Michael W. Ryan

Michael Wayne Ryan (August 3, 1948 – May 24, 2015) was an American convicted murderer.

Early life Ryan was born on August 3, 1948, in Nebraska. Having dropped out of high school just short of what would have been his graduation, he began working odd jobs to support a wife and his children, but never stayed at one for very long. By his mid-20s, began working as a truck driver, the one job he was purported to enjoy, until a back injury forced him out of the cab and back home where he started regularly using marijuana.

Crimes Background Ryan was the leader of a small, racist, anti-government group that occupied a compound near Rulo, Nebraska, in the early 1980s. The group had loose ties to the Posse Comitatus, with links to the Christian Identity movement. Some of the main teachings within the group revolved around supremacy of the white race, antisemitism, homophobia, the downfall and hatred of "race traitors", drug addicts and non-European-descended American citizens, and a general distrust of all established earthly authority, especially governments and law enforcement. One of the group's core messages was, more or less, that the white race was "chosen" by God and all other human beings are the children of Satan, via the so-called "serpent seed" theory.

James Thimm (age 25) was beaten, whipping about the back and chest, had his fingertips shot off, was skinned alive, legs broken, and raped with a shovel and pickaxe handles before finally being stomped to death.

He claimed to be in direct contact with God and vowed to spend his days in prison rewriting the Bible, but he later recanted both statements.

Death Michael Ryan died of brain cancer while on death row in Tecumseh State Correctional Institution on May 24, 2015.