Our Arklahoma Heritage: The Covenant. Sword and the Arm of the Lord dominated headlines in the 1980's
- Dennis McCaslin
- Apr 21
- 4 min read
Deep in the Ozark wilderness of Marion County, a radical group known as the Covenant, the Sword, and the Arm of the Lord (CSA) forged a dangerous legacy during the late 1970s and early 1980s.
What started as a Christian commune under Texas minister James Ellison in 1971 twisted into a white supremacist militia fueled by anti-government rage and apocalyptic paranoia.
Operating across northern Arkansas and eastern Oklahoma, the CSA’s crimes—ranging from murder to terrorist plots—cast a dark shadow over the region, ending in a legal collapse that shattered their delusional empire.
In 1971, Ellison, a manipulative preacher, founded a small religious community near Elijah, Missouri. By 1976, he relocated to a 224-acre plot in Marion County, near Bull Shoals Lake, roughly two miles from the town of Oakland and seven miles southwest of Pontiac, Missouri.
Named Zarephath-Horeb after biblical places of trial and refuge, this compound—known as “the Farm”--began as a retreat for wayward souls: fundamentalists, ex-addicts, and outcasts drawn to Ellison’s promise of salvation.
But by 1979, his sermons grew venomous. Embracing the Christian Identity movement’s racist theology, Ellison branded Jews and minorities as enemies of God and the U.S. government as a corrupt beast to be slain.
The Farm became a fortress in Marion County’s secluded terrain. Residents erected crude shelters, a church-school called the Sanctuary, and a mock combat zone dubbed Silhouette City, where they drilled for assassinations and urban warfare.
Armed sentries patrolled the perimeter, with trees marked for defensive shooting ranges. The CSA’s numbers peaked at around 100, a volatile mix of families, criminals, and zealots united by Ellison’s vision of a racial holy wa
By 1983, the CSA’s ideology turned lethal, spurred by the death of tax protester Gordon Kahl in a federal shootout. Kahl’s “martyrdom” lit a fuse under Ellison’s group, already desperate for funds after losing income from their training camps. They exploited their borderland position—Marion County’s proximity to Missouri and Oklahoma’s porous boundaries—to commit crimes and slip away.
Their acts were reckless and hateful:
Arson and Bombings: In August 1983, CSA members tried to torch the Springfield Metropolitan Community Church, targeting its largely gay congregation, but caused only minor damage. In November, they bombed a natural gas pipeline near Fulton, Arkansas, with little effect. A Jewish community center in Bloomington, Indiana, was also hit by fire, exposing their sloppy but vicious intent.
Theft and Counterfeiting: Robbery and fake currency schemes funded their arsenal, as they looted weapons and goods to prepare for their imagined uprising.
Murder: Richard Wayne Snell, the CSA’s most notorious enforcer, drew blood. In 1981, he allegedly killed a Jewish pawnshop owner in Texarkana, Arkansas, driven by anti-Semitic delusions. On November 3, 1983, during a traffic stop near De Queen, Arkansas, Snell murdered Arkansas State Trooper Louis Bryant, an African American officer. Snell’s capture linked him to the CSA, peeling back their violent core.
The group’s plans grew more deranged. They hoarded automatic rifles, grenades, an anti-tank weapon, and thirty gallons of potassium cyanide, plotting to poison city water supplies to trigger their apocalyptic “second coming.” They even schemed to bomb the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City, a plan Ellison abandoned after claiming a divine warning.
By 1985, the CSA’s crimes had painted a target on their Marion County compound. Local complaints and informant tips reached the FBI, which ranked the group as the nation’s second-most dangerous domestic terrorist outfit. Snell’s murders and reports of illegal weapons triggered a federal response.
On April 19, 1985, over 300 agents from the FBI, Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms, and state and local forces encircled Zarephath-Horeb in Marion County. Disguised as fishermen to blend into the lake-dotted region, they sealed off the compound’s lakeside escape routes.
A three-day standoff gripped the Ozarks. Inside, Ellison’s followers, armed to the teeth, braced for war. But cracks appeared--Kerry Noble, Ellison’s deputy, pushed for surrender, fearing anihilation.
On April 21, U.S. Attorney Asa Hutchinson, then serving Arkansas’s Western District, joined negotiations, securing a bloodless end. The raid uncovered a terrifying cache: landmines, explosives, illegal firearms, and the cyanide stockpile, confirming the CSA’s genocidal ambitions.
The CSA’s collapse played out in courtrooms, with trials exposing their rot:
James Ellison faced federal charges in Hot Springs, Arkansas, in the Western District’s U.S. District Court. In September 1985, Judge Oren Harris sentenced him to 20 years for racketeering and weapons violations tied to the pipeline bombing and other plots. In 1987, Ellison cut a deal, testifying against Aryan Nations leaders in a Fort Smith, sedition trial, where all defendants were acquitted. Released early, he slunk to Elohim City, Oklahoma, marrying into another extremist enclave.
Richard Wayne Snell was convicted of capital murder for Trooper Bryant’s death in Arkansas state court. He was also tied to the 1981 pawnshop killing. On April 19, 1995, Snell was executed by lethal injection in Arkansas--hours after Timothy McVeigh bombed the Murrah Building in Oklahoma City. Snell’s eerie prediction of “something drastic” that day stoked rumors of a link, though no proof connected McVeigh to the CSA.
Kerry Noble - 1978 and 2022 Other Members: In Hot Springs federal court, Kerry Noble and four others--Gary Stone, Timothy Russell, Rudy Loewen, and David Giles--received lengthy sentences for conspiracy and weapons charges. Stephen Scott, another member, pleaded guilty in Arkansas federal court to dynamiting the Fulton pipeline, joining them in prison.
The CSA’s dissolution in 1985 ended their reign, but their poison lingered. Elohim City, where Ellison resettled, became a magnet for far-right extremists. Snell’s execution, paired with the Oklahoma City bombing’s timing-ten years after the Marion County siege--kept the CSA’s specter alive in militia lore, with Snell hailed as a twisted icon.
