At an 80-acre farm linked to the White Nationalist Christian Identity movement, two dead bodies were discovered in August 1985 outside Rulo, Nebraska; Five-year-old Luke Stice and 26-year-old James Thimm were both present.
According to Daniel Levitas in “The Terrorist Next Door”, there was evidence that the two had been subjected to torture before being killed. A man seeking to establish his dominance had brutally abused them.
When trucker and school dropout Michael Wayne Ryan was apprehended for these crimes, authorities discovered he acted like a prophet, heralding the end of the world. Violence was no stranger to his form of religion, which had a following among those seeking “paramilitary salvation”.
Rick Stice, the farm manager and father of Luke Stice, was a member of his sect. Ryan’s ideas appealed to Rick because he and his wife were struggling financially and Sondra died of cancer.
Ryan’s group was invited to Stice’s property, but Stice quickly became the symbol of Ryan’s enmity. Ryan reduced Stice to a “slave” position.
About 21 people lived in the different structures, mainly children. Ryan, who called them “true Israelites” and convinced them that the final Armageddon would happen there in Nebraska, encouraged them to stockpile food and medicine.
James Thimm, a staunch supporter, had traveled to the property with thirty-year-old David Andreas. Ryan also lost his temper with Thimm, demoting him to a lower position. He was obliged to follow the orders of his superiors.
Ryan began abusing Luke to torture Stice. He wrote “666” in crimson on the boy’s forehead and declared the boy to be satanic offspring. Stice complied and beat and whipped Luke as instructed by Ryan.
However, Stice eventually left the farm for a short time. He was tied to the porch when he came back. Stice followed Ryan’s instructions to sexually abuse Luke. Then he was told to sodomize Thimm and submit to the same treatment, which is exactly what he did.
Ryan felt dissatisfied despite this. One day he delivered a severe blow to Luke, breaking his neck and murdering him. He had Stice dig a grave, and while working on it, Stice again escaped, leaving behind two of his children.
Instead of escaping, he was subjected to a horrific series of abuses. He was shot in the face and tormented for several days before he died.
Despite sustaining a severe facial injury, Levitas claims he was forced to have sex with a goat while chained up in a pigsty. Then, under Ryan’s orders, several men repeatedly anally raped him while holding a shovel handle before Ryan beat and punched him, fracturing his arm.
The next day, while he was still breathing, his legs were broken and his skin was torn off. Ryan then stomped on Thimm’s chest causing the guy to be killed.
Thimm was laid to rest in an unmarked cemetery after Ryan ordered one of the others to shoot him in the head for good measure.
