Article – After 16-year standoff, Gray will find a changed Texas

I first mentioned this guy when his standoff was ten years old.

The past decade has taken a toll on John Joe Gray, holed up on his rural East Texas land while waiting for a siege that’s never happened.

He’s been living on 47 acres behind a fence without running water and electricity but with plenty of guns, daring authorities to arrest him for a 10-year-old, third-degree felony warrant. He says he hasn’t left his property since 2000, all the while allowing his distrust of a government he views as evil to fester.

Apparently, last year the prosecutors figured his self-imposed house arrest was 150% of the maximum penalty he would have received, and dropped the charges.

The longest and possibly most bizarre stand-off in American history has come to an end.

John Joe Gray, from Trinidad, near Dallas, Texas, was arrested in 1999 for biting a police officer after the cop found he was carrying high-powered rifles without a license during a traffic stop.

Gray paid his bond and has since refused to go to court, hiding inside his 47-acre property for 16 years and vowing to shoot any officer of the law who tries to make him leave.

The bearded grandfather, his children, grandchildren and friends have armed themselves with pistols and rifles and patrolled their grounds ever since – with the county sheriff choosing not to send cops in for fear of them being killed.

But the unusual stalemate has finally come to an end after the authorities decided they just could not be bothered to wait for Gray to emerge any longer.

I am fascinated by this. It is very seldom that someone outlasts a police interest in them. I’m not sure what’s more impressive….this guy’s determination to spend 15 years in self-imposed house arrest or the local law enforcement picking up their ball and going home.

And both sides can call it a win. They hermit gets to say he outlasted the cops and the cops get to say he spent 150% of the maximum penalty locked awa47-acre cell.

But…it’s Texas, so there is that.

12 thoughts on “Article – After 16-year standoff, Gray will find a changed Texas

  1. some observations:

    -I thought NOT having a gun in Texas was against state law
    -living in Texas is a harsh enough sentence
    -don’t turn a mild felony into a big felony. Get a local lawyer that golfs with the judge, plea it down, pay the fine and go on with your life.

  2. Havong rifles without a permit? I do not believe such a law has ever existed in Texas. Up until the Castle Doctrine was extendes to auto and boats, we have still been able to carry firearms in our cars. If memory serves one had to be on a legitimate trip and cross at least two county, ammo had to separated from the firearm, etc., etc.
    So, I truly don’t understand this claim of unlicensed rifles. Am I missing something?

    • Youre assuming accurate reporting about a gun issue by a media that is notoriously ignorant of such things. “rifles without a permit” could have been the reporters convoluted interpretation of a completely different gun-related offense.

      • Yea, you’re probably right about the reporting aspect. Just the other morning on CBS a so called expert said that the high capacity “clip” was what allowed the weapon to fire so quickly. I’m no brain surgeon but I do know that the LV shooter wasn’t using an M1 or a Mosin Nagant and belt fed MGs don’t use clips either. So, yea, the media is most assuredly completely retarded on gun related issues.

  3. Some time ago I read about a similar case. He was only wanted for a misdemeanor and most likely would have got a fine. After about 12 years he left his land and was not very happy to find out that the cops had stop wanting him five years before due to the statute of limitations only being seven years. This is the bit I found funny, he got mad at the cops for not telling him. The local sheriff said we never tried to hard to arrest him when we found out where he was as the longest sentence he could get was six weeks and as for tell him, we don’t go around telling people that they are not wanted plus he was hiding from us. The he added that it was the funniest thing to happen for years.
    I wish I still had the link.

  4. I forgot to say happy birthday in Aug.
    Hard to believe that it’s a year since I forgot it last time.
    You did well this year you remembered to pay for your website.

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