The Yahweh Cult of Rulo

The Yahweh Cult of Rulo in Rulo Nebraska believed that the Battle of the Wheat Fields was coming. They were guided by two principles: obey God’s commands, and prepare for the Battle of Armageddon. Unfortunately, their beliefs went on to make national news when they turned on their own members and committed some of the worst atrocities known to man.

Please Be Advised – The story you are about to read contains descriptions of graphic violence.

Our story begins with a man named James Paul Wickstrom. Wickstrom was an American white supremacist, and a founding member of the Posse Comitatus, an antisemetic, anti-government, and anti-tax group. He was strongly anti-communism, and frequently advocated the genocide of Jews, non-European Americans, “race traitors,” homosexuals, and drug addicts. 

Wickstrom was a minister in the Christian Identity movement, which is an interpretation of Christianity that believes only Celtic and Germanic people, such as the Anglo-Saxon, Nordig nations, and/or Aryan people and those of kindred blood, are the true descendants of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob and therefore descendants of the ancient Israelites.

In the late 1970’s, Wickstrom became the National Director of Counterinsurgency for the Posse Comitatus. The group, focused on Identity theology, focused on recruiting farmers in trouble, and in the Midwest, a lot of farmers were suffering a severe financial crisis. Wickstrom traveled the Midwest, organizing farmers, conducting preliminary training, spreading conspiracy theories, and worse – calling for Jews, non-whites, and others he deemed to be enemies, to be hanged from telephone poles.

“I’d like to see these Jews all be brought to the VA [Veterans Administration hospital] and wooden chairs be put down on the lawn. Tie the Jews in. Bring these veterans down who have been mutilated … and give them baseball bats and let them beat these Jews to death! Every one of them! Take these chairs and Jews after they’re beaten to death, throw ’em in the wood chipper! And from the wood chipper let the remains go into a big incinerary [sic] truck, which is right behind the wood chipper, and give them the holocaust they rightly deserve!”
— Videotaped interview with JamesWickstrom, 2004

“I have a dream! If that goddamn n—– can have a dream, I can have a dream, too. I have a dream that in the days to come there won’t be anyone who isn’t white that’s gonna be in America!”
— Speech by James Wickstrom at a racist skinhead gathering, 2003

It was during this time, in Wisconsin, that a man named Michael Ryan attended a meeting of Posse Comitatus. Ryan began attending Wickstrom’s rallies and Bible lectures, and soon became Wickstrom’s protege.

Born in 1948, Michael Ryan was a high school dropout. As an adult, he worked in various manual labor jobs, and then as a truck driver to support his wife and children. That is until he suffered a back injury that ended his truck driving career. He became a frequent user of marijuana, and found himself searching for something to give him the strength to go on living. Through James Wickstrom, Michael Ryan found the Christian Identity movement.

Wickstrom taught him the basic tenants of the Christian Identity movement. They looked to “Yahweh,” the ancient Hebrew name for God, despite their antisemitic beliefs. Some members of the Christian Identity movement even adhered to a traditionally kosher diet, a diet held by the Jewish people.

Wickstrom taught Ryan the “arm test,” a test where a member would extend his arm out at a 90 degree angle. Ryan would then place his left hand on the member’s right shoulder, and his right hand on the member’s right wrist. Then he would ask a question of Yahweh and apply pressure to the member’s arm to learn his will. If the answer was “no,” the arm would drop. If the answer was “yes,” the arm would stay up. This test was severely flawed in that the person holding the arm had complete control of the other person’s movements, and could therefore manipulate the answers to suit their needs.

Ryan adopted the arm test when he began to grow a following of his own. He and his followers used the test for everything from “how long to boil water” to making major decisions.

It wasn’t long before Ryan earned the reputation as “Wickstrom’s main man in Kansas.” While attending another of Wickstrom’s rallies, Ryan met Rick Stice. Rick and his wife, Sandra, owned an 80 acre pig farm in Rulo, Nebraska. When Sandra became very ill with Hodgkin’s disease, they began looking to faith healers to help. Rick and Sandra had been regularly attending Wickstrom’s Bible studies, and were desperate for help.

Rick became a member of Ryan’s group, along with Jim Haverkamp, and two Mennonites, John Andreas and James Thimm. Their group would get together on Saturdays to study their version of the Bible.

James Thimm was about 23 when he met Michael Ryan. When he was very young, his mother got very ill and couldn’t care for him. His father, unprepared to be a single father, allowed his son to be placed with another Mennonite couple. While his father was still very involved in his life, James grew up leaning on and being very active in the Mennonite church. However, when he met Ryan, he began to listen more to his teachings, and less to the churches.

In April, 1983, Sandra Stice died, leaving Rick lost with three children to raise on his own.

That summer, through the arm test, it was determined that Michael Ryan had the spirit of the Archangel Michael in him. The Archangel Michael is the angel who would lead the army of God against the forces of Satan, according to the Bible’s Book of Revelation. This book tells of the apocalypse that would precede the “Second Coming” of Jesus Christ. 

Ryan convinced his followers that he could now communicate directly with Yahweh, and no longer needed the arm test. One day he informed the group that he had received “new orders from headquarters.” 

Ryan said that he had “talked to Yahweh and that the men were supposed to go out and do some stealing for the group.” If any of the members disobeyed, or refused to cooperate with Yahweh’s orders, they would risk angering Yahweh, and their families would lose Yahweh’s protection from Satan.

At this time, the group had come to believe that the Battle of Armageddon, also known as the Battle of the Wheat Fields, was on the horizon and they needed to prepare. Armageddon, according to the New Testament of the Bible, is the last battle between god and evil before the Day of Judgement. As part of the group’s preparations, they needed to set up a base, or compound. In order to do this, they needed to steal.

They began to travel to Kansas, Missouri, and Nebraska, stealing cattle, hogs, farm equipment, construction equipment and more to turn around and sell. Proceeds would go towards amassing a large stockpile of weapons and ammunition, as well as the basic necessities.

The group continued to grow, and now included not only Jim Haverkamp, but also his sisters, Cheryl and Lisa, and his mom Maxine. During their Saturday meetings, Ryan would read and interpret verses from the Bible. He claimed that any verse that went against his beliefs was put there by the Jews. At the end of their meetings, they would rewrite verses to conform to their beliefs – and then smoke marijuana.

After one of their meetings in Kansas, Michael Ryan took Cheryl aside. He told her that Yahweh wanted her to leave her husband Lester, and marry him; that in Yahweh’s eyes, she had never really been married to Lester. And Lester, who was not part of their group, was on Satan’s side. 

Ryan added that if she didn’t leave her husband and go live with him and his wife Ruth, Lester and her children would all die in a horrible accident. As any mother would do, she feared for her kids’ safety. She made the decision to leave her husband, take their 5 children and move in with Michael Ryan, Ruth, and their three kids.

During this time Lester had no idea where Cheryl was or where she had taken their children. He spent years hanging flyers, hiring private investigators, and even convinced a special prosecutor to issue a felony arrest warrant for her. But without knowing where she was, she could not be arrested.

Michael Ryan married in May, 1984. Now Michael had 2 wives, Ruth and Cheryl.

In June, 1984, Rick invited the entire group to go live with him on his farm, and that summer. Michael Ryan and his family, the Haverkamp family, and James Thimm all moved to the farm. At some point during this time, 15 year old Lisa Haverkamp had a baby.

Shortly thereafter, John Andreas and 22 year old Timothy Haverkamp moved to the farm.

Timothy had no intention of moving to the farm, but after leaving college, then visiting his father and subsequently letting Ryan borrow his car – which he left with and didn’t return for 3 days – he was convinced to stay. After all – he had five family members there.

At this time there were 7 adult men, 2 adult women, 1 teenage girl, and 10 young children. 

Maxine Haverkamp, Cheryl and Lisa’s mom, didn’t move to the farm, instead visited every 2 weeks. But then Michael Ryan told her that it was Yahweh’s wish for her to marry him – and she did. Ryan now had 3 wives, Ruth, Cheryl, and Maxine. He referred to himself as “The King,” and his wives were his “Queens.”

But he wasn’t the only man to get married. Rick Stice married Lisa.

Before long, the group grew to around 25 members.

One day, Michael Ryan performed an arms test where he learned that it was Yahweh’s wish that Rick stop raising pigs, as they were not kosher – again, a Jewish law. Rick complied.

Though the farm had various barns and sheds, the group settled in to live in 2 trailers. 1 trailer was given to Rick Stice, who had been named “High Priest,” and his wife Lisa. The other was for everyone else. As the group settled into their routine, women consulted with Yahweh through the arm test to determine meal plans, and Ryan used the arm test to determine who needed to be punished.

Ryan assigned tasks for everyone to do, while he sat back, communicating with Yahweh, and watching TV. At night, the men went on their stealing raids, and again, Michael Ryan didn’t participate.

With the Battle of Armageddon, the Battle of the Wheat Fields, looming over them, Michael Ryan determined that the battle would happen right around them – after all, Rulo was full of wheat fields.

Ryan gave each of the men military titles, and before long, they had all reached 5-Star General status. Rick, however, was a 6-Star General.

By the end of 1984, the group had fallen on hard times. Without income from pigs, Rick wasn’t able to pay his mortgage and had to sell the farm. Fortunately, the Haverkamp’s were able to buy it from him, but Yahweh was angry with Rick.

Yahweh told Michael Ryan that Rick was having “bad thoughts.” As a result, Rick was demoted, and his wife was taken away. Lisa was sent to live in the other trailer, and soon had to share a bed with Ryan. Within days, Yahweh commanded Ryan to take another wife, and he married Lisa. Michael Ryan now had 4 wives, Ruth, Cheryl, Maxine, and Lisa.

Shortly thereafter, Michael Ryan found another wife, Deborah Haverkamp, Lisa and Cheryl’s sister, and Maxine’s daughter. He now had 5 wives, Ruth, and 4 Haverkamp women.

In December, 1984, Ryan announced that Lisa was the Queen of Israel, and on New Years Eve, he announced that both he, and Lisa, had spoken to Yahweh, and there were going to be some serious changes on the farm. He gave a speech, and in it he said that there was a lot of jealousy going on on the farm. If the jealousy didn’t stop, they would all lose their children.

Michael Ryan told them that each individual person had to make a choice. They could choose to leave, or stay. But their decision would come with its own consequences. Staying meant they were in forever, there would be no leaving after that, and if they did, they would be hunted down and killed. Leaving meant they would burn in hell.

In early 1985, doubts arose. James Thimm said he wasn’t sure there was a Yahweh, and he wasn’t sure he believed in the arm test. Rick Stice also had his doubts, and according to Ryan, so did Rick’s 5-year-old son, Luke. Though Luke didn’t say anything out loud, Michael Ryan claimed he could read his thoughts. Yahweh wasn’t pleased, nor was Ryan.

James and Rick were demoted to “slave” status, while Luke was demoted to “dog.”

Rick and James were given grunt work, always put on guard duty, taking care of the chickens and their goat, and even had to do dishes. At one point Michael Ryan threatened to cut off Rick’s penis, and threatened to skin James alive, then burn him alive. He forced the men to exercise for hours at a time until they were completely exhausted.

5-year-old Luke was also treated horribly. According to court documents, he was called “dog,” a “mongrel,” and “dogshit.” Ryan would put the ashes from his cigarettes in Luke’s mouth. He was spat on, shot in the arm, and at one point Ryan even tied a whip around his neck and lifted him off the ground, saying, “This is the mongrel, this is the seed of satan.”

Luke ate all his meals from the floor, and Rick painted the mark of the beast, “666,” on his son’s back. Members would take Luke outside in only his underwear and roll him around in the snow. He would be repeatedly drenched with ice water and put outside in the cold.

By March, Yahweh had communicated to Michael Ryan that the three were still having bad thoughts. He claimed that Yahweh said James needed to have anal sex with Rick in front of the group. And he needed to make Rick hurt.

Afraid of repercussions, James did as he was told.

As if that wasn’t bad enough, Yahweh now demanded Rick perform oral sex on his son, Luke, and that Luke do the same to his father, in front of the group. They complied.

On March 25, 1985, Michael Ryan, who was 6’2” and weighed over 230 pounds, got angry with Luke. He picked up the boy and slammed his head into a cabinet three times. On the third time, Luke was knocked unconscious and died later that evening. Rick and James were forced to dig a shallow grave and bury him. They were not allowed to mark it.

Days later, Rick was forced to have sex with the goat. This happened on three separate occasions.

When Michael Ryan and Lisa left to honeymoon in Kansas City, Ryan left his son, Dennis (16), and Timothy Haverkamp (22) in charge. Rick took Ryan’s absence as his opportunity to escape. He ran, leaving his other 2 children, ages 7 and 9, behind.

When he returned, Ryan was furious that Rick had escaped. In order to keep James from escaping, he chained him to the porch of one of the trailer’s. But Rick wasn’t gone for long. He began to worry about eternal damnation and the punishment he would face in the afterlife. He returned to the farm, and was subsequently chained to the porch with James.

On April 4, Ryan ordered Timothy to unchain Rick and take him into town to cash his Social Security check. Once again, Rick took the opportunity to escape and he went into hiding. 

Back at the farm, Michael Ryan was furious, and if he couldn’t punish Rick, he would punish James for his indiscretions.

As a regular occurrence, Ryan would encourage members of his group to smoke marijuana and go practice shooting their guns. On one of those occasions, his son, Dennis, shot James in the face. The gunshot didn’t kill him, but he wasn’t allowed to see a doctor either. But even that wasn’t enough to make Ryan ease up on his punishment. 

James was chained almost 24/7 to the porch. He was only allowed to eat small birds that the group would shoot. He lost an extreme amount of weight, and looked sickly and much older than he really was.

When Ryan decided it was time to punish him again, James was forced to have sex with the goat in front of everyone.

On April 17, the group cooked a wild turkey, but the meat was very dry. Michael Ryan accused James of poisoning the turkey with household cleaner. He made James eat the meat, but when he didn’t get sick, he was once again angry. He had to teach him a lesson – and by that, he meant James had to have sex with the goat in front of everyone, again.

Afterwards, James was taken to an old barn that has been used to confine the pigs where he was chained for the night. The men, Michael Ryan, Dennis Ryan, Timothy Haverkamp, Jim Haverkamp, and John Andreas all took turns beating James.

The next day, Ryan sent John Andreas to the barn to feed James a bowl of granola. Meanwhile Ryan was telling the other men that Yahweh would be pleased if James could survive 4-5 days of being tortured.

By midmorning, the men were ready to torture him. James was ordered to strip naked and bend over a farrowing crate – or a small pen in which pigs are confined to deliver and nurse their piglets. After taunting James, Michael Ryan informed him that he had not done a good enough job having sex with the goat, and therefore he would be raping him – with the handle of a shovel. That all 5 men would be taking turns raping him with the handle of the shovel.

Ryan went first, inserting the shovel 5-6 inches into his rectum and probing him for around 30 seconds. 

James fidgeted and squirmed, so Michael got some bail wire, and tied his arms to the crate.

Yahweh wasn’t pleased yet, and wanted the handle to be inserted 8-10 inches into James. One of the men retrieved a tape measure and they marked the shovel handle at 9 inches. Then they took turns, probing him, inserting all 9 inches of the shovel handle.

James was screaming by this point, and Ryan kicked him in the head. He then taped James’ mouth shut so the men wouldn’t have to listen to him any longer.

Later that day, Ryan forced James to sign his car title over to Timothy Haverkamp. It was his birthday that day, and his gift would be James’ car.

Then it was time to take orders from Yahweh again, and again, Yahweh wanted the men to rape James. They took turns as they had before, but on his turn, Michael Ryan shoved the shovel handle a full 2 feet, or 24 inches, into James’ rectum, tearing the rectal wall. Ryan decided that they had to stop that, and instead of going deeper, it was time to go wider.

He retrieved a pickaxe. The picaxe had a wider shovel, measuring 3 inches wide. He dipped that into the container of grease, and inserted it approximately 3 inches into James’ rectum.

The men left to do their chores, and after, Ryan told them that Yahweh had decided James had not been punished enough. They returned to the barn and untied him from the farrowing crate, and instead, tied his hands to an overhead auger – a sort of large drill bit.

Hanging by his wrists, Michael Ryan said they were to each give James 15 lashes on his back with a leather whip. During his turn, Ryan called out the name of a member with each lash. The whole time James is crying out, “I’m sorry Yahweh, please forgive me for what I’ve done. Please stop this Yahweh. Please.”

Ryan replied, “We don’t need to worry about that because Yahweh’s given up on you, you don’t have any hope any more.”

After he had suffered 75 lashes, James was untied and given a sleeping bag to lay in. He was chained and left in the barn the rest of the night. 

During breakfast the next morning, Michael Ryan told the men that James had still not been punished enough. They all returned to the shed, and again tied his arms to the auger and gave him 15 lashes each on his back. 

Now that James had suffered 150 lashes to his back, he was untied and forced to lay down on his back. There, he was tied to a pipe, and he received 15 more lashes from each man – this time to his chest and stomach area.

James couldn’t cry out anymore at this point, and only moaned when he was hit. This didn’t please Michael Ryan who told him to “Shut the fuck up, it would only get worse.”

He took James’ left hand and tied it palm up on a block of wood. He took a pistol and shot one of James’ fingertips off. 

Although the other men were crying at this point, and didn’t want to continue, they were too afraid to stop. Each man took turns, shooting the rest of his fingers, and thumb, off. 

When they went back inside for lunch, Michael Ryan told them that Yahweh wanted James dead by the afternoon. He sent John Andreas out into the field to find a place to bury him – some place accessible, but hidden. He was then told to go say his goodbye’s.

In the barn, John told James goodbye. All James could say was that he was sorry.

When the men returned to the barn, Michael kicked James’ arm and it immediately broke. He told James he was going to skin him alive. 

Using a razor blade, Ryan made an incision into James’ leg, then using pliers, pulled strips of skin off and showed it to him. 

Dennis was told to break James’ leg, and he took a 2×4 piece of wood and hit him repeatedly until his leg broke. Ryan then told him that there was an easier way to break a leg. He placed James’ other leg onto a block of wood and instructed Timothy to hit it with the 2×4. When he did, the leg immediately snapped.

Michael Ryan got down into James’ face and asked him if he thought Yahweh meant business yet. Then he proceeded to stomp on James’ chest repeatedly, crushing his ribs and killing him.

Ryan ordered Jim to go get a sleeping bag. They placed James and his clothes into the sleeping bag and took him out into the field. They were instructed to dig a hole, 6 feet long by 3 feet wide, and 6 feet deep. 

With James in the grave, Ryan had one last order – Timothy was to shoot James in the head.

Life at the farm went on – until June 25, 1985.

June 25, Jim Haverkamp and John Andreas were arrested for stealing farm machinery in Kansas. Once in custody, they immediately began talking. As soon as Rick Stice heard that Jim and John had been arrested, he went to the police and told them all he knew.

The FBI, ATF, Nebraska State Patrol, and the local county Police Department went to the farm to find the bodies of James Thimm and Luke Stice. They found James on the second day of searching. All members of the group were arrested. Michael and Dennis Ryan, as well as Timothy Haverkamp, were charged with first-degree murder.

The state conducted an autopsy of James, and Michael’s defense requested their own autopsy be performed. The only discrepancy? The state of James’ penis and testicles. The state claimed they had been cut off, while Michael’s defense claimed they had simply decomposed. 

On the farm, authorities seized a large weapons cache, including 150,000 rounds of ammunition and over $250,000 worth of stolen property.

By the time Michael and Dennis went on trial in March 1986, Timothy had already pleaded guilty to a lesser sentence of second-degree murder. When asked why he had participated in the torture and murder of James Thimm, Dennis Ryan said, “Because that’s what Yahweh wanted.″

After 18 days of testimony, Michael and Dennis Ryan were both found guilty, Michael of first-degree murder, his son to second-degree murder.

Michael Ryan was sentenced to death in October 1986. Dennis was given a life sentence, but was released in 1997 after spending 12 years in prison.

Jim Haverkamp and John Andreas pleaded guilty to assault charges and were sentenced to 26 years in prison, and released in 1998. Timothy Haverkamp was sentenced to 10 years to life, but was released in 2009. 

As for Michael Ryan – he never received the death penalty. On May 24, 2015, he died in prison at the age of 66 – from cancer. He believed, until his very last breath, that the deeds he had done were all in service to Yahweh.

Still interested in cults? Check out this story about the Heaven’s Gate Cult.