Here is my homage to the Killdozer and the man that made it a reality, Mr. Marvin John Heemeyer.
Marvin John Heemeyer was an American welder and an automobile muffler repair shop owner who went on a rampage with a modified bulldozer. Outraged over zoning disputes, he armored a Komatsu D355A bulldozer with layers of steel and concrete and used it on June 4, 2004 to demolish the town hall, the former mayor's house, and other buildings in Granby, Colorado. The rampage ended when the bulldozer became stuck in the basement of a Gambles store he was in the process of destroying. -Wikipedia
What is this post all about?
The only crimes here are the cruel things people did that forced a hard-working American entrepreneur to take vengeance on those who wronged him in the most American way possible. -Forum Something Awful
The story of a dark hero.
This man was an AMERICAN, who handled things as only a real red-blooded American man would. He tried every non-violent means at his disposal.
Yes. He tried every non-violent means at his disposal, then when they all failed, he planned his revenge. Then he worked the plan. He did not bend over, lie down, and accept being cheated, abused and then laughed at.
As such, he is a “dark” hero.
The best part of any article about Killdozer is every time they mention something that couldn't stop it... - hundreds of rounds of ammunition. - 3 explosions. - a flash bang grenade in the exhaust. - shooting the cameras. -the undersheriff personally hopping on top of it like luke skywalker to look for weak points. - the owner of the concrete plant climbing into his own heavy engineering vehicle to do battle. -Forum Something Awful
While I do admire his creativity, his planning, and the idea of obtaining revenge on people who earnestly believe they are “untouchable”, I totally disagree on how he went about it.
My opinion, as a "backseat driver", and looking in hindsight, perhaps... Perhaps he should of tired harder, if at all possible, to negotiate for a better conclusion to his situation. Perhaps he could of tried to become friends instead of enemies with the people in power. Perhaps he should have looked at the entire situation from a "glass half full" point of view instead of throwing the glass off the table and shattering it.
We will never fully understand his motivations. What we do know is that the hatred and anger persisted like a smoldering ember for one and a half years after he was fucked over.
He tried to document his efforts. Perhaps to provide clarity for second-guessers like myself. Or, maybe just to inspire others to go “Death Wish” a.k.a. Charles Bronson style when they too are fucked over.
When his back was up against a wall, he used brute force, not realizing that time is your friend and secretive planning is how you exert revenge. Not by immediate and direct brute force. He was way too emotionally connected. He needed to calm down and look at the positives.
He fucked up.
Spectacularly.
Or did he? If all he wanted to do was get revenge on those that hurt him, there were other things he could have done. He could have poisoned them, one by one. Kidnapped family members. Tortured, haunted them like some kind of evil horror movie. He could have invited one out to a public restaurant (Godfather style) and shot him dead in such a public place. No. He didn't want to hurt the people that wronged him. He wanted to do more than that. He wanted to make a point. He wanted to be an exclamation point that everyone can look to in a mixture of awe and disgust. He wanted to send a message.
And, he did that. Didn’t he?
Killdozer Meme
The story of the Killdozer.
We’ve all been there.
A powerful, entrenched, local government starts using their power for their very own personal advantage. You, as the little guy, can either “play ball”, or get run over.
They’ve done it before, and got away with it. Others were hurt, and slithered away harmlessly to lick their wounds. Meanwhile the hurters, the ones getting away with all this, get more embolden, more brazen, and more outrageous.
They become powerful.
They know they are protected and insulated from justice. They own the police. They own the judges. They own the investigators. They have friends in government. They are pals with other local leaders. They are protected and immune.
So they exert their power and influence. They push others around and they get away with it. Their pushes become shoves. Their actions become brazen, overt and outrageous. People watch from the sidelines, but do nothing.
Eventually…
That “little guy” that they are so used to pushing around, isn’t really so little. You don’t fuck with the wrong guy.
This is the story of Marvin Heemeyer of Granby, Colorado. And, it is not a happy one.
The guy was a profoundly frustrated muffler repair man. In the late 1990s—after years of protests, petitions, and town meetings—it became obvious to the 52-year-old that he was entwined in a gross miscarriage of justice.
And there was nothing he could do about it.
Nothing.
Officially, and on the surface, it seems like he was “shafted”.
His business was ruined by some shady zoning changes, as well as a total lack of cooperation with local government and authorities. He was being forced to leave and was driven away out of the community.
Yeah. That’s what all the articles say.
But truthfully, you and I both know this, a big powerful family fucked him over. They bought and owned the government. They used their power to hurt Heemayer, destroy his livelihood, eviscerate his income, tarnish his reputation and drive him out of the town.
Heemeyer contended, over and over, to anyone who would listen, that both the mayor and the entire city council were corrupt.
Never definitively proven, though. The proof of the corruption remains elusive.
Even as he was forced to give up his legal fight and sell his land, he hatched one last plan. He became Macgyver.
He secretly retooled his muffler shop to serve a singular purpose. To create a weapon of revenge. One so clear and so unique that it would serve as a message to all the other wealthy powerful people in the world…
You will one day meet someone… who, you don’t know… who will not roll over, bend over and be fucked.
He was a man who built up a small business by working hard.
His story is that of a typical man from “fly-over country”.
Heemeyer first became enamored with the state of Colorado when he was stationed there in the Air Force. After his service ended, he moved to Grand Lake, Colorado and opened a small chain of muffler shops in the surrounding cities. He prospered. Who’d ever figure that there would be such a need for muffler repair and installation?
But there was.
After a while he began to lease some of the shops out to other operators, but kept one, Mountain View Muffler in Granby, to operate himself. And for some time, he did well for himself.
He got involved in local politics, and perhaps that’s where all his troubles began.
Heemeyer became involved with politics almost immediately upon establishing his home in Colorado.
Politics are dangerous. I once discussed this issue with a person who moved from New Jersey to Alabama. They tried to get "plugged into" the local Democrat political scene in Alabama, and they were most brutally shut out from it. Local politics can be severe, and ruthless if you are an outsider.
He was generally well-liked among his friends and neighbors, being described as an “enjoyable person,” and as someone who would “bend over backwards for anyone”. There were some, however, who were more familiar with his volatile temperament. They said that he was nice, but DO NOT PISS HIM OFF.
He was a strong proponent of legalizing gambling, and he published at least two newsletters to disseminate his views. I guess that he felt about legalized gambling like I feel about wine and pretty girls. You can’t live without them.
But he had a real passion for this particular issue. It’s a strong democrat issue, and for what ever reason… one that I cannot relate to… it was very important to him.
When a reporter for a local paper interviewed Heemeyer for an editorial opposed to gambling, he reported that Heemeyer was so enraged by the opposition that the interview nearly came to blows. He was that passionate about his beliefs.
In one particularly extreme instance, Heemeyer threatened to kill a customer’s husband when she refused to pay for a faulty muffler repair. It’s a bit extreme, but then again…all this is HEARSAY. Who knows what is true and what isn’t.
“If Marv was your friend, he was your best friend,” said one of Heemeyer’s close associates, “but if he decided that he was your enemy, then he was your worst and most dangerous enemy.”
Land Disputes
In the late 1990s the Docheff family approached Heemeyer to buy his one remaining muffler shop in order to build a concrete batch plant on the land.
It was a matter of public record that Heemeyer had bought the land for $42,000. Docheff reported that they agreed to buy the land for $250,000, but the deal fell apart when Heemeyer raised the price to $375,000. These kinds of negotiations are fairly common. The buyer offers a low bid, the seller counters, and they haggle for a spell.
Apparently, for one reason or the other, the negotiations fell though.
Rather than continue negotiations, the Docheff’s decided that they could not wait indefinitely on purchasing the land.
Thus, the Docheffs went to the Granby City Council and arranged the re-zoning of the land surrounding Heemeyer’s muffler shop instead. However, they managed to do more than just simply re-zone the land…
That way, they reasoned, they could relocate their cement plant near their target location, without having to deal with Heemeyer.
You know, a little like this…
Re-zoning the property and more…
Up until this point, it’s all pretty straight forward.
The Docheff’s want to place a cement plant where Heemeyer has his muffler shop. However, the negotiations stall, and so they decide to rezone the land next to the muffler shop as a fall back position.
But something went wrong. No one knows what happened, but there was some “bad blood” spilled, and those who had the power to re-zone the land were prejudicial to Heemeyer. We do not know why.
No one knows why.
Perhaps it was because Heemeyer was involved in the re-zoning process from the outset, attending town meetings to ensure that his interests were protected. Maybe it was his personality. Maybe it was due to bribes, or the “good ol’ boy” network. We do not know.
Nevertheless, in 2001 the town zoning commission and trustees approved the rezoning request.
- This was a disaster for the Muffler shop. As the approved plan for the concrete plant cut off the only route to his muffler shop.
- The city also fined Heemeyer $2,500 for “junk cars” on his property.
- They also fined him for failing to have his shop hooked up to the sewer line.
Heemeyer fights back
Hindered but not yet defeated, Heemeyer set out to remedy the situation using community action, legal maneuvering, and elbow grease.
He appealed the zoning commission’s decision, and gathered signatures from the townsfolk to petition against the plant.
- He attempted to obtain permission to install a sewer line under eight feet of land owned by Mountain Park Concrete, but the new owners refused.
- He even went so far as to buy a bulldozer to build a new road that would allow customer access to his muffler shop, but the city council refused his plan.
Thus, in conclusion, the re-zoning board [1] made it impossible for a long-term business (the muffler shop) to continue doing business, and [2] expressed favoritism to a very powerful local family; the Docheff family. As well as [3] being prejudicial in every way to the existing business.
Many people suspected there were some shady dealings between the concrete plant and the members of the city council, but no actual evidence of such illegal goings-on has ever been found.
He Loses, sells out, and that’s that…
Having no recourse, Heemeyer sent the city a $2,500 check to cover the fines, with the word “cowards” written ominously on the memo line.
He then sold the muffler shop property to a trash company, and was given six months to vacate.
Flush with money…
Now, if this was me, I’d take a spin with the money. I’d go out and have fun. I’d chill out. Play with pretty girls. I’d drink wine, eat delicious steaks, and watch many a sunset on long sandy beaches.
But, then again, I’m a different person.
A plan of revenge.
Heemeyer set to work on his new project almost immediately.
Thirty years ago, the television character Angus MacGyver captured the essence of America’s self-image as a nation of self-reliant defenders of good with a knack for solving an unsolvable problem, using nothing more than a Swiss Army knife and whatever could be found on hand—a paperclip, duct tape and some chewing gum. The name MacGyver even became a verb, meaning to "jumpstart a car with a cactus," or rather, to solve the problem with grit and good old American ingenuity (and a serious understanding of engineering and physical sciences). Inspiring a generation of tinkerers and professional engineers alike, MacGyver did for engineering what CSI has done for forensic sciences. -Inspiring Invention the Macgyver Way
The Komatsu D335A bulldozer that was meant to save his business was instead moved into the muffler shop, and Heemeyer began to make some modifications to it.
- He started by adding home-made composite armor—cement sandwiched between thick sheets of steel—to protect the cab, engine, and parts of the tracks.
- He covered the outside with slippery grease so that people could not climb on easily.
- He installed front and rear cameras to feed images to monitors in the cab. He then placed thick PVD bullet-proof plastic over the cameras.
- There were no windows at all. There were no access ports. It was a totally sealed box.
- He created several gun ports that were set around the control center, and had an array of weaponry.
- A stockpile of food and water was stored inside.
- He went as far as to build in an air tank to help provide air circulation.
Documentation and narrative.
He planned. He ordered components, and he built his revenge. It took him one and a half-years to make. Think about that. Throughout the one-and-a-half years of construction, Heemeyer documented his progress though notes and audio tapes.
“Because of your anger, because of your malice, because of your hate, you would not work with me,” he stated in his tape recordings.
“I am going to sacrifice my life, my miserable future that you gave me, to show you that what you did is wrong.”
He was totally caught up.
Killdozer is a misnomer since he didn’t kill anybody, but Justicedozer doesn’t have the same ring to it. -Dad's Friend Steve
He received several visitors at his shop while working on his armored vehicle of vengeance, and none of them seemed alarmed at the weaponized armor shell atop his earth-mover.
In his notes Heemeyer credited a higher power with “clouding their vision.” On one occasion he wrote, “I was always willing to be reasonable until I had to be unreasonable. Sometimes reasonable men must do unreasonable things.”
“I was always willing to be reasonable until I had to be unreasonable. Sometimes reasonable men must do unreasonable things.”
A tough year.
2004 was a tough year for Heemeyer.
- His father passed away in March.
- He discovered that his fiancee was involved with another man., so he left her.
- He lost his business, and was forced to sell it.
- The community leaders literally kicked him out of town.
- And they fined him as he was leaving.
Friday 4JUN04 – A day of Rampage.
The morning of Friday, the 4th of June was gray and drizzly. I’m sure that he got up, had a decent meal, and took care of his affairs according to plan. He pretty much figured that it would be his last meal.
He knew what to do.
“I was always willing to be reasonable until I had to be unreasonable. Sometimes reasonable men must do unreasonable things.”
Heemeyer mailed his audio tapes to his brother, went to his shop, and climbed into his bulldozer with a handwritten list of targets. Of course, he made check of everything, made sure that everything was in place and secure. Then checked everything again.
He used the winch controls to lower the concrete and steel shell onto the top of his vehicle. (Nothing short of a crane would be able to lift the thirty-ton armor shell off the vehicle once it was in place. ) With that fateful metal clap, Heemeyer was sealed in a concrete and steel box that he could never escape.
At just after 3:00 PM, the makeshift tank tore through the side of his shed, and smashed into the Mountain Park Concrete plant. The very plant that ruined his business, and kicked him out of town.
Shortly thereafter, the phones at the 911 response center began ringing incessantly.
The tankdozer was out on the loose.
A man named Cody Docheff witnessed the destruction-in-progress. He ran to a front-end loader in an attempt to intercept the rampaging bulldozer. He stated that he withdrew when he was fired upon from the gun ports of this “Killdozer.”
Yeah. That’s right. Cody Docheff.
Cody Docheff of the powerful Docheff family that managed to rezone the land, managed to have Heemeyer evicted, and managed to have him fined on the way out the door.
The tankdozer ambled on.
Within minutes two buildings and multiple vehicles were eviscerated, and the Killdozer rumbled towards the highway into town.
The slow-moving bulldozer picked up a parade of emergency vehicle escorts as it approached the city limits. Police cruisers with sirens blazing tried to stop the tankdozer. But to no avail.
The tankdozer kept up chugging along.
Reminds you of the O.J.Simpson SUV escape, eh?
Chugga chugga…
One police SUV was crushed when it strayed too near.
I guess the sheriff never watched Godzilla movies as a kid. You don't mess around with big, slow moving, heavy articulated monsters.
The tankdozer was invincible.
Undersheriff Glen Trainor managed to climb atop the moving bulldozer, and used 37 rounds from his service pistol to try and shoot his way in. “I think the thing that drove me,” he later reported, “is that I knew that killing him behind the wheel was the only way we were going to be able to stop this thing.”
The tankdozer kept on moving forward. Nothing could stop it.
When Heemeyer and his Killdozer arrived in town, the Granby police were waiting for him. But it made no difference.
The tankdozer kept on plowing forward. Chugga chugga.
Against the armored behemoth, however, the lawmen were powerless. When it became clear that the armor was impervious to bullets the police tried explosives, but they too were without effect.
Chugga chugga.
Lawmen kept to the sides and tried to vacate anyone from the Killdozer’s path, and the local police utilized the reverse 911 system to call residents and warn them of the approaching danger.
The tankdozer kept up the pace. And followed his plan.
News helicopters filmed the unfolding violence from above.
The over-encumbered vehicle was obviously difficult to control, and swerved widely through the streets, but Heemeyer was still able to seek out and and hit his specific building targets.
Of course.
He was a man on a mission.
The bulldozer effortlessly demolished cars and buildings, including the home of a former mayor, the office of a newspaper that had sided against him in an editorial, the businesses of a former city councilman, and the city hall.
Hey! You want to play games? Well try this on…
Chugga chugga chugga…
Tankdozer on the prowl.
Despite all the destruction of property, no people had been injured or killed. That was not his intention.
His intention was to completely level the town to the ground.
Chugga chugga chugga.
The Granby Police requisitioned an industrial scraper to pit heavy equipment against heavy equipment, but the Killdozer merely shoved the lighter adversary aside. The Killdozer was invincible.
They shot at it.
They tried to stop it with explosives.
They tried to disable it with flashbangs…
It kept on moving. Invincible.
Chugga chugga chugga.
In about an hour of mayhem, the bulldozer had demolished thirteen structures and was en route to its next target: Gamble’s Hardware.
Chugga chugga.
The rampage starts to wind down.
The damage from small arms and the extra weight of the armor were taking a toll on the vehicle, however.
It was still following the mission parameters.
Chugga chugga.
The radiator had sprung a leak, and the Killdozer was losing horsepower. As the fatigued machine crashed through the wall of the hardware store the floor beneath the beast broke, and the front end of the bulldozer fell into a shallow basement. The engine struggled, but it could not power itself out of the pit.
As SWAT teams surrounded the wounded Killdozer, one of the members reported hearing a single, muffled gunshot from within the cab.
The vehicle didn’t move again, ending a rampage that had lasted 2 hours 7 minutes, and caused about $7 million in damage.
1.5 years prep for 2 hours and seven minutes of carnage.
Autopsy
Explosives were employed to try to open the tank, but in the end it took twelve hours with an oxyacetylene torch and a crane to crack the armored top. Like German tank destroyers from World War II, the top of the tank was sealed by crane.
Inside Heemeyer was found dead, having shot himself with a .357 handgun. He was the lone casualty of the destruction spree.
Once the Killdozer’s cab was opened and Heemeyer was removed, the police inventoried his numerous guns, and found his list of targets; in addition to buildings and businesses, the list included names.
Funny how the names on the list were never released. Perhaps the town wanted to protect the people on that list. Duh? You know like how the identity of the black-hooded Antifa thugs must be protected. Like how the police in Chicago protected Jussie Smollett and his fake accusations against Trump supporters.
In order to prevent rampage admirers from collecting Killdozer memorabilia, the dozer was dismantled, and its parts were scattered among many separate scrapyards.
You know, following the same modus oprandi that was used by Janet Reno and Bill Clinton during the Branch Dividian assault.
Anyone who has tried and failed to influence an uncaring government cannot help but feel a twinge of admiration for the extreme measures taken by Marvin Heemeyer. If you don’t then obviously you haven’t lived through an IRS audit, and FDA investigation, a FCC summons, or a DUI check-point shake-down.
It’s life in America today, unless you are a member of the protected urban elite.
Never Forget the story of the Killdozer.
Why so important?
Of course that was all over 15 years ago. It involves a place where I have never been, and people that I have never met. Why is it so important to me?
It’s because he wasn’t trying to exert revenge on the people that fucked him over. It looks like it, but no… no, that is not what happened.
Instead, he wanted to make a point for the entire world to see. He wanted to completely level the town to the ground and bulldoze it under the mighty tracks of his tank-killdozer.
That’s why.
He wanted to send a warning out to all those small fiefdoms, kingdoms, and moguls that dot the United States, that people are getting really fed up with youse guys. And you’d best tone it down or you WILL be hurt.
Life moves on.
It’s easy for us to strike back at material things, instead of the people who originated the problems in the first place. Easy.
And STUPID.
We strike at the property, their things, and the wealth and value they represent. But this is wrong. If anything is truly visceral, then it is on a personal level. You do not strike against things. You strike against the people behind the entire mess.
You attack the man behind the curtain. Not the curtain itself.
And the people who instigated this entire sordid affair are living their lives as if nothing had happened. The sun shines. The flowers grow. They have McDonald’s hamburgers with their children. They did not learn the horrible consequences of their behaviors.
The Docheff family is as powerful as ever.
If you kick a dog, he will lunge at your throat. If you hurt a cat, they will attack your face and claw out your eyes. They are primitives and operate on the visceral level. They are not civilized and fight “fair” like normal progressive beta-male humans do. You know, the ones that wear vagina hats, have spiked green hair, and wear masks to cover their identities.
No. Instead, wild animals fight like us “normals” do.
We pick targets. We plan, and we work the plan. With lethal accuracy.
- If we wanted to kill someone, we would do it.
- If we wanted to hurt someone we would do it.
- If we wanted to destroy something, we would do it.
But, if we wanted to send a message… then oh, boy would it be spectacular.
Pissing off the wrong person.
Kitchner posted: Killdozer is the reason that if I were to ever become supreme dictator, I would round up all the quiet and unassuming guys with no friends who spend a lot of their time building stuff and doing other hobbies in their sheds/garages and march them into prison camps. Spies, Assassins, and revolutionaries can all be dealt with. They are known quantities you can plan for. Piss off the wrong dude who quietly works on stuff in his garage though and he dedicates all his time to Macgyver-ing himself some insane but efficient contraption that no one sees coming. They are the true threat.
There are many, many people in America today that have gotten far too powerful and their behavior reflects that fact. They cannot help themselves, and it’s getting progressively worse every day. People! Never forget the Killdozer.
That’s who youse guys are dealing with. Not some beta-male antifa BLM SJW types. We are different. We solve problems.
Killdozer Meme
Please feel free to use this most excellent Killdozer meme…
Great Links
Here are some great links, for further reading if you don’t like my take on this story.
- When Your Town Is Attacked By A ‘Killdozer’ (Anti-gun nonsense)
- The Wrath of the Killdozer by Jason Bellows
- The Story Of Marvin Heemeyer’s Revenge And His Killdozer
- A great detailed study of the construction and design of the Killdozer.
- Killdozer on the Discovery Channel
- Helicopter news footage
- Montage of news footage, photos, and Heemeyer’s tapes
- Photos of the interior of the Killdozer
- Photos of the destruction
- Wikipedia: Marvin Heemeyer
- Man Goes On A Rampage In A Homemade Tank
- Killdozer Tribute Video
- Great podcasts all about the killdozer
- Artist’s depiction of what Killdozer Construction might look like.
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Here are some other similar posts on this venue. If you enjoyed this post, you might like these posts as well. These posts tend to discuss growing up in America. Often, I like to compare my life in America with the society within communist China. As there are some really stark differences between the two.
Posts about the Changes in America
America is going through a period of change. Change is good… that is, after it occurs. Often however, there are large periods of discomfort as the period of adjustment takes place. Here are some posts that discuss this issue.
More Posts about Life
I have broken apart some other posts. They can best be classified about ones actions as they contribute to happiness and life. They are a little different, in subtle ways.
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