William Potter Gale
William Potter Gale (1916-1988), a retired U.S. Army colonel, was a disciple of Christian Identity pioneer Wesley Smith and a prominent extremist active in California for decades, forming or participating in many different groups. In the 1970s, he helped found the Posse Comitatus, an anti-government extremist group which spawned the sovereign citizen movement. In the 1980s, he was the leader of another anti-government extremist group, the Committee of the States. He was convicted of threatening government officials in 1987.