The first two names are well-known, but information about Gritz is probably thin on the ground with this crowd and after this span of years. His last bid for the Presidency was in 1992 on the Populist ticket. This is after he ran for the veep slot in 1988 for the same party, second to David Duke.
His only claim to legitimate fame is that he successfully convinced Randy Weaver to give up the ship at Ruby Ridge. This was overshadowed by the Nazi salute (a very “special wave” performed with a stiff right arm and an empty head) he gave the Neo-Nazi skins on the periphery that day.
Closer to my home, he tried to convince the Montana Freemen to come out peacefully. He was rebuffed. He similarly failed in his plot to “Save Eric Rudolph”, the abortion clinic bomber: He claimed to have spotted Eric multiple times, but nothing ever came of it. He doesn’t seem too good at finding people who likely are there, so you can’t blame him for failing to find people who likely aren’t.
Most interestingly, he founded a right-little, white-little compound in Idaho called Almost Paradise, which he said was nothing like the Aryan Nations compound in the same state, honest. He gradually drifted away from the camp when a bunch of really paranoid yahoos afraid of helicopters secretly destroying houses with microwaves moved in, but not before the spot had also become home to a few “sovereign citizens” (people who think the income tax is strictly optional).
Gritz also spends or spent plenty of time with committed (or, well, committed and open about it) anti-Semites, including Richard Flowers and the Christian Identity (read: “extreme anti-Semite”) Rose Hill Covenant Church.
In short, if this moron is the caliber of people the “abandoned POWs” camp can come up with, why should anyone bother?
James “Bo” Gritz, a bio at the ADL.
Bo Gritz and Almost Heaven, a dated (1996) article at the ADL.