The lengthy article was full of innuendoes and references to the Keane brothers as “gun nuts” (somewhat true), “survivalists” (true), “militia cell members” (a lie), “white separatists” (a lie), “with ties to the KKK” (a lie), “unlicensed gun dealers” (a half-truth), “organizers of a jural society” (true), “adherents of racist ‘Identity’ Christianity” (a lie), “reputed members of the Aryan Nations neo-Nazi group” (a lie), and “having extensive contacts with the Elohim City neo-Nazi compound” (a lie).
The most blatant piece of innuendo was a reference to the roll of duct tape. It was described by an ATF spokesman as “the same type of tape that is often used to bind the hands and feet of victims in home invasion robberies.” These comments infuriated Chase. He quipped, “You know, they ought to rename it the BATFE&DT: ‘The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, Explosives, & Duct Tape.’” Putting on a mocking falsetto, he added, “If they just put all the sickos in this country who own any of that evil ‘assault duct tape’ in prison, we’d live in a much safer society. There is no legitimate purpose for private citizens to own duct tape. Mere possession should be viewed as criminal intent.”
Matt added, “Yes, and only properly trained law enforcement officers should be allowed to own duct tape, or high capacity duct tape dispensers.”
In the following weeks, Matt often joked about the magazine article and others like it that they saw later. “I sure am glad to live in a country with a fair and unbiased media!”
In early June, Matt bought a copy of The Gun List at a New Orleans news-stand. He was still hoping to find some additional high capacity magazines for their guns. There were none advertised. Leafing through the magazine, he was stunned when he saw a prominent half-page reward ad, placed by the BATFE.
The agency was offering a fifty-thousand-dollar reward, and North Carolina authorities offered another ten thousand. The ad had blurred second-generation photos of Matt and Chase.
It read:
WANTED BY THE FBI; ATF; NORTH CAROLINA STATE HIGHWAY PATROL, RANDOLPH COUNTY OHIO SHERIFF’S OFFICE, ASHEBORO, NORTH CAROLINA POLICE DEPARTMENT; FOR THE ATTEMPTED MURDER OF THREE LAW
ENFORCEMENT OFFICERS…
$60,000 REWARD
CAUTION: SUBJECTS ARE CONSIDERED TO BE ARMED AND EXTREMELY DANGEROUS. ANYONE WITH INFORMATION, CONTACT THE ATF 24 HOUR ENFORCEMENT OPERATIONS CENTER AT 1-888 ATF-GUNS OR YOUR LOCAL FBI OFFICE.
After seeing the article and reward advertisement, the Keanes were glad that they’d gone completely underground, changed their identities, and made no attempt to contact their family or friends. They were on the BATFE’s “10 Most Wanted” List. After seeing the pictures of himself with and without a beard, Matt decided to grow a mustache. He wore his dark Ray-Ban shooting glasses almost constantly. Chase began growing a full beard. He let it grow for the four years that they were in hiding. It eventually extended three inches below his chin.
Each workday, in what became a relentless grind, Chase took the bus to the pole yard, and Matt drove the pickup to the warehouse. They didn’t use any of their accrued vacation, and consciously avoided developing more than a “wave and say hi” relationship with anyone at the trailer park or at work. Because of their reclusive habits, some of their neighbors at the trailer park concluded that they were gay. They rarely ate out, and saved as much money as possible. For relaxation, they mainly went fishing on weekends. They developed tastes for Cajun music and Creole cooking. With a conscious effort, they soon slipped into a slower pattern of speech and a soft southern accent.
They realized that since they knew so many people from their gun show days that it would be a risk being recognized at a gun show. So they avoided going to any gun shows. They began attending a nearby Baptist church. There, too, they kept a low profile. It was frustrating, but they avoided all contact with their family or any of their old friends. It was the only way to make a clean break. They knew that the vast majority of wanted criminals were captured because they returned to their old haunts and renewed contacts with their former associates. The Keanes weren’t stupid, and they wouldn’t make those mistakes.
In June, Matt emptied out their storage space in Baton Rogue, and rented another one near New Orleans, as Jason Lomax. In August, Chase found a large box trailer for sale. It was a sturdy homemade trailer, made out of a pickup bed. He bought a used camper shell that fit it the following weekend. After getting the trailer registered to Jason Lomax, rewiring the trailer lights, and fitting overload springs, they left it in their new ten-by-twelve-feet storage space. They stored it with all their tactical gear packed inside it, ready to go at a moment’s notice. The humid Louisiana climate could quickly destroy guns that weren’t kept clean and well oiled, so four times a year, they brought the trailer home from the storage space to oil their guns and rotate the packets of silica gel dessicant. The day before each of their gun maintenance trips, Chase would put a batch of silica gel packets in the oven on low heat to drive out any moisture that they had gathered. Chase had a ready supply of free silica gel from a New Orleans piano shop. The shop had large packets of silica gel that came in each of their pianos received from overseas shipment. Until Chase started asking for them “for his tools,” the shop had thrown most of the packets away.
The following January, using his company discount, Matt bought four twenty-gallon drums of gasoline and a pint can of gas stabilizer. He waited until January to buy the gas. From his experience at work, he knew that gasoline made in the winter months had more butane added to it to provide better cold weather starting. This also greatly increased its shelf life. The drums of gasoline soon went into storage with the trailer. Starting the following January, and in the subsequent winters, Matt replaced the drums with fresh ones. Since he had just a short commute, burning up the old fuel took several months.
Not content with just one false ID apiece, the Keanes gradually developed two more false IDs each during the next eighteen months. They had gone through the experience of living in campgrounds while waiting for their documentation to arrive, and they feared being so vulnerable again. With their later false IDs, they decided to “go all out.” They even got passports.
In May, unexpected transmission and differential repairs on the pickup used up most of their savings. They slowly began to build up their savings again, becoming even more frugal.
Once their budget had restabilized, Matt and Chase worked on increasing their food storage program, and made themselves ghillie camouflage suits. Ghillie suits were first developed in the nineteenth century by British game wardens.
The wardens used them to camouflage themselves as they lay in wait for poachers. A ghillie suit is covered with strips of random length rag material, in earth tones. It is designed to thoroughly break up the outline of its wearer. When still and sitting or prone, someone in a ghillie suit looks like a clump of brush.
To make his ghillie, Matt started with a large piece of shrimp netting that he found at a surplus store. It was from a nearly new brown nylon shrimp net that had been caught on a snag and ruined. The undamaged portion was perfect for Matt’s purposes. He cut the netting material to the shape of a rectangular poncho that reached his knees. He reinforced the hole for his head by stitching it with a four-inch-wide ring of forest green denim material. This kept the netting from tearing at the point where it would take the most stress.