I dunno about HG. It was a phenomenon from the Wild West days of the Internet, it’d be like some kid today knowing about the viral marketing for Blair Witch Project or something. I never thought that story had the staying power of the Manson cult or something like that because Applewhite came across as a pathetic pussy shit loser, as opposed to Manson who was able to inadvertantly fascinate people. My main thing about HG that I keep returning to is that the website keeps popping back up on the Internet.

I thought the whole thing about Ruby Ridge was that a)the whole country was now thrust into the awkward position of having to sympathize with a white nationalist, and b)just like Indians have Wounded Knee or gay people have Stonewall or whatever, “thanks to Ruby Ridge, rednecks can feel entitled to their rage, too.” That these people had finally gotten the standoff with the Satanic government that they wanted. I know that even a number of liberals expressed sympathy for Weaver. It didn’t have QUITE the level of news coverage that Oklahoma City got (which is what bumped OJ off the top of news broadcasts after a whole year and was easily the biggest American news story of 1995) but it certainly got attention.
The reason I’m making the comparison is that the whole thing started because Randy was supposed to show up to court because he sold sawed off shotguns to an undercover FBI agent that were sawed off past the legal limit. Well gee, what if someone were to go “well there ya go, it’s all HIS fault!!!!” (this would be bullshit, of course)

If you like, feel free to try tracking down Lon Horiuchi, the much-hated sniper who killed Randy Weaver’s wife (I swear that this was reworked into the ending of Clint Eastwood’s A Perfect World a year later). He’s a real ghost–only one picture of him in existence, his old military yearbook photo from the 1970s.