Tragic Death in a Small Town

Harrison Daily Times July 3, 2012:

Though this story is not romantic like Romeo and Juliet, it is just as tragic. It is the story of a couple trying to find meaning in life and somewhere along the road, they lost it. 

This year marks the 30 year anniversary of the deaths of Keith, 27, and Kate Haigler, 25. The story of a couple who were shot to death on the Little Buffalo bridge in Jasper. The Haiglers were followers of “Daddy FOU” a.k.a. Emory Lamb. According to reports, Lamb believed he was the Messiah because of a vision he had. F.O.U. stood for many things but most commonly referred to the cult name, Foundation of Ubiquity. 

On July 3, 1982, the couple hijacked a Continental Trailways bus en route from Little Rock to Wichita, Kan. 

The couple boarded the bus at 8:15 a.m. in Little Rock. Around noon, the Haiglers ordered the bus driver to change course. The bus was headed toward Harrison and then to Kansas.

But when the bus arrived in Western Grove, the Haiglers pulled their pistols on the driver, Bill Carney, and ordered him to detour to Jasper. 

The bus stopped on the bridge over the Little Buffalo, and blocked it until police arrived. The bus contained 16 hostages, including the bus driver. When they arrived in Jasper, an unidentified woman was said to have passed out from the heat and taken to a nearby motel.

The Haiglers were dressed in denim motorcycle attire adorned with Harley Davidson and “FOU” insignia, buttons and rosettes. They each wore black leather fingerless gloves and each carried a revolver. A leather strap ran from the trigger to the wrist and helped guard against the possibility that someone would attempt to wrestle the gun out of their hands.

The remaining hostages stayed on the bus while Sheriff Ray Watkins tried to negotiate with the Haiglers. The Haiglers explained why they were there.

The couple was convinced they were called to be the “Two Witnesses” mentioned in Revelation 11. In verse 3, it says, “And I will appoint my two witnesses, and they will prophesy for 1,260 days, clothed in sackcloth.”

Verse 4 continued, “There are ‘the two olive trees’ and the two lampstands, and ‘they stand before the Lord of the earth.” 

The couple made a deal with Watkins. They made it clear they did not intend to hurt anyone, but they would if their demands were not met. The Haiglers had two last requests. One, they wanted a television crew to interview them. They wanted to let everyone know who the messiah was. They threatened that after the initial two hour grace period, one hostage would be shot every 30 minutes until the crew arrived. The Haiglers’ drastic actions were an attempt to get more media coverage. 

Second, they wanted the police to kill them. The Haiglers tried their best to antagonize the police to get what they wanted. The couple knew that this was the day they had to die. After they died, they wanted their bodies to be moved to FOU’s land to stay until they were resurrected after the three and a half days. 

A friend of the Haiglers, Fast Eddie, acted as a go between for Lamb and the Haiglers. Fast Eddie secured FOU’s permission for the Haiglers’ bodies to be left on his land until after the resurrection. 

The television news crew arrived by helicopter at 2:35 p.m. The first group of seven hostages was released. After the interview by the television station, the Haiglers released the last eight hostages.

Keith told the newsmen that they had “witnessed in sackcloth” for 1,260 days spreading the message, that FOU, the long awaited “messiah,” was on earth. He said the two witnesses came together on January 21, 1979, when FOU joined he and Kate together. 

During the negotiations, then Sheriff Watkins drove to Lamb’s house in attempts to have him come down to negotiate with the Haiglers. Lamb said he believed Haigler had planned “something big” for the fourth of July weekend, but that the Haiglers had been out of town for nearly a month and he didn’t know the nature of their plans. 

“I tried to tell them that if they died today, their cause would die with them. They just wouldn’t listen,” Watkins said. 

After several hours of negotiations, Keith was ready to change course. He began to falter until Kate reminded him they had to die. She was the ring leader. Keith snapped out of his doubt and decided it was time to go. The couple stepped off the bus and the rest is history.

Watkins gave orders to the sharpshooters to shoot to wound. They had no intention of killing the couple. Watkins told shooters to aim at the shoulders, in order to make it difficult for them to pull the triggers on their guns. 

Police sharpshooters took their places when the couple advanced across the bridge. They took a few steps and then dropped to their knees. They continued shuffling forward while police shouted warnings to stop. They turned to kiss each other one last time and then continued their mission. 

They begged the cops to shoot them so they could rise in three and a half days, according to Scripture. This was the day and there was no turning back now.

Shots were fired, but there is speculation about who shot first. An officer said that the Haiglers raised their guns to fire and sharpshooters fired in defense. The sharpshooters’ goal was to shoot the Haiglers’ shooting arms. 

Sgt. Jim Thomas of the Arkansas State Police said before the shooting happened, officers tried to get spectators to step back to not get hurt.

After the first shots were fired, everyone scattered. 

Keith was shot in the right shoulder, while Kate was wounded in the left shoulder. Keith was wounded immediately and unable to shoot Kate. Kate rolled over toward Keith and shot him once in the chest. She turned her .38-calibre pistol to her chest and shot herself twice. Kate emptied her gun after firing into the air. 

Keith never once pulled the trigger on his gun and was left with a full clip. An ambulance crew from North Arkansas Regional Medical Center was ready at the end of the bridge. Once the couple went down, the crew rushed to see what they could do. 

Keith was pronouced dead at the scene and Kate was pronounced DOA when she arrived at North Arkansas Regional Medical Center in Harrison. Keith’s body was left on the bridge for nearly an hour awaiting the arrival of Newton County coroner C.J. Easley. Keith was pronounced dead at 5:15 p.m. 

Watkins, along with friends of the Haiglers, tried to persuade the Haiglers to rethink their decisions. Watkins was convinced that Lamb could have changed their minds. Lamb did not go to the bus because he felt it “was a police matter,” Watkins said last month. “I feel like I did the right thing. I’m at peace within. Other people have the right to believe what they want.”

“I don’t know if anyone could have talked them out of it,” Thomas said in an interview last month. “ They were so firmly wrapped up in their religious belief — that today was the day that they were going to die — they wanted to be shot. But their ‘Messiah’ didn’t want to get involved.”

The Haiglers bodies were sent to the State Medical Examiner and after the autopsy was completed, the bodies were sent to their parents.

 Lamb said that he tried to explain to the Haiglers that the death was a spiritual death, not a physical death. He later said that he felt the earth shake on the day of the resurrection. Lamb said he could feel the Haiglers were with them in spirit. 

The Haiglers, Lamb, Lamb’s wife and daughter apparently were they only active members of the cult. After the incident on the bridge, Lamb isolated himself and the cult died out. 

Thirty years later, the people of Jasper have a haunting memory of the day the Haiglers died. The Haiglers story made it to the Montreal Gazette in Canada to the Lakeland Ledger in Florida. But like Watkins predicted, their cause would die with them and it did. 




Published by Harrison Daily Times