Carl Drega may have been pushed too hard by the government. The license plates on his rusty pickup bore the New Hampshire state motto, "Live Free or Die." Apparently he had made his choice, one that proved fatal for four innocent people.

If the Cunanan case stands as a poster child for spree killings, the Drega rampage is reflective of those kinds of situations where the killer has been eulogized as a kind of folk hero and martyr among radical activists who see his death as evidence of a Federal government conspiracy to deny Americans their rights, notwithstanding the number of innocent victims slaughtered by their "hero."

Another of this kind was Gordon Wendell Kahl, a 63 year old North Dakota farmer who was a tax protester best known for his involvement in two fatal shootouts with law enforcement officers in1983. During the 70's, Kahl organized the first Texas chapter of the notorious Posse Comitatus. In 1977, he was charged with tax evasion and placed on five years' probation. An arrest warrant was issued for him in March 1981 when he failed to report to a probation officer.

Kahl was driving his family home from a church meeting in Medina, ND on the evening of February 13, 1983, when he hit a roadblock. Shots rang out, and he saw his son gunned down. He pulled a Mini-14 automatic rifle from his gun rack, and a fierce battle ensued with local and federal officials--a battle that some claim was fought because the government wanted to silence Kahl’s outspoken criticism of the income tax system. When the dust settled, Kahl, a highly decorated WWII veteran, had killed two officers and wounded three others. A series of events once again led to a flash point explosion with horrific results. In June 1983, he was discovered hiding out in an Arkansas farmhouse in the Ozarks and was killed in an ensuing shootout with law enforcement officers; a local sheriff was also killed in the exchange. Inexplicably, Kahl's body had been horrobly dismembered which gave rise to much speculation the nature of which could be the subject of separate articles.

Well armed with these bloody flashbacks, I was now prepared for my task. It was time to brew some coffee, boot up the computer and begin working. As is my wont, I started the piece with a title to wit: "Savage killings In Rural Maine." My style has always been to nail down a title and then work around it.