Ray William Johnson: True Story Podcast - He Went Crazy and Destroyed a Whole City - The Killdozer Story

Episode Date: September 22, 2025

The Killdozer story revolves around Marvin Heemeyer, a welder and small business owner in Granby, Colorado, who in 2004 became enraged over disputes with city officials and local businesses that he felt had wronged him, including zoning decisions and fines. In response, Heemeyer secretly modified a Komatsu bulldozer into an armored vehicle by welding thick steel and concrete plating over it and installing cameras and guns inside, creating what became known as the Killdozer.

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assuming you don't have superpowers. I'll never work again if anyone found out. My lips are sealed. Marvel Television's Wonder Man. All eight episodes now streaming, only on Disney Plus. So look at this. gets super mad and he destroys a whole town with a freaking bulldozer. Now the guy's name is Marvin and Marvin is a normal dude and he owns a muffler repair shop in Colorado.

But Marvin also has a huge problem. Some jerk just bought the land next to his muffler shop and they're building a big new concrete plant there. And this really sucks for Marvin because a new concrete plant will block the road that customers use to access his muffler shop. And this would essentially kill his business, and he's not about to let that happen. Now, the guy building that concrete plant is actually a family, but that family is led by this guy, Cody. And so around 1997, Marvin and Cody, they go resolve this and they go into negotiations. And Cody offers to buy Marvin's land from him for $250,000. And Marvin likes this deal.

But then he changes his mind and he asks for more money. So now the deal's at $375,000. And Cody agrees to pay it. But then Marvin ups his price again to $1 million. And Cody is definitely not going to pay that. So then, in 2001, the city finally gives Cody approval to build his new concrete plant on the land next to Marvin's. Now remember, this is going to block the road to Marvin's muffler shop and kill his business. And so, of course, Marvin starts freaking out.

He's going to city hall meetings, trying to block Cody from getting rezoning permits. He argues that the plant will not only bring a bunch of dust, but also a bunch of noise and truck traffic down the roads. And some community members even agree with Marvin. But in the end, the city ultimately approves Cody's construction. And soon, the new concrete plant goes up right next to Marvin's muffler shop. And poor Marvin, he is pissed. He, like, hires an attorney and he tries to appeal the city's decision, but it still doesn't work. He then petitions to have a new road built so that his customers will be able to get to his shop.

He even buys a bulldozer so that he can do a lot of the road building work himself. But apparently the city rejects these ideas too. And to make it worse, after all that, then boom, the city hits him with a $2,500 fine for what they say is multiple violations. Having broken down vehicles on his property, which seems like it would be part of his muffler business, but whatever. and also not being hooked up to the nearby sewer line. Man, this is just not going well for him. Now, at this point, most people would admit defeat and they would probably give up.

But Marvin, he can't let this go. He not only lost a bunch of money over this, but now he has to have his shop right next door to the plant he spent so much time and money trying to block. And so finally, bro just snaps. And that is when he comes up with a devious plan to punish not only Cody and his family, but to get revenge on the whole city for screwing him over. And so a few months pass, and Marvin ends up selling his land to a completely different party,

and he has a few months left on his property before he has to move out. And so he goes and he gets that bulldozer he bought back when he had hoped to build his own road, and he plans to use his workshop and start turning that bulldozer into an armored war machine and use it to level Cody's concrete plant and also fuck up other buildings in the town. And so he gets to work. He welds thick steel plates onto the bulldozer and he fills them with concrete, basically making bulletproof panels. Here's a picture of it you can see.

It's got panels all over it. And since the bulldozer is now covered with all these steel plates, he then mounts cameras around it so that he can see outside. And you can see this picture here. He has little monitors that he has to use in order to be able to be able to be able to. to see outside. And he also attaches three guns to the bulldozer, to the front, to the rear, and to the right side so that he can, you know, shoot people. And so Marvin keeps working on this, and several months pass, and we're in 2004 now. And finally, he's done. His war machine is built,

and it will become known as the killdozer. So then the big day comes. Time for Marvin to use killdozer to get his revenge. So on that day, he climbs into it and he bolts the hatch door shut and he starts it up. And immediately, kaboom, he smashes straight through the walls of his own workshop. Like he doesn't even open the shop door, he just drives right through the wall. Then, of course, he heads right to Cody's concrete plant. And bam, he plows directly into it and he tears through the administrative office and he smashes through a bunch of walls. And Cody, he's actually there. and he sees that his plant is being destroyed and he's like, oh shit! And blam, blam, he fires a pistol at Marvin, but, you know, that doesn't work.

Then he jumps into one of his front-in loaders, and he tries to block Marvin from completely destroying the plant. And boom, they crash into each other, but the front-in loader is no match for Marvin's killdozer. Kildozer easily pushes it out of the way. Marvin even uses those rifles attached to the kildozer to fire at Kodi. And luckily he misses. And in the middle of all this chaos, police show up. And Marvin, he's like firing at them and they're firing back at him.

But whatever, he moves on. Once he's satisfied with how he destroyed the plant, Marvin leaves and he drives into the city. And soon enough, pow, he crashes into a cop car. Then boom, he rams into a local business. After that, bam, plows into a pickup truck just because he doesn't like the owner. Apparently the owner wouldn't help him with a petition or something like that. After that, kaboom, he smashes through the town hall. And the town hall, And the town hall has a library with a bunch of kids in it. And luckily the kids are able to evacuate the building right before he destroys it. Now, by this time, of course, police are chasing him.

And he's shooting back at them and they're shooting back at him. And the bullets, they just bounce off the steel plates. It doesn't really matter. Police even try throwing explosives at him. But that doesn't work either. And so Marvin, he just keeps moving forward and he keeps ramming into more and more buildings. He rams into the local bank where a woman on the zoning board works. I guess he's trying to get revenge on her.

He smashes through the local newspaper office, which had once written articles about him, criticizing him. He even goes and knocks down the home and business of the former mayor of the town. And at one point he uses one of the rifles to fire at these massive propane tanks near a senior housing complex. I guess he's trying to blow them up too. Luckily he misses and no seniors die. And so all this destruction goes on for about an hour and a half. And in that time, Marvin ends up destroying around 13 buildings total. And he causes more than $5 million in damages.

And now luckily at this point, no one has died. I mean, he's almost killed a bunch of people, not just cops, but like random citizens too. And police, they have no idea how to stop him. And so it seems like Marvin, he's just going to keep going until this whole town is destroyed. Until Until Marvin finally screws up He heads for a nearby hardware store Which is owned by a former town board member that he wants to get revenge on

And so he gets there and kaboon he starts smashing through it But then suddenly, Kildozer won't move anymore The hardware store has a small basement in it And the bulldozer had driven over that basement and it had started to sink into it Plus, Kildozer has a bunch of radiator damage, so it's just not moving anymore. And Marvin is screwed. And so the SWAT team, they're nearby, and they've been following him the whole time, and they see that he's now stuck, and they know that now is their chance.

And so they rush over to the Kildozer, and they surround it, and they start trying to break into it. But they just can't, because remember, Marvin sealed himself in there. Meanwhile, Marvin, he knows that this is the end. So before the SWAT team can enter the dozer, he takes out a pistol and blam, he unalives himself.