More posts on the Granby bulldozer attack:

Killdozer in Colorado
Killdozer in Colorado: Epilogue
Granby's Sky-Hi News publishes "Bulldozer Special Edition"
Newspaper Publisher Patrick Brower recalls being chased by 'dozer
Heemeyer: "Folk Hero for a New Millennium"?

Although reports are conflicting, NBC 9 Denver's Mark Koebrich [WMV file, 3:49 TRT] reported that the television station had "spoken with a close family friend of the Heemeyers" (it is unclear whether this is someone who knew Marvin, or his brothers) who said "[Marvin] had been recently diagnosed with terminal cancer."

In the "manifesto" police told the press about today, among the hand-written notes left in the garage where the armored bulldozer was built, Heemeyer mentions "four people" [including himself] who have "died prematurely" as a result of the construction of a concrete batch plant in Granby. From the Rocky Mountain News:

[P]reliminary autopsy results released Tuesday showed that Heemeyer was healthy and sober when he shot himself in the head. The results, released by Grand County Coroner Dave Schoenfeld, show that Heemeyer suffered from nothing more than mild cardiomegaly, or an abnormal enlargement of the heart. "You see this often in people age 50 and up," said Schoenfeld, who indicated that the condition wasn't life threatening.

Rumors swirled through Granby over the weekend that Heemeyer was terminally ill and had therefore reconciled himself with the prospect of an imminent death before embarking on his suicidal rampage. Maria Rios, co-owner of a Grand Lake restaurant that Heemeyer frequented, told the Rocky Mountain News on Sunday that Heemeyer had said to her earlier this year that he was sick and "had nothing to lose." Rios said he didn't elaborate further. Heemeyer's body was driven Saturday night to the Jefferson County Coroner's Office, where it was X-rayed and examined. The body was returned Monday to Grand County.

Early toxicology results also show that Heemeyer was neither drunk nor on drugs when he died. "Toxicology shows him clean," Schoenfeld [also] said that Heemeyer's family has yet to contact him about where they want his body sent.

Interesting. If the final autopsy report reveals no evidence of terminal disease, this leads to the speculation that Heemeyer's belief may have been the result of a doctor's mistaken diagnosis, or that he somehow believed himself to be terminally ill without seeking medical attention.

Heemeyer's Unsettling Legacy

NPR's Michele Norris talks with Granby eyewitness Neil Dewet on All Things Considered
The Sky-Hi News' (Granby's local paper, whose bullding was damaged in the incident) special page covering the dozer rampage
Colorado Springs Gazette
CBS4 Denver
ABC7 Denver
NBC9 Denver
Granby, Colorado Chamber of Commerce
Gambles Hardware homepage
"I Never Got Caught": excerpts from Heemeyer's 'manifesto' [Rocky Mountain News]
ABC 7 Denver's look inside the Granby Work Shed [video stream, June 9, 2004]

UPDATE: This story is tailor-made for our media-intensive times, and The Denver Post has dedicated a full webpage to multimedia relating to the Granby bulldozer rampage, including video and slideshows of the interior of the dozer and closeups of the damage.

One more thought on Marvin Heemeyer: on the Usenet, which always has plenty to say about any news event, the name is now associated with the words "madman," "superman," "gun nut" or "hero," depending on the writer's political persuasion. However, I think that a 'post-mortem', so to speak, of his creation of a homemade armored bulldozer and his destructive ride through Granby, Colorado reveals something more tragic. After reading the news accounts of his bulldozer rampage, I wondered when investigators would find his suicide note.

Heemeyer must have known all along this would be a trip with no exit, and all accounts from neighbors and townspeople he tangled with suggest he was not one to allow himself to be carted away in handcuffs, or locked away in a prison cell. Even if the bulldozer hadn't sprung a catastrophic radiator leak before coming to a halt in the foundation of Gamble's Hardware, I think his end would still likely have come from a self-inflicted gunshot wound.

It probably wasn't just the town council in-crowd headbutting that ate away at Heemeyer. His muffler shops and business partnerships came and went over the years, slowly losing ground, and he lived an essentially solitary life in Grand County. We know living alone with one's tortured thoughts, a penchant for longstanding grudges and a taste for heavy artillery is a recipe for trouble. But instead of moving away and getting a fresh start, turning to lawyers, or to press outside his own small town for publicity, he decided to end it all and make Granby pay dearly in the process. When words and rank-and-file procedure failed him, Heemeyer took revenge using the modality he knew best.

After years of sparring with local officials over zoning and increased industrialization near his muffler shop, he took his formidable skill with a welding torch and built a sarcophagal siege engine that tore apart his mountain town, and the former ease of its residents. Using the blunt grinding language of concrete, guns and steel, he left no question that a scorned man with nothing to lose is a force to be reckoned with.

Heemeyer shouldn't be called a hero, but should he be reviled as a madman? Madness is relative, and others have certainly taken similar vengeance with higher body counts for lesser cause: it's happening today as we speak, around the globe. But what else could we call his actions? When he fired up the bulldozer and crashed out of his garage, he crossed that fine line from violent potential to real mayhem. Ironically, the notoriety of the "Bulldozing of Granby" may compel some to consider traveling to the scenic region, bringing tourist dollars - and more of the development Heemeyer resented.

Miraculously, Marvin's was the only death from the Friday rampage, but the damage will run into the millions. Even worse, according to some reports, those who lost homes or businesses to the bulldozer attack will have trouble recouping losses and collecting insurance settlements: was the rampage a crime? An act of terrorism? Vandalism? "Act of God," war or force majeure? FEMA doesn't apply, because the attack wasn't a natural disaster, even though the Ed Wang, mayor of Granby, and governor Bill Owens agreed the town looked as though it was blasted by an oddly selective tornado.

Paula Holzfasper, a bartender at El Monte bar and restaurant in Granby, described Heemeyer as "...really nice. He was always happy," she said. "He is a very happy person. I mean he had his disputes with the Town Council. A lot of people do. The Town Council can be brutal on people."

Some people remember him as a passionate but easygoing sportsman, some remember his petulant, unforgiving temper.

As tempting as it is to use 20/20 hindsight to dissect a dead man's motivation, the evidence shows that Heemeyer had likely been a high-risk individual for a long time. As a middle aged, male, Caucasian, never-married (reportedly once engaged, but the relationship ended badly) military veteran, he fit the U.S. CDC's profile for one of the highest combined risks of 'successfully completed' firearm suicide. With no wife or known children, no immediate family in the area, some friends but apparently few people he trusted, perhaps something besides the loss of his business and pride pushed him to the limit. Maybe his father's death in March in South Dakota proved a significant stressor, or perhaps he had developed health problems no one else knew of. Whatever the final straw was, Heemeyer is taking the secret to his grave. We'll never know, but the town of Granby won't forget.

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