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, frustrated over a failed zoning dispute, Heemeyer plowed his homemade armored bulldozer into the town hall, a former mayor's home and other buildings in small-town Granby, Colorado. When the bulldozer's radiator failed, he killed himself with a pistol. No other lives were lost.

Heemeyer used an armor-plated Komatsu D335A bulldozer to destroy 13 buildings in Granby, Colorado

Heemeyer had been feuding with officials and individuals in Granby, particularly over fines for violating city ordinances and a zoning dispute regarding a concrete factory constructed opposite his muffler shop that destroyed his business. Heemeyer is notable partly because his rampage made the national news and also because some have cast him as a folk hero.

Marvin Heemeyer's singlular act of courage has inspired many to stand against public graft and corruption.

Background

Heemeyer lived in Grand Lake, about 16 miles away from Granby. [1]. According to a citizen who knew him, Heemeyer moved to town about 10 years prior to the incident. Friends of Heemeyer believed that he had no immediate family in the Granby-Grand Lake area. [2]

John Bauldree, a friend of Marvin's, said that Heemeyer was a fun-loving guy who liked to play hard and work hard. Ken Heemeyer said his brother Marvin "would bend over backwards for anyone." While many people described Heemeyer as a likeable guy, others said he was not someone to cross. Christie Baker told the Denver Post that Heemeyer threatened her husband after he refused to pay for some muffler work. [3]

Heemeyer was legendary for his welding abilities, and could change a muffler by himself in less than 20 minutes. He was affectionately nicknamed Marv the Muffler Man.

According to the Docheffs, the concrete batch plant owners, Heemeyer bought two acres of land from the Resolution Trust Corp., the federal agency set up to handle the assets of failed savings and loan institutions. He bought the land for $42,000 subsequently agreeing to sell it to the Docheff family, which wanted the property for a concrete batch plant. The agreed upon price was $250,000 but according to Susan Docheff, he changed his mind and upped the price to $375,000 and at some later point demanded a deal worth approximately $1 million. This negotiation happened well before the rezoning proposal was proposed to the town council. [4]

Dispute with the city and preparations

In 2001, the zoning commission and the town's trustees approved the construction of a cement manufacturing plant. Heemeyer appealed the decisions unsuccessfully. For many years, Heemeyer had used the adjacent property as a way to get to his muffler shop. The plan for the cement plant blocked that access. In addition to the frustration engendered by this dispute over access, Heemeyer was fined $2,500 by the Granby government for various violations, including "junk cars on the property and not being hooked up to the sewer line". Heemeyer sought to cross 8 feet of the concrete plant's property to hook up with the sewer line.

As a last measure, Marvin petitioned the city with his neighbors and friends, but to no avail. He couldn't function without the sewer line and the cooperation of the town.

Soon, Heemeyer leased his business to a trash company. Heemeyer ended up selling the property several months prior to the rampage. The new owners gave Heemeyer six months to leave, and it was apparently during this time that he began modifying his bulldozer. Heemeyer had bought a bulldozer two years before the incident with the intention of using it to build an alternative route to his muffler shop, but city officials rejected his request to build the road. Heemeyer complained the concrete plant had left dust on, and blocked access to, his business.

Notes found by investigators after the rampage indicate that the primary motivation for Heemeyer's bulldozer rampage was his fight to stop a concrete plant from being built near his shop. The notes suggested Heemeyer nursed grudges over the zoning issue. "I was always willing to be reasonable until I had to be unreasonable," Heemeyer scribbled. "Sometimes reasonable men must do unreasonable things." [5]

Heemeyer took about a year and a half to prepare for his rampage. In notes found by investigators after the incident, Heemeyer wrote "It's interesting how I never got caught. This was a part-time project over a 1 1/2 year time period." In the notes, Heemeyer expressed surprise that three men who visited the shed last fall did not discover the bulldozer work, "especially with the 2,000 lb. lift fully exposed." "Somehow their vision was clouded," he wrote. [6]

Revenge

On June 4, 2004, Heemeyer drove his armored bulldozer through the wall of his former business, the concrete plant, the Town Hall, the office of the local newspaper that editorialized against him, the home of the former mayor, and a hardware store owned by another man Heemeyer named in a lawsuit, as well as others. Owners of all the buildings that were damaged had some connection to Heemeyer's disputes.

Grand County Commissioner Duane Daley said Heemeyer apparently used a video camera and two monitors found inside to guide the dozer. Authorities speculated Heemeyer may have used a homemade crane found in his garage to lower the armor hull over the dozer and himself. "Once he tipped that lid shut, he knew he wasn't getting out," Daly said. Investigators searched the garage where they believe Heemeyer built the vehicle and found cement, armor and steel.

Damage limited to property damage with no injuries to humans

Despite the great damage to property (13 buildings were destroyed, most requiring hundreds of thousands of dollars to be replaced), no one besides Heemeyer was injured.

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.

Heemeyer's actions were apparently a political statement. In the audio tapes, 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".

Some speculated that Heemeyer was terminally ill at the time of his rampage, but an autopsy revealed that he was in good health other than an abnormally large heart.

Investigators later found Heemeyer's handwritten list of targets. It was not just a list of buildings and businesses, police say. His list also contained the names of at least 10 individuals and a local Catholic Church.

Aftermath

Although coverage of Heemeyer's rampage in the print and broadcast media was almost universally negative, some see him as a David and Goliath-style folk hero, and Web sites have sprung up celebrating him as an anti-government patriot. Some in Granby wanted to turn Heemeyer's bulldozer into a tourist attraction, but the town decided to have it dismantled.

Although the town had mixed reactions to Heemeyer's act, some believe his actions have inadvertently spurred a new feeling of closeness among the 1,500 residents in Granby, who have organized fundraisers to help rebuild the community's city center.

External links

• Washington Post Article
• Denver Channel Article
• Article on incident
• Complete video of the incident
• CBS4: Bulldozer Rampage Ends In Granby
• Commentary by Russell R. Bingman