Ruby Ridge: The Truth and Tragedy of the Randy Weaver Family

“A stunning job of reporting.”— New York Times Book Review

Updated with new content, #1 New York Times bestselling author Jess Walter’s classic work that chronicles the 1992 confrontation at Ruby Ridge between Randy Weaver and federal law enforcement—a tragic eleven-day siege that became a symbol of government overreach and fueled the rise of America’s radical right.

On the last hot day of summer in 1992, gunfire cracked over a rocky knob in northern Idaho, just south of the Canadian border. By the next day three people were dead, and a small war was joined, pitting the full might of federal law enforcement against one well-armed family. Drawing on thousands of pages of documents and extensive interviews with members of Randy Weaver’s family, government insiders, and others, Jess Walter traces the paths that led the Weavers to their confrontation with federal agents and led the government to take extreme and unprecedented measures. But as the past thirty years has shown, the standoff at Ruby Ridge would not be an isolated incident.

This is the story of what happened there: the tragic and unlikely series of events that destroyed a family, ended FBI careers, and left a nation increasingly attuned to the dangers of unchecked federal power. It is also the story of the racism, religious zealotry, paranoia, fierce hatred of government, and violence that has become increasingly visible across American society.

Jess Walter is the author of eight novels, including the bestsellers So Far Gone, The Cold Millions, and Beautiful Ruins, the National Book Award Finalist The Zero, and Citizen Vince, winner of the Edgar Award for best novel. His short fiction, collected in The Angel of Rome and We Live in Water, has won the O. Henry Prize, the Pushcart Prize and appeared three times in Best American Short Stories. As a reporter, he was a finalist for the 1993 Pulitzer Prize for his coverage of Ruby Ridge. He lives in his hometown of Spokane, Washington.