Holy crap! The stuff you don’t know.

Western icon Ty Hardin played John F. Kennedy’s executive officer, Leonard J. Thom, in the 1963 movie

PT-109

. It is a fine film and has held up better than many war movies of that period.

I saw PT-109 earlier today on TCM and, curious to know what had become of Hardin, googled him up.

I found this:

In the 1980s, Ty Hardin organized a militia group known as the Arizona Patriots. The group, headquartered in Prescott, Arizona, was anti-Semitic and fashioned after the Posse Comitatus. He formed the Common Law Institute which taught that the sovereignty of the people was supreme and sovereign citizens were not bound by any rules or regulations of the government.[citation needed] He published a monthly tabloid called the Arizona Patriot which printed anti-United States government articles. The Federal Reserve System and the Internal Revenue Service were among targets the group felt should be abolished.[citation needed] As the group advocated stockpiling weapons and ammunition to protect the people from government, an FBI investigation was triggered which lasted for two years. As a result, federal agents raided a Patriot camp confiscating a cache of weapons and several members of the group were arrested for conspiracy against the U.S. government. Hardin left Arizona soon after and the group ceased to function. Hardin fled to Costa Rica, a country with no active extradition treaties and reportedly had become involved with the local ecology and rain forest movements.[citation needed] He has since returned to the United States.

Hardin, now 79, still espouses basically the same views in this very recent “special message.”

You’re entitled to believe what you like, but Men of God seeking religious freedom established this nation and we own them our allegiance even if we don’t believe in their God of Creation. Our currency carries their trade mark “In God we Trust” Live with it and respect it, for if we don’t, we will reap a whirl wind of disaster like has never been witnessed before in our History. You may not agree with our founding fathers but the sub-humans that now control our monetary system are destroying our nation’s freedoms with financial bondage and their no-win wars. …..
Put a stash away of food and ammo. We will be called on to retake our land for God. I’m referring to the Bible’s prediction of the last days. What if God is right? Call me an alarmists or a bible thumper, but I am preparing for the worst and praying for a revival. This present collapse of our economy is just a clear picture of the events to come. Having a black president may be a giant step in your eyes for equal opportunity but it was not as it does make a gigantic statement? When the economy hits a brick wall, the frustrations of despair and hunger goes too the streets, the armed masses will be the most lethal mass of humanity in the entire world. What do you think their Homeland security is all about? They can’t augment their One World Order without disarming or killing Patriots and they well know it. Folks, freedom is walking on thin ice looking for a miracle. What if our Black President cannot unite our nation, restore the Constitution. All Hell Will Break Loose.