– Gordon Kahl: 33 years since Medina shootings

“No greater tragedy”… . these were the words used by Former Attorney General William French Smith in responding to the deaths in North Dakota of United States Marshal Kenneth H. Muir and Deputy U.S. Marshal Robert S. Cheshire, Jr.- shot February 13, 1983 while attempting to make an arrest.* More rememberance. This tragic event set off a North Dakota and nationwide search, which spanned from Feb 13 through June 3rd of 1983. By the time it was over in Arkansas, two more individuals, Sheriff Gene Matthews and Gordon Kahl, would be dead.

1983 ND Search for Gordon Kahl from The Replay Channel on Vimeo.

Video clips from the CSi TV Archives – recorded in February of 1983 as the U.S. Marshals and FBI conducted searches for Gordon Kahl in southeastern North Dakota.

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It began outside Medina. Marshal Muir, Deputy U.S. Marshals Cheshire, Hopson, Carl Wigglesworth, and local law enforcement personnel, set-up a roadblock to serve a warrant on Gordon Kahl, 63, for violating his probation on a tax evasion conviction.

As Kahl and others were leaving a meeting in Medina, an encounter occurred, which resulted in the deaths of Marshal Muir and Deputy Cheshire and the wounding of Deputy Hopson and two other local law enforcement officials. Kahl’s son, Yorivon, received stomach wounds in the exchange of gunfire.

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It was discovered that Gordon Kahl had escaped on the North Dakota prairie along with several others; starting one of the most intensive manhunts in recent Midwest history. Two days after the Medina tragedy, a force of approximately 100 law enforcement personnel made up of representatives of the U.S. Marshals Service, the Federal Bureau of Investigation, and State and local agencies converged on the Kahl farmhouse near Heaton, North Dakota. No Gordon. The search continued in eastern ND.*

from Wikipedia: A tip was received by authorities from the youngest daughter of a property owner, whose land Leonard Ginter and his wife Norma Ginter lived on. Kahl hid in their earth-bermed passive solar home in Smithville, Arkansas.

Another shootout ensued on June 3, 1983, in which Kahl and Lawrence County Sheriff Gene Matthews died. Despite Federal Marshals and FBI SWAT teams firing thousands of bullets into the home before setting it alight, Kahl was killed by a single .41 Magnum bullet fired by Sheriff Gene Matthews, who died on an operating table critically wounded by a bullet from Kahl’s Mini-14.

*(from US Marshals Service website) . More rememberance at CSiNewsNOW

This tragic event set off a nationwide search, which spanned from Feb 13 through June 3rd of 1983. By the time it was over, two more individuals, Gordon Kahl and Sheriff Gene Matthews, would be dead.