bill Fulton was visible on the left with his back to the camera. Lonnie Vernon was in the center. He looked like he was drinking a beer, but Olson thinks it may have been Gatorade. “I don’t believe we were drinking that night, I don’t remember…” he said.

If you are reading this blog aloud to a small child, or if you are as easily offended by foul language as many in the courtroom seem to be, stand warned.

Fulton: How many pineapples (pineapple grenades) do you need? I need to fucking know. I can get them. 500 of them 5000 of them?

Vernon: Can you get a barrel of them or something?

Fulton: I can get 100 of them.

Olson: Schaeffer talked about – remember when we left? He said 45 or 50.

Fulton: I can do that.

Vernon: What about fuses?

Fulton: I told you Aaron had some. He’s got 160 of them. I don’t have any left.

At this point, Fulton gets up and walks out of camera range. And the entire courtroom – the jury, the attorneys, the witness, the judge, the officers, and everyone in the gallery is treated to a very loud, prolonged and awkward audio account of peeing, echoing down from the heavens via speakers in the ceiling.  And no, for those of you wondering, he did not wash his hands afterwards.

I should also say that Lonnie Vernon’s voice sounds nothing like I expected. I was imagining a long, slow, almost baritone, but he sounds always frantic, almost breathless and anxious. He speaks very quickly and often will start a sentence two or three times before he completes it. I’ve edited a lot of that out.

Vernon: Can we make up something different? What I’ve been reading about is using a blasting cap, with powder (…)  black powder and whatever else you want to put in it? I mean, have you ever tried this phosphorus?

This really makes me shudder. Phosphorous is bad bad stuff. It can be used to create a smoke screen, but when it meets up with human skin, the results are horrific.  I will spare you the medical details, but it is quite devastating to the human anatomy. I don’t know if Vernon really gets this or not. Hard to tell, but it’s chilling.

He continues, talking about how he and some others had been practicing with dynamite and used 12 sticks of it to blow up a Douglas fir stump and ended up making “a 45-foot turnout” on the road.

VERNON: …I was thinking if you bored out the hole over there can you put — after phosphorous you put (…) I’m talking about grenades, dynamite, blasting caps. Can you do something different?

FULTON: …I throw grenades. I don’t make grenades. (…)

VERNON: I want something that has this thing that burns down inside and gives you that four or five seconds… (…)

FULTON: What you need to do is go to Aaron and talk him out of 50 of those fucking fuses.

OLSON: Is there any chance of getting fuses in the future or is this it?

FULTON: ATF (Alcohol Tobacco and Firearms) closed it down; it’s done. They’re “destructive devices.”

OLSON: What about c4?

FULTON: You can make your own C4. (…) Once we start getting into that guys….  If you hand that to one of your guys and they hand it to someone else, it could end up biting us in the ass. I have no problem doing it. I’ve known Schaeffer long enough, and he said I can talk to you guys about it, but you need to understand the ramifications.

OLSON: (…) It’s going in the ground. In the militia way, the APM way. It’s not going anywhere at this point.

VERNON:  It took me months to know he had a fully automatic (…). Even numbnuts doesn’t know that. I know that. I know some guys with nice little sniper rifles with supressors and everything.

I can’t wait for Skrocki to get a hold of Olson and ask the question that’s on everyone’s mind – Who is Numbnuts? Inquiring minds want to know.

The next snippet of conversation talks about grenades and fuses, C4 explosive, and silencers, which are also called ‘supressors.’ This conversation takes place the night after the convention.

FULTON: So, you want me to sell you my extras.

VERNON: If you have them.

FULTON: Of course I have them. They’re my extras. Yes.

VERNON: Well, not necessarily your private stock. Whatever you have available, you know. If you know guys that are hoarding the stuff —

FULTON: Have Schaeffer get those fuses from Aaron.

VERNON: Okay, okay. Because he knows somebody’s got a container full of SKSs or AK-47s from back in Chicago.

FULTON: Back in the day? (…)

OLSON: Now,  do you have a silencer, or are they suppressors?

FULTON: Whoa, they’re the same thing.

VERNON: Same thing, yeah.

OLSON: And — and — and…

That awkward moment when the militia-infiltrating FBI informant doesn’t know that silencers and suppressors are the same thing…

FULTON: Silencers and suppressors are rated for feet. So, you have, like a five-foot suppressor, which means everything past five feet you can’t hear.

OLSON: I’ve been around a suppressor that muffled it a little bit, but then I’ve been around ones that you  hear the click.

FULTON: But that’s how much money you want to spend.

VERNON: They’re 11 to 1500 bucks, you know that (…) And that’s for legal ones.

FULTON: Yeah, I don’t want no legal shit.

VERNON: Yeah.

FULTON: That whole — that’s what I’m saying, but you also want good ones… They have to be brand new but off the books. I know a couple of gun shops in the area. That’s not a problem.

VERNON: Really, no kidding?

OLSON: That’s all  I want to know.

FULTON: That’s prepay, and you’re going to wait six months for it.

VERNON: Really, no kidding?

FULTON: Yeah. because they’re going to want cash, and in order to make it clean it’s got to get lost… It’s not like they can just order one up.

VERNON: You can’t grind the numbers, weld over it and that kind of stuff?

FULTON: No, no, no, no, because each one of those is accountable.

VERNON: Oh, I gotcha.

FULTON: You see what I’m saying? So, let’s say that I go to him and I give him a thousand dollars, okay? It’s going to take a while for him to order the piece to begin with, because it’s not like anybody stocks them. Order it, get it shipped, do the paperwork, get it lost, and then get it to me, yeah.

VERNON: I was going to ask you, you don’t deal with an Mannino, do you?

FULTON: Who’s Mannino? No.

VERNON: Okay.

FULTON: Who is he?

OLSON: He’s a dealer.

VERNON: No, no, no, no, no, no. He’s a tour president and everybody — he’s in the ‘dot gov’
thing. He is a worm …

FULTON: Okay, who is this asshole?  (…)

OLSON: He’s a chiropractor.

VERNON: He’s the one that — he’s a meddler.

OLSON: He’s got class three.

VERNON: Oh, yeah, he’s got — he’s got explosives and everything. But, if you try to buy…

OLSON: Don’t deal with him.

VERNON: If you try to buy something from him, all of a sudden you make the list, on his list, and all of his buddies are the cops, FBI, everything. He is such a smartass.

The twerpish, wormy, meddling, smartass, chiropractic asshole turns out to be a Dr. G. Chris Mannino from Fairbanks – a chiropractor who also happens to be a Class 3 gun dealer. If he is the same G. Chris Mannino that has (or had) a business called Arms & Equipment, and was listed as a Class 3 dealer in Fairbanks, HERE, the link is dead now. I don’t anticipate Mr. Vernon or Mr. Olson going to him for an adjustment any time soon.

I don’t think Mannino is “Numbnuts,” but unfortunately we never do find out who that is.

The talk continues, this time about automatic machine guns. In these transcriptions, I’ve not included parts that seem irrelevant, or just conversation fillers. I’ll indicate where I’ve left out portions, or where it was inaudible with (…)

OLSON: Can you get 50 cals? (…) I want something that I can make…

FULTON: You want a Ma Duece?

OLSON: Yeah.

FULTON: So he can make it go barump barump barump. (…) Do you want belt-fed…

OLSON: Yeah.

VERNON: That’s right.

FULTON: I can get them. (…) work on your own. I can get them semi-auto, and I can get you the fucking template for the side plate, because all it is is a side plate (…) but you got to do the machining on your own. I ain’t involved in that shit. I’ll get you a gun, I’ll get you a template, and I’m out.

OLSON: What kind of dollars are we talking about now?

FULTON: You’re talking about — I think about 12,000 for the gun.

VERNON: That much? Okay.

FULTON: And you’re talking about 600 for extra side plate. (…)

OLSON:  What kind of machining is involved with that? I mean, I know a fucking machinist.

FULTON: About — I think it’s just about eight fucking caps. It’s — it’s not —

VERNON: Yeah, any … M-60s around or anything like that?

OLSON: No.

VERNON: Nothing …?

FULTON: Who the fuck would have an M-60?

VERNON: Yeah, I know, they’re a little crappy.

FULTON: They’re pieces of shit!

VERNON: I was on the base and I went up to these kids (…) last summer. Said, “Guys,” I says, “Am I stirring up too much dust?”  I just wanted to see this gun, because I walked up to this kid, I said, “That is my kind of arms!” I’d like to have that for a third arm.
(Laughter)

FULTON: But you can get those. They’re —

OLSON: Yeah, that’s cake. (…)

FULTON: I mean, you  told me that you built 95…

VERNON: Yeah.

FULTON: I mean, fuck, if you can do that, you can drill 8 holes in a 50, dude.

VERNON: Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah.

During this conversation, what appears to be a bottle of wine is placed in front of the camera. Definitely not Gatorade. They continue talking about upper and lower registers, and which one makes a semi-automatic fully automatic.

After the clip ends, Skrocki asks about the reference to a “Ma deuce” and asked Olson if he knew what kind of gun that was.  He said he didn’t, which I thought was odd since he’s the one that said that was the kind of gun he was looking for.  Here is a picture of a Ma deuce.

Olson verifies that he is familiar with HKs. “I used to own one. There’s 2 parts to the gun, the lower is the trigger assembly with the safety switch, and the upper part is the barrel,…It makes it work so it will fire fully automatic.”

Moving on to the next audio clip.

FULTON: You haven’t paid taxes for 30 years, right?

VERNON: Longer.

FULTON: Okay, so yeah, they probably got something going on.

VERNON: Okay, well, no, it ain’t got nothing to do with that, because what it is, this is DOJ. They don’t answer, they don’t do their paperwork, and they don’t do anything right. They lie and they cheat and they’re redacting signatures.

FULTON: Yeah.

VERNON: What does that tell you?

OLSON: What does that mean redact the…

VERNON: That means they pull their signature out, because they know they’re fucked.

OLSON: Okay, so it’s like reneging.

VERNON: This is regular law books, too. This is Blacks …

FULTON: Yeah, but check this out. We were on this whole thing with Schaeffer, and I want to talk to you about this, but you are not going to cause the fucking militias in the state of Alaska to rise up.

VERNON: No, no, no, no, no.

FULTON: Schaeffer, on the other hand, will.

VERNON: Yeah, he will. That’s what he wants. He wants the big show. (…)

FULTON: Yeah.

VERNON: — and I saw that — is they’re running fucking scared. There’s a whole bunch of them li’l dickweed judges out there. But you know what? We know all of them. We know where they live. We know the assistant district attorney. He’s a fucking Nazi, little fuckwad.

FULTON: Uh-huh.

VERNON: He should have retired 25 years ago or went and shot his self, and he’s a piece of shit, too.

FULTON: (Laughs) Tell me how you really feel.

VERNON: He’s a Nazi fuck, that’s true. His house is adorned with Nazi helmets (…).

FULTON: I have some Nazi helmets…

MR. VERNON: … Well, he’s just a piece of shit anyway. They’re all pieces of shit. I don’t care, because they don’t have a clue.

FULTON: Moving on.

VERNON: Moving on but —

FULTON: So, what does this have to do with the 14th? (Cox’s court date)

VERNON: Okay. We’re going — we’re peeking over the fence. They’re looking at, you know, what will come — what will happen when — if we take him down. What if they do come to our house? Well, you know what?  That was already pre-planned.

FULTON: What was?

VERNON: The family thing. We made a pact a long time ago.

FULTON: What family thing? What the fuck are you talking about?

Ah. I’ll bet this is referring to the so-called “Good-bye letters” that were found in Lonnie Vernon’s truck. The defense didn’t want to enter them in to evidence because they said it had to do with Vernon’s trouble with the IRS and was therefore irrelevant to this case. But the prosecution was successful in getting the letters into evidence, with portions heavily redacted. The parts that were left in said that if the family member in question was reading the letter it meant that the Vernons were dead, but they’d gone out in a blaze of glory during a confrontation with the feds, and had corrected the feds’ “lead deficiency” to the best of their ability.

VERNON: Now, listen to me. Listen to me. If they fuck with one of us — when we go to their house, all of them with the titles, we’ll drag them out and they will never find them.

FULTON: Okay, but not families. You’re not talking about going after innocents.

VERNON: We’re talking about everyone involved in this.

FULTON: You’re not talking about going after innocents.

VERNON: First — no, the first round —

FULTON: No children.

VERNON: The first round will be all the ones involved in it.

OLSON: Like the judges or —

VERNON: Yup. They’re gonna get gone. They can put up all the people around their house, all the snipers they want, whatever they want to do. But one way or the other, they won’t know when it’ll happen.

VERNON: I know, we shouldn’t be talking this bullshit anyway.

FULTON: Well, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, (inaudible) I’d rather talk this here than talk at my house, fucking your house, calling Schaeffer’s house – talking on the phones.

VERNON: Right.

OLSON: The phones are off limits.

FULTON: This is about as safe as you’re going to fucking get.

FULTON: …What you also need to understand is, like, what you just told me, we’ll go up there and support you guys — but you go after kids? I’ll fucking kill you myself.

VERNON: No, no, that’s not — I know, I’m saying…

OLSON: Wives and kids are off limits.

FULTON: We are not them.

VERNON: But if they stand up to –

FULTON: There is no “but if.”

VERNON: Okay, okay. If they pull a gun when we go in there, too, I’m sorry, it’s part… You… you pull a gun and you made it happen, asshole.

FULTON: Yeah, but what you’re talking about is premeditated, and you know that.

VERNON: Well…(…) They make it pre-meditated the day they do wrong to us.

FULTON: They do. But that does not alleviate you in your role of responsibility.

VERNON: What I’m saying is (…) we’re going to get the cancer rooted out. That’s it.

FULTON: Okay, which is them. Not their families, not their children.

VERNON: No, no. No, no, we’re not going to do that. We’re not going to do that, no.

FULTON: Okay, but you weren’t saying that fucking 30 seconds ago.

VERNON: Oh, no, no, no.

FULTON: So, I need you to understand we have no problems supporting you guys, but if you do something like that, I’ll kill you my goddamn self.

VERNON: I know. You’re taking the kids or nothing. (…)

FULTON: You go after whatever grown adult that you want to, but when you throw kids into the mix —

MR. VERNON: No. No, this is the root cause is all it is.

I’ve noticed the jury’s faces looking different than they have before. There are furrowed brows. Jaws are set. Two or three jurors have had their hands or fingers on their mouths as they listen, or read along in the transcript book. One juror looks upward and gives a sigh. Another is glassy-eyed during the discussion of kids.

OLSON: So, now how does that work, because the presiding judge is Schaeffer’s next door neighbor.

FULTON: If you’re going to do it, you need to have a warrant from that grand jury, first off.

OLSON: I don’t think that would be a problem you have to worry about.

VERNON: Find me stabbing in their chest when they bring him out the door.

FULTON: Which is fine, but…

VERNON: I don’t care. I don’t care.

FULTON:  I’ve had talks with Schaeffer about this before. Just because what they do is illegal doesn’t mean that we have a right to do the same thing.

VERNON: No, we’re going to do it by the real law of the land. (…)

OLSON:  I don’t understand this. With their system, the presiding judge -that’s Schaeffer’s neighbor  (…) would we go after him? Because he wouldn’t be presiding over the case. Even though he’s a presiding judge, there’s another one been put on it. How does that work?

VERNON: You know what? Every piece of paper I take note of all the names of everyone that come down to me and my wife. Do I need to say any more?

FULTON: That’s not you and your wife. What about Schaeffer?  Again, I like you, but I am not going to war over you.

VERNON: No.  See, I didn’t — I’ve done nothing to nobody. I don’t even have a speeding ticket in my life. I drove trucks for 36 years. I’ve drove big trucks, the diesel trucks since I was 17 years old. I’m sorry, I don’t go out to raise hell. I’ve got little overweight tickets, you know, of gas and logging days, but I don’t go out to make a name for myself. I don’t want that fucking title for anything. I don’t want to be fucked with, because I don’t fuck with anybody. But when they come on us and they put their name on it —

OLSON: When the judge signs his name.

VERNON: When  they don’t -reside in my country. They have no jurisdiction over me,  but they threaten me. When you threaten me, you might as well have a gun tomy head, because that’s the same thing. That means you’re coming after everything I’ve worked for in my life, and you have no jurisdiction over me. Wrong? Am I wrong?

FULTON: No, you’re not.

VERNON: Well, I’m not materialistic. What I’m saying is you’re going to come back to me and kill my wife and my dogs and everything else. Wrong.

FULTON: You guys know that when you take that step, that’s it.

VERNON: That’s it. It’s all over with. But, you know what?

FULTON: I mean, you guys — well, I’m not saying it’s all over with. That might just be the start of something beautiful.

VERNON: Mm-hmm.

FULTON: But you have to understand that if on the 14th they come for Schaeffer and you guys take that step, that your lives as you know them are over.

VERNON: We know, I know, there’s no more such thing as a life anymore, no. You’re marked…

FULTON: No, no, no, it’s not just that you’re marked. They’re coming for you… And also it’s not just you guys that are gone. It’s Aaron’s guys. It’s us.

FULTON: It’s everybody, because we all have joint fucking agreements.

VERNON: Yeah.

I thought that was interesting, if it meant what it sounded like in that the various militia groups in Alaska have some kind of joint agreement that they will support each other if something like this happens.

OLSON: But we need to make it clear that he needs to have a plan.

FULTON: So, is the plan — is the plan to get arrested and then go after the judges?

VERNON: We started that once and it went away.

FULTON: What, the plan?

I’m reminded here of Michael Anderson’s testimony. He’s the former militia insider who got cold feet and then turned state’s witness for full immunity in the case. He told a story of Bill Fulton lunging at someone, and threatening to slit their throat if they didn’t come up with a “fucking plan.” According to Anderson, Fulton was obsessed with getting a plan to kill judges out of Cox. Presumably the prosecution would have this on tape as well, since Fulton’s room was wired, and that’s where this meeting occurred. But today, even though Fulton and Olson are both asking about a “plan,” neither goes that far. Anderson receives immunity only if he tells the truth, so it will be interesting to see if this comes up again, and if Fulton testifies.

Back to the tape.

VERNON: …they’ll just pick him up and put him in jail for 30 days.  Because this is Schaeffer? — diesel train, international court history. Come get your wife. They disappear, too. Kids. Yeah, they loved the body part thing. That’s 40,000 bucks for a set of kidneys. That’s a 132-country body train – the baby train –the pervert train. You know, it all goes out on the 747.

If you suddenly feel like you’ve been transported into another movie theater and you have no idea what is going on, you’re not alone. I don’t know how we got to kidneys, and pervert trains, but clearly our two FBI informants tried to steer the “what the hell are you talking about” train back on the tracks.

FULTON: So, again, what I’m asking you — and this is me trying to get lead time here. If they issue a warrant are you going to allow them to arrest Schaeffer and then go about your plan? Or as soon as the warrant gets issued, is it fucking On Like Donkey-Kong?

VERNON: It’s his decision. I asked him here about three weeks ago, “What are you going to do?” I says, “You can’t just walk in that courtroom again now, because you’ve double-dipped yourself in bullshit with them.” …

FULTON: We’re going to need more beer.

I second that.

VERNON: I’m not going at all. Okay, then what? Well, I’m just not going to go.

FULTON: Well, it doesn’t work like that, Schaeffer. That’s great; that’s a wonderful idea…

OLSON: He’s okay because then he makes statements that say I’ll go to jail and sit for 30 days and stir up a beehive. You know, he can’t — he can’t be doing that. Once he’s in there he’s gone. He’s gone.

VERNON: He should know that. Once he’s been in there, they’ll drag him off. They’ll fuck him up.

FULTON: I want a fucking cigarette.

I don’t even smoke, and I wanted one too. The jury is weary. So is the gallery. Olson seems to be holding up well, though. He’s not been a bad witness overall. He’s fairly articulate, and straightforward – not quite what I expected.

Skrocki clarified that the reference to the 14th was indeed Schaeffer Cox’s court date for which he had already announced he wouldn’t show up.

Then Skrocki brought up the comments we heard from Lonnie Vernon about killing women and children in the course of killing a judge or other official. “Did it come up with Mr. Cox?” he asked Olson. “Yes, about a month later.”

There were no other activities planned for the militia conference and the following morning, Vernon and Olson headed back to Fairbanks. “We talked again this whole kinda talk, guns, silencers, explosives, judges, everything,” Olson said. “We met up with his wife, and I dropped him off with his wife. I called Schaeffer and let him know we were back in town. He wanted to get a report of how the weekend went.”

And I’ll leave it there for now. There is a lot more to come from Olson, and at this point I’m trying to play catch up and get all my posts done by Tuesday when court is in session again. Next week sounds like it will be very informative, with key witnesses testifying.

*********************

Background information for the U.S.A. vs. Schaeffer Cox, Coleman Barney, and Lonnie Vernon:

The U.S. represented by Steve Skrocki, and Yvonne Lamoureux

Defendant: Schaeffer Cox, Commander of the Alaska Peacemakers Militia, represented by Nelson Traverso. He is currently charged with conspiracy to possess unregistered silencers and destructive devices, possession of an unregistered destructive device, possession of an unregistered silencer, possession of an unregistered machine gun, and conspiracy to kill officers and employees of the United States, including law enforcement officers.

Defendant: Coleman Barney, Major in the APM, represented by Tim Dooley. Charged with conspiracy to murder federal agents and with violating federal weapons laws for owning or attempting to purchase machine guns, silencers, hand grenades and other arms.

Defendant: Lonnie Vernon, Sergeant in the APM, represented by MJ Hayden. Charged with conspiracy to murder federal agents and with violating federal weapons laws for owning or attempting to purchase machine guns, silencers, hand grenades and other arms.

Judge Robert J. Bryan presiding.

FBI informants:  Bill Fulton, JR Olson

State’s witness in exchange for full immunity: Michael O. Anderson

To be tried at a later date: Karen Vernon

All illustrations are my own eerily lifelike courtroom sketches

I’ve done my best to be accurate, and any errors in transcription or content are unintentional

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