1973: Anti-Government Organizer Convicted of Tax Fraud

Robert Jay Mathews, a young conservative and resistance movement organizer living in Phoenix, Arizona, is arrested for submitting fraudulent income tax returns. Mathews does not believe the US government has the right to compel him to pay taxes. He is given six months’ probation and warned if he commits tax fraud again, he will be charged with felony tax evasion. [HistoryLink, 12/6/2006] Mathews will go on to found The Order, one of the most violent anti-government organizations in modern US history (see Late September 1983). He will die during a 1984 standoff with FBI agents (see December 8, 1984).