Monday, November 7, 2011

MArooned Glossary: Killdozer

This is a pretty good write-up of the events surrounding and during the rampage that is often referred to as "Killdozer":

The Wrath of the Killdozer


Marvin Heemeyer of Granby, Colorado was a profoundly frustrated muffler repair man. In the late 1990s–after years of protests, petitions, and town meetings–it became obvious to the 52-year-old that he was entwined in a gross miscarriage of justice. His business was ruined by some shady zoning changes, and Heemeyer contended that mayor and city council were corrupt. Even as he was forced to give up his legal fight and sell his land, he hatched one last plan to secretly retool his muffler shop to serve a single malevolent purpose: to construct a machine that would allow him to exact his revenge upon those who had wronged him.

Heemeyer had his faults, certainly; he's hardly blameless in the events that led to his uparmoring of a Komatsu earthmover. He was no Commander Zack Carey from "Tank" fighting the good fight against localized corruption with only the most pure of motives; he was an opinionated guy with a touch of mercenary who felt that he was pushed too far. Some of it was greed - he thought he could get more for his land than folks were willing to pay; some of it had to do with arbitrary and capricious changes the town he adopted as his own forced upon him when they wanted him out.

The rampage resulted in one fatality - that of Heemeyer himself - but was mostly due to the efforts of law enforcement and local officials in getting people out of the way of the plated Komatsu rather than any effort on Heemeyer's part. It's easier to romanticize the incident with no bystander deaths, leaving Heemeyer the tragic lone casualty of his own rampage; however it's only by hard work and a little bit of luck that he didn't kill anyone else. While we may empathize with the iconic attempt to fight city hall and may jokingly refer to "Killdozer" in reference to bureaucratic incompetence, it's hardly an incident to idolize.

Now you know the background of the Killdozer.

That is all.

7 comments:

Sean D Sorrentino said...

Keep in mind that when you ask, "What caliber for KillDozer?" the answer is actually, Molotov Cocktail. If anyone starts rampaging through the streets, throw gasoline on his vehicle and light it up.

They were actually going to requisition an anti-tank rocket from the National Guard. They could have stopped the thing dead in its tracks with a couple of gallons of gasoline.

TXGunGeek said...

Actually Killdozer is a movie from mumblecough years ago. Long before the misguided rampage. Somehting Larry Corriea would like. Bad B movie.

Dwight Brown said...

TXGunGeek:

I'm not sure if this is still the case, but at one time "Killdozer" was available on YouTube (in 10-minute chunks).

And before it was a movie, it was a pretty nifty short story by Theodore Sturgeon.

Bubblehead Les. said...

Well, according to Wiki, "Killdozer" started out as a Sci-Fi story by Ted Sturgeon in the 40's, then became the bad movie in the 70's, but I think Marvel Comics adapted it a little earlier. Then, if I remember correctly, 2000 AD, the British Comic Series that gave us "Judge Dredd" had a "Killdozer" character in one of its series, then it was a Band name, then it became the News Story.

You get to know these things when you live near the "World's Most Dangerous Librarian", you know.

Oh, and Sean's correct. Molotovs work well against tanks. At least, that's what my Dad used during the Hungarian Revolution against Soviet T-34's, J-S 3's and T-54/55's.

It's just a Bitch getting close to them, though, when they back off and open fire at you.

Dave H said...

I saw photos of what napalm did to tank crews in WWII. Scary.

bluesun said...

On my list of wants is either a AR10 or FAL that I have already named "Killdozer" in my head.

TomcatTCH said...

I always think of the Heemeyer incident as an example of "don't fuck with property rights".

I don't understand why it matters what he wanted for his property. Folks are allowed to charge all the market will bear, OR keep the property if no one is willing to pay for it.

He was a dick. That condition is sometimes corrected in the wild, sometimes not. He fired at folks, that's enough to say he wanted to kill people.

But ya know, when they try and steal someone's property, folks tend to freak out. Something to do with stealing the fruits of ones labor REALLY pisses em off.