Marvin Heemeyer: Poop Goblin and Libertarian Folk Hero

[Jericho941]

Everyone knows the story of Killdozer Guy, even if they don't remember his name, exactly. Marvin Heemeyer became famous around the world when he went on a rampage of bloodless revenge in a bulldozer he'd modified to be a tank. The story went viral, and is still retold on social media as the story of one normal man who was pushed too far by city government and big business. The story of the small business owner who lost everything and was forced to take matters into his own hands.

But the real story of Marvin Heemeyer is much less the story of a reasonable man pushed to do unreasonable things, so much as an unreasonable man being unreasonably accommodated by his local community until they could no longer indulge his endless sense of entitlement. It's the story of a mentally ill man who decided God had chosen him for a mission, because a Catholic priest opposed his push to legalize gambling.

It's the story of a rich asshole who spent over a decade pooping in a cement mixer.

See, that's what the original dispute was between Heemeyer and the city of Granby, Colorado: His muffler shop was not connected to a septic tank, or any proper sewerage system. His toilet flowed directly into the concrete truck barrel he'd buried on the back of his property. The city spent years trying to work with him, to get him to use a compliant septic tank, rather than fine him for his disgusting environmental hazard. Heemeyer asked the city to add his property to the sewer district, which they did. However, to connect to the sewer district's line, he'd have to run about 100 feet of line on his own property and add a lift station. Heemeyer wasn't interested in paying for all of that, since the $70k he'd have to spend on it was more than he paid for the whole property originally. A much cheaper septic tank solution was suggested, but Heemeyer wasn't interested, so he asked for more time for a legal solution, which the city granted. Right up until the cement mixer was completely filled with poop water and began overflowing. (There was some small town politics at work here, too, because Heemeyer thought that the standard practices of the sewer district were a conspiracy between them and those goddamn Catholics who ran a local excavation company).

Still completely uninterested in paying for a real sewage system of any kind, Heemeyer simply pumped his raw sewage into the irrigation ditch flowing at the edge of his property, to the consternation of neighbors. The city finally began getting serious about fining Heemeyer for being a poop goblin. So that was his dispute with the city. And his neighbors, because at one point after getting caught, he attempted to dig a sewer line on his neighbor's property without permission, to attempt to connect to his sewer line.

The cement company that was supposedly cutting off his property thanks to sweetheart zoning deals with the city never did any such thing. At no point was the road to Heemeyer's shop cut off. The cement plant was expanding, and went to see about buying Heemeyer's lot, which Heemeyer had originally purchased for $42,000. Heemeyer wanted $250,000, which the cement company agreed to. Heemeyer changed his mind and demanded $375,000. After two months, the cement company offered $350,000, to which Heemeyer now countered with $400,000. This was an absolutely insane amount of money for a small back lot on a dirt road with a muffler shop in small town Colorado.

The cement company began looking for alternatives and decided to buy land in the other direction, asking the city to rezone an abandoned housing development. Heemeyer tried to buy that land out from under them, but failed. He proposed a land swap with the cement company, which was agreed to, even after Heemeyer then demanded they build him a big new facility on this piece of land in a better location. Then he got to work on a NIMBY campaign decrying the "illegal rezoning" of the land the company had bought and how the "dust and noise" of the cement plant would ruin the business of his... muffler shop.

There was a lot of back and forth on this with Heemeyer doing everything to sabotage the plant, until it became clear public knowledge that he was doing all of this because he wanted half a million dollars for his back lot. This is when Heemeyer decided he'd been "screwed over by a corrupt and dishonest town."

So, Heemeyer's feeling pretty sorry for himself, and everyone's angry at him for shitting in an irrigation ditch that waters lawns and a ranch downstream. The cement company offered that if Heemeyer dropped his suit, they would get an easement and connect a sewer line to his property for free. They'd build it for him. Marvin just hung up on him and subsequently lost his ridiculous lawsuit.

Again, at no point has Heemeyer's business been cut off or even really interfered with. He's just been dumping raw sewage on the town and trying to screw with someone else's local business. And at this point, he feels ordained by God to punish the wicked. That's when he buys his bulldozer and sets about converting it into the Killdozer. He also sold his shop and equipment for $400,000, leasing his shop from the new owners to build his tank.

The popular myth is that Heemeyer didn't want to physically hurt anyone when he exacted his revenge, and that he did this out of desperation. If that's the case, than he probably wouldn't have had the money to buy a bulldozer, convert it to a heavily armored tank with gun ports each with a weapon mounted: A Mini-14, an FN FAL, and a Barrett M82.

That he failed to kill anyone is mostly due the "reverse 911" call alerting the citizens of Granby that an unstoppable Killdozer was on their way. Heemeyer fired his weapons at several targets: anyone who tried to stop him, and targets of opportunity like transformers and propane tanks.

Finally, there's an enduring myth that this was a kamikaze mission and Heemeyer welded himself permanently inside the Killdozer, knowing it was to be his tomb. He actually had a functioning hatch when he killed himself; it was so covered with debris that investigators found it after they cut their way inside.

The damage he did to the city of Granby in 2004 is estimated at $7 million. Added costs of recovery for the small town are estimated to continue all the way into 2025.

But, thanks to the Internet, Heemeyer posthumously attained libertarian sainthood. A folk hero of Yankee ingenuity in the face of corrupt government. The Killdozer is still celebrated in libertarian iconography.

Not bad for a sociopathic poop goblin.

[HTRN]

There's a documentary/movie coming out on Netflix next week on him, called "Tread"

[Netpackrat]

I guess if nobody else is going to do it, I'll take the bait. Color me unconvinced by much of anything that comes out of local officials' mouths, even before they find themselves under a lot of pressure to explain actions which they never thought would garner national attention. Particularly when the other side in the dispute is conveniently unavailable for comment. I would be shocked if Heemeyer's supposed bad actions leading up to the final events were the origins of the disputes, rather than being responses to a system that was already in the process of screwing him.

It's not like I haven't seen it before. My dad had a friend and former employee who had left (on good terms) to start his own business, which failed due in no small part to malfeasance by the local powers that be. Most people, if they remember Bill at all, they only know what they saw in the headlines about how he held a local magistrate hostage for several hours because by god he was going to finally get his day in court one way or another. Of course none of the stories really bothered digging into what led up to it, or the total lack of accountability for anybody but Bill (who was sentenced to 18 years). Perhaps if he hadn't been driven to the drugs and alcohol under the pressure of a failing business and no success in his previous attempts at seeking recourse through the court system, his last extreme action would not have seemed like such a good idea to him.

[HTRN]

I've just started watching tread, and if there's an ounce of truth in it, the good ol boy network in Granby fucked Marvin bad since the day he bought his shop at auction out from under the concrete plant owner...

[Jericho941]

I guess if nobody else is going to do it, I'll take the bait. Color me unconvinced by much of anything that comes out of local officials' mouths, even before they find themselves under a lot of pressure to explain actions which they never thought would garner national attention. Particularly when the other side in the dispute is conveniently unavailable for comment. I would be shocked if Heemeyer's supposed bad actions leading up to the final events were the origins of the disputes, rather than being responses to a system that was already in the process of screwing him.

The problem is that the math just doesn't bear out Heemeyer's side of the story.

That people do get screwed over by cities is probably a major contributing factor as to why the glorious-but-false narrative caught on like it did.

I've just started watching tread, and if there's an ounce of truth in it, the good ol boy network in Granby fucked Marvin bad since the day he bought his shop at auction out from under the concrete plant owner...

Heh, and then you saw the stuff that came after they were done interviewing his snowmobiling buddies...