James Roszko was every small town's nightmare.

The 46-year-old long-term resident of the Mayerthorpe, Alta. area was a gun-loving, cop-hating, violent, bullying, manipulative convicted pedophile.

"James Roszko is one of the worst psychopaths it has ever been my misfortune to run across," Bailiff Brenda Storm told CTV News.

Five years ago, she seized cattle from his farm -- wearing body armour while she did so. She says Roszko's hatred for the police was clear.

"... He blamed all of his problems on the RCMP," she said.

An affidavit signed by Storm and recently made public concludes that Roszko was likely to shoot anyone he found on his property.

"Learned that he was quite dangerous," she wrote in her report, "has a long history of assaults, in possession of a number of firearms, would most likely shoot anyone on the property on sight, is known to have booby-trapped land and used a spike belt to discourage vehicles."

Despite the fact that many considered Roszko to be a walking time bomb and he faced a slew of charges in his lifetime, including firearms-related offences and sexual assault, his record is relatively free of criminal convictions.

Roszko was imprisoned for two-and-a-half years after being convicted in April, 2000, for sexually assaulting a young boy between January, 1983, and December, 1989.

The boy was 10 when the assaults began.

According to a report by the Toronto Star and The Canadian Press, the victim told the court that when he reached driving age, Roszko indicated he would help him with an auto insurance claim if the two had oral sex.

While in prison, he refused to take responsibility for his actions and spurned treatment, causing him to serve two-thirds of his sentence rather than gaining parole.

When he applied for parole in December of 2000, nine months into his sentence, the National Parole Board wrote: "You vigorously deny responsibility for the sexual assaults."

After being released, he was thrown back in prison for refusing to accept treatment or co-operate with his parole officer.

Roszko's troubles began at the age of 12 when his mother left the family home, leaving his father Bill to raise eight children alone.

At 14, he was caught with marijuana in his room.

A few years later, in 1976, he faced break and enter, and possession of stolen property charges.

As an adult, he worked in the oil patch as a driller on oil-well rigs. He eventually bought some land and tried raising cattle.

In an interview with the Toronto Star, his sister Josephine Ruel said her brother went through a lot.

"It started very young. We tried to let him know we'd help him. But he couldn't overcome it. A lot of people played a part in that."

In 1993, a confrontation with a local school trustee over a school bus stop being moved led to Roszko being charged with 12 offences. He only went to trial on seven charges and was acquitted.

The Globe and Mail reported that one night in the fall of that same year, Roszko terrorized a young male acquaintance at gunpoint, eventually coercing the man into a sexual encounter. He was forced to perform several sexual acts with him in front of a camera.

A dozen offences connected to these assaults were laid but some were dismissed. The trial eventually collapsed when the alleged victim refused to testify.

"Mike" (a pseudonym) told The Globe that Roszko had threatened to kill his family.

The Canadian Press reported that also in 1993, Roszko tried to convince another man to kill for him.

According to court documents, Roszko offered the man $10,000 to kill a Mayerthorpe man with an automatic assault rifle that may have been the same one used to shoot the Mounties.

He was charged with counselling another person to commit murder but the charge was dropped when the judge ruled that talking about killing someone is not the same thing as plotting to kill someone.

One of the conditions of Roszko's initial release -- after he was arrested on the charge and six other firearms-related charges -- was that he stay away from the RCMP. But according to the Crown prosecutor Craig Krieger, police thought Roszko was following them. He was later acquitted of the six firearms-related charges when the witness didn't appear in court.

Meanwhile in 1993, Roszko spent 45 days in jail for three charges of failing to comply with a probation order, according to a report by the CBC.

In 2001, Roszko was charged with five offences in response to a 1999 incident in which he shot and wounded one man and missed a second. There are differing stories of why they were at his farm -- either for a joy ride or to warn Roszko to stay away from their friend.

Those charges were dismissed in 2003.

His last criminal charge was in August 2004 for mischief against property. Spike belts on his property had ruined the tires on the vehicles of two provincial election enumerators.

There was no mistaking his unfriendliness to visitors. "No trespassing" signs were clearly posted above guard dogs that stood watch over his property near Rochfort Bridge, Alta.

Roszko reportedly used a scanner to monitor police radio traffic wherever he went. Back at home, he set up his property so that he could see all comings and goings.

There were rumours he had weapons hidden all over the property despite the fact that the courts banned him from owning firearms following his 2000 conviction.

Josephine tried to find some good in her brother. She recalls him bringing her food when she was experiencing tough times.

Others have said Roszko could pull on a mask of normality when required.

But his capacity for violence, paranoia and hatred of authority made the events of March 2 and 3 seem inevitable.

With a report from CTV's Lisa LaFlamme