27 Facts About Gordon Kahl

Gordon Wendell Kahl was an American World War II veteran, farmer and tax protester who was known for being a one-time member of the Posse Comitatus movement and for his involvement in two fatal shootouts with law enforcement officers in the United States in 1983.

Gordon Kahl was born in Wells County, North Dakota, on January 8,1920, to Frederick and Edna Kahl.

In 1967, Gordon Kahl wrote a letter to the Internal Revenue Service stating that he would no longer pay taxes to the, in his words, "Synagogue of Satan under the 2nd plank of the Communist Manifesto".

In 1975 Gordon Kahl organized the first Texas chapter of the Posse Comitatus and became the state coordinator.

Gordon Kahl was convicted on each count in April and June 1977, and was sentenced to two years in prison and a fine of $2,000.

Gordon Kahl appealed his conviction, but the conviction was affirmed in 1978 by the United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit.

Gordon Kahl then became active in the township movement, an early version of the sovereign citizen movement.

On February 13,1983, the US Marshals attempted to arrest Gordon Kahl for violating his parole as he was leaving a Posse Comitatus meeting in Medina, North Dakota.

The Gordon Kahl party fired over a dozen rounds during the gunfight, while the marshals and officers fired eight.

At one point, the Gordon Kahl party took a wrong turn off of a highway.

Gordon Kahl took cover behind his vehicle, Yorie Von took cover behind a telephone pole, and Scott Faul ran from the highway towards a set of trees, seeking better cover.

The US Marshals Service stated that Yorie Von Gordon Kahl fired the first shot at Cheshire from behind a telephone pole.

Schnabel tried to return fire with his shotgun, but Gordon Kahl fired three more rounds at the officer as he tried to aim his weapon.

Gordon Kahl chose not to shoot the fleeing officer, and instead turned to the fatally wounded Cheshire, who was trying to climb back inside his vehicle.

Gordon Kahl then walked over to Muir and Schnabel's vehicles as Scott Faul tended to the wounded Yorie Von Kahl.

Gordon Kahl abandoned the stolen police car just outside of Medina.

Yorie Von Gordon Kahl was immediately arrested after being treated at the clinic, while Scott Faul turned himself in to police.

Those who were harboring Gordon Kahl were afraid that the US Marshals were getting close to finding out where Gordon Kahl was staying, and decided to move him to the residence of Leonard Ginter and his wife Norma Ginter.

Gordon Kahl hid in their earth-bermed, passive-solar home in Smithville, Arkansas.

Matthews entered the kitchen and Gordon Kahl emerged from behind a refrigerator; the two men fired almost simultaneously.

Gordon Kahl fired at least one round, which severely wounded Matthews in the heart, and Matthews fired a single.

Matthews, critically wounded by the bullet fired from Gordon Kahl's Mini-14, was taken to the hospital where he died on an operating table.

Gordon Kahl was sentenced to ten years in prison and released in 1993.

Yorie Von Gordon Kahl is serving his sentence at the Federal Correctional Institution at Pekin, Illinois.

Gordon Kahl was considered a martyr among tax protester groups, which helped disseminate his views and radicalize the movement.

Joan Gordon Kahl died in a nursing home at the age of 93 on January 23,2020.

In Downtown Owl: A Novel, a book by Chuck Klosterman which is set in North Dakota in 1983 and 1984, the saga of Gordon Kahl is a constant topic of discussion among the residents of the fictional town of Owl, North Dakota.