The extraordinary woman her killers did NOT want you to know.

My wife Lynda Cheryle Lyon was truly an extraordinary woman, whose dominant, constant trait is charity. She always cared about others, giving generously of her time, material goods, sympathy an understanding to those who were in need. This was especially evident in her roles as wife and mother, in which roles she was never neglectful, moreso due to an abundance of love than to a sense of duty, although she took those duties seriously. Her commitment to being a good wife and mother was total, always alert to the best ways to provide nourishment for body, mind and spirit of both husband and son.

She, a literal genius with an IQ of 162, diligently home schooled her son Gordon, and Michael before him, drawing material in part from her valuable collection of rare books.

Lynda Cheryle Lyon was born February 8, 1948, in Orlando, Florida, to Francis (Frank) Stephen Lyon and Berylene Elisabeth Owen. Her maternal grandparents managed the Howard Johnson restaurant in Orlando, the most popular restaurant at that time. Her paternal grandfather was deceased, and her paternal grandmother ran a family business in retail clothing and accessories with Frank and his three brothers. Her paternal great-grandfather was an investigative agent for the U.S Government, and after spending some years on assignment in Cuba right after the Spanish – American War (where he met and married her paternal great-grandmother, the daughter of a Spanish emissary) he was later shot and killed by an international criminal he was tracking in Columbia, South America. Her maternal great-grandfather was a wealthy landowner in the Rio Grande Valley of Texas who married a schoolteacher. The Lyon family has traced its genealogy back to Baron de Lyon, who accompanied William the Conqueror in the defeat of England in 1066, and was one of the original Norman barons of England.

Lynda, and her sister Denyce (born 1952), lost their father when she was 10, when he died of heart failure, a result of damage done by rheumatic fever when he was a child. In 1956, he was offered the opportunity to be the first recipient of Dr. De Bakey’s newly-invented mechanical heart valve, but during surgery, Dr. De Bakey discovered that Frank’s heart was too badly damaged to support the device , and he was sent home. Though Frank recovered from the surgery, he heart condition worsened, and he died November 28, 1958, at age 31.

Her father’s death affected Lynda deeply, as she and her father had been fishing buddies since she was three, and he took her almost everywhere with him. Lynda and her mother, on the other hand, have never been close. In fact her mother was very physically and mentally abusive, having no patience with Lynda’s unique, honest, inquisitive nature. In the years of our imprisonment communication between Lynda and her mother has only been in regard to Gordon her youngest son, who lives with Berylene and her husband in Orlando, Florida.

Lynda attended public school, and in the 6th grade was transferred to the gifted program, and remained in the program through graduation in 1966, as an A-B student, graduating in the top fourth of her class. It was a chance class in journalism, when she was 13 where she discovered her talent for writing novels and poetry, and she worked on school newspapers through graduation. Lynda’s mother, however, regarded Lynda’s writings (and sister Denyce’s artwork) as useless, and would periodically search for and destroy Lynda’s stories, poems etc, and Denyce’s artwork. As much as this distressed Lynda she persisted in writing, seeking better hiding places for her work.

She attended Orlando Junior College but left after 2 semesters, dissatisfied with the curriculum she was required to take that had nothing to do with journalism, but continued to take night courses in writing and English Grammar, logic, and history.

Lynda always had an adventurous spirit. In her youth, inspired by the TV show “Adventures in Paradise” (as was I), she for a time yearned for life in a place like Tahiti, by which she could leave behind the increasing pressures and restrictions upon liberty here.

While living in Tallahassee, Florida she owned a Fiat Spyder she enjoyed driving as fast as the road conditions allowed. Sometime in 1972 she and her husband Gary Kelly sold their barber shop and bought a 30-foot sailboat, and spent the most of 3 years sailing around and across the Gulf of Mexico from Galveston, Texas to Key West, Florida, and Lynda wrote of their adventures for newspapers and a magazine, among which adventurers was successfully riding out a hurricane on the Gulf. In 1980 Lynda, and her husband, and oldest son Michael, took a 7-week motorcycle trip from Key West to Northern Minnesota and back, Lynda on her own Honda Hawk 400. While in Key West she passed a Red Cross scuba course with the highest possible score and became an active reef diver. I had less varied experiences but among these are learning to build fast cars and take curves at the limit of adhesion. Lynda was the only woman I met who was not frightened by my driving style; rather, she thoroughly enjoyed it.

Lynda had great courage and self-determination. While living in Tallahassee in the early 1970's she worked as a barber. At one time a customer whose request fora date she rejected, a federal prison guard, followed her to her apartment adn attempted to rape her; but when Lynda produced her revolver he changed his mind. She defended husband Gary Kelly while they were docked at Galveston, Texas, when a bullying man attacked Gary and pinned him down, choking him. He too changed his mind when Lynda ran to the scene and pointed her revolver at his head.

In the late 1980’s, while married to Karl Block, she defended him when two trespassers on their secluded lakefront property in Orlando began threatening Karl with a stick or bat. All the persuasion they needed was seeing Lynda appear with her shotgun. When a large dog attacked Lynda’s mixed-breed pet dog she wisely armed herself before intervening. The intruder dog did turn to attack her, and Lynda killed it with her shotgun.

In the summer of 1993, while passing through the town of Opa-Locka, Florida on our way to Key West we stopped to read a map, and were surrounded by 6 men who intended to rob us, one of whom opened the door of Lynda’s side. She shoved the door at him while drawing her Glock 9 MM pistol, and I simultaneously drew my Star 9 MM. Our assailants froze, and we left safely. While we were in Opelika, Alabama on October 4, 1993 Lynda came to my defense when an attempted false arrest by a city policeman, who first reached for his gun, turned into a gunfight between him and me.

Lynda loved animals, and had a variety of pets over the years: Cats, among them the Manx breed, dogs, hamsters, a guinea pig, a tarantula, snakes, and birds. While in Key West she served as Secretary, and animal abuse investigator, of the Humane Society. She wrote a series of columns for the local paper about the indigenous wildlife.

She was active in civic work besides her service to the Humane Society: For 2 years she served as president of the Friends of the Library in Key West and served as publicity director for a mayoral candidate. Having seen the ugly side of politics, however, she declined the request to run for a city commission post. A study of the political trend convinced Lynda of its source and its ultimate goal; and she, always keen to help herself and her fellow Americans to retain liberty, joined the John Birch Society to keep informed. Later in Orlando she joined in what became a successful campaign to defeat the “ERA” (“Equal Rights Amendment”) which she realized had more potential for harm than good. She became a Cub Scout leader – first as Tiger Cub-Coordinator, then Den Leader, and then District Tiger Cub-Coordinator. Hoping her participation could help restore the freedoms of Americans Lynda joined the Libertarian Party of Florida in 1991, and was soon elected Secretary of the county chapter and then State Vice-Chair. She used her considerable writing and publishing talent to convert the “Florida Liberty” newsletter to a magazine, and as a reporter exposed embezzlement of the Orange County, Florida jail fund by Orange County Commissioners.

Together we studied the Constitution and laws and discovered the devices used to deceive Americans into surrendering freedom. In March of 1993 Lynda published her first issue of the magazine “Liberatus”, a critique of current events and a vehicle for educating the reader in constitutional legal issues. She has written excellent treatises on the deception inherent in the 14th Amendment, usurpation by the organized Bar, and the devices of bankers. She exposed a high-level pedophile ring. When she learned of an Indian tribe in Connecticut which was about to be raided by all the State police forces – because the members were exercising their rights under treaty – Lynda stayed at the fax machine and telephone for 24 hours rallying support, succeeding in halting the planned assault.

Lynda had her share of marital problems even though she did her best to be a good wife.

If there is one trait which could be said to be a flaw in her character, it is what she described as a “Pollyanna” mindset – optimistic belief in the inherent good of people, which in most cases proved unfounded. Her first husband Bill Vinson, who she married in 1967 in Orlando and with whom she moved to Tallahassee, had a drinking problem she did not recognize until the responsibilities of married life, among them the birth of their son, Michael in 1968, worsened it. Then she met Lonnie Sheffield while attending Tallahassee Barber College, an married him in 1971. He proved to be physically abusive, breaking her nose in the final incident. She divorced him after 5 months, then in 1972 married Gary Kelly, who owned the Colonial Barber Shop in Tallahassee. After 6 months they sold the shop and began their sailing experiences which ended in 1975 in Key West. Their marriage was never ideal, and ended acrimoniously after disagreement with Gary’s business partner, and admission by Gary that he had joined the church to please Lynda, only pretending belief.

In January 1983 Lynda moved back to Orlando where she met Karl Block, a securities dealer who treated her well at first. She married him, only to see him become mentally abusive and adulterous. He treated Michael, then 14, badly enough the he left to live with his father, Bill Vinson. A son, Gordon, was born to Lynda and Karl in the spring of 1984, and Lynda stayed in the marriage for Gordon’s sake until December of 1991. In February of 1991 Lynda had met me when she joined the Libertarian Party, and we became friends, discovering many shared, and complimentary traits. We exchanged marriage vows before God on March 20, 1992, both of us having truly found the right partner and Soulmate. I was the first man in Lynda’s life to truly appreciate her and not feel threatened by her great intelligence and talent, nor by her Germanic logic and (when appropriate) no-nonsense attitude, nor by the Spanish passion she inherited from her father, Frank Lyon. She appreciated me and loved me equally, and we were truly happy together for a brief year and a half before we were cruelly separated by jail and prison. Nevertheless our love, and our appreciation of each other’s unique character, increased during the 8 ½ years of letter-writing.

Lynda had a strong belief in Jesus Christ. She was raised as a Lutheran but at 12 or 13 began to question some of the doctrine and was given no satisfactory answers, so she diligently examined all the other denominations over time. When she began living in Key West in 1975 she joined the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. Joining was no momentary, emotional decision on Lynda’s part. In addition to studying the Gospel principles she, being an avid student of history, was further convinced by books she discovered which concerned events recorded by early American inhabitants. Her husband Gary joined shortly after but was not sincere. During Lynda’s 15-year active membership before she met me she taught Scripture for 4 years and served in the Church in several other capacities. I was raised as a Catholic and, like Lynda, began questioning doctrine at about age 12. Unlike her I did only casually examine a few other denominations and, skeptic that I am, categorized all as similarly flawed and false. Lynda’s logical explanation and patient teaching brought me to believe the Gospel, and she continued to write lessons for me the entire time of her imprisonment.

Lynda was most certainly not an “anti-government extremist” or “hardened militia member” or “murderer”, as the propagandists so shrilly proclaimed during the brief periods in which silence concerning Lynda was broken. Neither did she “stab” former husband Karl Block, who in fact initiated the scuffle in which he sustained a superficial cut, by attacking Lynda. I witnessed his attack and defended Lynda by pulling Karl away from her and restraining him. The term “anti-government extremist” was never defined, nor were any of Lynda’s “extreme political views” described. It was inferred, even suggested, that mere discussion of these views by Lynda in a public forum, would cause “anarchy”. One lie invented by the prosecution is a claim that Lynda denied jurisdiction of the Alabama courts because “Alabama never became a State again after the Civil War”. The reason for this lie is that the organized Bar did not want known her true reasons for denying jurisdiction, but did want to make her look foolish, and wanted to poison the opinion of Alabamians against her.

Neither is Lynda’s name “Lynda Lyon Block", nor has it been so since 1992, when her birth name was legally restored, well before we came to Alabama; but the media constantly lied about her name in order to protect the defective process of the Alabama courts, and to denigrate our marriage. The “extremism” so feared is exposure of the usurpation and conversion of the entire American judiciary by the organized Bar, which is not a government entity but is a commercial alliance of numerous private corporations. Also feared is public exposure of the numerous ways in which Lynda was cheated out of a fair trial and the subsequent cover-up. Among Lynda’s “extreme political views” are that the Constitution and constitutional statutes should be regarded as law in the courts; that resistance to false arrest is lawful; and that defense of self or of another, who is believed to be under unlawful threat of deadly force, by the use of deadly force – even if the assailant is a policeman – is lawful. According to God’s law and Alabama law Lynda committed no murder. Lynda was a patriotic defender of our government design, while being anti-corruption. The true “anti-government extremists” are those who have conspired to bankrupt, convert, and pervert our constitutional Republic, and to plunder the wealth and liberty of Americans.

Lynda Cheryle Lyon was a truly wonderful and unique woman: a very talented writer and historian who had her heart set on writing teaching manuals for children, history books, novels and poetry; a patriotic American dedicated to teaching people how to regain their liberty; a highly-intelligent philosopher; adventurous and playful when with those she trusted; a woman of considerable business and negotiating skills; charitable and kind, a loving and loyal wife and mother, and a passionate lover; a courageous defender of her country, family, liberty and prosperity, and a righteous and sincere follower of Christ. She was my best friend and Soulmate, and truly one of Heavenly Father’s best and brightest children at this time in history, who continued her charitable actions even during a stressful imprisonment. She was murdered by barbarians because she knew too much about their conspiracy to enslave and loot Americans, because she dared to engage in combat – successfully – with one of their enforcers while defending me and her son, and because she refused to apologize for her actions. Lynda conducted herself heroically and with dignity to the very end, and deserves to be remembered as a hero.

George Everette Sibley
August 2002