Apotheosis of Weirdness: Vance Boelter

The story of accused Minnesota assassin is as strange as it gets.

For a long time I thought that Marshall Herff Applewhite Jr.—leader of the Heaven’s Gate cult—would be hard to vanquish for the title of Most Conspicuous Weirdo.

Now it seems that Vance Luther Boelter—whom the U.S. Attorney’s Office, District of Minnesota, just charged with multiple murders—is the reigning champ. According to the Attorney’s Office press release:

Vance Boelter, 57, of Green Isle, Minnesota, has been charged by federal complaint with stalking and murdering Minnesota House of Representatives Speaker Emerita Melissa Hortman and her husband, in addition to stalking and shooting Minnesota State Senator John Hoffman and his wife, announced Acting U.S. Attorney Joseph H. Thompson.

According to court documents, in the early morning hours of June 14, 2025, Vance Luther Boelter put into effect a calculated plan to inflict fear and violence upon Minnesota elected officials and their families. Boelter equipped himself with firearms and body armor, disguised himself as a law enforcement officer, and drove to the home of Senator Hoffman. Boelter knocked on the door repeatedly, claiming to be a police officer. Shortly after the Hoffmans opened the door, they were alarmed to realize Boelter was wearing a facemask. The Hoffmans tried to close the door on Boelter, but Boelter repeatedly shot both Senator and Mrs. Hoffman.

In 2019, Boelter was appointed to Governor Tim Walz’s Workforce Development Board.

He was also the CEO of a company called the Red Lion Group that was purportedly in the the business of providing security. In 2022, Boelter was the keynote speaker for a seminar held by the Democratic Republic of the Congo and the Minnesota Africans United and Global Minnesota. Boelter presented plans for agricultural projects in the DRC that would “create a lot of jobs fast” and “serve as a model” for investors in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Among the enterprises he mentioned on the call, the most remarkable was perhaps the following.

Another [venture] that we’re looking at doing is a totally women led motorcycle-taxi business, where all the operators are women, and the leadership is women, so we’re excited to get that off the ground. I would like to get 1,000 female motorcycle-taxis running in the near future but we need some sponsors to invest in that.

What do you tell prospective investors are the merits of an all female motorcycle taxi service in the Congo? I’m a pretty adventurous guy, but I can’t see myself hailing a motorcycle taxi piloted by a female to get around Kinshasa. Everything about that scenario sounds hazardous to me.

A search for “motorcycle taxi” yielded some of the most colorful images I’ve ever seen, including this gem.

Boelter’s interest in unconventional transportation may have come in handy when he was fleeing from the police. According to court documents:

… after allegedly shooting two Minnesota DFL lawmakers and their spouses, Vance Boelter paid a man he had never met $900 to purchase a Buick sedan and e-bike.

Prosecutors say around 7 a.m., Boelter met up with the unidentified man at a bus stop in north Minneapolis. It is alleged the pair then boarded a bus to the man’s home, where they apparently got into the Buick and drove to a bank in Robbinsdale. That is where Boelter was captured on security camera wearing a cowboy hat, and where court documents reveal he drained his bank account of $2,200, paying $900 to the man for his e-bike and the car.

Consider how odd it is to meet a stranger at a bus stop and tell him that you would like to buy a car from him, even though he is waiting for a bus and not driving a car. How did the stranger reply to this proposal?

I have a Buick at home that I don’t drive and I’ll sell it to you for $900 cash. Ride the bus with me to my place, then I’ll give you a ride to an ATM to get the cash. Oh, and for $900, I’ll throw in an e-bike to boot.

This is the kind of improbable scene that a screenwriter wouldn’t dare make up out of fear that no one in the audience would find it even remotely plausible.