In West Texas, in 1997, Joe Rowe was wounded and taken hostage by secessionists. Today, he says, “I don’t have any hard feelings.”
In 1997, when members of an armed militia surrounded his house in the scrubby mountains of West Texas, Joe Rowe felt an odd rush of relief. Rowe’s conflict with the group, which called itself the Republic of Texas, had been simmering for years. The Republic of Texas believed thatwas a separate nation not under the control of the United States. The group was becoming increasingly popular across the state, converting more of Rowe’s neighbors to its cause.
The Rowes were skeptical, but plenty of their D.M.R. neighbors, who skewed libertarian, were receptive to McLaren’s ideas. “People were ready for him,” Rowe said. “It was like the Messiah had come.” Calling himself the consul-general of the Republic, McLaren set up an embassy in an old travel trailer behind the D.M.R. store. The Republic of Texas, which aligned with the burgeoning sovereign-citizen movement, began to draw followers across the state.
As tensions mounted, Steve Bailey, the local sheriff, drove two hundred miles to Midland to meet with the Texas Ranger Barry Caver. He explained that any problem with the Republic would likely exceed his capacity. He and a deputy were tasked with patrolling one of the largest counties in Texas. The Republic outnumbered and likely outgunned them, and it was said that the group had booby-trapped the land around the embassy.
“I said, ‘Well, I don’t want to give it to you,’ ” Rowe said. He was in a decent defensive position, and had his pistol trained right between Paulson’s eyes. But then he thought about M.A., who was standing in a room surrounded by windows, and about Luca, out on the porch. He’d read in a militia manual that one of the first steps in taking over a civilian location was to neutralize the pets. Rowe offered to disarm if Paulson promised not to shoot Luca, and Paulson agreed.
McLaren eventually agreed to a prisoner swap of sorts: Scheidt, the man who’d been arrested that morning, in exchange for the Rowes. When it was time to make the switch, Paulson was stymied. The group had a getaway car, but earlier that day Keyes had shot out its tires in an attempt to block the road. Paulson asked Rowe if he could borrow his pickup instead. Given the situation, “I thought that was a strange request,” Rowe said.
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