Marvin Heemeyer, the perpetrator of the 2004 Killdozer rampage in Granby, Colorado, was not an American folk hero. Rather, he was a selfish and greedy small business owner who took advantage of the town’s numerous efforts to appease and assist him in his petty squabbles with the local town’s government. When finally overruled, in response to these perceived civic slights he committed a violent act of terrorism that miraculously resulted in only his own death, by suicide.

The mythic narrative ascribed to Heemeyer of a rugged individualist American pushed too far by the system, and who was justified in his violence, is a false one.