"Survivalist home for sale"

[Demosthenes]

http://www.splcenter.org/intel/intelrep ... sp?aid=856

Right-Wing Survivalists
Idaho 'Survivalist' Home Goes on Sale

"Survivalist Home for Sale," read the identical classified advertisements placed in several Idaho newspapers last July. "Appraised at $227,000, moving overseas, make me an offer." The ads detailed an impressive array of custom features. These included a commercial propane generator, "freezers with vacuum pack meat," and a 3,000-gallon water tank supplied by a year-round stream. The 2.5-acre property, according to the ads, is completely surrounded by "750 linear feet of 6 ft. high chain link" topped with barbed wire and razor wire.

The Survivalist Home's centerpiece, though, is without a doubt its "bunker," constructed of 8-inch-thick "concrete walls and ceiling, all reinforced with rebar" and "vented to allow air in through filtering system." The bunker's outfitted with a "Halon fire system" and "emergency escape hatch," and fully stocked with a "3 yr. supply of new clothing, food, paper products, cases of canning jars, wheat grinders, Geiger counters, potassium iodine pills, gas masks, chemical suits."

Interested parties were directed to contact "Big Mike" in Kamiah, Idaho.

Big Mike is Leonard Michael Molesworth, a tax protester who was convicted in 2005 of filing false IRS forms and obstructing tax laws. Molesworth stopped paying taxes altogether in 1999, then filed a so-called "sovereign citizen" deed — also known as an "allodial title" — on his own property, basically declaring it a tax-free zone. He also filed unjustified tax liens against local officials, a harassment tactic common among followers of the extreme-right sovereign citizen movement.

Molesworth told the Lewiston Tribune that he was leaving the country because he didn't like being prohibited from owning firearms as a convicted felon, and because his elderly mother, who used to live with him, had moved into a nursing home. He refused to say where he was headed.

"I've just been sitting here waiting to die, waiting for the bomb to hit," Molesworth said. Now, "I'm going to start doing something."


Intelligence Report
Winter 2007

[Demosthenes]

The guy was convicted on 17 counts and was only sentenced to a year and a day in federal prison. Dang, compare that to Simkanin (7 years) and Thompson (6 years).

[Demosthenes]

The above is taken from a larger story in the press. The longer story is even better.

Tuesday, December 11, 2007

For sale: Idaho home with a very negative view
Survivalist's self-sufficient house includes barbed wire, bunker

"Big Mike" Molesworth, 62, stands in his survivalist home near Kamiah, Idaho. The $230,000, two-story, three-bedroom estate features razor wire fences and a concrete bunker.Associated Press (Associated Press)

Dean A. Ferguson
Lewiston Tribune
July 18, 2007

KAMIAH, Idaho – Do you envision a dream home that shields you from nuclear holocaust? Marauding outlaws? Agents of Satan?

You're in luck.

A $230,000, two-story, three-bedroom beauty nestled amid rolling pastures about 50 miles east of Lewiston is on the market.

The "Survivalist Home," as advertised in north-central Idaho newspapers, was built in 1998 on 2 1/2 acres and designed as a haven from nuclear fallout and roving bands of outlaws, said owner Mike "Big Mike" Molesworth, 62.

"You won't find another one like this up here," Molesworth said.

His self-sufficient home is in part of Idaho that has drawn many people seeking havens from the world, such as those who came 13 years ago with constitutionalist Bo Gritz to form the Christian covenant communities Almost Heaven and Shenandoah, which are on 600 acres nearby in the Woodland area.

Anyone on a country drive on Caribel Road will spot Molesworth's property and know it's special.

The well-kept lawn, short gravel drive, outbuilding with storage for 10 cords of firewood and garden plot are enclosed by a 6-foot-tall fence topped with a vicious 2-foot whirl of concertina wire. The entrance has floodlights at a military-style checkpost.

"It was probably, maybe, a little extreme putting the razor wire up there," Molesworth said. "But if things go bad, you won't have time to put it up later, or even go buy things."

The Bible warns of tough times ahead, Molesworth said.

Sometime soon, someone is bound to detonate a suitcase nuclear bomb and spark mass unrest, and in the ensuing chaos, the razor wire can keep starving neighbors from raiding the garden, he said.

The home's crown jewel is the bunker.

Behind 8 inches of rebar-filled concrete is a bathroom, bedroom with bunk beds, a kitchen, two walk-in food and supply closets, and a room for tools and power generators. The opening to a 3,000-gallon water tank is inside, and there's access to a 1,700-gallon cistern that fills from a stream crossing the property.

The bunker makes up about a third of the 1,725-square-foot dwelling and is a bit tight, but homey. Until recently, Molesworth lived in it, allowing a needy family to live upstairs in the more conventional part of the home.

The bunker is stocked with reading material, such as the U.S. Department of Energy's 1987 "Nuclear War Survival Skills," as well as movies, music and board games.

"You don't want to sit in here going nuts with nothing to do," Molesworth said.

He has new clothes too.

"If we have an argument with China, they're not going to send socks and underwear to us," Molesworth said.

Molesworth can use electricity from the power company or switch a couple of plugs to use his own propane-powered generator. He keeps 3 1/2 years' worth of propane, food and supplies.

While the Bible warns of seven years of tribulation, only half that time will require self-sufficiency, he explained.

"The Bible says in the last 3 1/2 years, you won't be able to buy or sell anything."

Molesworth is a tall, large man, hence the nickname Big Mike. He grew up in Maryland, the son in a Catholic military family. He's been married twice, has no children and has held many jobs, including one as a computer technician.

He also served in the U.S. Army from 1962 to 1965. He retired as a Teamster in Las Vegas.

He's a jocular guy and doesn't proselytize. He heard about Idaho in Vegas from other truckers chatting on the citizens band radio about "like-minded-thinking people, people that believe in Bible prophecy and all that."

He stayed out of the Christian covenant communities, saying he has friends there but isn't interested in the politics. And "like-minded" doesn't always mean pleasant.

"Don't get me wrong, you do get some nuts up here," Molesworth said.

So why sell the home he has sunk so much time into? After some prodding, Molesworth admitted that he got cross-wise with the Internal Revenue Service a few years back and ended up with a felony. Now he can't legally have a firearm, and that doesn't sit well.

"I'm leaving the country," he said.

He won't say where he's headed, only that his intended destination is a country with a good exchange rate, little crime and friendly, Christian people.

His disability checks, for a back injury, and other Social Security income will let him live well.

Another reason he's leaving: His elderly mother, who used to live with him, has recently taken ill, and he needs $5,000 a month to pay for her nursing home. Now, he's alone in the bunker. He wants to start living again.

"I've just been sitting here waiting to die, waiting for the bomb to hit," Molesworth said.

"I'm going to go start doing something."

[Quixote]

Did he ever pay the taxes, or is there a lien on that dream house?

[Demosthenes]

No liens on Lexis.

[Levendis]

The above is taken from a larger story in the press. The longer story is even better.

Tuesday, December 11, 2007

* * *

Molesworth is a tall, large man, hence the nickname Big Mike. He grew up in Maryland, the son in a Catholic military family. He's been married twice, has no children and has held many jobs, including one as a computer technician.

* * *

I misread that as "computer leprechaun".

Why would a conspiracy-minded survivalist settle in a Western state when they know that the entire Western U.S. will be wiped out by the overdue explosion of the Yellowstone supervolcano? Maybe he finally figured that out and is fleeing the country. LOL.[/list]

[Demosthenes]

Welcome back, Levendis.

[Levendis]

Thanks. I never left, but I did forget the password for a long time and have been posting under another name.