Diksha Sundriyal
Justin Kurzel’s ‘The Order’ follows the story of an FBI agent, Terry Husk, on the trail of a white supremacist, Bob Mathews, whose power and influence are on the rise. While the primary focus is on Terry and the FBI’s investigation, we also get to see Bob’s life away from his group and the crimes they commit. We discover that he is a family man with a wife and son, who are aware of his ideology but might be in the dark about the source of his income. The tension at home seeps into other aspects of Bob’s life, leading him to make some questionable choices. While the film is largely based on real events, it does spruce up some things with fiction. His wife and son don’t fall into that category. SPOILERS AHEAD.
The Part About Bob’s Family Life in the Film Comes Very Close to Reality
A lot of what we see in ‘The Order’ is picked up from Kevin Flynn and Gary Gerhardt’s non-fiction book, ‘The Silent Brotherhood.’ The authors extensively researched the people close to Bob Mathews as well as the then-surviving members of his group to get a proper roadmap to his story. His wife, Debbie McGarity Mathews, was also one of the people who indulged them in a conversation, revealing some very intimate things about the life she shared with her husband. She even showed them around the place where they lived and the land that Mathews owned where he ran the day-to-day of the group.
Debbie grew up in Kansas and briefly lived in Jackson, Wyoming, where she moved after college. There, she worked as a clerk in a gift shop in Grand Teton National Park. She liked the job because of her love for nature and even considered becoming a park ranger. It was around this time that she came across a curious ad in Mother Earth News. It was from Bob Mathews and said: “Looking for a mature, intelligent woman,18-25 to share my wife and land in Washington.” Debbie replied to the ad as a dare from her roommate and was surprised when, out of 130 women who responded to the ad, she was the one Bob chose to be with.
They got married in February 1976, and while things were good, considering everything, the couple had to work hard to make ends meet. To support the family, Debbie worked at a hospital for a while and ran an apartment complex on the side. Meanwhile, Bob also worked several jobs and kept busy. While their marriage didn’t lack love, they failed to have children. In the first few years of their marriage, Debbie had several miscarriages. Eventually, she was told that she couldn’t carry a child to term, which left them with only one option. They decided to go for adoption and eventually brought home a boy whom they named Clinton.
Debbie Defended Bob’s Innocence in the Aftermath of His Death
According to Flynn and Gerhardt’s book, it seems that Debbie was aware of what Bob was doing when he established the Order. When he started bringing home bags full of cash, Debbie had an inkling that it had to do with the robberies that were being reported around town. However, Bob kept her out of the Order’s business, so she didn’t have to think about it too much. In the film, it is shown that Debbie gives away Bob’s location to the FBI in the end, leading to the standoff, the fire, and Bob’s death. In real life, things were different. Reportedly, it was an anonymous call that tipped off the Feds. Moreover, when the time came, Debbie claimed her husband was innocent.
Reportedly, Debbie blamed the FBI for murdering her husband because he was “brave enough to stand up and fight for God, truth, and their race.” She claimed that she wasn’t allowed to talk to Bob during the standoff that stretched for more than 35 hours. She also claimed that all her husband did that day was defend himself, and the authorities killed him for that. About the charges levied on him and other members of his group for the robberies, she said that her husband was being conveniently accused because “a dead man cannot stand up and defend himself.” She also claimed that the informant who had testified about the robberies and implicated Bob was a paid informant, and the accusations against Bob were nothing but lies.
Following this, little to nothing was heard from Debbie. The trial ended against her husband, and the Order was dissolved. Since then, she has been living a private life. She has rarely, if ever, talked to news and media outlets about her husband. The only people she allowed into her house and told her story to were Kevin Flynn and Gary Gerhardt, who bring a well-rounded perspective to her story. Apart from this, Debbie has chosen not to speak and, understandably, receded into the shadows.
Read More: The Order: Is Terry Husk Based on a Real FBI Agent?
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