The Passing of a TP - Ty Hardin
Posted: Thu Aug 24, 2017 3:05 pm
Normally most TPs pass into obscurity at the time of their demise and don't rate a timely mention here on Quatloos, except maybe as an afterthought. The exception here is that we have never discussed Ty Hardin here before, at least in my memory; a search of our site doesn't show any mention, unless it happened in posts that disappeared in the Great Dump of 2007 or 2008.
For the old timers here, they may recognize Hardin as a relatively successful actor in the late 50's and early 60s'. Apart from a couple of movies, his biggest roles were on TV. He was in Cheyenne which later spun off a character from there to his own series Bronco. By the mid-60s TV westerns were fading, and Hardin's contracts expired. He drifted off to Europe to do a few spaghetti westerns but that fad ended by the early 70's and he pretty much disappeared from the public eye.
Except that Hardin started getting into battles with the IRS in the late 70's over taxes. So much so that Hardin, by this time living in Arizona, organized a "school" called (what else?) the "Common Law Institute" and published a "patriot handbook" that claimed that there were "tested cases and methods to maintain good personal freedom." He also functioned as editor of the organization's monthly "Arizona Patriot" that featured articles on how to interfere with the government and re-prints of anti-Semitic articles from other sources. This anti-tax group later on morphed into a militia called the Arizona Patriots. They became known for being anti-Semitic and for filing nuisance suits in court similar to the antics of the Posse Comitatus movement. Eventually the group came under the watch of the federales and some members were arrested for stockpiling of weapons, bomb making, and plans to blow up dams, an IRS facility, a synagogue and the Simon Weisenthal center.
The Patriots, by most accounts, disbanded by the end of the '80s, although there are reports that some members are trying to reactivate it. There is no record of when Hardin left the organization nor anything to indicate that he was ever arrested or under suspicion for being part of the violent activities of the group. He died on August 3, 2017 in Huntington Beach, California at the age of 87, leaving behind a wife, 7 ex-wives and 10 children.
For the old timers here, they may recognize Hardin as a relatively successful actor in the late 50's and early 60s'. Apart from a couple of movies, his biggest roles were on TV. He was in Cheyenne which later spun off a character from there to his own series Bronco. By the mid-60s TV westerns were fading, and Hardin's contracts expired. He drifted off to Europe to do a few spaghetti westerns but that fad ended by the early 70's and he pretty much disappeared from the public eye.
Except that Hardin started getting into battles with the IRS in the late 70's over taxes. So much so that Hardin, by this time living in Arizona, organized a "school" called (what else?) the "Common Law Institute" and published a "patriot handbook" that claimed that there were "tested cases and methods to maintain good personal freedom." He also functioned as editor of the organization's monthly "Arizona Patriot" that featured articles on how to interfere with the government and re-prints of anti-Semitic articles from other sources. This anti-tax group later on morphed into a militia called the Arizona Patriots. They became known for being anti-Semitic and for filing nuisance suits in court similar to the antics of the Posse Comitatus movement. Eventually the group came under the watch of the federales and some members were arrested for stockpiling of weapons, bomb making, and plans to blow up dams, an IRS facility, a synagogue and the Simon Weisenthal center.
The Patriots, by most accounts, disbanded by the end of the '80s, although there are reports that some members are trying to reactivate it. There is no record of when Hardin left the organization nor anything to indicate that he was ever arrested or under suspicion for being part of the violent activities of the group. He died on August 3, 2017 in Huntington Beach, California at the age of 87, leaving behind a wife, 7 ex-wives and 10 children.