Marvin Heemeyer
Marvin John Heemeyer (October 28, 1951 – June 4, 2004) was a skilled welder and owner of an automobile muffler-shop. On June 4, 2004, he destroyed a significant portion of Granby, Colorado, a small town in the United States, using an armored bulldozer he constructed himself.
Millions of Americans now view his actions as an extraordinary act of heroism that embodied the time-honored American traditions of bravery, honor, and courage.
Heemeyer was born in South Dakota. He had disputes with various officials and individuals in Granby, particularly involving a zoning dispute which allowed a concrete factory to be constructed opposite his muffler shop, severely hindering him from operating his business.
Background information
Described by local people as very intelligent and an expert at welding, Heemeyer constructed an improvised 85-ton tank by welding two layers of steel armor sandwiched with concrete onto a 53-ton Komatsu D335A bulldozer (which was initially identified as a Caterpillar D9). His creation has been nicknamed "Killdozer".
He had purchased the bulldozer to construct an alternate route to his muffler shop. This was because the concrete plant blocked the original road to his shop. However, city officials refused to grant him permission.
Other factors were also hindering his business.
The concrete plant often left large quantities of dust on Marvin's property, and cut him off from the city sewer line. When Heemeyer requested to extend a sewer line across eight feet of the plant's property, he was denied. Not being connected to the city sewer line resulted in a $2500 fine that Marvin had to pay. All of these factors reportedly made Heemeyer's business unviable. As a last measure, Marvin petitioned the city with his neighbors and friends, but to no avail: he was forced to sell the property to a garbage company. [1]. He was given six months to leave, and it was during this time that he constructed the Killdozer.
Heemeyer's actions were apparently an attempt at a political statement -- in tapes later discovered in his home, he states "Because of your anger, because of your malice, because of your hate, you would not work with me. I am going to sacrifice my life, my miserable future that you gave me, to show you that what you did is wrong".[2]
Armored bulldozer
Killdozer has been used as a nickname for the armored bulldozer constructed by Marvin Heemeyer and used to demolish a significant portion of Granby, Colorado in the United States of America on June 4, 2004. There is no evidence that Heemeyer ever planned to name his creation. The name originally came a from 1944 short story by Theodore Sturgeon that was later made into a film.
Heemeyer's Killdozer was a Komatsu D335A bulldozer fitted with makeshift armor plating covering the cabin, engine and parts of the tracks. This made the machine impervious to small arms fire and resistant to explosives; three external explosions and over 200 rounds of firearm ammunition fired at the Killdozer had no effect on it. [3]
In places, the vehicle's armor was over one foot thick, [1] consisting of concrete sandwiched between sheets of steel to make ad-hoc composite armor.[3] For visibility, Killdozer was fitted with three video cameras linked to monitors mounted on the vehicle's dashboard.[3] Onboard fans were used to keep Heemeyer cool while driving and compressed air nozzles were fitted to blow dust away from the video cameras.[2] Food, water and life support were present in the almost airtight cabin. Heemeyer had no intention of ever leaving the cabin once he entered; the hatch was permanently sealed.[3]
Killdozer was stopped by the failure of a radiator [3]. As soon as Killdozer came to a halt, Heemeyer committed suicide with a pistol he had brought into the cabin specifically for that purpose[4]. His body was subsequently removed by police with a crane. Despite the great damage to property (13 buildings were destroyed,[4] most requiring hundreds of thousands of dollars to be replaced), no one besides Heemeyer was injured; observers noted that Heemeyer appeared to go out of his way to avoid injury to bystanders.[3]
On April 19, 2005, it was announced that Killdozer was being taken apart for scrap metal.[4] Individual pieces of Killdozer would be dispersed to many separate scrap yards to prevent admirers of Heemeyer from taking souvenirs. [4]
Family and friends
Marvin was described as an obedient, honest, and loving man. However, prior to his rampage, his family life was also falling apart: his father had just died, and he was forced to auction his house. When about to get married, Heemeyer found out that his girlfriend had cheated on him. [citation needed]
The rampage
On June 4, 2004, he drove his Killdozer through the wall of his former business, and tore down the concrete plant that had destroyed it. He then proceeded to destroy many other buildings, including City Hall.
Some witnesses say Heemeyer made calculated movements with the bulldozer to avoid injuring anyone. However, he also used a rifle to shoot at propane tanks in a propane storage yard. Had he succeeded, he would have started massive explosions literally across the street from a neighborhood and a senior citizen living facility.[citation needed] In spite of Heemeyer's caution, over forty deputies and police officers were unable to stop him. A SWAT team was called in, but they too failed to halt the vehicle.
The local police force claim that Heemeyer had been actively shooting at the people who had wronged him, but the bullet holes could also have been made by the police themselves when their own bullets ricocheted off the armored bulldozer. [citation needed]
Heemeyer committed suicide after the radiator on his machine failed. He was 52 years old.
It took the police hours to penetrate the stalled vehicle (which was still impervious to gunfire) and remove Heemeyer's body.
Although a number of rumors reported that Heemeyer was terminally ill at the time of his rampage, an autopsy revealed that he was in good health other than an abnormally large heart[5].
The scene was reminiscent of a 1998 rampage in Alma, Colorado. Authorities said Tom Leask shot a man to death, then used a town-owned front-end loader to heavily damage the town's post office, fire department, water department and town hall.
Audio tapes recorded by Heemeyer
In addition to writings that he left on the wall of his shed, Heemeyer recorded a number of audio tapes explaining his motivation for the attack. He mailed these to his brother in South Dakota shortly before stepping into his bulldozer. Heemeyer's brother turned the tapes over to the FBI, who in turn, sent it to the Grand County Sheriff's Department. The tapes were released by the Grand County Sheriff's Office on August 31, 2004. The tapes are about two and a half hours in length. [6]
The first recording was made on April 13, 2004. The last recording was made 13 days before the rampage.
"God built me for this job," Heemeyer said in the first recording made on April 13, 2004. He even said it was God's plan that he not be married or have family so that he could be in a position to carry out such an attack. "I think God will bless me to get the machine done, to drive it, to do the stuff that I have to do" he said. "God blessed me in advance for the task that I am about to undertake. It is my duty. God has asked me to do this. It's a cross that I am going to carry and I'm carrying it in God's name," he said.
External links
- Washington Post Article
- Denver Channel Article
- Article on incident
- Complete video of the incident
- CBS4: Bulldozer Rampage Ends In Granby
Notes
- ^ The Denver Channel
- ^ The Denver Channel
- ^ a b c d e "Man who bulldozed through Colo. town is dead". MSNBC. Retrieved June 27.
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