Odd indeed, brucie, since I did a Google search on "Verl Smith" and got 283 hits. A search on "montana freemen" turned up 3,770 hits, including this bit taken from the Seattle Times, 3/17/99:

[LeRoy] Schweitzer was convicted on 25 counts of conspiracy, bank fraud, threatening a federal judge, illegal possession of firearms and participating in the armed robbery of an ABC-TV crew covering the Freemen.

The judge sentenced Daniel Petersen Jr., probably the No. 2 man in the Freeman hierarchy, to 15 years in prison and ordered him to pay restitution of $39,845.

Rodney Skurdal, 46; and John McGuire, 61, were also sentenced to 15 years. Dale Jacobi, 57, a former Canadian police officer, received 13 years; Richard Clark, 12 years; and William Stanton, three years.

Agnes Stanton, Stanton's wife, and Cherlyn Petersen, Petersen's wife, were sentenced to time served and released.

Are you sure that Verl Smith was among them? The Verl search turned up a bunch of folks, including a science teacher, but I didn't see any connection to the Montana Freemen.