Waiting, Watching Couple Pray, Lock Door For First Time
Just 200 yards from the fugitive Montana freemen headquarters, 67-year-old June Loomis baked molasses cookies in her kitchen on Wednesday and said she believes her neighbors are a cult.
“I’ve seen some of their literature, and I wouldn’t even repeat what’s in it,” she said. “It’s that bad.”
Her husband, Daniel Loomis, nervously looked out their window at the freemen stronghold, where 10 fugitives are holed up in a cluster of farm houses the freemen call Justus Township.
“I think they’re the worst cult there is - a hate cult,” he said.
The 76-year-old second-generation sheep and cattle rancher, who is related to some of the fugitives, said the freemen claim “Jews belong to the devil. We don’t share that belief at all.”
The Loomises, who have relatives in Spokane, said they hope the siege at a remote farm 30 miles from Jordan ends soon and without bloodshed.
The couple has lived in the same house all their married lives.
They left their home on Monday, hours after FBI agents used a ruse to arrest freemen leaders LeRoy Schweitzer and Daniel Petersen.
Schweitzer and Petersen are charged with orchestrating a conspiracy to pass bogus checks that have cropped up nationwide, and with threatening public officials.
Another 10 freemen also are charged in the check-writing conspiracy. Authorities are trying to figure out how get those armed fugitives to surrender.
The Loomises spent Monday night with nearby relatives, then returned home Tuesday to feed their 60 head of cattle and 200 sheep. They decided to stay Tuesday evening in their own home.
Daniel Loomis said Tuesday was the first time in his life he’s locked the front door. The lock didn’t work properly, so he propped a chair in front of the door.
“It’s kind of upset our livin’ and been pretty rough on us,” he said.
His late father, Fred Loomis, started the family farm in 1914. A part of that land later was sold to Ralph Clark, one of the fugitives in Justus Township.
“They used to be good neighbors” before they proclaimed themselves “freemen” and began practicing so-called common law in 1993, Daniel Loomis said.
He hasn’t talked to his neighbors since then.
“They haven’t bothered us and we haven’t bothered them,” said June Loomis, who spends her days reading the Bible and praying for the freemen.
On Wednesday, armed freemen robbed a three-member NBC-TV crew of $52,000 of camera gear on the county road a short distance from the Loomis home.
The couple didn’t learn of the robbery until later in the day.
NBC producer Tom Cheatham, of Burbank, Calif., said he and his crew were told to “get the hell out of here” by three armed men who approached the network’s truck as the crew set up to take pictures.
The crew reported the theft to the FBI. Armed FBI agents paired with Montana Highway Patrol officers immediately began stopping all vehicles near the township to warn people about the “danger at hand.”
Officers inspected the identification of reporters and photographers and wrote their names on an FBI form that said: “You are approaching an area which is considered extremely dangerous due to the presence of persons charged with federal and state crimes.”
The FBI’s presence is widely applauded by the 500 residents of Jordan. Daniel and June Loomis also support the agency’s role.
“I hope that there won’t be bloodshed, and that it’ll be over soon, because it’s just wearing on everybody’s nerves,” June Loomis said.
Her husband commended the low-key approach of the FBI, which so far has resisted setting up roadblocks.
“I think they’re kind of taking it easy, to give them (the freemen) a chance to come out peacefully,” Daniel Loomis said.
“We’ve been praying for them constantly, that they might change their beliefs and accept the Lord and give up without a struggle.”
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