๐๐๏ธ EPISODE 13 โ "THE LAST GREAT AMERICAN MUFFLER SHOP" โ The True Story of Marvin Heemeyer, the Killdozer, and the Town of Granby, Colorado ๐๏ธ๐
๐ช 1992. A man named Marvin Heemeyer buys two acres in a small Colorado mountain town for $42,000 and opens a muffler shop. He is, by every account, the best welder in the area. For a few years, things are good. ๐ง
Then a concrete plant goes up next door. The access road is cut off. The dust blows in. The city fines him $2,500 for not connecting to a sewer line he can only reach by crossing land owned by the family that operates the concrete plant โ the same family he is actively suing. He pays the fine. He writes one word in the memo line of the check.
That word is: COWARDS. ๐จ
โ๏ธ For the next 18 months, alone, in a rented shed, Marvin Heemeyer builds something extraordinary. A Komatsu D355A bulldozer covered in two layers of half-inch tool steel with a foot of 5,000-PSI concrete poured between them. Bulletproof Lexan over the cameras. Three gun ports. A Barrett .50 caliber anti-materiel rifle. Air conditioning. Food and water. And no door โ he seals himself inside with a remote-controlled crane lowering the final armor plate into place. There is no way out. โก
๐๏ธ June 4, 2004. 3:00 PM. The engine turns over. The Killdozer drives through 13 buildings in 2 hours and 7 minutes. The town hall, the bank, the newspaper office, the former mayor's home, the propane tanks, the homes of people who served on the zoning board. Police fire 200 rounds. They use grenades. The governor of Colorado considers calling in an Apache attack helicopter. NOTHING WORKS. The armor holds. The bullets bounce off. โฐ๏ธ
The only person who died was Marvin Heemeyer.
Tonight: ๐
๐ง The dispute that lit the fuse โ the negotiations, the zoning, the sewer
๐ฐ The Docheff family's account โ what the folk hero version leaves out
๐๏ธ The seven tapes Heemeyer mailed to his brother before he climbed in
๐ 18 months building a war machine in a small town where nobody noticed
๐๏ธ The rampage โ chronologically, methodically, with the planning that made law enforcement's skin crawl
๐บ How Ronald Reagan's death the next day washed the story off the front page
๐ฅ The town's decision to cut the Killdozer into pieces and scatter them
โ๏ธ The folk hero question that the internet has been fighting about for 20 years
โ๏ธ This is not a story about a hero. It is also not a story about a monster. It is the story of a real grievance that grew past every boundary โ and a man who was right about some things and catastrophically wrong about what to do about them.
โ ๏ธ A note on care: this episode discusses mental health crisis, paranoia, and suicide. If you or someone you know is struggling, please reach out to the 988 Suicide and Crisis Lifeline by calling or texting 988. You are not alone. โค๏ธ
I'm Elizabeth Stanton. Thanks for killing time with me. โ
๐ง [email protected]
๐ Recorded in Derby, Kansas
๐๏ธ Listen everywhere podcasts are found