Deadly Traps Thwart Investigators In Texas Manhunt Continues For Pair Of Secessionists Who Fled
Richard McLaren and his small band of secessionist followers apparently were prepared to send approaching state police to fiery deaths. Investigators said Sunday they have discovered as many as 60 pipe bombs, tripwires and other explosives ringing the group’s mountain headquarters.
The “booby traps” have thwarted the continuing search for two Republic of Texas men who fled at midday Saturday with high-powered weapons as state authorities were negotiating the surrender of McLaren, the group’s self-styled ambassador, and three other members, said Mike Cox, a spokesman for the Texas Department of Public Safety.
Richard Frank Keyes III, 21, of Kansas, who called himself a lieutenant, and Mike Matson, whom authorities admit they know little about, disappeared separately into the rugged canyons of the Davis Mountains. Authorities saw them flee but did not immediately pursue them for fear of threatening negotiations for the peaceful surrender of the others.
For the first time, Cox also shed light on the scope of the weeklong standoff between state authorities and McLaren’s group. He said 300 police officers and an additional 200 support people were involved in the siege that began last Sunday when three Republic of Texas members shot their way into a neighbor couple’s home and took them hostage for 12 hours.
Cox did not have an estimate of the cost of the operation.
His early descriptions of the headquarters where the group remained hidden provided a chilling look into their preparations.
Several tanks of gasoline, he said, were positioned on a hillside so that they could quickly spread fire downhill toward police waiting a quartermile away. Eight bunkers, mostly tents covered with camouflage netting, had been constructed around the trailer that served as McLaren’s home and the group’s headquarters, filled with extra food and clothing.
Cox said there also was “a considerable amount” of pipe bombs along a dry creek bed that marks the entrance to the headquarters and that another line of bombs was planted in back of the trailer.
On Saturday, before surrendering, McLaren and his group laid down their arms, including 10 hunting and semiautomatic rifles and 500 to 700 rounds of ammunition.
Cox appeared calm about the continued freedom of Keyes and Matson. “There are deer and mountain lions up there, and I saw a wild burro. There is no indication whatsoever any property owners live where the two are missing,” he said. “It’s literally open country, mountainous, beautiful country.”
But, he added, the danger of explosives had kept bloodhounds and mounted police at a distance.
McLaren, meanwhile, spent his first night in the Presidio County Jail in Marfa on Saturday night, smiling and waving a copy of his “international cease-fire” agreement to reporters as he was driven to the jail.
McLaren, 43, who could be sentenced to up to 99 years in prison if he is convicted of the state charge of organized criminal activity, also faces previous federal contempt of court charges.
Secessionists Richard “White Eagle” Otto and Karen and Gregg Paulson, who came out with Richard McLaren on Saturday, and Robert Scheidt, who left earlier in the week, were each held on $500,000 bond. They and Keyes could be sentenced to 5 years to 99 years in prison on state felony charges. Police said they were baffled about why Matson, who apparently faces no charges, fled.