Pete Hendrickson, A Convicted Bomber, Calls Ron Paul a Hypocrite
This week, Pete Hendrickson posted a scurrilous attack on Ron Paul. Why? Because Dr. Paul pays federal income taxes. He called Dr. Paul a hypocrite.
He called all libertarians who pay income taxes hypocrites.
Who is Pete Hendrickson, and why should we care?
First, in 1992, Hendrickson was convicted of sending a bomb through the mails. He sent it to the Internal Revenue Service. He went to prison.
Second, he is also a crackpot. But saying this does not do him justice. He is a crackpot's crackpot.
He is a tax rebel. He advises his readers to take their tax rebellion to a new level. Other tax rebels refuse to file a 1040 form. Not Hendrickson. He says we should all put a zero in each box for reporting income, ask for a refund of all taxes withheld, sign the 1040 form -- under penalty of perjury, a felony -- and send it to the IRS.
The words "Come and get me!" come to mind.
They came and got him. He went to prison in 2009. So did his wife.
Other leaders in the tax resistance movement recommend taking a low profile. They regard Hendrickson as a crackpot.
So should you.
A TEA BAG ON A BOMB
He began his career as a Ron Paul activist -- in 1988, not 2008. The New York Times reports:
He was a Libertarian Party activist with a flair for the dramatic. On several occasions, he hired a plane to tow a “Ron Paul for President” banner over the University of Michigan football stadium during Paul’s otherwise-little-noticed 1988 presidential campaign.
But political campaigning did not put fire in his belly. The dream of violence did. In 1990, he and two anti-IRS co-conspirators made a fire bomb. Hendrickson attached a tea bag to the bomb as a symbol of patriotic resistance. Fortunately, they were incompetent. The bomb began to smoke before it got to the IRS. A postal employee attempted to open the package. It exploded. The employee went to the hospital for burns.
The three conspirators were arrested, convicted, and sent to prison. The Times story is here.
He got a light sentence. The other two did not. The Times describes why.
In 1992, after being indicted on multiple charges stemming from his involvement in the bomb plot, he pleaded guilty to one charge of conspiracy to possess a destructive device in exchange for the dismissal of charges against Doreen. That plea still would have brought with it a 21-month prison sentence, so Hendrickson took one additional step. He and Doreen, who were now married, surreptitiously tape-recorded conversations they had with their co-conspirators, Scott and Karen Scarborough (who in grand-jury testimony had maintained not only their own innocence but also Hendrickson’s). On the recordings, the Scarboroughs, who had not been charged in the case, admitted their involvement in the plot and absolved the Hendricksons of the most serious act: placing the package in the mail bin.The Hendricksons turned over the tapes to the prosecutors. Since the recordings were made at the Hendricksons’ own initiative, rather than the government’s, the Fourth Amendment didn’t prohibit the prosecutors from using the tapes to secure convictions against the Scarboroughs for obstruction of justice. In exchange for his cooperation, Hendrickson received a sentence that ultimately was reduced to 30 days in federal prison and 11 months in a halfway house.
Yet he calls Ron Paul a hypocrite, as we shall see.
He is a man with abysmal judgment. He attracts followers with abysmal judgment. Jesus described this. "And he spake a parable unto them, Can the blind lead the blind? shall they not both fall into the ditch?" (Luke 6:39).
Stay out of this ditch.
THE CRACKPOT'S CODE
After his release from prison, he got into the tax revolt movement full-time. He wrote a book on why no one has to pay the income tax because no one earns income, according to Hendrickson's definition of income. It is titled Cracking the Code. It is a good title for him to use. Pete Hendrickson is a crackpot. Certified. Convicted.
He followed his own tax-resistance advice. He demanded a refund. He signed his 1040 form and sent it in. He was then convicted of filing false forms in 2009. Back to prison he went. His story is here. This time, his wife also went to prison. Her story is here.
This twice-convicted felon parades himself as an expert in avoiding taxes. Incredibly, he still attracts followers. Very few of them actually do what he recommends. This is wise. But a few do.
Their wives live in constant fear of the day that the authorities come to take their husbands away. The lawyers' fees would bankrupt most of them. The IRS knows this. The accused run out of money. They settle with the IRS to avoid jail. The IRS then assesses them the missing taxes. The only way out is bankruptcy.
If they fight the IRS, they will lose in court, just as the Hendricksons did. The husbands go to prison. Just like Hendrickson did. Just like his wife did.
He says most of his followers win. Most of them never pay taxes. The government sends them refunds, year after year. That's what he says.
Would anyone in his right mind trust this man? His co-conspirators did in 1992. A word to the wise is sufficient.
Before you decide to implement the crackpot's code, you would be wise to review the IRS's page on arrests. Find out now what you will pay your lawyer $250/hour to review. The page is here.
Once you implement the crackpot's code, you will do one of the following: (1) pay lawyers after you are arrested; or (2) repay the IRS to keep from being arrested; or (3) live in constant fear of the IRS for the rest of your life. Take your pick.
Any wife who trusts the word of this twice-convicted felon is putting her family's future at risk. She had better talk her husband out of implementing the crackpot's code. If he has already implemented it, then she had better tell him to go to the IRS and settle before he gets arrested. It is better to negotiate with the IRS before the marshals come. After the marshals arrive, the IRS may plea bargain on the sentence imposed if the man pleads guilty, but it does not negotiate on what is owed.
To a wife of a man who has implemented the crackpot's code, I recommend this. Tell your husband that you will take the bank records to a local accountant. You will sign the 1040 form, write the check, and send it to the IRS, return receipt requested. This way, when the marshals come for your husband, they will not come for you. Your children will be protected.
If you don't have enough money in the bank account, include a note saying that your husband controls the checkbook, so the IRS should contact him. The IRS will surely contact him. Soon.
Let your husband figure out what will happen when the IRS gets the signed 1040 form. It is a legal document, signed under penalty of perjury. The crackpot's code does not have a strategy to deal with a wife who signs the filled-in form with accurate figures on income received. It's game over. Your husband will abandon the crackpot's code before the marshals come.
Law-abiding wives are in control. Disciples of Pete Hendrickson are not.
Wives, talk to a tax lawyer. Let him tell you what your risks are. Take his advice. Do what Mrs. Hendrickson should have done, but didn't. Then the marshals came.
MY RUN-IN WITH HENDRICKSON IN 2015
In 2015, I wrote an article for my Tea Party Economist site about the high risk of listening to anyone who claims he has an air-tight scheme to let people escape the income tax. The article is here. Lew Rockwell reprinted it here.
I received letters from numerous tax rebels who had not yet gone to jail, but the one from Hendrickson was detailed. He explained why no one has to file. His arguments were incoherent. These people are always incoherent. I have been receiving their articles since the early 1980's. They are like jailhouse lawyers. They use lots of legal terms, but they remain in jail. But Hendrickson is unique among this group. He really is an ex-jailhouse lawyer.
So, I challenged him. Would he let me quote his letter and also name him? He refused, of course. He put conditions on my naming him. So, I posted his letter and his gutless response. But I did not name him. Now I am naming him. Here is my article: Ex-Con and Former Bankrupt Tax Protest Guru Reads Me the Riot Act.
Anyone who wants the facts about this self-proclaimed tax expert needs to read about his convictions -- and I don't mean moral convictions. The report is posted here:
THE ATTACK ON RON PAUL
This week, I received a mass email from a disciple of Hendrickson. He reprinted Hendrickson's recent attack on Ron Paul. The attack is on Hendrickson's site.
I checked to see the Alexa ranking for his site. It was 986,294 on April 5. The larger the number, the lower the ranking. Any site with a number higher than 500,000 is not worth considering unless it is a subscription site. It has very few readers. The author has no influence. He is talking mostly to himself.
Here is what this twice-convicted felon and ex-Ron Paul fanboy wrote. Warning: his article is off-the-wall nutty. This is appropriate. Off-the-wall nutty is what Pete Hendrickson has been for 30 years -- except for the years when he was behind-the-walls nutty.
It is an open letter. What is an open letter? It is a letter written by someone with approximately zero influence. People with influence write personal letters that get through to the important people they send letters to. People with no influence write open letters, which they then post on their sites, which hardly anyone visits.
An open letter to Dr Paul and the rest of the libertarian/conservative establishment:
Dr. Paul, and all the rest:
Though I'm sorry to say it, the subject today is hypocrisy. YOUR hypocrisy.
Let me explain.
Over the next two weeks, you are going to sign documents giving the federal government permission to use large amounts of your money to finance or support:
the slaughter of Houthis;
the slaughter of Eastern Ukrainians;
the slaughter of Syrians;
the slow suffocation of displaced Palestinians;
unknown evils in Africa;
alienating and provocative belligerence toward Russia;
alienating and provocative belligerence toward China;
the militarization of our domestic police organizations;
the virtual strip-searching of our wives and daughters in airports in an exercise in "security theater";
a 14-million strong army of bureaucrats and executive-branch contractors who spend their well-paid days telling everyone else how to live their lives and conduct their business;
the propagandizing of our children in government schools;
an enormous federal apparatus designed to enforce laws for which no Constitutional grounds exist;
the corruption of our political office-holders;
a massive army of technicians spying on every American (and everyone else) without probable cause, 24/7 and a secret "court" pretended to legitimize these crimes;
a propaganda infrastructure used to influence public opinion in directions favored by those in control of the state apparatus;
subsidies to favored persons, industries and causes, and regulatory suppression and burdening of disfavored persons, industries and causes;
a massive army of lawyers in Washington and in satellite fortresses dotted around the American landscape used in a million ways to suppress and punish dissent from, or resistance to, all the foregoing;
and on;
and on;
and on...
YOU ARE GOING TO SIGN DOCUMENTS GIVING PERMISSION to the feds to do all these things with YOUR money. You are going to pro-actively sign-up as a partner with the government in doing all these things, and you're going to do it voluntarily.
Oh, you'll try to dodge responsibility. You'll pretend that you are compelled by law to declare all your earnings to be tax-relevant "income" by listing them in the "income" fields on a 1040 and signing it as true, complete and correct.
But you know better.
Nutty, right?
At this point, he launched into a discussion of why no one has to pay the income tax.
He closed with this:
Either shut up and go away, OR (and this is very much my preference), start putting your money where your mouth is (to deploy a remarkably apt metaphor).You probably already DO know the truth. Have some self-respect and get on your feet.
Hendrickson's disciple made a mistake. When he sent out this mass-mailed letter, he forgot -- or did not know how -- to conceal the email addresses of all of the recipients.
It took me about five minutes to compose a response. I provided a link to my 2015 article. I also provided a link to his rap sheet. Then I clicked REPLY TO ALL. That let all of the recipients know that they are dealing with a nut job.
I did not mention this fact: he was convicted of sending a bomb to the IRS.
Within an hour, I received this from Hendrickson. So did everyone else on the list. He mass-mailed it.
Why don't you actually read what has been sent to you, you pompous ass, before shooting your mouth off-- just as you did when writing about me in 2014, again without actually reading what you had been given to read.
Are you really such a moron as to presume that disapprobation from the state is a sign that someone is wrong? Then you really ARE a moron, or a troll.
The feds who jailed me after a kangaroo trial complete with prosecution-written substitutions for statutory text and witnessless documents put into evidence against me have nonetheless returned $BILLIONS in 100% tax refunds to students of my work, FICA and all. Even while I languished in prison, checks steadily shot into mailboxes across the country, just as they had done before my show-trial, and just as they have continued to do since.
You tell me which is better evidence of the truth.
38 state and local governments steadily do the same-- 100% refunds of tax collected, all of which has been going on for 15 years now and totals more than 250,000 complete refunds issued to tens of thousands of Americans over that decade-and-a-half.
The only reason that number of refunds is not in the tens of millions, with Leviathan already shrunk back to Constitutional size, is trolls like you, Gary North, who work to discourage more Americans from learning this liberating, republic-restoring information.
You are a hypocrite, railing against the arrogant, dangerous state, while quietly paying its bills and loudly striving to keep those foolish enough to read your drivel from getting free and back in charge as the Founders and Framers meant them to be.
You are pathetic.
This is from a twice-convicted felon.
FLUSHING OUT A CRACKPOT
Crackpots, when messianic, are egomaniacs. All you have to do is flush them into the open. That's what I did with my REPLY TO ALL. Fast. Easy. Free.
My tactic was simple: expose him as a convicted felon to people who had never heard of him -- the people on his disciple's list. His disciple made this easy for me. He inadvertently provided me with the list.
1. The reprinted article was a personal attack on Ron Paul.2. The contents of the article are off-the-wall nutty.
3. His disciple sent it to libertarian leaders who are old-time supporters of Ron Paul.
Hendrickson wanted to vent. When you are a two-time convicted felon with a cause, what else can you do? So, he vented. Anyone on his disciple's original mailing list who has any influence now knows that he is a crackpot.
He has no clue about how to persuade people. Fanatics rarely do.
There is an old rule: "When you're in a hole, stop digging." Crackpots never stop digging. "I'm not in a hole! I'm almost to the top of Mt. Everest!"
These crackpots exist on the fringes of the Right. Avoid them. Especially convicted bombers.
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P.S.
Pete Hendrickson is a tar baby. Crackpots usually are. "You must answer me! You hear me? You must answer me!" But I don't have to answer him. No one does. Two juries have already answered him. Here is my response: "Answer not a fool according to his folly, lest thou also be like unto him" (Prov. 26:4). In 2001, I wrote an article about not answering tar babies. Lew Rockwell published it. This is my parting shot -- metaphorically speaking -- to Pete Hendrickson: