LaVoy thought he was Jake
LaVoy Finicum had a problem telling the difference between reality and fiction.
His fictional novel, Only by Blood and Suffering describes a situation that includes haunting similarities to the standoff at Oregon’s Malheur National Wildlife Refuge.
In an excellent book review by Jim Dalrymple II for BuzzFeedNEWS, extracts of the novel show Finicum describing conflicts between US citizens and an overreaching government.
The main character, Jake Bonham, is a gun-totin’ freedom fighter who let’s no state or federal official stand in his way. Even contrary civilian neighbours are disposed of with the squeeze of a trigger.
Considering how the standoff in Oregon came to an end, it is safe to say that the FBI had studied Finicum’s tale in detail, in particular this part, as described and quoted by Dalrymple;
In the final pages of the story Williams (a DHS agent) nearly wins; (Jake) Bonham is wounded, surrounded, without a rifle, and Williams talks about “taking your head.” At the last second, however, Bonham pulls out his revolver and kills Williams and several other agents.
“The bullet took Zachary Williams between the eyes,” Bonham narrates, adding a few lines later that “The bodies of my enemies lay before me, not a twitch coming from them. Holding the old revolver in my hand, I could not help but spin it around my finger once before sliding it back into the holster.”
In the few minutes before his death, LaVoy Finicum thought he was Jake Bonham, about to kill his opponents with a few fast blasts between their eyes from his trusty revolver.
Imagine his surprise when he realised that he was not the quick draw cowboy of his imagination. There’d be no graceful revolver spinning for this misguided lunatic at the Highway 395 road block, as he was quickly discharged to a body bag.
Just imagine, for a moment, how appropriate it would be if the body bag was blue.
