'Bo' Gritz Found Shot In Idaho

James "Bo" Gritz, a former Green Beret colonel and leader of the so-called Patriot Movement, was hospitalized with an apparently self-inflicted gunshot wound.

Gritz was taken to Clearwater Valley Hospital in Orofino on Sunday afternoon, the Clearwater County Sheriff's Department said in a news release Sunday night.

A hospital spokeswoman would not give a condition for Gritz or even confirm he was a patient.

Sheriff's deputies were called to a scene about 5 p.m. on State Highway 7 a half-mile south of Orofino, 80 miles west of Missoula, Mont.

No details were released except that the incident involved Gritz, who had an apparently self-inflicted gunshot wound, and that an investigation was continuing.

Gritz, 59, is probably best known for his role as negotiator in the FBI siege on the Randy Weaver family in Ruby Ridge in 1992. He also briefly was a mediator in the Montana Freemen standoff in 1996.

Recently, he headed a team into the North Carolina forests, hoping to persuade suspected abortion clinic bomber Eric Rudolph to give himself up. Rudolph did not.

Gritz also is the developer of Almost Heaven, a "constitutional covenant community" near Kamiah in northern Idaho. He has a national following via his radio talk show, Freedom Calls.

Gritz ran for president in 1992 and is a leader of the so-called Patriot Movement, which rails against a purported United Nations-led "New World Order" and accuses the government of corruption and violence.