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User:Geo Swan/David Crowley (filmmaker)

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David Crowley
Born(1985-07-07)July 7, 1985
Minnesota
DiedDecember 27, 2014(2014-12-27) (aged 29)
Apple Valley, Minnesota
NationalityUSA
Other namesDavid Timothy Crowley
Occupation(s)soldier, film-maker
Known forkilled his family, prior to killing himself

David Crowley was a film-maker in Minnesota, whose mysterious death, in 2014, triggered controversy.[1][2][3][4][5] An inquiry eventually concluded that Crowley had murdered his wife and five-year-old daughter, and then killed himself. Nevertheless, many of Crowley's fans and followers speculated that he had been assassinated, because the covert government conspiracy that would have been at the heart of his film was real, and the real conspirators felt compelled to silence him.

The three died on December 27, 2014.[1] A neighbor, concerned over lack of activity at their home, saw the bodies when they looked through a window, on January 17, 2015.[6] By January 28, 2015, local law enforcement officials were prepared to inform the public they believed the deaths were a murder suicide.

Early life

[edit]

Crowley's notes indicate he shared an apparently happy childhood, with his sister Alison and brother Dan.[7] He completed his first film while a student at the Owatonna High School in southern Minnesota. Crowley joined the US Army and served in Iraq and Afghanistan.[6]

Army career

[edit]

Crowley served several successful overseas hitches, prior to meeting Komel Amal, a recent muslim immigrant to the United States.[7] Crowley met Komel in Texas. They married in 2008. Crowley was deployed on one more hitch in a war zone, in 2009.

Crowley found his involuntary deployment and separation from his wife, hard.[7]

During his deployment Amal enjoyed professional success.[7]

Civilian life

[edit]

After his discharge from the Army the Crowley family returned to Minnesota.[7] They both studied. Crowley enrolled as an undergrad and studied film at the Minnesota School of Business. Komel earned a Masters degree in public health nutrition.

Crowley dropped out to work on a feature film, entitled Gray State, where shadowy forces take over the machinery of the US government, in order to enslave ordinary Americans, and take away their guns.[8]

After they had been married for several years Komel came out as a "born again christian".

Gray State

[edit]

Crowley raised $60,000-$70,000, through crowd-funding, to create a concept trailer, which he released, on YouTube, on August 7, 2012.[8][9] Footage shot for the trailer show Federal forces, under the command of the shadowy forces that usurped the US government, lining up ordinary Americans for summary execution, and show their children being branded, as an initial step in being used as slaves.

According to The New York Times, Crowley met with Alex Jones, publisher of the infowars.[10]

In Apple Valley, Komel was self-employed, and worked from home, as a registered dietitician.[1] Neighbors described their daughter, Rani, as bright and cheerful.

Law enforcement officers found no sign of a break-in.[11] They found a Koran opened between the bodies, and the phrase "Allah Akbar" scrawled on a nearby wall.

Crowley had begun work on a feature film, entitled Gray State, in 2010.[8] Crowley raised $60,000, through crowd-funding, to create a concept trailer, which he released, on YouTube, on August 7, 2012.[8] [9] The film was set in a "dystopian near-future where civil liberties are trampled by an unrestrained federal government." A & E broadcast a documentary, about Crowley's life, and death, titled A Gray State, from film-makers Erik Nelson and Werner Herzog.[12] According to the documentary some fans speculated that Crowley had been assassinated by shadowy government agencies because his fictional film too closely paralleled covert government programs to strip Americans of their civil liberties.

According to The New York Times, Crowley met with Alex Jones, publisher of the infowars website, prior to his death.[10]

Their family home stood empty for over two years, following the deaths.[1] The St. Paul Pioneer Press reported that neighbors felt its presence oppressive, and had hoped that, after the bank foreclosed, it had ordered the home bulldozed.

Local journalist Cory Zurowski called the deaths “catnip for conspiracy theorists.”[13]

[14]

[15]

[16]

References

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  1. ^ a b c d Nick Ferraro (2017-10-20). "Apple Valley home where filmmaker killed his wife, little girl and himself is for sale". St. Paul Pioneer Press. Apple Valley, Minnesota. Archived from the original on 2017-10-20. Retrieved 2020-03-29. Tupy said she and her neighbors wanted it torn down and that they eventually grew angry that the bank wasn't doing anything with it.
  2. ^ Matt Grobar (2017-04-28). "'A Gray State' Director Erik Nelson On David Crowley Doc As A "Core Sample Of American Crazy" — Tribeca Studio". Yahoo Style. Retrieved 2020-03-29. David Crowley was many things—"a visionary filmmaker, a political activist, an Iraq veteran, a family man—what documentarian Erik Nelson calls "an American hybrid."{{cite news}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link)
  3. ^ Alec Wilkinson (2017-04-03). "Death of a Dystopian". New Yorker magazine. Retrieved 2020-03-29. The police determined that Crowley had shot his wife and child and then shot himself, but commentators on the Internet soon began saying that Crowley's death seemed "suspicious" and "mysterious," and that he had likely been murdered by government agents intent on preventing the movie from being made.{{cite news}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link)
  4. ^ "Conspiracist filmmaker, family found dead in murder-suicide, spurring fresh theories". Southern Poverty Law Center. 2015-01-20. Retrieved 2020-03-29. At Alex Jones' InfoWars site, the news story reporting on the deaths described the 'suspicious circumstances surrounding the deaths,' namely, 'the controversial nature of Crowley's latest project, entitled Gray State, a highly-anticipated independent film envisioning a brutal police state, martial law crackdown, complete with biometric identification, a ubiquitous surveillance state and FEMA stormtroopers rounding dissidents up into camps.'{{cite news}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link)
  5. ^ Michael Rechtshaffen (2017-11-22). "Review Documentary 'A Gray State' examines conspiracy-riddled 2015 death of Iraq war veteran and his family". Los Angeles Times. Archived from the original on 2017-11-22. Retrieved 2020-03-29. He would attract a rabid alt-media following, Alex Jones among them, but while developing the movie version of "Gray State," he began exhibiting increasingly antisocial behavior that concerned friends and family, leading to the grim discovery of the bodies of Crowley, his wife and daughter in their suburban Minnesota home.
  6. ^ a b Tad Johnson (2015-01-28). "Officials confirm murder-suicide deaths in Apple Valley". Adams Publishing Group. Retrieved 2020-03-29. David Crowley, an Army veteran who served in Afghanistan, worked out of the family's home as a filmmaker and is credited as director and writer of an unreleased film called "Gray State," a trailer for which remains available for viewing on YouTube.{{cite news}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link)
  7. ^ a b c d e Cory Zurowski (2016-03-23). "The strange and tragic demise of a Minnesota filmmaker and his family". City Pages. Retrieved 2020-03-29. Above the bodies on the family room wall, the words "Allahu Akbar" — "God is [the] greatest" in Arabic — were finger-painted in blood. Skinny and scared, the Crowleys' dog Paleo had to be plied with treats and captured with a catchpole before investigators could fan out inside the home.{{cite news}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link)
  8. ^ a b c d "A Gray State: An A&E IndieFilms Presentation". Arts & Entertainment TV. Retrieved 2020-03-29. Set in a dystopian near-future where civil liberties are trampled by an unrestrained federal government, the film's crowdfunded trailer was enthusiastically received by the burgeoning online community of libertarians, Tea Party activists as well as members of the nascent alt-right.{{cite news}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link)
  9. ^ a b Gray State - Official Concept Trailer. YouTube. 2012-08-07. Retrieved 2020-03-29.{{cite AV media}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link)
  10. ^ a b Ben Kenigsberg (2017-11-02). "Review: 'A Gray State,' Behind a Filmmaker's Madness". The New York Times. p. C10. Retrieved 2020-03-29. Perhaps because Mr. Crowley was drawn to the paranoid fringe (he is shown meeting and watching Alex Jones), the deaths became a cause for conspiracy theorists.{{cite news}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link)
  11. ^ Nick Shager (2017-05-05). "An Alt-Right Filmmaker's Descent into Madness, Paranoia, and Murder-Suicide". Daily Beast. Retrieved 2020-03-29. Above their bodies on the wall of their living room, the phrase 'Allahu Akbar' was scrawled in Komel's blood. A Koran was found lying between David and Komel, opened to a forgiveness prayer. And in their office, a notepad featured the handwritten message: 'Submit to Allah now.'{{cite news}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link)
  12. ^ Nick Ferraro (2017-09-20). "What happened to David Crowley? Documentary examines Apple Valley filmmaker's murders-suicide". Twin Cities Pioneer Press. Retrieved 2020-03-30. Director Erik Nelson, producer of Werner Herzog's "Grizzly Man," worked with Crowley's family to gain access to his intimate journal, thousands of family photos and hundreds of hours of home videos.{{cite news}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link)
  13. ^ Chris Barsanti (2017-04-22). "When Fantasies Kill: The Murderous Madness Of An Alt-Right Paranoiac In 'A Gray State' [Tribeca Review]". The Playlist. Retrieved 2020-03-30. Not long into Erik Nelson's tightly-packed and disturbing documentary "A Gray State," discussing a December 2015 murder-suicide in a Minneapolis suburb that left filmmaker David Crowley, his wife Komel, and their five-year-old daughter Raniya dead, local journalist Cory Zurowski noted that it was "catnip for conspiracy theorists." Why? Because for several years, Crowley had been trying to make a feature film called "Gray State" that looked like something cooked up by a roomful of Alex Jones fans after a three-day Red Bull and Googling marathon.{{cite news}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link)
  14. ^ Mark Peters (2020-04-16). "Somewhere beyond level four". Gisborne Herald. Retrieved 2020-07-29. The people are ready for A Gray State but it is more than a film, says Crowley. It's a warning. Crowley is a voice for the movement, says a colleague. In Crowley's film, the people fight back, there are executions, including a beheading.{{cite news}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link)
  15. ^ Eric Pfieffer (2018-01-16). "The Obsession With Conspiracy Theories That Stole A Young Man's Life". Good magazine. Retrieved 2020-07-29. It wasn't long after he'd posted the trailer for "Gray State" in 2012 that Crowley became a social media sensation and a beloved figure in the alt-right community.{{cite news}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link)
  16. ^ Matt Grobar (2017-04-28). "'A Gray State' Director Erik Nelson On David Crowley Doc As A "Core Sample Of American Crazy" — Tribeca Studio". Deadline magazine. Retrieved 2020-03-30. A poet once said, 'The purest products of America go crazy,' and David Crowley went crazy, and David Crowley documented his own life, and did it in such a way that makes me feel he knew that there was an ultimate end use for the thing.{{cite news}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link)
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