anger Terry Cox more than usual,and Cox had a reputation for chasing friends
around with a revved up, running chainsaw, while threatening to cut their head
off.

Cox pulled the seat forward on his Ford F-100 pickup and pulled out a tire iron
and a hammer. Later, in court, he testified that the tire iron went into Vander
Jack's skull, "like a spike pushed into a watermelon."

Scott and Clark testified against Cox and were given suspended sentences. Clark
was convicted of manslaughter, but on appeal a trial error meant he was
released after serving a little under 4 years in state prison.

By 1987 federal grants to local law enforcement for the war on drugs had
reached staggering levels. Small planes and helicopters crisscrossed every inch
of forest, public or private, using professional spotters to locate as fewas 2
marijuana plants. On such spotter located a small plantation on federal land
that had been recently replanted with Douglas Fir seedlings. Ground crews found
far more marijuana plants once they scouted the area on foot.

As the fall
harvest neared, state and federal agents staked out the plantation, waiting for
the growers to reap the crop. Unwitting crews of tree planters hiked in with
backpacks to begin the harvest, they found themselves surrounded. Gene Diaz had
made the unfortunate decision to oversee the work. Many of the workers were
able to slip into the surrounding hills, but Díaz quickly found himself in
handcuffs.

The easy
money then came to an end.

The Díaz family found themselves under unprecedented scrutiny. Their rental
properties were seized by the IRS Asset Forfeiture Program. Gene Díaz was sent
to federal prison for nearly a decade.