the modern figure that we might compare him with is david koresh. think back to about two decades ago and the branch davidians in waco, texas. he was kind of like that, a religious leader who wanted to have his own colony. at a certain level just be left alone, but also having provocations and so forth. he was a figure of interest, and became increasing interest as a clashed with locals on beaver island because there was a fishing colony there people who did not belong to his sect that also people in the region. eventually it came to more and more attention. eventually to the attention of the federal government and their planes of theft and piracy and so on. he was, he's ever gotten thicker nap in a lot of ways but he was certainly a person of interest back in the 1850s. >> host: do you write this book as an adventure tale or do you write it as a lesson? >> guest: first of all it's just a story. if it's in a genre, i call it a historical narrative nonfiction. i just try until a great story. as a writer i'm always looking for great stories to tell. p

this freaked him out because he thought what happened to david koresh was going to happen to him. >>ng demonized and running this group, and he was afraid that people were going to draw parallels and they were going to see him as that. >> i did feel like i needed to protect him at times. >> in austin it was keep the group secret, sacred, sacred things need to be kept secret. >> we did exercises in class to practice in case the fbi captured us. >> you're going to tell them that you don't know any andreas, you don't know anybody. >> i wasn't sure if the fbi was after us or not, but i would do whatever it took to protect him or the group. even though i wasn't a very good liar, i did it. >> i had no integrity at all. i would lie to my mother for him. >> we were instructed that we had to lie to my parents all the time. >> i rarely had any interaction with anyone outside the group. even my parents, who lived nearby in ft. worth, had no idea i was in austin. >> he'd send me all these little gifts from these places to prove where he was and write me these letters. and i still saw through it.