Walter Stukas trying to track Langly in the woods.
Walter Stukas was a poacher of Grizzly Bears that operated from the Washington-Canada border area. The Lone Gunmen were investigating him for a story they were writing and intended to turn him into the police when they had the evidence they needed.
Background[]
Stukas was a hardcore survivalist and ex-con living in a cabin in the woods. No electricity, no water, etc. coupled with a paranoia about the government that made even the Lone Gunmen seem normal by comparison.
Selling bear organs to mainland China through Triad gangs in Canada was extremely profitable. The organs used as aphrodisiacs and so forth among Chinese herbalists were more valuable than their weight in gold.
Involvement with The Lone Gunmen[]
Stukas at his meeting with the Triads.
The Lone Gunmen watched the man's compound for days in the intense cold. After a package was delivered to Stukas, Richard Langly acted as a diversion (pretending to be a bear), while Melvin Frohike broke into the cabin to try and find what had been delivered. John Fitzgerald Byers acted as lookout from the van, tracking Stukas' movements as he returned from the woods but failed to find Frohike (because he held onto the rafters after the trap got him). This daring act finally got the Lone Gunmen the location of a meeting between the Triads and Stukas.
They watched from a hiding place in the warehouse as the meeting took place but Byers recognized they couldn't see the faces of those involved and he moved closer. Noticed and captured by a Triad thug, he was brought before Stukas, who threatened him with a skinning knife and tried to learn whether there were others there. Byers held his own bravely and denied there was anyone else in the warehouse. He lied about the police being all around them yet the police did indeed storm the place just in time to save Byers from Stukas. Apparently someone else (Yves Adele Harlow) had sent the police to arrest those at the meeting place. Stukas and the Triad gangsters were arrested and would spend years in prison for their crimes.