This day in history: Tax Protester Gordon Kahl was shot and killed by law enforcement on this day in 1983.
Before Waco and Ruby Ridge, there was Gordon Kahl. Gordon Wendell Kahl was a tax protester, who, in 1967, wrote a letter to the Internal Revenue Service stating that he would no longer pay taxes to the, in his words, "Synagogue of Satan under the 2nd plank of the Communist Manifesto." During the 1970s, Kahl organized the first Texas chapter of the Posse Comitatus, although he later left the group and was not a member at the time of the 1983 shootouts. In 1976 he appeared on a Texas television program stating that the income tax was illegal and encouraging others not to pay their income taxes.
On November 16, 1976, Kahl was charged with willful failure to file Federal income tax returns for the years 1973 and 1974. He was found guilty, and was sentenced to two years in prison and a fine of $2,000. However, one year of the sentence was suspended, as was the fine. The court placed Kahl on a five year probation. Kahl appealed his conviction, but the conviction was affirmed in 1978 by the United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit, after Kahl's release from prison on probation. Kahl served eight months in prison in 1977.
Kahl is now known for the shootouts he was involved with in 1983. Too many people died just to make sure one person paid their taxes.
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