Get your bags and your pot, my friends, because off we go to Colorado! Known for its vast and beautiful plains, wide open grasslands, and its large and gorgeous mountain ranges, it’s perhaps one of the most lovely places in all of the United State’s midwest. It’s well known for its ski resorts, with hundreds, even thousands, flocking to the mountains to have the time of their lives flying down the slopes across that fresh white powder.
And of course, as the first sentence indicates, it’s quite known for being one of the first and most well-known states to legalize the devil’s lettuce. For medical purposes of course (puff puff pass). Yes, it is a wonderful place, and today, we set our sights on the town of Granby within the Grand County of Colorado.
Founded in 1904 and with a population of around 2,079 as of 2020, it’s a quaint and sleepy little town, very midwest if you ask me.
But now I can already hear the questions coming: “Well Matt, this is lovely and all, but why are we here? Are you getting those kickbacks from the setting again?” Well no, not quite…at least not yet. No, for today we are to discuss the event that truly put Granby on the map and one of the most outlandish and bizarre crimes of the last 20 years.
Now, picture if you will. The date is June 4th, 2004, and most folks in town were just going about their business. However, that day would be disrupted, and in the most destructive of fashions. Soon enough, the alarm of evacuation was sounded, the authorities would do their best to get everyone out of harm’s way, and thankfully they did.
It was then, at 4:23 pm, that the rumbling started, the rumbling of a large machine, designed and fortified for devastation. A makeshift tank, a war machine, bent on causing as much mayhem as possible. And all because a man was at his wit’s end, a man who had seen his life and livelihood torn to shreds before his very eyes. This is a story of revenge, a story of desperation, and it’s still debated whether he was right or wrong to this day.
This is the story of Marvin Heemeyer. This is the story of the infamous Killdozer.
The Man Inside the Machine
Let’s talk first about the man at the center of this whole situation. Marvin John Heemeyer, known as Marv to his friends, was born on October the 28th, 1951, on a dairy farm in South Dakota. Not much is known about Marvin’s early years, but at the age of 23, he joined the United States Air Force. Now as someone whose best friend used to be in the Air Force, I can tell you it likely was no picnic.
Military Training is hard and rigorous, and you have to be tough to undergo the strain of it and come out on the other side. Marvin did just that and was stationed at the Lowry Air Force Base in Denver, Colorado. He spent several years in the armed forces, and he discovered that he had a talent for welding. To say this would serve him greatly later on is a massive understatement.
In 1989, after getting out of the Air Force, Marvin moved to Grand Lake, Colorado, about 16 miles, or 26 km, away from Granby. It isn’t clear why he decided on that specific location as he had no friends or family there at the time, but we can speculate that it was because the property he bought was on the cheaper side. He picked out a small tree-filled lot in a nice quiet area of the woods, with two log cabins and a beautiful view. It seemed like the perfect place to just relax and get away from the hustle and bustle of everyday life.
Initially, Marvin took up work at a local muffler shop in the area to make money, and later he’d open his own shop. Starting your own business is admirable, but always a risk, yet Marvin seemed to know what he was doing. He opened up several muffler shops in Denver, Boulder, and Granby, and, since he was so good at his craft, they all thrived, earning him that sweet, sweet ka-ching!
In the days before the incident, Marvin had started tape recording his thoughts. On the topic of his businesses, he didn’t mince any words: “Ya know, if you got a champagne income with a beer keg, you’re gonna do well. And that’s what I’ve always had. Always believed that’s the way it should be. That’s the only way I could get ahead.”
With his businesses flourishing, Marvin built himself a good reputation. He was considered by the other townsfolk of Granby to be the best welder around, someone who could weld or fix just about anything you brought to him. And on top of that, many just saw him as an overall great guy. His brother, Ken Heemeyer, once stated that Marvin was the kind of guy who “would bend over backwards for anyone.”
He did have a bit of a temper, and he’d once berated a man for being late paying him for a job, but outside of that, he was seen as a fine upstanding citizen, a pillar of the community.
In Marvin’s own words in the Netflix documentary Tread: “I call it successful. I think I was a very poor person most of my life, but for who I was and for what I was, I think I was a very rich man. And I am thankful to God for giving me that life.”
So yeah, Marvin truly seemed like an upstanding man. He had his own successful business, he was well known and liked around town, and he had a large group of friends who thought the world of him and whom he would go on weekly snowmobile trips with. He even had a loving girlfriend named Trisha who loved him unconditionally and the couple would go on frequent road trips all over the country. He had it all…but that’s how it always starts, right?
Old Marvin was on top of the mountain…but soon he would face a series of hardships that would push him over the edge.
The Cracks Start To Form
It all started back in 1992. That year, Marvin was in attendance at a local land auction held by the Resolution Trust Corporation. After spending $42,000, he was able to purchase 2 acres of land on which he planned to build another muffler shop. The catch? The land had been eyed by the Docheff family, and the resulting conflict was the first of many to come.
Now I know what you must be wondering: well, who in the hell is the Docheff family? Well imagine one of those big bucks influential local families you always see as the villains in TV shows and movies, and you’d have the basic gist of it. This was a family who was well known in the area and had a lot of money, mostly because of their concrete business known as Mountain Park Concrete.
They wanted the property because they wanted to expand, they wished to build a new concrete plant on those two acres. At the auction was Cody Docheff, and with him was Gus Harris, who was the man sponsoring the whole deal. Gus had stated that he was not willing to fund any more than $50,000 for the property, so Cody had put in a bid for $35,000.
Then as the price went higher and higher, in came Marvin with his bid of $42,000, and in the end, it was this bid that won the property for him.
After the auction was over and the deal was signed, Marvin was confronted in the auction hall by Cody who, according to Marvin, yelled at and insulted him for up to 10 minutes straight for winning the property he had wanted so badly. Talk about a sore loser, am I right? In Marvin’s own words: “This guy came back there, introduced himself to me, [and was] in fact, the rudest, most arrogant person. I mean, this guy’s just a fucking asshole.
Come back and just introduced himself by giving me a tongue lashing for about 10 minutes. I mean, this is the only guy of all the properties that sold before his, that was doing any screaming at anybody during the auction.”
Now the Docheffs were an influential family, and they had close ties to many within the small town. It was a very tight-knit community, and here’s this guy in Marvin, perhaps looked at as some sort of an outsider to the area, coming in and swiping a bit of land from the well-known Cody Docheff. So when things started to break down and Cody started making his moves, that’s when things started to get nasty. It was a Good Ol’ Boys Club, and sadly Marvin wasn’t in it, which was the problem.
There wasn’t much on the property initially, and Marvin did his best to build his business from the ground up…but he had problems with the property’s sewage system. Now I understand that sometimes places don’t have the best plumbing…but this place had no plumbing. It had a buried concrete truck barrel where all the nastiness was sent and nothing else, and how something like that was even allowed before Marvin bought the property is beyond me.
Now from what I can tell, Marvin did the right thing after he found this out, in that he contacted the sewer district, set up a meeting with the board, and asked if he could get a sewage line put into the property to annex the waste into the proper sewer system. The sewer district agreed to it…but Marvin would have to finance the installation himself. The distance between Marvin’s property to the nearest main sewer line was several hundred feet, and to have that built, Marvin would have to pay, out of pocket, up to $70,000.
Now, even though paying for the line from the property to the public main line is the standard in the United States, Marvin was understandably miffed at the whole situation. Most people would kill for that amount of money, and now he had to spend that much on something he hadn’t expected to have to spend money on. It was almost twice the amount of money he had purchased the property for, and he was livid. The board offered to set up a septic tank instead, but Marvin rejected that as well.
He thought that the board and Ron Thompson, the Vice President of the board, was out to get him.
Now who is Ron Thompson? Or an even better question: Who is the Thompson family? Well, they just so happened to be another long-standing, well-known, very well-off family in the town of Granby. They owned a lot of the land within the town of Granby and made much of their money off their excavation business. In other words, it was just some more of them Good Ol’ Boys trying to stack the deck against poor old Marv.
“I never had anybody sit there and plan to cut me out of an opportunity like the Thompsons did when they denied me access to their sanitation district. It doesn’t make any sense other than that it was the good ol’ boys patting each other on the back. Had they not done that, I can assure you the outcome, the whole thing, would have been completely different!
Gus Harris and Cody Docheff, and the powers that be, the Thompsons, if they would have left me alone, I wouldn’t have had this righteous anger that I have towards the Thompsons, their hierarchy, their attitude, that they have left in that community for so many years. And so many people think like they do, screw your neighbor.”
The Lawsuits
So yeah, not off to the best start. Marvin was just trying to live his life, trying to create and run his own business and be his boss. And he simply pissed off the wrong people, wealthy people, who viewed him as someone going against them and, at least to Marv, it seemed like they would do anything to see him fail, all because he took what one of them wanted.
Well in 1998, it didn’t get any better. The Docheffs weren’t done with Marvin, not by a long shot.
“And in ‘98, the town went and spot-zoned the 2 acres directly south of me, which is illegal in Colorado. And because no one protested it within 30 days, it became law that they could do that. And this Docheff guy, he’s gonna sign and buy the property next door to the west of me and has a contract on it to purchase it. And they were going to be able to put this concrete plant right there next to all those houses, downwind of the town.
And Cody’s motivation was to get back at Marv. Well I find this out too late and I was right in the dust pale of this whole operation. And that wasn’t gonna work because I didn’t want no fricken’ concrete plant next to me.”
Now spot-zoning refers to when a piece of property or groups of property have special zone laws applied to them that differ from zoning laws surrounding them. Much of the town was initially against it as well, bringing up concerns about the dust that would be blown through the town, the noise it would create, the excess traffic it would generate, and the giant eyesore that the plant would be. The Docheffs weren’t worried though, and they set about convincing the citizens that the plant was a good thing, that measures would be taken against dust and noise, and they presented miniatures of the plant to concerned citizens during the proceeding town meetings. The meetings continued until 1999, and that year, with a ton of conditions, the town green-lit the construction of the plant, much to Marvin’s consternation.
Marvin was prepared to fight the whole process, but there was another problem. His water and sewage issue had started to raise the ire of the rest of the town, and it got so bad that not only did the concrete truck barrel used for sewage on his property eventually overflow, but the town took him to court over it. He was found in violation at the Granby Municipal Court, but he was given a deferred judgment under the condition that Marvin couldn’t use the property for anything, let alone his business, until he was hooked up to the water and sewer system. So basically Marvin’s livelihood was shut down until he could connect to the sewer line.
The problem was, to connect to the sewage line Marvin had to get permission to run a line from his immediate neighbor whose property was located between Marvin’s store and the sewage line — Cody Docheff. Do you see the problem here? Of course, Cody denied him. On top of that, the town was giving Marvin a daily fine of $100 until he hooked up his business to the sewer.
That’s a lot of money, even if it’s just for one day, but it quickly escalated into the thousands. It got to the point where Marvin cut a check to the town of Granby for $3,351 and, purely out of anger and spite, wrote on the memo line “Cowards and Liars Department.” They sent it back. Not because of the clearly malicious intent, but because the amount was wrong.
So yeah, Marvin was pissed to high heaven. Between the construction of the plant moving forward, to the constant fines regarding the sewer line, it just didn’t seem like anyone was listening to him, nobody cared about what he was going through, and he didn’t think it was fair. He saw this as the town treating him as an outsider, an out-of-towner, someone who came into their space and was trying to make a name for himself, and this was their way of putting him down, putting him in his place.
So regardless of Marv’s problems, everything was moving forward as the town and the Docheffs had planned…until Marvin showed up with a lawyer. The lawyer went through everything with a fine-toothed comb, making sure everything was legal and above board. The construction of the concrete plant was put on hold until it was clear that everything was legally correct, and Marvin even filed a motion in the district court to try and shut everything down.
The Docheffs didn’t care though, they wanted their plant built and they wanted it built now. So, despite all the legal matters going on, they simply moved forward as if nothing was wrong, continuing to build the plant while Marvin watched on helplessly.
And in the end, it was all for naught. Every single lawsuit that Marvin filed, every single motion he fought for, they were all dismissed. And even when Marvin asked his lawyer to file his claims to a higher court, his lawyer refused, knowing that the result would most likely be the same. Thousands of dollars were lost, months upon months wasted, and at the end of the day, Marvin was left with nothing.
He had lost at every turn, he was out of a ton of money, he had pretty much lost his business, and the town had all but rejected him, and Marvin was convinced that the town council was laughing at him behind his back. He was dejected, he was angry, he was humiliated, he was lost…and he was gonna make all those who wronged him pay for it.
“The town had a hard on for Marv Heemeyer. They didn’t stop and think: Marv didn’t have any malice towards us. This is a sign to not do this. No, they kept it in their hardened hearts…and said we’ll get him.
They started getting me in 1992 when they kept me off the sanitation district. They started getting me when Gus Harris sold the property to Cody Docheff. They got me when they issued the building permit to Cody Docheff for the concrete plant and denied that it was for the concrete plant. Are we all stupid?
Come on, they knew! And when I would ask them these questions, which you won’t find in the minutes, they would just shut right up, they’d stonewall you. They didn’t have an answer. I’d shoot the truth in their face, and they couldn’t deal with it.
And, and I’m sorry, they’re going to have to deal with it. I guarantee you I am going to make them deal with it.”
The Other Side of the Coin
Now, so far we’ve spoken pretty much exclusively from Marvin’s point of view. But there are other people involved in this tale and much of what they say counter what Marvin had said before and what’s recorded on his tapes.
For starters, Marvin had stated that when he bought his property at the auction, Cody Docheff got in his face and screamed and yelled at him for 10 minutes straight. Not only does Cody deny this ever took place and that he left as soon as the auction was over, but Gus Harris backs him up, stating they had no altercation with Marvin whatsoever. They simply lost out on that bit of land during the auction, got up, and went about the rest of their day. When Gus discussed the whole thing in the documentary movie Tread, he stuck to his guns:
“Cody has been a good friend for many, many years. We have gone to auctions together before on times. So, Cody went with me, but he had no party in the auction. Cody and I sat and listened to another bid or two. There really wasn’t much of anything happened. I don’t know what Marv did. I wasn’t paying any attention to him really. And then we just got up and left. Yeah. Cody would maybe be interested in the property at a future time, but there was no agreement or talk between us of him owning that property.”
So…What do we have here? We have Marvin’s story, and we have Gus and Cody’s story. One says they helped ruin his life, and the others say they had nothing to do with him, and anything and everything that happened wasn’t personal. And hell, everything said about Cody from those who know him says that he’s a good guy. He built his concrete company from the ground up, he was a hard worker, and sure he also had a bit of a temper, but he was seen as a friend to many who simply told it like it is.
Is this the truth? Perhaps it is, especially since many folks in the town, those who weren’t emotionally attached to Marvin like his family and friends, seem to back it up entirely. He seemed to lash out at everyone and anyone he thought was a problem or crossed him, and it certainly didn’t help his case.
Casey Farrell, whom Marv called a barbarian, is a good example. From all reports, you could ask anyone in the town of Gransby, and they would tell you that Casey and his wife were the nicest people around, the kind of people you’d want to live around, to be friends with. And yet Marv hated him. Why?
Because Casey was a part of the city council that he despised, the group he believed had it out for him, calling him part of the problem. Nothing Casey decided on was out of malice towards Marv, he looked at the plant as an opportunity to grow the community and create jobs, it had nothing to do with screwing over Marv.
Someone else Marv had an issue with was Patrick Brower, a local reporter. Patrick had approached Marvin multiple times trying to get his side of the story in the paper, or at the very least run an ad in the paper for his business for him. Not only was Marvin seldom around when he came calling regardless of the work hours, but Marvin got upset with him for not running his story…after he seemed to be avoiding him. Suspicious much?
And in the end, Patrick still ran an ad for him and his shop…and Marvin still tore into him, calling him a liar.
The Thompsons are another prime example. We spoke briefly about them earlier, particularly how Ron Thompson was on the committee that wanted Marvin to hook up his property to the sewer line. Ron passed away in 2002, but his brothers Larry and Gary were still alive as of 2020. In Granby, they had a great reputation and were seen as hard-working men who earned every dollar of their millions.
The grudge Marvin had against the whole Thompson family, particularly Ron and their father Dick, was well documented, and even after the deaths of Dick and Ron, he held on to that, aiming it towards Gary and Larry.
In his tapes, Marvin recalled in the spring of 2003, he confronted Larry at one of his job sites, calling him out and saying his family had affected his way of living for life. Marv told him that he owed him, and demanded from Larry $300,000. Now even for a millionaire like Larry, that’s still a heavy chunk of change, and Larry rightfully said it wasn’t going to happen.
I say rightfully because Larry had no quarrel with Marvin, nothing until that point ever pointed to the fact that there was any animosity towards Marvin on Larry’s part, or from Gary for that matter. To Marvin though, they were Thompsons, so that instantly made them guilty, it made it right for him to hold his hatred over them.
Upon being denied the money he believed was rightfully his, Marvin simply said that he would come to collect, he promised him that. They recalled that the last time they spoke with Marvin, he was in his truck. When he saw them, he simply rolled down his window, called out “I’m going to get you guys,” rolled his window back up, and drove away. Nope, not threatening at all.
Do we see the cracks starting to form here in the story? From everything we were told from Marvin’s side, it’s a story about how he was a hard-working man who was destroyed by the town he lived in, that it was the evil rich families and corrupt political leaders that had it out for him. But then we have the other side, and it starts to shed new light on the whole scenario. It shows that if anything bad ever happened to Marvin, there was nothing personal about any of it, it was simply politics and business, and he blew it out of proportion.
The price to connect the property to the sewer line? Yeah, it was expensive, but it was a price that everyone, not just Marvin, had to pay to install. Even Cody had to pay for it when he built his concrete plant, it was standard procedure. And hell, things could have been resolved fairly easily had Marv just cooperated.
The Docheffs reached out to him, saying they would give him the easement he needed to get his sewage and water all hooked up. Everything would be resolved, and all he had to do was drop the insane lawsuits he had over them and the town as a whole. And what did Marvin do? He hung up on them.
And even then, Cody and his family seemed to want to just settle things, and give everyone a happy ending. It’s been reported that Cody approached Marvin with an offer to buy him out completely, just to settle the issue about the properties so he could build his in-door concrete batch plant across the road. Marvin agreed, and he set the price to $250,000, 6 times what he first paid for his property.
Cody agreed to terms and things looked to be going smoothly…but then Marvin raised the price. He instantly backed out and said he wanted $375,000, and then when they agreed to pay that, he backed out again and demanded $1 million for it.
Despite claiming that the Docheffs and the town at large were milking him for money, all the evidence now tells us that’s not at all what they were doing. The more the layers are stripped away, the more the righteous image of Marv Heemeyer starts to crumble at the edges. His anger at the imagined slights had simply skewed his view of how the world was, and it was getting worse and worse.
Unfortunate incidents became full-blown nightmares, business and job opportunities became imaginary vendettas and grudges against the people around him and the town they lived in only grew worse and worse out of burning hatred and poisonous jealousy. The people around him were becoming successful or continuing to be successful despite Marvin…and he hated it.
The Preparation
“When I was sitting in the hot tub, and I mean I was, I was weeping. And a peace came over me where I knew God wanted me to do it. And I didn’t understand. I said ‘Why did you ask me to do this?
Is that why I’ve never been married, so I didn’t have a family? Is that why I’ve always been successful so that I would realize my rewards for doing this task?’ But it has to be done. And the world will write stories about how wrong I am and without a doubt I wish it could be done a different way, but there is no way to make this right.
You picked on the wrong man!”
Those are Marvin Heemeyer’s recorded words, recounting how the inspiration struck him while at home in his hot tub, the inspiration for the destruction to come. Now I ask you, does that sound like a sound-minded man to you? If the answer is no, then we agree. Marvin believed that he had been pushed to the brink, that he was truly at wit’s end…and he made a decision, a dark decision, in his perceived desperation for fairness and justice. If the town wanted to screw up his life…then there would be consequences.
In 2002, Marvin traveled to California for an auction and bought a Komatsu D355A bulldozer. After loading it onto a flatbed, he had it transported back to Granby where it sat for about a year or so with a “For Sale” sign attached to the front. Did he actually intend to sell it at first? Maybe, but he never did, and some people who were close to Marvin believe that he simply bought it for the intimidation factor.
In 2003, Marvin put his muffler shop and all it had inside it up for auction. Yes, that’s right, after all the headaches and heartbreaks to fight for it, Marvin simply sold his property off. Not to the Docheffs, oh heavens no, but to The Trash Co for $425,000, which was 10 times the original purchasing price. A good chunk of change, and enough to sustain him for a while at least. Perhaps this was a way for him to finally just get out and move on, right? Of course not. Things would only escalate from here.
Everything that he had was sold off…all besides the bulldozer and the property. Had those been sold Marv no doubt would have simply called it a day and everything that was about to come to pass wouldn’t have happened. In fact, Marv said so himself in his tapes: “You know, God has his timing, his plans made out. And it looks like it’s going to be, because the one thing that I have wanted to do is get caught.
I had hoped that somebody would catch me and that this whole thing would stop. And that would be a good sign for me not to do it.”
And yet, he still had the property and he still had the bulldozer. With that, he took it as a sign that God simply wanted him to go through with his insane plan. With his mind made up, he got to work.
Referring to the bulldozer as the MK Tank, or Marv’s Komatsu Tank, Marvin started outfitting the machine. He covered the cabin, engine, and parts of the tracks with 1-inch thick 5,000 psi Quikrete concrete mix sandwiched between sheets of 1/2-inch (or 1.3 cm) tool steel, making it impervious to almost anything the police or locals could conjure up. Several video cameras were installed on the outside of the machine, and they were protected by 3-inch shields of clear bulletproof Lexan.
This was so that Marvin could see all that was going on outside the bulldozer, since each camera was connected to several monitors situated on the dashboard inside the vehicle. With fans and air conditioning installed to keep him cool inside, Marvin loaded the dozer with enough food and water to last him a week, along with 3 handguns that he owned, and he fashioned three gun ports, outfitting them with a .50 caliber rifle, a .308 semi-automatic, and a .22 long rifle.
The final feature of note? The hatch by which Marvin would enter his bulldozer was modified so that once he got settled and closed it shut…it would never open again. That’s right, once closed, he was sealed inside his monster machine forever. He had decided that this would be his last stand, he knew he wasn’t getting out of this unscathed, and it seemed he was accepting of this fact. According to Grand County Commissioner Duane Dailey: “Once he tipped that lid shut, he knew he wasn’t getting out.”
In his anger, his embarrassment, his desperation, and perhaps his delusion, Marvin Heemeyer had created a war machine, his Killdozer…and he was about to go on the warpath.
“God built me for this job. I think God will bless me to get the machine done, to drive it, to do the stuff that I have to do. 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.”
The Rampage
And just like that, we’ve returned to 4:23 pm on June 4th, 2004, where we started our story. Sealed inside his makeshift tank, Marvin went on his path of destruction. His first target?
Of course, it had to be the concrete plant, Mountain Park Concrete, that had given him so much grief. At the time, Cody Docheff was the only person present, and he was doing some menial work and screening topsoil at the gravel pit. Marvin wasted no time, plowing into the precast shop, causing it to explode.
Of course, Marvin and the Killdozer itself were unscathed by the explosion, but the police took notice and came as swiftly as possible. Cody was notified over the radio of the attack. Shots were fired by the police, but the bullets simply bounced off the impenetrable hide of the machine.
Cody loaded himself into a front-end loader, a machine used for construction and demolition, and went head to head with the behemoth tank, but it was no match for the beast of a machine, prompting Cody to flee while Marvin took shots at him with his .50 caliber rifle. Cody was thankfully unharmed, but the plant was destroyed in no time at all, and Marvin was far from done.
By this time the word had gotten out, and a local radio announcer went out onto the street and broadcast the event live to his listeners. Everyone in Granby knew that Marvin Heemeyer had gone cuckoo, and was out to destroy all who wronged him with his infernal machine.
Here I must bring up a point many use to defend Marvin. Some point out that many of the places targeted were swiftly evacuated, and say that if they weren’t guilty, how would they know that they were in danger, that they were on Marv’s list? And to that I counter with this — Marvin wasn’t exactly subtle about who he despised and who he believed had wronged him. He was very public about it, he would shout it from the rooftops how much he hated the town and certain people and/or businesses within it.
So what do these people, who know Marv hates them, do when it’s made known that he has created a war machine and is driving into town? You run for your damn lives.
Making his way down Agate Avenue, Marvin went to his rifling ports of the Killdozer and started shooting, targeting nearby power transformers and, more worryingly, propane tanks. Now remind me what happens when someone fires a gun at a propane tank and it’s punctured? Oh right, it explodes! Thankfully none of the tanks were punctured, but that goes to show just what Marvin’s state of mind was.
Had those tanks erupted, those whom he hated weren’t the only people who would have been hurt, the collateral damage would have been immense. Hell, several police officers and residents of a senior citizens complex were within the immediate blast radius. Now tell me Marvin, what had they done to deserve that? Nothing, absolutely nothing.
Cody Docheff wasn’t finished though. Determined to help stop Marvin’s rampage, he got inside a scraper that he had on his property, and he made his way into town after him. Confronting Marvin, he began bashing into the side of the Killdozer, trying to tip it over and stop the insanity. Unfortunately, it was all in vain, the dozer stood fast, and Marvin simply started taking shots again at Cody, as well as taking shots at the police before they could even get off shots at the machine.
The destruction continued, and it should be noted that several buildings that were destroyed in the carnage were occupied only moments before Marvin Heemeyer had his way with them. This included the town hall, under which was the town library, where a group of kids had gathered for a children’s program. Children, ladies and gentlemen, innocent and without a thought to who Marvin Heemeyer was, and they had almost been buried under stone and debris because of his unfounded anger.
He even targeted the local Liberty Savings Bank, or more specifically, the corner office where a woman who was a part of the zoning board worked. Plowing through without care, building after building was either destroyed outright or damaged beyond repair, needing to be demolished afterward.
The police were at a total loss. They had nothing on them that could penetrate the armor of the Killdozer. Local and state police did all they could, but to no avail, and even when the SWAT team was called in, they were utterly useless against the monster machine. It was almost comical, to the point where the undersheriff by the name of Glenn Trainor climbed atop the Killdozer and rode the damn thing like a bucking bronc at the rodeo, looking for an entry point until he was forced off by falling wreckage.
Fearing that the Killdozer might start outright going after the innocents of the town, and with more than 200 rounds of ammo wasted, it’s said that Governor Bill Owens considered bringing in the National Guard, armed with an Apache attack helicopter equipped with a Hellfire missile or a two-man fire team equipped with a Javelin anti-tank missile to stop Marvin and his monster machine. The man denies it to this day, but if it’s true, that just goes to show you how desperate the situation was, and how far they would go to stop this onslaught of insanity.
The rampage had been going on for two hours straight, the police and their weapons were almost useless, and it looked like nothing would be able to stop it. The Killdozer was in many ways like the Juggernaut from the X-Men comics: unstoppable once it gets going, and near impenetrable on all fronts. It looked like nothing was gonna be able to stop Marvin and his machine of destruction…nothing except bad luck it seems.
Marvin was ready to keep going, he was ready to continue the mayhem and level the whole town if he had to. However, the war machine had actually taken more damage than it appeared. By this time, the engine was leaking a variety of essential fluids, and the radiator had been damaged. Marvin either didn’t know that there were problems within his monster, or he simply didn’t care.
He just went right along to his next target — the Gambles hardware store. A simple tools and appliance store, it was owned by one of the town board members which made it a prime target for Marvin’s vengeance. Turning the Killdozer, he slammed into the corner of the store, intent to see it come crumbling down…and then it happened.
You see, there was one thing that Marvin Heemeyer hadn’t planned for, and that’s for any of these buildings to have a basement. Well Gambles sure did, and as Marvin blasted into the store, the ground underneath the Killdozer gave way and the front treads fell into the basement, trapping the machine. Try as he might, he couldn’t move forward and he couldn’t move back, he was stuck tight, and that was that. The machine’s momentum finally halted, and the police and SWAT team quickly rushed to try and enter the behemoth.
Only a minute later, however, it all truly came to an end. As they closed in, at 6:30 pm that day, one of the SWAT members thought he’d heard a loud bang from the inside of the Killdozer. They first attempted to use explosives to get the hatch open but to no avail. However, as the explosions didn’t set off any noticeable booby traps, they brought in an oxyacetylene cutting torch to get the job done.
It took several hours, but they were finally able to get the damned thing open. Once inside, they found the aforementioned weeks-long supply of food and water, the guns…and the remains of Marvin Heemeyer. Having seen no way out, and with his rampage of revenge foiled, Marvin gave up. Taking one of the .357-caliber handguns he’d brought with him in hand, he ended his own life.
Marvin Heemeyer was no more, dead at the age of 52.
Wrap-Up
And just like that, our story is at an end, the curtains closing with the death of our protagonist…or antagonist as it were. And you see, therein lies the real question, doesn’t it? Was Marvin a hero or a madman? An anti-hero or a supervillain? It depends I suppose on which side you want to believe, and what side you approach this case from.
Now I’ll say this, as everyday folk, it’s easy for us to side with Marvin right out of the gate. His story, or at least the version that he told, is of a man standing up against The Man, that the town around him shunned and ruined him at the behest of the rich and powerful. People with money and influence are bad, right? Well…sometimes that isn’t the case. And at the end of the day, it’s not about justice, it’s not about payback, since those things simply don’t matter. All that matters is the truth.
After going over the case multiple times over, and doing my best to look at it with an objective eye, my conclusion is thus: the truth of the matter is that Marvin Heemeyer was a good man, especially to those he loved, but once he believed that someone was out to get him, he let his anger and paranoia consume him utterly. Whether it was Cody Docheff, the Thompsons, the town council, the police, or anyone who he viewed had any sort of hand in the encroachment on his livelihood or his property instantly became his sworn enemy. His mind slowly but surely became more and more consumed by the darkness, and because of that, he created a machine of destruction, one that would trample his enemies underfoot, and ruin their lives as he felt he had been ruined. And when it was all over, he ended his life, unwilling to face the consequences of his actions as he wished others to face their own.
And as for the people who claim he was in the right as his life was the only one that ended that day? I counter with this: it wasn’t intentional, it was simply good luck and proper police procedure that saved those lives. People were at work, people were in school, people were out and about, enjoying their usual day, until this man decided to crush all of it. He shot at the police, he shot at the propane tanks, and he ran over anything in his path.
The fact this man didn’t end up a murderer isn’t from any doing of his own…it was a miracle.
The town did its best to come together and rebuild after all was said and done. Many of the buildings had been damaged or flat-out destroyed, including the town hall, and with that many of the town archives and records had also been ruined. In total, the damage caused by the incident racked up to $7 million.
After the attack, Marvin’s home was searched, and all of his audiotapes and notes leading up to the rampage were found, explaining his motivation in fair detail, or his version of the story at least. The Killdozer itself was torn apart and sold for scrap, as the town council thought it would become an attraction if left as is.
And with that, I leave you all with this. I’m glad the town is prospering once again, and to those affected during the attack, I wish you nothing but the best, and a lifetime of continued happiness. And as for Marvin? Despite the fact I feel he is in the wrong, I do still feel sorry for him.
Undoubtedly his life was affected by the events that transpired, even if it was never some conspiracy against him as he thought. He simply wanted to live his life, and the continuing changes to the circumstances of his life got the best of his mind, so he lashed out in an attempt to finally have some control over his life once more, even if it was simply the end of it. So Rest in Peace, Marvin Heemeyer. Although your final years were turbulent, I hope that wherever you might have ended up, you finally found the peace you were lacking.
Key Takeaways
- Marvin Heemeyer, known as the Killdozer, was a successful businessman in Granby, Colorado.
- Heemeyer’s life took a dark turn after a series of disputes with local families and the town council.
- Heemeyer’s anger and paranoia led him to build an armored bulldozer to exact revenge on those he blamed.
- On June 4, 2004, Heemeyer went on a rampage, destroying multiple buildings in Granby.
- Heemeyer’s actions were driven by a perceived conspiracy against him, but evidence suggests otherwise.
Dana Ortiz covers prosecutorial mechanics, evidentiary procedure, and how investigations unwind decades after the original case file went cold.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is the Killdozer incident?
The Killdozer incident refers to the rampage carried out by Marvin Heemeyer on June 4, 2004, in Granby, Colorado. Heemeyer used a heavily armored bulldozer, dubbed the ‘Killdozer,’ to destroy multiple buildings in the town, seeking revenge against those he believed had wronged him.
Who was Marvin Heemeyer?
Marvin Heemeyer was a welder and business owner in Granby, Colorado. He was known for his successful muffler shops and was generally well-liked by the community until a series of disputes over property and zoning issues led him to build and use the Killdozer.
What was the primary motivation behind Marvin Heemeyer’s rampage?
Heemeyer’s rampage was motivated by a series of disputes with local authorities and influential families over property zoning, sewage issues, and perceived injustices. He believed that these entities had conspired against him, leading to the destruction of his business and livelihood.
How did Marvin Heemeyer prepare for his rampage?
Heemeyer prepared by purchasing a Komatsu D355A bulldozer and outfitting it with armor made of concrete and steel. He also installed cameras, air conditioning, and weapons, including a .50 caliber rifle and handguns, to ensure he could carry out his plan effectively.
What was the extent of the damage caused by the Killdozer?
The Killdozer destroyed or damaged multiple buildings in Granby, including the Mountain Park Concrete plant, the town hall, and several other businesses. The total damage was estimated at $7 million.
How did the authorities respond to the Killdozer rampage?
The authorities were initially unable to stop the Killdozer due to its heavy armor. They attempted various tactics, including using construction equipment and SWAT teams, but were unsuccessful until the Killdozer became stuck in a basement.
What happened to Marvin Heemeyer after his rampage?
After the Killdozer became stuck, Heemeyer took his own life using one of the handguns he had brought with him. His body was found inside the Killdozer after authorities gained entry.
What was the public’s reaction to Marvin Heemeyer’s actions?
The public’s reaction was mixed. Some saw Heemeyer as a victim of injustice, while others viewed him as a dangerous and delusional individual. The town of Granby worked to rebuild and recover from the incident.
What happened to the Killdozer after the incident?
The Killdozer was dismantled and sold for scrap. The town council decided to dismantle it to prevent it from becoming a tourist attraction.
What was the impact of the Killdozer incident on Granby?
The incident caused significant damage to the town, both physically and emotionally. Many buildings were destroyed, and the town had to rebuild. The incident also highlighted the tensions and disputes within the community.
Sources
- Original Casual Criminalist video: Killdozer: The Wrath of Marvin Heemeyer
- Hero image source by Adam Paetow / openverse, by-sa.
