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you get your podcasts. Okay, show

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me what you got. This

0:29

is Chameleon, season seven. The

0:32

Michigan plot. A production of Campside

0:34

Media. Oh. The

0:38

Binge. I

0:45

don't know, I don't know. Martin,

0:47

I've never heard of you. You can't

0:49

even have one, I ain't heard of you. It's June 20th,

0:51

2020, and Dan Chappell, an

0:54

undercover informant for the FBI, is

0:56

about to meet with Adam Fox, a

0:59

man he worries might be getting ready to commit an

1:01

act of domestic terrorism. Adam

1:05

invited Dan and other members of

1:08

the Wolverine Watchmen to meet in the basement of a vacuum cleaner store

1:10

called the VAC Shack in

1:12

Grand Rapids, Michigan. This is

1:14

my little fucking fallout place, man, if I got a

1:16

fucking bug out. Adam is paranoid

1:19

about who might be listening in, so he asks

1:21

everyone to put their phones in a box that

1:24

he'll leave upstairs out of earshot. But

1:34

Dan is carrying a backup recorder, disguised as a car key

1:37

fob in his pocket. They

1:40

make their way down the narrow staircase into

1:44

the dark, creepy basement. The

1:55

room is cluttered with vacuum cleaner parts,

1:57

bags and hoses, And off to the

1:59

side. Side: There's a bed where

2:01

Adam sleep over. You know shit,

2:03

have a bed down. Here they

2:06

are. Adam walks around the basement

2:08

scanning the room for electronic devices

2:10

that might be recording know why

2:12

it happened. When Adam is satisfied

2:14

that no one can be listening

2:16

in. He. Sits down and

2:18

immediately start smoking weed with

2:20

his girlfriend Samantha Keller. Die.

2:27

And on that note, the meeting is

2:29

called to order. So

2:32

this may have to face it.

2:34

We gotta see. What

2:37

actions we can take. At this point

2:39

everyone at the meeting is aware of

2:41

atoms train wreck of a plan to

2:43

storm the capital, take hostages and charge

2:46

the politicians with crimes against the constitution

2:48

without the kind of talk about my

2:50

uncle who do that for they may.

2:55

I say that is as a they

2:57

said that basically and although even he

3:00

realizes the idea is ridiculous. Adam

3:02

hasn't fully given up on it. Between.

3:04

Drags from a joint p

3:07

unspools his master plan. What?

3:09

Would amount to a full scale

3:11

tactical strike. That

3:14

we had a thousand married to do

3:16

with this. at three hundred metre the

3:18

gavel, a Caesar in the take the

3:20

houses and cars over a be charged

3:22

and then we can have the other

3:25

seven how to roll and we go

3:27

out of I personally buildings or apartments

3:29

and said a thousand men, snipers, a

3:31

carefully choreographed two pronged assault. Even Adam

3:33

agrees this isn't going to happen but

3:35

we don't have the do Germany the

3:37

actual men step up willing to fucking

3:39

go do this. So his friend James

3:41

Mackintosh has a simpler idea. Well.

3:43

Comparatively, they all feel the Governor

3:46

Whitmer has violated the constitution with

3:48

her covert nineteen related executive orders.

3:51

Why? Not just go in and arrest her. Her

3:54

of the United States Constitution.

3:58

Are you the truth? Better. Our

4:00

leader charged in you to walk up

4:02

the list or foot in. The

4:05

capital group or out of receive your cigarette

4:07

down the stairs. You're

4:09

gonna have. Opposition. Boy, you can

4:11

legally do it. This.

4:13

Is obviously not true, but this

4:16

is the idea group latches onto.

4:19

It's. A could somehow legally arrest the

4:21

Governor. Here's another fires I feel like

4:23

for him to join us probably other

4:25

shared call not just like help us

4:27

out for Pobl are suggests they get

4:29

allies in other states to do the

4:32

same to their governors and was gonna

4:34

say they are down effect history of

4:36

going to go I'm repeating hard on

4:38

her while on us more sense to

4:40

us all that What assignment? Adamant Amanda

4:43

bring up the Militia summit they went

4:45

to two weeks earlier in Dublin, Ohio.

4:47

How's about that very thing? Getting groups.

4:49

In multiple states on board with the

4:51

same plant ten the F B I

4:54

inform it wants to know more about

4:56

that summons. They can vary. Have a

4:58

you're interfering that is a coordinated going

5:00

to win vs soon I do that

5:02

He only wants focus and are loaded

5:05

on a level where to write a

5:07

pop off and late Saturday states like

5:09

Virginia. Adam says

5:11

the guy who ran the meeting in Ohio,

5:14

Steve robust and put him in charge of

5:16

recruiting people in Michigan for this multi state

5:18

strategy. In. Fact: Robeson is

5:20

planning a training weekend in Wisconsin

5:22

next month's. A. Kind of mid

5:24

summer Jamboree. But. With guns and

5:27

ammo. little got a big fucking com how

5:29

he says the more the merrier he's got

5:31

a guest houses, got plenty of walking lamp

5:33

even for tens and said maybe got the

5:35

room for for pocket army author he says

5:38

i'm. Amanda says that

5:40

Wisconsin is where they would decide

5:42

on a real plans are supposed

5:44

to talk about sexism. Proper targets

5:47

were donated over this. What We're

5:49

fucking. Doing or. What?

5:53

dan heard in the back shack

5:55

basement sounded like the beginnings of

5:57

a coordinated effort of armed extremists

5:59

some multiples to do something,

6:02

to take some kind of action, maybe

6:05

even violent action. To

6:08

find out what the plan was exactly,

6:10

Dan would have to go to that

6:12

training in Wisconsin. But what he

6:14

might not have known was that the

6:16

training wasn't being organized by extremists at

6:18

all. It was being

6:20

planned and paid for by the

6:23

FBI. My

6:26

name is Ken Bensinger. And I'm

6:29

Jessica Garrison. From Campside Media and

6:31

Sony Music Entertainment, this is Chameleon

6:33

Season 7, The

6:36

Michigan Club. Episode

6:42

3. What's the plan? What

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if millions of black Americans had

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been compensated for slavery? Join

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me, tremendously, as I explore the

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I talked to his descendants and

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New episodes drop Thursdays. Listen now,

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wherever you get your podcasts. Dan

7:20

Chappell and a couple of Wolverine watchmen have

7:22

just emerged from a basement meeting at a

7:24

vacuum cleaner shop where they discussed

7:26

arresting politicians, an assault on the

7:28

state capital, and the potential for

7:30

violent civil war. Now

7:33

it's time to celebrate. Kai

7:47

Garban, the watchman who orders a

7:49

McDouble, tells Dan that he's not

7:51

sold on Adam Fox. Adam,

7:54

he says, is a lot like

7:56

Pete Musico, the watchman's resident crazy

7:58

person. Garbin

8:01

says if you put them in a

8:03

room together with all their anti-government paranoia

8:05

they'd need to double layer the tinfoil

8:07

on their hats. Tinfoil hats,

8:10

oh Jesus. Make sure you

8:12

double layer tin foil. One layer doesn't work

8:14

anymore. They're technology advanced. But Dan has worked

8:16

hard to connect the watchman and Adam and

8:18

he's not giving up. He's

8:20

been watching the watchman for months and

8:22

although they talk a lot about violent and illegal

8:25

acts they haven't actually done anything.

8:28

Yet. Adam Fox

8:30

seems intent on taking action. It's

8:32

time to get the crazies in a room

8:34

together and see what happens. What's

8:38

up, Otter girl? What's going on, man? Shit,

8:41

shit. So

8:44

a few days later Dan calls up

8:47

Pete Musico. What's

8:49

going on? Dan wants to

8:51

talk up the meeting with Adam Fox. But

8:53

Pete tells Dan that something about Adam

8:55

just gives him the creeps. Listen, I

8:57

know I'm out there. No. Just

9:01

a couple people in this movement that are around

9:03

that they kind of fucking weird me out. Adam

9:06

weirds me out because he's fucking hot

9:08

headed. You know, so he weirds me the fuck

9:10

out. Adam has a

9:13

big mouth. Dan invited him

9:15

to come to a watchman training at Pete's place and

9:17

Adam turned around and invited a whole bunch of

9:20

people on Facebook. Yeah, fuck

9:22

that shit. This dude put a call out in

9:24

a fucking group chat and

9:26

all call off training for

9:28

fucking Sunday. Fuck your fucking

9:30

breaks, homie. Oh, you guys place

9:32

or what? Yeah. Joe

9:36

Morrison, the other watchman founder, jumps in

9:38

on the call. He says

9:40

he had to ask Adam to take the post down. Yeah,

9:43

he ended up taking it down, but I had

9:45

the fucking message in. I'm like, yo,

9:47

what the fuck, dude? Dan is trying

9:49

to bring Adam in with the watchman

9:52

to sell him as the man with the plan.

9:55

But Adam's already screwing it up. I

9:57

think he's real motivated and that's just he's like the.

10:00

A dog in a room with all sorts of shit going on

10:02

and he was wanting to go in every direction. I

10:05

mean, I don't want no fucking idiot.

10:07

I don't see my group for fucking

10:10

30 fucking minutes. And the next

10:12

thing you know, our entire fucking group's

10:14

investigated because some dumbass. Right. Yeah,

10:16

we got to have the shit done. Fox

10:18

had recently been named a leader of

10:20

the Michigan Patriot 3 percenters, what

10:22

appeared to be the statewide chapter of

10:25

a national organization. And to

10:27

Pete, that just didn't make sense. I'm

10:29

trying to figure out how the fuck

10:31

this dude got national recognition. Dude,

10:34

come on. I think the fact that

10:36

he was down in Ohio, you know, and he's

10:38

he's rubbing elbows with everybody. So I mean, you got to give

10:40

him some kind of credibility right there. By

10:43

the end of the call, Dan seems to

10:45

have calmed Pete's nerves and convinced him that

10:47

Adam was a critical link to the national

10:49

patriot movement. Just because

10:51

he's tracking with everything that's going

10:53

around with like the surrounding states and stuff.

10:57

I mean, yeah, I

11:00

mean, I won't deny that he's a valiant

11:02

asset. We just got like Dan vouched for

11:04

Adam and at the end of the

11:06

day, his word went a long way. Right.

11:08

I touched your opinion. I trust what you

11:10

say. Right. Because you've been from fucked

11:13

up situations and you're still here. Right.

11:15

Well, I'm just fine. Dan

11:21

might have swayed the Watchman's founders, but to

11:23

get Adam into a training, he still had

11:25

a much tougher nut to crack. Joe

11:28

Morrison's wife, Jada. I'm

11:30

very protective. I'm going

11:32

to meet you outside of my house before you come to

11:35

my house. And if I think

11:37

you're sketchy, you're not coming. And

11:39

that was how Jada and Joe ended up

11:41

going on a double date with Adam Fox

11:43

and his girlfriend, Amanda, out of Denny's. It

11:48

was a normal couple's dinner. Amanda

11:51

Keller. There's a little girl with

11:53

him stinking cutie.

11:56

We just went there to meet

11:58

each other. and

12:00

cock and bullshit and

12:03

see if we vibed. Just

12:07

two couples feeling each other out

12:09

over slamburgers. We

12:11

talked about family. We

12:13

talked about kids, our children. We

12:16

didn't talk about anything that had to do with Wolverine

12:18

Watchmen. That was me getting

12:20

to know him and his wife. But

12:23

the two couples didn't exactly mesh.

12:26

Amanda had reservations about Jada.

12:28

I thought she was very young

12:31

and very immature yet. A

12:33

little jealous, a little controlling. I

12:37

also remember being that age and

12:39

thinking I knew everything. But

12:43

I did like them. They seemed

12:45

very down to earth. Jada

12:48

was not impressed. What

12:50

were they like? Did you like them? No,

12:52

not really. As

12:56

usual, Adam was being loud and he

12:58

wasn't being careful with his words. It's

13:01

not even that I thought he was a bad

13:04

guy. I mean, whenever you're living

13:06

in a vacuum shop, yeah,

13:08

you're tired of shit. You're

13:11

wanting to get your stuff together. I

13:14

mean, I thought something was off, but

13:16

I would never listen to, and

13:19

that was the biggest thing. To

13:21

Jada, Adam was a hothead and a

13:24

loudmouth. He couldn't even behave at

13:26

a Denny's. She didn't want

13:28

him at her house around her kids. And

13:31

this debate over whether to let Adam and

13:33

Amanda come to a Watchman training would be

13:35

hotly contested over the next few days. What

13:38

I see of his background is not

13:40

a trustworthy person in my eyes right

13:43

now. Right. But Dan kept

13:45

pushing. Let's say he did have a past,

13:48

and he started over. I

13:51

hope that's the case, but I don't

13:54

know. It's just, he seems like he's

13:56

a fucking hothead. Right. And

13:58

finally, Jayda relented. I think

14:00

he has potential. I mean, everybody has a past. It's

14:03

his team. Oh, I get it. That's why

14:05

I'm like, you know, okay, whatever. We'll give him a chance. Right. Still,

14:11

Jayda did not want Adam to know

14:13

where their house was. The

14:15

plan was for Dan and Joe Morrison to go

14:17

and pick up Adam at a nearby gas station.

14:20

And on the morning of the training, Sunday,

14:22

June 28th, Jayda called Dan with

14:25

one more demand. I want

14:27

you to know that you're going to have with Joe

14:29

to go pick this other sucker up. Okay. And

14:31

he's going to fucking work. I know what his type

14:34

is, but I don't fucking trust him. Right.

14:36

Do you know he has more than one person coming?

14:38

Well, they're going to wear something over their heads,

14:41

too. A

14:44

few hours later, Dan and Joe drove to

14:46

a gas station out by the interstate to

14:48

pick up Adam and Amanda and a few

14:50

of their pals. In the

14:53

end, Dan and Joe didn't put bags over

14:55

their heads. If you

14:57

think about it, that would have looked pretty weird

14:59

to the gas station's customers. They

15:02

just let Adam follow them back to Morrison's

15:04

property. Amanda

15:08

remembers watching the guys train and being

15:10

wowed by the watchmen during the drills.

15:13

You know what I remember thinking? If

15:15

these guys just got together, how do they

15:17

move together so well? They

15:19

moved like they had been together for years. And

15:23

I wanted to know who was training. And

15:26

it was Dan. And

15:30

that day, Dan seemed to take a

15:32

special interest in the greenest guy in

15:34

the whole group, Adam Fox.

15:37

He had patience with Adam. He

15:39

acted like he wanted Adam around. He

15:42

was just so excited that Dan would

15:45

want to take Adam under his wing

15:47

and teach him. I

15:49

was very excited. I

15:51

thought Adam would have an

15:53

amazing role model to

15:56

finally look up to and be friends with. The

15:59

guy that saved Chris. Kyle, how

16:01

awesome is that, you know? This

16:06

training wasn't recorded. The government's

16:09

official line is that Dan's

16:11

recorder malfunctioned. As you

16:13

might recall from the beginning of the

16:15

episode, Dan usually carried a backup recorder,

16:17

but apparently that didn't work either.

16:20

So we have to take Dan's word

16:22

on what, in his telling, would turn out

16:25

to be an extremely eventful meeting. So,

16:30

according to Dan, at the end of the training

16:32

that day, Pete Musico had the group

16:34

circle up and stood in the middle. He

16:37

said the group was heading to,

16:39

quote, real shit action that required

16:41

dedication. If they just wanted

16:43

to train and play soldier, that was

16:45

cool. But anyone who didn't want

16:47

to be a part of what was coming needed

16:49

to leave immediately. According

16:51

to Dan, no one stepped away.

16:55

Pete then unveiled a plan. He

16:57

wanted to conduct a coordinated kidnapping of

16:59

six to eight of the state's highest

17:02

ranking politicians, snatching them from their beds

17:04

in the night. They would

17:06

release them a few days later. This

17:08

would be done to send a message

17:10

to the state's tyrannical leaders. After

17:13

a brief discussion, everyone rejected that

17:16

idea. Next, Adam,

17:18

throughout his creation, the

17:20

half-baked plan to assault the Capitol. Again,

17:23

the group passed. And

17:26

even Adam had to admit that it still needed work.

17:29

Eventually, the group moved into the

17:31

house, where, according to Dan, people

17:33

smoked prodigious amounts of weed. Adam

17:36

told the group about the militia summit he

17:38

went to in Dublin, Ohio. How

17:40

the guy running it, Steve Robeson, wanted

17:42

representatives from each state to come up

17:44

with a plan that would send a

17:46

message to the tyrannical government. The

17:49

goal was for each state to carry

17:52

out some kind of attack one after

17:54

another, a chain reaction

17:56

that would kick off the Boogaloo, the

17:59

second American. in civil war. Dan

18:02

was listening closely. A

18:05

lot of Adams' ideas seemed like bluster,

18:07

but this was different. A

18:09

coordinated multi-state attack. The

18:12

kind of thing the FBI took

18:15

extremely seriously. You're

18:31

listening to the pocket of Dan Chappell. It's

18:34

July 7, 2020, a

18:37

little over a week after the Wolverine Watchmen's last

18:39

training. Dan's recording on

18:41

his cell phone, walking into a meeting with

18:43

Paul Bellar and some other

18:45

members of the Wolverine Watchmen at Bellar's

18:47

home in Milford, Michigan. What's

18:55

up? At

18:57

the last training, Bellar had a falling out

18:59

with Watchmen leader Joe Morrison and soon after

19:01

quit the group. He's

19:04

called this meeting because he's tired of the way things have

19:06

been going. He

19:08

wants to start a new, super-secret

19:10

group that's less sloppy. I'm

19:13

starting my own group now. No. I'm

19:16

trying to put together a team basically that's going

19:18

to be a little bit more strict. I'm

19:21

trying to keep it to where we're all very professional. The

19:25

first order of business, no more talking shop

19:27

and group chats. No more attending

19:29

protests where the news media might catch them

19:31

on film. Better operational

19:33

security at meetings. And

19:35

on that note, Bellar asks everyone to

19:37

put their phones in an ammo canister.

19:41

I have an ammo case. We can stick them in

19:43

if I'll wait. Anything else you need for any further

19:45

Thursday? That

19:49

works like a charm, unless someone

19:51

in your group also has a hidden

19:53

recording device. I

19:56

did want to talk about what's key card up. the

20:00

plan Pete Musico pitched at the training

20:02

to kidnap politicians. I'll tell you guys

20:05

right now, I am not about

20:07

fucking being on the off, I've been attacking.

20:09

I joined this shit to try

20:11

to train up. Everyone agrees this

20:14

is a defensive group only. They

20:16

are interested in preparing for battles, not

20:18

starting them. The law makes

20:20

it clear. I have some vision statement on

20:23

the group I'm trying to create right now.

20:25

I'm not an aggressor that's not being an

20:27

aggressor. Okay, let's go almost strictly defending and

20:29

that is it. We're not going to be

20:31

fucking black bangs, fucking politicians under the cars,

20:33

getting fucking more to go and arrest them.

20:36

We're not dealing with it. He says they

20:38

are not interested in Adam Fox's invade the

20:40

capital plan or the kidnapping plan or any

20:42

other aggressive action. Essentially anything

20:44

illegal. Dan,

20:47

the informant, tries to keep them in the fold.

20:50

He floats the idea of the group going

20:52

with Adam to the multi-state training in Wisconsin.

20:55

But he warns them it could be

20:57

more about offensive than defensive measures. So

21:00

Wisconsin is, I don't know

21:02

what all went out in Ohio, but there was basically

21:04

put out for feelers about offensive. I'm

21:06

going. Adam's going. I

21:09

just want whoever is going to go to kind of be

21:12

open-minded for whatever they are going to be putting out there. In

21:15

the end, the group agrees that they'll go

21:17

to the training, but they reiterate their defensive

21:19

stance. We are not going to be an

21:22

aggressor with the measure. We can only

21:24

understand we're all on the same page. I

21:27

want to return. The

21:32

Wolverine Watchmen are starting to come apart, and

21:34

Dan is trying to keep them together. In

21:37

the lead up to the Wisconsin training, he

21:39

tries to get Joe Morrison and Pete Musico

21:42

to come along. The two

21:44

had started to pull back from the group. Pete,

21:46

believe it or not, had come back to

21:48

his face. I've been focusing

21:50

on God. I kind of got

21:52

a little bit of a straight away, but

21:55

I'm still down and I'm still listening.

21:57

I'm still going to put my opinions

21:59

in. But I'm not gonna be like I

22:01

was, you know what I'm saying? Joe

22:03

Morrison, for his part, had been trying to

22:06

focus on his family. His

22:08

involvement with the Watchmen was putting a

22:10

strain on his marriage to Jada. We

22:12

were having bad marital problems, like edge

22:15

of the worse marital problems. Because

22:17

he was spending too much time on this

22:20

group and it was just every

22:22

night and I'm like when are you going to

22:24

stop? When are you going to spend time with

22:26

your kid? Your family. They

22:29

were trying to get him to go to all of these

22:31

out of state gatherings and I had a

22:34

deep down feeling that it was a trap. It

22:36

was a trap. Like I told him, I said

22:39

you go don't come back. Your

22:41

shit will be packed. I

22:43

was dead set on that. So

22:46

he did not go. In

22:54

the end, Dan had no choice but to

22:56

go to the training without Joe and Pete.

22:58

But he did convince Paul Bellar and a

23:00

few other Watchmen to come along. It's

23:04

July 10th and he's driving to pick up the

23:06

guys. What's

23:10

going on? We're at the lot right

23:12

on you. Well, fuck a duck.

23:16

I mean, I can but it might die. Most

23:20

of the Watchmen were, generally speaking,

23:23

broke. Nobody could afford the

23:25

gas for a long trip to Wisconsin. But

23:27

Dan offered to drive and rented a

23:29

big black Chevy Suburban on the FBI

23:31

dime. The kind of truck that

23:33

will be driven by, well, a

23:36

federal agent. I

23:38

felt I smelled it then. Don't

23:40

break it. It's a rental. That's

23:43

what you do with rentals. On

23:45

the road, the jokes about Dan being a

23:47

Fed continue. And then Paul

23:49

Bellar lets everyone in on something.

23:51

Something that Pete Musico and Joe

23:54

Morrison said about Dan. Dan

24:01

was a foot. They thought Dan was a foot. I

24:05

should have just told them, I was like, dude, if you're about to try to tell me

24:07

that you think Dan's a foot over the phone, I'm done. I told them how I... Dan

24:10

starts to protest, but Bilar tells him not

24:12

to worry about it. You ain't going to

24:14

find yourself another trust, but you're good.

24:17

I couldn't believe that they were actually fucking

24:19

considering this shit. Where are they at?

24:24

This road trip to Cambria, Wisconsin will be

24:27

talked about in court a lot. But

24:29

in the five hours of tape of that

24:32

drive, no illegal plot is discussed. There

24:34

are just a lot of dumb stories. This

24:37

motherfucker means us. He's a hell of

24:39

a dead in the hive for a projectile

24:41

bombadonna. He's going to try to

24:43

swing himself back on the bed so he

24:45

fucking hit his head more and completely knock

24:47

himself unconscious. A

24:49

lot of off-pitch sing-alongs. He

24:52

gives us the highest illusion, our story

24:54

never higher. And

24:59

the kind of lizard-brayed antics you'd expect from a

25:01

bunch of guys in their early 20s. Boos!

25:05

He's got boobs. Boobs! Boobs, man.

25:07

What? And

25:09

after many hours of these shenanigans,

25:11

finally they get to Central Wisconsin

25:13

and celebrate in their usual way.

25:15

What do we want? Two

25:18

or twenty pieces. Like for real? Two

25:22

twenty-piece nuggets. And

25:26

then, gorges on McDonald's, they

25:28

check into a motel and

25:30

pass out. The

25:40

next morning, they have breakfast at a nearby

25:42

diner where they meet up with Adam Fox

25:44

and Amanda Keller. Hey, what's

25:46

up man? While

25:50

they're eating, a guy Dan has never seen

25:52

before wanders over. He's

25:54

wearing a tricorn hat and looks a little

25:56

like a stoned pirate. And he

25:58

immediately starts talking about it. violent things

26:00

with an earshot of the waitress.

26:12

This is Barry Croft, the

26:14

trucker from Delaware, the guy who

26:16

connected Adam Fox to the Wolverine Watchmen

26:18

after the militia summit in Dublin. It's

26:21

a little hard to hear, but

26:23

Croft starts ranting about putting improvised

26:25

cannons on the back of ATVs

26:27

to wage war against the state.

26:29

Look, 30 HDVs with improvised cannons

26:31

on the back. Adam

26:34

laughs. After

26:42

breakfast, the guy is all convoy out to the

26:44

piece of farmland where the training is supposed to

26:46

be held. It's a

26:48

weird scene. Surrounded

26:51

by tall rows of corn, people are shooting

26:53

at targets on a makeshift range. At

26:56

the same time, cars are arriving and pulling

26:58

in behind the targets. So

27:01

every time a new car pulls in,

27:03

the shooting has to stop. Otherwise someone's

27:05

car will end up full of holes.

27:12

It's a steamy summer day. There's

27:14

a barbecue going, a pool with

27:16

lots of kids running around, and

27:18

of course, a bunch of guys

27:20

and gals sweating through head-to-toe tactical

27:22

gear. If everybody's here, come on

27:25

inside and let's not. Steve

27:28

Robeson, the guy who organized this hootnanny,

27:30

gathers everyone up in a barn on

27:32

the property. He's wearing flip-flops,

27:34

a pair of American flag swim trunks,

27:36

and a tank top that says, smell

27:39

the freedom. Hey, 53% of the United States, welcome all you people. We're

27:43

really getting

27:46

things together across the

27:48

country. The

27:56

United States Patriots are

27:58

going to be just... Smoking

28:01

is just weird. Pretty quick. Despite

28:04

the brief mention of a multi-state movement, there

28:06

really isn't a lot of discussion of any national

28:08

plan of attack. Today is more

28:11

just a straight training session, and

28:13

it seems like the instructors aren't very well

28:15

prepared. But that's okay.

28:18

Dan jumps in to help. And as

28:20

with the watchmen, the instructors seem stoked to

28:22

have a real live soldier in their midst.

28:24

This is great. This is fucking crazy. This

28:27

is so awesome. So you got that reaction?

28:30

Yeah, I can take five or six guys, and then

28:32

I can do dry stuff over here behind the building.

28:35

Absolutely. Okay. Gather five at a time and do it.

28:37

Yeah, that was cool. As usual, Dan takes the watchmen

28:39

aside to teach them some of the tactics he learned

28:42

in the Army. So let's say this is the door.

28:45

My first step, stepping in with

28:47

a barrel. And

28:50

as usual, he spends extra time

28:52

helping Adam Fox. So I'm

28:54

coming in, I'm clearing this area, and then I turn to this area. Nope,

28:56

you're not going to do any of that yet. Well, so what's happening? It's

28:59

me, Chris. Adam's

29:04

girlfriend, Amanda, watches them from a

29:06

distance. Her

29:08

boyfriend, she knows, has an

29:10

abrasive personality. He's not

29:12

easy to get along with. People

29:14

often don't like him. But

29:17

here's this guy, Dan, giving Adam

29:19

all this personal attention. At

29:22

first, it had warmed her heart. But

29:25

now, she's suspicious. He

29:29

was too good to be

29:31

true. And he was too

29:33

perfect. I

29:36

wanted to think that he

29:38

really was just a

29:40

good patriot, really wanting to take

29:42

Adam under his wing, really

29:45

want to be his brother. So

29:48

I was in a rock and a hard spot. And

29:52

Adam, who was a good friend, had a major suspicion

29:54

with Dan, to the point

29:56

where I was taking covert pictures of him while we were

29:58

in Cambria. What

30:01

were you going to do with the Pixers? Just keep

30:03

them for myself in case anything happens. I

30:06

didn't know. I had no plan. I

30:08

just wanted to take pictures of

30:10

people that I didn't trust. In

30:19

case she's on point. The

30:22

group runs drills for hours in the

30:24

sweltering July heat. It's humid as a

30:27

motherfucker. Yes, sir. Dan

30:29

is in full-on training mode,

30:31

steely-eyed and focused. During

30:33

the shooting drills, he puts on a clinic. Reload,

30:37

then you move. It

30:39

will be hammer, hammer, hammer. Moving, come in.

30:43

I'll come around, set, hop hop, reload. I'm

30:58

stuck. Do

31:09

you look like I've walked through so much?

31:12

Yeah, sure, I've walked through it. The

31:17

day's main event is what's called the Kill

31:19

House. A roofless plywood structure

31:21

that's been set up on the property

31:23

so that people can practice breaching buildings

31:25

and shooting targets within. When

31:27

it comes time for the Watchmen members to run

31:29

through the Kill House together, Dan makes

31:32

sure that someone is going to get the drill

31:34

on tape. We want photos? A

31:37

video? Someone in attendance

31:39

takes a video as the Watchmen stack up

31:41

on the door of the Kill House, just

31:43

like Dan taught them, preparing to go in.

31:45

All right, would you guys bring me?

31:48

My hands are like this. What can you

31:50

say? All right, you're dead. In

31:52

the video, with Dan guiding them, the

31:55

guys enter the Kill House in formation

31:57

and fire at targets inside. A

32:05

few days earlier, most of these guys

32:08

had been at a meeting where they

32:10

specifically disavowed the idea of political kidnapping

32:12

or offensive measures of any kind. But

32:15

months later, this video of the Kill House

32:17

would be played in court and on the

32:19

news. It would be used

32:22

as evidence of the idea that the watchmen

32:24

weren't just training to protect themselves. This

32:27

would claim that they were training to

32:29

learn how to breach the home of

32:32

Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer, shoot her security

32:34

detail, and kidnap her. Don't

32:41

want to wait for that next episode? You don't

32:43

have to. Unlock all episodes of

32:45

Chameleon the Michigan Plot ad-free right

32:47

now by subscribing to the Binge

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32:54

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33:01

you'll get Binge access to new stories on

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the first of every month. Check

33:05

out the Binge channel page on

33:07

Apple Podcasts or getthebinge.com to learn

33:10

more. Dan

33:16

Chappell and a few members of the Wolverine

33:18

Watchmen are training on a piece of farmland

33:20

in Cambria, Wisconsin. During

33:23

a break in the action, Dan goes into a barn

33:25

to take a rest. And Barry

33:27

Croft is in there in his tricorn hat,

33:29

engaging in one of his favorite activities, rambling

33:32

about the Constitution. I

33:34

mean, do you know what the first constitutional trespass was?

33:37

Stealing West Virginia from the territories

33:40

of Virginia. You didn't

33:42

have their legislators' permission. You,

33:44

by federal recognition, established

33:46

new boundaries. I'm

33:48

going to spare you some of this, but the thing

33:51

about Barry Croft is, one second

33:53

he's droning on about the Constitution,

33:55

the next he's talking about blowing up

33:57

government agents in a blaze of suicide.

34:00

I gotta really fuck your mother up.

34:02

If you come to my house, I'm

34:04

blowing you up. You're crying straight to

34:06

hell with me. We can

34:09

all go together. I'll pack the bus and I'll sit

34:11

at the very back, straddling the

34:13

aisle. You know what I mean? This

34:16

is the kind of talk that FBI

34:18

agents just go wild for. And

34:21

that's why, although he doesn't know it, Barry

34:23

Croft has become a principal target of

34:25

an ongoing FBI sting operation. Back

34:30

in 2019, Barry was in contact with the

34:32

leader of a border militia, a friend of

34:34

his named Casey Massey. Massey

34:37

had skipped out on probation and was a fugitive, being

34:39

chased around Texas for months by federal

34:42

marshals. And in Facebook

34:44

messages to Massey during the manhunt,

34:46

Barry made ominous statements. He said

34:48

law enforcement would have to pay

34:51

for what they have done, and that he was prepared to

34:53

destroy this whole planet. Then,

34:57

two days before Christmas, Massey

34:59

was found dead in the woods.

35:02

His death was ruled a suicide,

35:04

but Barry suspected foul play, that

35:07

the feds had caught up with his friend and

35:09

killed him in cold blood. What

35:11

Barry didn't know was that the

35:13

feds had searched Massey's Facebook account

35:16

and found Barry's violent messages. And

35:19

soon after, Barry became a target

35:21

of the FBI. The

35:23

militia summit in Dublin last month and

35:25

this training were organized by the FBI with

35:28

Barry in mind. They've been

35:30

using Barry's contacts in the militia community to

35:32

bring more people into the dragnet, people

35:35

like Adam Fox and the Wolverine

35:37

Watchmen. Steve Robeson, the

35:39

guy that put this training together, flip-flops

35:42

into the barn and sits down by

35:44

Barry. Everybody go check this, Rob, and

35:46

you can put that together. I'm

35:49

sorry, it's going good. Robeson

35:51

always seems to be there to hear what Barry

35:53

has to say, because

35:55

for the months he's known Barry Croft,

35:57

Robeson has been secretly working

36:00

as an informant for the

36:02

FBI. Think

36:07

back for a second to that malicious summit

36:09

in Dublin, Ohio. The FBI

36:11

paid for it and Robeson organized it.

36:14

The idea was to get all these people together

36:16

from all over the country. People

36:19

who, like Barry and Adam Fox,

36:21

had a tendency to post violent

36:23

fantasies on the internet. The

36:25

point of the summit was to see if these

36:27

people would come up with a real plan. Because

36:30

until these guys come up with an actual plan

36:32

of action and take steps towards carrying it out,

36:35

all that violent talk is just that. Talk.

36:41

Steve Robeson did not agree to be interviewed for

36:44

this podcast. But we have plenty of

36:46

tape of him hanging out with Barry and the

36:48

other guys at the training in Cambria. There's resourceful

36:50

bastards that figure out leads from bloody walls that

36:52

figure it out. It's a good

36:55

idea. Barry Croft loves to talk. But

36:57

usually there's very little action to go

37:00

with it. And I mean, like I

37:02

was showing him, I'm down for Pearl

37:04

harboring a fucking state police parking lot.

37:07

Hello, Daddy. Oh, yeah. Barry

37:09

brought his young daughters to the training, too. Honey,

37:11

could you please go? I

37:13

mean, here's the thing. Barry

37:16

claims to be a kind of amateur

37:18

explosives expert. He wants to put his

37:20

abilities to the test. See, I wanted

37:22

to do some blowing shit up and

37:24

looking at it. Robeson is totally into

37:26

that idea. Yeah, I mean, like I'm

37:28

for whipping shit up. I just with

37:30

the area out here. I didn't want

37:34

to. Barry and Daniel Harris, one of the

37:36

Wolverine watchmen, go over to the bed of

37:38

a pickup truck and start putting together a

37:40

crude explosive device made mostly from fireworks. It's

37:43

basically gunpowder and sparklers stuffed into

37:45

a balloon filled with steel BBs.

37:48

Croft lights a long fuse and puts it

37:50

in an old junk stove on the property.

37:53

Danny, big cover. That

37:57

big, huh? Dan and Daniel Harris scramble

37:59

for cover. How

38:02

much pounds is it? A couple

38:04

ounces. You put babies in

38:06

it? What the

38:08

fuck dude? You're the fucking silver one.

38:11

The wire would be behind the fucking car.

38:14

Good question. Hey, you jinxed

38:16

it, man. Unsurprisingly, the

38:18

device fails to detonate. Who

38:21

are you running for? They decide they'll

38:23

try to shoot it to get it to go off. And

38:27

that doesn't work either. At

38:32

the top of this episode,

38:34

in the basement of the Vaxack, Adam had told everyone that at this

38:36

training, they would

38:38

decide on a national game plan. Nothing

38:41

like that happened. And one of the guys who's supposed

38:43

to be leading this movement, Barry Croft, turned out to

38:45

be pretty useless. Back

38:50

at the car with the other watchmen

38:52

loading up the gear, Dan seems frustrated that there is no plan.

38:56

What is it about? Are these guys us all behind the keyboard?

38:58

We can remember. What

39:00

are we gonna do? Steve

39:05

Robeson must have been feeling

39:07

the same way. So far, across two multi-state

39:09

get-togethers, he'd struck out

39:11

on getting these guys to commit to one feasible

39:13

plot. But he'd set up a third

39:15

meeting for the following weekend in Peebles, Ohio, about

39:19

an hour east of Cincinnati. This

39:22

time, no training, no messing around.

39:26

The sole purpose was to make a plan. Dan

39:30

drove some of the watchmen there and recorded the meeting,

39:33

but we don't have that audio. Luckily,

39:36

some of what was said was entered in court documents. For

39:38

the rest, we have to turn to Dan's report of the

39:40

event, as delivered to his FBI handlers. Robeson

39:44

led the meeting.

39:46

This is an actor's reenactment of what he

39:48

said taken from the transcripts. Okay, we're gonna

39:50

do a roundtable

39:52

now. We're gonna start here with him. Everybody

39:56

has the floor for

39:58

a few, so we'll see you next time. take three

40:00

minutes. You can get a

40:02

lot of information out in three minutes if

40:04

you stay on point. If

40:07

that's what you need to come up with

40:09

a plan to make it happen, I'll support

40:11

you, motherfucker. I don't give a shit, as

40:13

long as it's a very viable plan. We

40:16

need to start working on something now. We

40:18

have to leave here with a game plan, a

40:20

direction. Barry Croft

40:22

threw out a bunch of his trademark

40:25

crackpot ideas. He said he

40:27

wanted to firebomb a state police training facility

40:29

in Michigan. Then he said

40:31

he wanted to cut down trees across highways

40:33

to disrupt commerce in Ohio, or

40:35

maybe contaminate the water supply in Kentucky.

40:39

These ideas were all over the place,

40:41

and Steve Robeson was getting pissed off.

40:44

Everybody thinks we've got time to do this and hang

40:46

out and fucking sing kumbaya and all this

40:48

other shit. What the fuck? In two months,

40:50

your states are going to be locked back

40:53

down again. My fucking

40:55

words. Dan

40:58

Chappell jumped in too, trying to push everyone to

41:00

come to a consensus and make a decision about

41:03

the best plan of action. But it

41:05

was like trying to herd cats. Adam

41:08

Fox showed up to the meeting late, and he

41:11

too had a harebrained idea. Governor

41:13

Whitmer had a vacation home, a

41:16

lake house in northern Michigan near Traverse

41:18

City. The lake

41:20

house had been in the news in May, when

41:22

Whitmer's husband tried to use his wife's name to

41:24

jump the waitlist at the local dock to get

41:26

his boat in the water in time for Memorial

41:29

Day weekend. People in

41:31

Michigan who were still under lockdown orders were

41:33

outraged, both by a perceived

41:35

abuse of power and the governor's apparent

41:37

flouting of the COVID recommendations she'd set

41:40

out. So, if you

41:42

wanted to send a message to the

41:44

tyrants in charge, Adam reasoned, why not

41:46

go after the governor's vacation home? That

41:50

idea, like the rest, was met with

41:52

little enthusiasm from the others. But

41:54

it did catch the attention of Dan Chappell.

42:00

and went on for hours. Attendees

42:02

heard lots of bad, unviable

42:04

plans until everyone was completely

42:07

annoyed with each other. Just

42:11

so everyone knows where I stand on this, I

42:14

am pissed and I have to

42:17

let someone know I'm pissed beyond reproach about

42:19

this, that we have

42:21

accomplished fucking nothing here today.

42:30

We don't do the public. We

42:33

have to do something. We can't just

42:35

watch this shit. Honestly. The

42:38

frustration spilled out into the parking lot,

42:40

where Adam Fox kept ranting about Governor

42:42

Whitmer to Dan. She's literally

42:45

threatening fucking businesses and their employees, saying, if you

42:47

don't enforce my fucking tyranny, you will lose your

42:49

jobs and your livelihood. You know what? I want

42:51

to be the one she comes after, so I

42:53

can make a fucking example out of her. He

42:55

said he was fed up. He

42:57

was ready to do something. Here we go. This is just

43:00

the op real quick. Let's go do this op, and then

43:02

we're done. We did it. You got north. Dan

43:04

says, you got north, referring

43:07

to Adam's idea from the meeting earlier,

43:09

to do something to Whitmer's Lake House.

43:12

We got north. You

43:14

know, obviously, right now, I think our best bet is to

43:16

start burning shit down, blowing it up. If

43:19

you missed that, Adam says, I think

43:21

our best bet is to start burning

43:23

shit down and blowing it up. Fuck

43:25

it. In

43:30

the days and weeks after the People's Meeting,

43:33

Dan would redouble his efforts with Adam,

43:35

calling him almost every day. Hello.

43:38

Hey, what's good, bro? What's up, man? I'm

43:40

lost, brother. I'm lost. And on those calls,

43:42

they would cycle through a lot of dumb

43:44

ideas that could send a message to Governor

43:46

Whitmer. You know, like, she has her own

43:49

office, right? Yeah. Oh,

43:52

there you go. Right? Boom. Exactly.

43:56

But Dan kept working with Adam to

43:58

hone his wild notion. into a

44:00

plan. And that's why I told

44:03

them, I'm like, you know, if you guys want to

44:05

work on something, give me an objective or whatever you

44:07

want to label that. The goal, give us a direction.

44:09

I don't care how ludicrous it is, and we can

44:11

scale that down to something or just something. You know,

44:13

are we going for brick and mortar or are we

44:15

going for disruption? What are we thinking?

44:18

You know? And

44:21

Adam, in turn, was intoxicated by all

44:23

of his attention from Dan. Remember,

44:26

Adam was a guy living in a basement

44:28

who had no father figure, whose own grandfather

44:30

kicked him out of the house. Now

44:33

he was a part of something. Not

44:35

only that, but someone was looking to him

44:38

for ideas. Dan was

44:40

the world to Adam. He even

44:42

surpassed me. Amanda

44:44

Keller, Adam's girlfriend. If

44:46

Dan called, he had to get off the phone with me. It

44:49

wasn't Dan can wait. Dan

44:52

made him feel better than anybody ever

44:54

has. We

44:57

need to get a lesson of what we need. Yes,

45:00

I agree. And what we want and what we have is, get

45:05

yourself a little notebook and you start

45:07

writing them ideas now and then we can go through it

45:09

and, no, no,

45:11

yes, maybe, no, no, yes.

45:14

Okay, copy that. Oh, man.

45:18

Dan, I'll talk to you every day like

45:20

we do now, brother. Yeah, man. He

45:22

was living in the back shack at the time. We

45:26

were on Facebook video chat

45:28

and he grabbed a notebook and started writing

45:30

in it and I was like, what are you doing?

45:33

And he's like, Dan told me to write everything down.

45:36

He wanted Adam to write in his notebook

45:39

everything. His thoughts,

45:42

any types of plans, any

45:44

type of weapons, any type of

45:47

material needed. I want you to

45:49

write down a crime you want to commit. Adam

45:51

was telling me, he's like, what do I write? And I'm like,

45:54

not a goddamn thing. You

45:57

write nothing. You record nothing.

46:00

I said, even if it's the thoughts of

46:02

butterflies and puppy dogs and rainbows,

46:05

you don't write it down. I

46:07

was like, Adam, that's a manifesto. Like I

46:09

tried to get it through his head, something's

46:11

not right. And

46:13

that's when my eye went on Dan 100%. Amanda

46:16

knew this was a delicate situation. Adam

46:19

loved Dan like a brother. I

46:21

knew if I went after Dan, Adam

46:24

would shut down. So

46:26

I had to do it gently at first, but

46:28

I was too

46:30

late. They picked

46:33

a great patsy. They really

46:35

did. You fucks and

46:37

tickle his balls and call him pretty and Adam

46:39

will follow you anywhere. Over

46:41

the course of the next six weeks, Dan

46:44

would work with Adam to develop a scheme

46:46

that was more than just damaging the governor's

46:48

lake house. Over time,

46:50

they came back to an old idea, a plan

46:53

to arrest the governor. And

46:56

if you believe the case that the prosecutors would

46:58

ultimately build, the idea to arrest

47:00

governor Whitmer would turn into a more violent

47:02

one, a plot to

47:04

kidnap and even kill her. Adam,

47:13

Adam would not physically

47:16

hurt. But I could not see,

47:19

don't see, there's that rock in a hard spot

47:22

though. So

47:24

while I can sit here and think Adam

47:26

wouldn't hurt nobody, if Dan

47:29

led the way, Adam

47:31

would. I don't

47:33

even fucking care anymore. I'm just so sick of it. We're

47:37

just going to, everything's going to have to be

47:39

annihilated, man. We're at the top

47:41

of it all, dude. Man, we're just

47:43

going to conquer every fucking thing, man. On

47:52

the next episode of Chameleon, season

47:54

seven, the Michigan plot, a

47:57

wild plan with Black Hawk

47:59

helicopters exploding bridges and a water

48:01

assault. Come in by boat,

48:03

grab her, leave by boat, helicopter's

48:05

meep just in the... And

48:07

Adam and Dan take a trip up north

48:10

to surveil the target. Going

48:12

to recon the tyrant bitches fucking

48:14

vacation while we're on the boat.

48:25

Chameleon is a production of Campsite

48:27

Media in partnership with Sony Music

48:29

Entertainment. The Michigan plot

48:31

is hosted by me, Ken Bensinger.

48:34

And me, Jessica Garret. The

48:37

show is produced by Ryan Schweikert.

48:39

Callie Hitchcock and Henry Lavoie are

48:41

associate producers. Story editing

48:43

by Michael Canyon Meyer. Josh

48:46

Dean is our executive producer. Fact

48:49

checking by Annika Robbins. Voice

48:52

acting by David Eichner. Additional

48:54

research by Julie Deniche. Sound

48:57

design and mix by Ewan Lai Tramewin.

49:00

Music by Blue Dot Sessions, Epidemic

49:02

Sound, and APM. A

49:05

special thanks to our operations team.

49:07

Doug Slaywin, Ashley Warren, and Destiny

49:09

Dingle. Campsite Media's executive

49:11

producers are Josh Dean, Vanessa

49:14

Grigoriatus, Adam Hoff, and Matt

49:16

Schair. If you're enjoying

49:18

the show, spread the word, and leave us

49:20

a review on Apple Podcasts. It

49:22

helps other people find the show. I'm

49:25

Ken Bensinger, and thanks for listening.