Thread by @egavactip

The earliest murder I can point to being connected to the militia movement is an interesting story. I propose to tell it in this thread.

One of the pioneers of the militia movement was Mark "Mark from Michigan" Koernke, the mustachioed bundle of braggadocio who became popular in the early 1990s with his pass-around VHS tapes and his shortwave radio program. His sign off? "Long live the Republic. Death to the

New World Order. We shall prevail."

Though the big militia group in Michigan was the Michigan Militia, w/units around the state, Koernke had his own little militia of followers, which he called by various names, ranging from the Michigan Militia-at-Large to the Colonial Marines.

His followers were few, but were devoted, at least at first. One of them, Bill Gleason, a scrap metal hauler, actually moved in with Mark Koernke. He, along with several other people, acted at Koernke's bodyguards when Koernke went out in public to speak.

People in Koernke's circle listened to him opine on conspiracy theories and engaged in paramilitary training. They lived in a bubble of their own. In September 1994, Gleason and another Koernke follower, Paul Darland, were arrested on firearms charges after police discovered

assault weapons, ammo, and other military equipment in their car. Full of paranoia, the two decided not to show up for court and instead became fugitives. Koernke allegedly sent them and a third member, James Alford, to hide out at the farm of a fourth follower, John Stephenson.

Koernke reportedly promised to help them with their legal situation by getting them to Arizona with new identities. But as weeks passed, the situation on the farm grew tense. Alford and Darland became increasingly disillusioned with, and angry at, Koernke. However, Gleason

was still loyal. Indeed, the other three came to suspect he was in communication with Koernke, reporting to him on the disloyal statements of the others. They decided to murder Gleason. They drove Gleason to a remote swampy location in Hillsdale County,

where he helped them dig a grave they said would be for Koernke. It was actually for Gleason, and when the grave was dug, one of them shot him in the head with a pistol and buried him in that grave.

Darland moved off the farm and hid out, but was finally caught in April 1995, and convicted of the original weapons charges, for which he spent a small amount of time behind bars. Gleason's body was not even found until late 1996. Alford had decided to lead police to the grave

in exchange for immunity. Darland went on the run again, and was not caught until the summer of 2000, thanks to a stripper who saw him and remembered his tattoos from a fugitive poster. He was finally convicted in 2001.

Stephenson, on the other hand, was arrested the day after the body was found. He was convicted in 1997 after getting a sweet plea deal that allowed him to plead guilty only to accessory after the fact to a felony and a firearms charge. He was sentenced to 3-5 years.

He didn't learn his lesson. In 2010 he came to the attention of law enforcement for making "violent threats" against the local sheriff and President Obama.

Investigating police found Stephenson, now a felon, with illegal possession of more than 2,000 rounds of ammo and body armor and arrested him on federal charges. Later that year, however, he was found incompetent to stand trial by a doctor who proclaimed him "delusional,"

which allowed him to escape trial. In 2011, a judge decided he had not improved from treatment.

casetext.com/case/us-v-step…

Bonus: If you'd like to get a taste of what Koernke was like, in 1998 I transcribed and annotated one of his pass-around videotapes from April 1994, just months before the murder, which you can find archived at web.archive.org/web/2000081701….