Morgan Jones once built a tank out of scrap metal and drove it to church.

During annual potluck parties at his backwoods Clarion County home, he often wowed guests with his homemade flamethrower.

And sometimes, just for fun, he'd entertain friends by shooting an electrical charge through his body to light a bulb.

His wife, Donna, says he's a little eccentric.

"I never thought it was illegal to be eccentric," she said. "He's a good man. He's not a terrorist or a domestic threat."

Agents from the federal Joint Terrorism Task Force thought otherwise when they arrested Jones last month as he left Sunday Mass in the sleepy hamlet of Lucinda.

Jones, 64, was charged with selling a Romanian AK-47 assault rifle to an undercover agent posing as an Ohio resident.

Later, when agents headed down a bumpy, macadam road to Jones' modular home, they found an array of homemade weapons, a cannon, drums of explosive chemicals and a depleted uranium shell. The military often uses uranium shells because they penetrate tank armor.

But prosecutors say that's just part of Morgan Jones' story, which is playing out in a remote area of the state where hunting and fishing reign supreme, and mining and logging put food on a lot of dinner tables.

Officials allege Jones is a major player in a militia movement whose shadowy members have a "propensity toward violence" against the government, elected officials, judges and law enforcement.

Experts believe that after more than a decade of declining membership, these militias are on the upswing in pockets throughout the nation, including rural areas of Pennsylvania.

There are 888 militia and extremist groups operating in the United States, including 33 in Pennsylvania, according to the Southern Poverty Law Center in Alabama. That reflects a 48 percent increase nationwide since 2000.

Court records indicate Jones is captain of the 91st Warriors Militia, named for the 91st Psalm, which asks for protection for soldiers in battle.

A judge ordered Jones to remain jailed pending his trial because prosecutors claim he is a danger to the community.

The three-year federal probe has resulted in the arrests of three other Western Pennsylvania men who prosecutors say are militia operatives.

Marvin Hall, 49, of Rimersburg in Clarion County, and Clearfield County residents Bradley Kahle, 60, of Troutville and Perry Landis, 61, of DuBois were picked up by agents last month. Prosecutors say they are members of the 91st Warrior Militia and the Brookville Tigers in neighboring Jefferson County.

They face weapons charges after raids on their homes and remain jailed.

Jones and Kahle do not have prior records. Hall served two years in a federal prison on a weapons violation. Landis' only brush with the law was in 2006 when he failed to have a license for his dog or a valid inspection sticker on his vehicle.

A low profile

These groups aren't functioning like the militias of the 1990s, said Shari Kochman of the Anti-Defamation League in Cleveland, which monitors militia activity in Western Pennsylvania.

Back then, militias were higher-profile groups engaged in public confrontations with law enforcement officials, Kochman said.

Oklahoma City Federal Building bomber Timothy McVeigh was linked to a militia.

Experts say militias started to lose steam in the 1990s after a series of high-profile arrests. Other members lost faith when predictions of chaos tied to the millennium did not ring true.

Today, experts say militias are rebounding in the post-Sept. 11 attacks era because of fears of tighter government controls.

Kochman said although today's militias operate more inconspicuously, they maintain the same basic, anti-government doctrines.

"It's an obsession" she said.

Their numbers are growing.

"We're definitely seeing an increase, an uptick in criminal activity, after a couple of years where there wasn't very much at all. This is militia 2.0," said Mark Pitcavage, a nationally known militia historian.

The tape recordings

Justice Department rules prevent federal prosecutors and agents from commenting on investigations, but during court proceedings they offered insight into the militias' alleged activities.

In one taped conversation, Jones extolled the virtues of an AK-47 rifle he was selling to the undercover officer.

"It's a longer barrel and a longer range job," Jones said. "It's more like a sniper gun. You can launch grenades with it."

In another conversation, he chatted about the availability of ammonium nitrate that can be used in a bomb similar to the one used in the Oklahoma City attack.

"You can't find ammonium nitrate," Jones said. "I'll tell you a top secret. Cold packs contain ammonium nitrate. I have cases and cases of cold packs all over Clarion County."

On another tape, Landis talks about wanting to "plink" Gov. Ed Rendell.

Agents found what they described as a suicide belt at Landis' home containing homemade "grenades" made from over-the-counter medicine containers packed with small ball bearings and explosives.

Kahle is heard on the tapes describing how to make an improvised explosive device using an empty bean can, a powerful firecracker, pellets, wax and a fuse. He boasted that if a SWAT team was trying to arrest him, "I would be tough to take."

Pitcavage said these groups communicate, organize and recruit members through the Internet.

One Web site, www.awrm.org -- which stands for A Well Regulated Militia -- is popular among militia members, survivalists and hate groups, he said.

Participants, with screen names such as SGTBloodLoss, GunnFixr, Sniper and CatDaddyJack, can share information about ideology, weapons, training, equipment, recruitment and organizing militia units.

"A lot of militia people are now networking on MySpace," Pitcavage said.

Family, friends rally

Jones' friends and family quickly rallied to his support after his arrest.

A used car dealer in nearby Shippenville spelled it out on a large sign: "Free Morgie, he's no terrorist."

Candys Pfendler of Shippenville, whose son is married to Jones' daughter, said she's known Jones for 38 years.

"We're eating birthday cake the night before, doing family activities, and then to hear he's a threat," Pfendler said. "It's destroyed the whole family."

Some portray Jones as a man who simply loves to tinker.

"He's a genius," said Ken Burkett, executive director of the Jefferson County Historical Society.

Donna Jones said her husband attended St. Vincent College near Latrobe for a year before transferring to Clarion University of Pennsylvania, where he earned degrees in physics and chemistry. He worked briefly as a high school teacher, and before his arrest repaired mufflers for a living in his backyard and sold used cars. His wife said he didn't like teaching but enjoys working with his hands.

'Not even a whiff'

Pitcavage said local residents tend to downplay the existence of militias in their backyards.

Many residents in Clearfield, Jefferson and Clarion counties say they've never heard of the militias.

"I've never had a case in my term as DA with anyone purporting to be or claiming to be members of these militias," said Clarion County District Attorney Mark Aaron. "If there's renewed activity, I haven't seen it."

Randy Bartley, editor of the Jeffersonian Democrat in Jefferson County, said that in the 1990s when the Ku Klux Klan was undergoing a revival, he knew every member. Yet he doesn't know one member of the Brookville Tigers Militia.

Law enforcement officials believe the organization has about 200 members.

"This doesn't smell right," Bartley said. "There hasn't been a peep; not even a whiff of this stuff."

A lonely man

Defendant Marvin Hall's sister, Joyce Mineweaser, said her brother never discussed being a member of a militia.

She describes her brother as a lonely man who drinks too much and is bipolar.

She doubts he is guilty.

"On Sept. 11, 2001, he sat on the couch and cried. He said, 'How could anybody kill that many people?' Does that sound like a terrorist?" she said.

Richard Gazarik can be reached at rgazarik@tribweb.com or 724-830-6292.

Back to headlines

www.pittsburghlive.com/x/pittsburghtrib/news/s_579637.html