Death of Donald Scott

I've known about this case from several sources for the past 15 years. I wonder what ever happened to the widow.

Vin Suprynowicz followed up with Mrs. Scott in 2001.

WHAT A WOMAN!

She wouldn't leave the ranch, even after the fire. For six years, she lived there alone in a teepee.

Then, she was removed by a SWAT team and helicopters.

Vin, author of the classic "SEND IN THE WACO KILLERS", a book-length treatment of many of these government horror stories, explained:

"Many would have expected Mrs. Scott to depart after being burned out of house and home. Instead, she's spent the past six years camped out on the property in a teepee. Mrs. Scott's current problem? The ranch went to Donald Scott's estate, of which she controls only a minority share, the rest going to his children by a previous marriage. The IRS appraises the ranch at $2.4 million, and wants inheritance tax on $1 million of that sum, at 55 percent.

The attorneys for the children have advised them the ranch would be hard to market -- the official appraisal describes it as inaccessible, though Mrs. Scott says the mile-long access road is still perfectly functional -- and that they'll be better off selling the property to pay the taxes.

Thus, on Aug. 2, a police SWAT team accompanied by two helicopters arrived to evict Mrs. Scott.

Out of the $5 million wrongful death settlement, 40 percent went to the lawyers off the top, while the rest was split six ways. Once Mrs. Scott paid off her own eight years worth of legal bills, that left her barely enough to offer a $170,000 down payment to back her $1.95 million bid for the ranch in the upcoming tax auction, she says.

But now, "The lawyers have kept my $170,000 down payment for potential damages. ... I won't have a single dollar to take to this auction, so the National Park Service will be the only party to place a bid," Mrs. Scott told me last week.

The widow Scott has paid out at least another $55,000 to a series of three backers who agreed to bid on the ranch in her behalf, but each has been raided or otherwise intimidated by local police and the FBI, she contends.

No officers were ever charged in Donald Scott's death..."