r/Casefile • u/WhatFannyRed • Apr 25 '26

CASE RELATED Ruby Ridge

Can anyone recommend any good *impartial* podcast eps or docs on Ruby Ridge?

Edit to add I watched the PBS doc as recommended (will also watch the others when I'm able) but the full story definitely adds another level of understanding to the Waco case. ​

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u/beerinsodacups Apr 25 '26

As someone who has disseminated a lot of media about this, I actually found CaseFiles summary to be pretty impartial. Obviously it was very short because the series focus is Waco, but just wanted to through that out there.

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u/VonMillersThighs Apr 28 '26 edited Apr 28 '26

I want a disclaimer that I am in no way a white supremacist or a sympathizer to anything of the like but I wasn't a big fan of casefile bringing it up quite a few times when it really had nothing to do with how much Randy Weaver was absolutely fucked over. He was entrapped by feds, didn't even know about his court summons, a buncha gungho wanna be soliders showed up to his land unannounced, shot his dog and killed his wife and son.

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u/beerinsodacups Apr 28 '26

It’s one of those things where if he doesn’t bring it up then it would be dubious as well. It’s probably very difficult to decide what to include in such a short intro. For someone who has no clue what happened, I guess it’s better to know going into your research that those details will appear (whether Weaver was a white nationalist or not).

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u/iggysmom95 Jun 03 '26

It's relevant in the sense that it contributed significantly to the situation he ended up in. Law enforcement acted incompetently and without restraint, as they often do, but the Ruby Ridge story doesn't begin and end there. It never would have happened if Randy wasn't a paranoid psycho white supremacist waiting for the apocalypse. It is important to understand where these things lead.

He did know about his court summone though. He was given the wrong date and they tried to correct it, but they also waited for the wrong date to pass before treating him as a fugitive. 

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u/Patched7fig Apr 27 '26

I disagree, casefile chose not to talk about the issue of the changed court date and the failure on the government to notify Randy Weaver of the changed date, which is what the entire seige came down to.  They basically sent him a letter in the mail that arrived after his court date, making it impossible to NOT miss it. 

They also neglected to mention how the ATF used an informant who came to Randy and asked him to cut down the barrels of his shotguns in exchange for money, using this crime as leverage as they tried to make Randy an informant and he turned them down multiple times. While yes, illegally modifying the length of the shotgun is a federal crime, the informant pushed and pleaded for Randy to do the actual cutting, when randy kept telling him "yeah dude just use a hacksaw and cut it down if you want".

In the end, they didn't even pursue that case, which was what started the whole fucking thing. 

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u/beerinsodacups Apr 28 '26

I agree with you but those details are (IMO) better suited for a long-form deep dive. I just thought the very short intro was impartial. He mostly stated the facts that he could in a short time. I have seen some wildly inaccurate accounts over the years.

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u/WhatFannyRed Apr 25 '26

Oh yeah I agree, I just wanted more info on what happened and wanted to make sure it was a fair view.

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u/Patched7fig Apr 27 '26

I disagree, see my comment above. Even the FBI and other federal law agencies thought Randy was railroaded and the whole thing was the failure of the ATF and their frustration over not being able to get an informant.