When Kehoe started talking about killing his own parents, even Brown thought he was going too far, and eventually, Brown agreed to testify against his former friend, known to his friends as Bud. The two met in the courthouse hallway not long ago.
"The first thing he says, 'Hey, what's up, man?' And I'm like, 'Hey, price of freedom, dude.' " Brown half laughed. "Bud doesn't realize he's heading for the big sleep. You got two appeals, Buddy. You're gonna die before Timothy McVeigh."
Two Families, Kids and a Dozen Guns
The last chapter of the Kehoe saga, the one that wound up putting Cheyne Kehoe on the witness stand to seal his brother's fate, came after they set out looking for construction work.
"I didn't have a job, snow was 5, 6, 7 feet deep. Cramped quarters. I was--my dad was, as you can guess, a little controlling. I was ready to get out from under that," Cheyne testified. "A way to move on, travel. Change of scenery."
And so the American highway opened up for the Kehoe brothers one last time. The two families, kids in tow, took off with a dozen or so guns. They were driving down an Ohio highway when a state trooper pulled them over for expired plates. Chevie got out of the car, and as Cheyne waited nervously in the passenger seat, bolted toward the car and tried to drive off, a trooper hanging onto him.
Cheyne unloaded several rounds before taking off on foot. Chevie roared off and a few miles away, emptied several rounds into the windshield of a local police officer. The two young men regrouped in Utah, where they found work splitting fence posts, but Cheyne was growing more fearful of his brother. Not only had Chevie talked of a string of murders with no apparent remorse, Cheyne said, but now he was talking about killing their parents and splitting Kirby's valuable arsenal.
In the middle of one night, Cheyne and his wife and child stole away. The next day, Cheyne turned himself in, and told authorities where they would find Chevie. As for his brother, Cheyne told an NBC interviewer that he wouldn't mind seeing his brother die, figures he has it coming, in fact. "He crossed the line somewhere in his life," he said. "And love can't even follow a person that far."
