Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:01):
Sunny spaces, smiling faces, happy places. But every sunny space
holds a shadow. Behind every smile, our sharp teeth, and
every happy place has something sinister lurking just below the surface.
Speaker 2 (00:19):
Welcome to We Saw the Devil, the podcast diving deep
into the chilling realms of true crime. Join your host
Robin as she unravels mysteries that have left investigators baffled
and armchair sleuth's obsessed. Be forewarned, Dear listener, We Saw
the Devil is not for the faint of heart. Our
unflinching exploration will take you to the darkest corners of
(00:41):
the psyche and through the unimaginable depths of human darkness
to unearth stark secrets. To the harsh light of day.
Nothing will be left untouched.
Speaker 1 (00:51):
Are you ready?
Speaker 2 (00:52):
Are you sure? We Saw the Devil?
Speaker 3 (01:00):
Judge this Two young men from suburban Texas. One's twenty one,
the others twenty. They're sitting in their parents' house and
Alan and Argyle, nice little communities north of Dallas, middle class,
probably had homecoming dates and high school graduation parties. And
they were planning a military coup. Not in some video game,
(01:20):
not in a discord fantasy roleplay. They were planning to
sail to a Caribbean island, murder every single man they
could find, and enslave eighty seven thousand women and children
and I'm quoting federal prosecutors here sex slaves. They enrolled
in fire academies, they joined the Air Force. They flew
to Thailand, they learned Haitian creole. They researched weapons, ammunition,
(01:44):
and explosives. They made operational plans. They tried to recruit
homeless people from Washington, d C. To serve as their
mercenary army. And they did all of this for nearly
a year before federal agents knocked on their doors. This
episode is the story of Gasvan Weisenberg and Tanner Thomas
and a plot so insane, so deranged, so meticulously planned,
(02:07):
and so deeply disturbing that even their own defense attorneys
are calling it crazy, impossible and absurd. Hi, guys, I'm Robin.
This is We Saw the Devil, And before we get
into it, let's just get some really quick housekeeping out
of the way, because I have to be honest, this
is the singular most batshit story I have heard since
I've done this podcast, and you guys know the history
(02:28):
of this podcast. We covered the Lori Valo case in depth.
We've covered a bunch of insane things, but this absolutely
takes the cake. So before we get into all of that,
let's just get the quick housekeeping out of the way again.
You're listening to We Saw the Devil. I'm Robin. If
you're not, please follow the show on Instagram. That's the
primary social platform for it. You can do that at
We Saw the Devil podcast on Facebook and Twitter. It's
(02:52):
We Saw the Devil. Website is wesaw thedevil dot com
and if you have any questions, complaints, concerns, any other
c words, you can email me directly at info at
We Saw the Devil. Beyond that, there should be an
episode of Red White and Bruce coming in the next
day or two as well, because we are living on
an absolutely bizarre timeline right now, Like I cannot reconcile
(03:13):
what I'm hearing and seeing. So that being said, politics
and the state of affairs in the US are getting
a little crunk. So therefore I will be coming and
doing an episode on it. I know you guys are
just so excited. All right, guys, let's talk about this
insane plot. And let's start with who the guys are,
because that's the first question everyone asks when they hear
about this case, like who was behind this? So Gavin
(03:35):
Rivers Weisenberg is twenty one years old. He's from Allen, Texas,
which is a northern suburb of Dallas known for its
outlet mall and good schools. Literally, that's what it's known for.
And it's the kind of place where families move for
safe neighborhoods, decent, properly property values, good schools for the kids.
You know, one of those, Tanner Christopher Thomas, is twenty
years old. He's from Argyle, Texas, which is even smaller
(03:58):
than Alan, has a population of about four thousand, and
really the only thing happening there is it has a
weekly farmer's market. Yeah, so apparently they were also bored.
But the point being is that these aren't kids from
broken homes in forgotten little corners of America. These are
middle class suburbs. These are places with targets, Starbucks, home guds,
(04:20):
youth soccer leagues, so on and so forth. And according
to a federal grand jury indictment filed in the Eastern
District of Texas last Thursday. These two men spent nearly
a year planning to turn a Caribbean island into their
own personal rape dungeon. And I don't think I've ever
said the phrase rape dungeon on this podcast, but here
we are. I guess there's a time for everything. The
(04:41):
target Ganov Island, and that's Haiti's largest satellite island. It
sits about thirty miles northwest of Porto Prans in the
Gulf of Ganov. It's roughly three hundred square miles, about
the size of New York City, but the population estimated
to be between what the population estimated to be between
eighty five thousand eighty seven thousand people. It's one of
(05:03):
the poorest places in the Western Hemisphere. Infrastructure is minimal,
the Haitian government has limited control there as well. Goes
without saying that gangs have significant influence. It's isolated, vulnerable,
and prosecutors allege that's exactly why Weisenberg and Thomas chose it.
According to the Justice Department, this wasn't just some drunken
(05:24):
fantasy that got out of hand. This was methodically planned.
This was a conspiracy that included quote research, reconnaissance, recruiting, planning,
and seeking training to effectuate their plan. The goal military
control of the entire island. The method murder every single man,
(05:44):
capture every single woman and child. The purpose and again
I'm quoting the US attorney's press release here quote carrying
out their rape fantasies. Both of these men are now
facing two federal charges, first conspiracy to murder, mame or
kidnap in a foreign country that carries a maximum sentence
of life in a federal prison, and second production of
(06:06):
child pornography that's fifteen to thirty years. Their attorneys say
they'll plead not guilty. More on that in a moment,
But first, let's talk about how federal investigators say this
all started and then unraveled. According to court documents, this
conspiracy began in August twenty twenty four and continued through
July twenty twenty five, nearly a full year of planning, preparation,
(06:32):
and increasingly desperate attempts to acquire the skills necessary to
pull off an armed invasion of a foreign territory. So
let me walk you through this timeline, because it reads
like a fever dream written by someone who's watched way
to many military movies someone like that, but they've actually
never left their bedroom. So July through August of twenty
twenty four, the planning begins. Federal prosecutors say Weisenberg and
(06:57):
Thomas started planning their attack in August of twenty twenty.
They communicated about it on social media messages that presumably
now are in FBI evidence lockers. Around the same time,
they began taking Haitian creole language classes, because I mean, y'all,
if you're gonna stage a coup in Haiti, you should
probably want to speak the language, right, I mean, I
(07:17):
give them points for thoroughness with that, but it doesn't
just stop there. They actually go all out. I have
never seen a dedication to this, to crime of this magnitude.
So August fifth, of twenty twenty four, Weisenberg enrolls in
the North Texas Fire Academy in Rockwall, Texas. Why a
fire academy, you might ask, Well, according to the indictment,
(07:38):
he wanted training in command and control protocols, skills that
prosecutors say would be useful for coordinating an armed military assault.
Think about that, this kid, he's sitting in classes with
people who want to save lives run into burning buildings,
you know, save the baby, the dog, serve their communities,
(07:58):
and he's there to learn and how to organize a massacre.
August thirty first, twenty twenty four. On this date, prosecutors
alleged that Weisenberg and Thomas coerced a minor to engage
in sexually explicit conduct on camera. This becomes the basis
for their second federal charge, production of child pornography. Details
about this charge are sparse in public documents, likely because
(08:21):
the victim is a minor. January seventh, twenty twenty five,
Tanner Thomas enlists in the United States Air Force. Now
let me be clear. Joining the military can be an
honorable thing. Millions of Americans served with distinction. But according
to federal prosecutors, Thomas didn't joined to serve his country.
He joined to get free military training for his private
(08:43):
war that he was planning. In a social media message
to Weisenberg, which investigators now have, Thomas reportedly told his
co conspirator that he joined the Air Force specifically to
further their planned attack on Haiti. The audacity of the caucasidy, y'all,
I mean using time xpay American taxpayer dollars to train
for an illegal invasion of a Caribbean island, just so
(09:06):
you can commit mass murder and mass rape. That was
a plan, certainly. February eighth, twenty twenty five, After six
months of training, Weisenberg fails out of the North Texas
Fire Academy. Whatever skills he was hoping to acquire there,
he did not receive them. He's like the little engine
that could, he did not give up. February twentieth, twenty
twenty five, two weeks after washing out of fire training,
(09:29):
Weisenberg books a flight to Thailand. His goal enroll in
a sailing school to learn how to pilot the sail
boat they plan to use to transport weapons, ammunition, and
explosives to Haiti. He gets to Thailand and he finds
a sailing school, and then plot twist is too expensive,
so he doesn't enroll. So Weisenberg flies all the way
(09:49):
to Southeast Asia to learn a skill critical to his
invasion plan, and then he's too broke to do it.
That's epic operational planning. March fourteenth, twenty twenty five. Here's
where it begins to get more calculated. Thomas is in
the Air Force now, and his initial assignment is Romstein,
you know, the air base in Germany, But prosecutors say
(10:10):
he manages to get his assignment changed to Joint Base
Andrews in Maryland. Why did he do that, Well, because
Joint Base Andrews is right outside of Washington, d C.
And according to the indictment, Weisenberg and Thomas plan to
recruit homeless people from the nation's capital to serve as
their army guys. Think about that for a minute. This
(10:31):
kid enrolls in the Air Force and then changes his
military assignment, moving from one of the Air Force's premiere
overseas bases to a stateside location, just so he can
facilitate recruiting houseless people to die in an illegal foreign invasion.
Are we good? Okay, let's continue March through July of
twenty twenty five. They're still planning, Prosecutors say. Weisenberg and
(10:55):
Thomas continued planning at this time. They researched weapons and ammunition.
They looked into purchasing military's type rifles. They made operational
and logistical plans for the invasion, and they also continued
recruiting or trying to recruit others to join their cause.
On July third, twenty twenty five, Gavin Weisenberg is arrested.
(11:15):
The public record doesn't specify exactly when or how Tanner
Thomas was taken into custody, but by November first, both
men were indicted by a federal grand jury. And the
question that everyone wants answered is how did the FBI
find out? While the Justice Department hasn't said the Given
that this involved social media communications, attempts to recruit multiple people,
(11:37):
enrollment in public training programs, and military service, there were
plenty of opportunities for someone to notice that something was very,
very very wrong with them and reported. Maybe it was
a class made at a fire academy who heard something.
Maybe it was someone they tried to recruit who went
to police. Maybe it was military investigators who flagged Thomas's
suspicious behavior. We don't know yet, but federal age were
(12:00):
watching them, and they moved before these two men could
buy the sail boat and start loading it with weapons.
And what was their exact plan? Because the plan, when
you hear it on its face, sail to an island,
kill all the men, enslave the women and children. And
that's that's a lot. But let's talk about what the
actual plan was because even by criminal conspiracy standards, this
(12:22):
is spectacularly insane. According to the federal indictment, the goal
was to take military control of the island of ganav
by murdering all of the men and capturing all the women,
all of the men on an island with eighty seven
thousand people. Here are two guys from the Texas suburbs,
one who failed out of the fire academy and the
other who'd been in the Air Force for maybe six months,
(12:44):
planning to murder tens of thousands of people and capture
tens of thousands more with a mercenary army recruited from Washington,
DC's homeless population. The indictment says they plan to recruit
and hire homeless people to serve as the military force.
Then they would buy a sail boat, load it with firearms, ammunitions, explosives,
recruit their homeless army, sail to Haiti, stage acup, and
(13:06):
establish military control over the entire island. So let's start
with the mercenary army recruiting homeless people as soldiers. Prosecutors
say that this was the core part of their plan,
which is why Thomas changed his Air Force assignment and
that's just so foul. You're approaching people who are already
in crisis, people without stable housing, often dealing with mental
(13:28):
health issues or substance abuse trauma, and you're trying to
convince them to what, get on a sailboat with the
two twenty year olds they've never met, sail to the
Caribbean in Vada Country and participate in mass murder. Like,
what's the pitch there? Exactly? I want to know what
their pitch would have been like on Shark Tank for that.
You know, what are you offering them money? Where's that
coming from? You couldn't even get into sailing school. And
(13:51):
let's say you somehow convince a handful of desperate people
to go along with this insanity. You still have to
get them to Haiti. You have to train them, feed them,
house them, armed them. I mean, it's not a plan
so much as it's just a delusion. The sailboat they
couldn't even afford to learn how to drive the sailboat.
How are you going to buy a whole ass sailboat?
(14:13):
You know, one carry capable of carrying many, many many people,
plus weapons and all of that. And that's not a
casual weekend trip. It's hundreds of nautical miles through open ocean,
but sure, two kids from Texas were absolutely going to
pull that off. The indictment also says that they researched ammunition,
including weapons military style rifles, but there's no indication that
(14:34):
they actually purchased any hardware in that, you know, even
if they had the money, which again no evidence they
had anything whatsoever. How were they planning to legally transport
that to Haiti? You know, obviously they wouldn't be doing
that legally. And once they got to Haiti, assuming they
somehow made it, they'd be facing an island where gain
control is significant. What everyone has a weapon. You know,
(14:56):
people know how to fight because they've been fighting for
survival for many years. Weisenberg and Thomas had what six
months of fire academy failed and then a few months
of Air Force basic training. I guess an island of
eighty seven thousand people, and let's just pretend for a moment,
Let's just pretend that they were somehow successful in their
their goal than what they murdered all the men, than
(15:18):
what they're now attempting to control forty to fifty thousand
women and children. People who just watch their fathers, brothers, sons,
husband's friends murdered in front of them, Like, how do
you maintain control over tens of thousands of people? The
Haitian government isn't just going to shrug and say, oh, well,
I guess ganav Island belongs to two American kids. Now, cool?
Speaker 1 (15:37):
Cool? Cool?
Speaker 3 (15:38):
Anyway, you know that's not going to happen. And also,
the US government isn't going to ignore an illegal military
invasion by American citizens. Third, the international community, sure is shit,
isn't going to stand by while mass rape and slavery
happened thirty minutes from the capital of Haiti. This wasn't
a plan. This was just a violent sexual fantasy dressed up.
(16:00):
You know, they were cause playing this and it's really
absolutely heinous and disgusting. Did they actually believe that they
could pull this off? I mean that's terrifying in itself, right?
Or was the planning itself? The point? Was it the
fantasy of power, domination, control over vulnerable people? Was that
the real goal and the actual invasion it was just
(16:21):
the excuse to keep this fantasy exciting and alive. I
don't know, but the psychological evaluation of these two idiots
is going to be something. And I'm not trying to
make light or joke about this because it is deathly serious. Like,
can you imagine if they actually it's so absurd. I
can't even in my right mind pretend to think that
this would ever be a thing that happened. But they
(16:42):
took real actions, They made real plans, they spent real money,
they attempted to recruit real people, and they researched real weapons,
and according to prosecutors, they also produced real child pornography.
And whatever was in their heads, they were moving toward
making it real. Think God's someone stopped them. November twenty fourth,
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what's going on now? Well, Gavin Rivers Weisenberg and Tanner
Christopher Thomas have been indicted on two federal charges again
a conspiracy to murder, maye or kidnap in a foreign
country and production of child pornography. Both men have attorneys,
and both attorneys say their clients will plead not guilty.
David Finn, Weisenberg's attorney, released a statement that's interesting. He
(17:26):
told NPR and other outlets, quote, I encourage everyone to
hold their horses and stay tuned. An indictment is simply
an allegation, and while there is some truth to the allegations,
I believe that it will become clear what actually did,
did not, and could not have happened. I believe it
will become clear what actually did, did not, and could
not have happened. If your initial response to the governor's
(17:49):
press release was that sounds crazy, impossible and absurd, you
might be onto something important. And if you think about it,
that is a fascinating defense strategy. He's essentially saying, yes,
some of this is true, but it's also crazy, impossible
and absurd, so please reserve judgment. John Helms, Thomas's attorney,
was more straightforward. He told reporters that Thomas will plead
(18:12):
not guilty and that his team will be defending him
vigorously against these charges. Helms said that he also thinks
prosecutors quote, are going to have a real hard time
proving that Weisenberg and Thomas actually intended to carry out
the plot, and you know what, that is probably their
best argument. The conspiracy charge requires proof that the defendants
(18:32):
intended to commit that crime and then took substantial steps
toward doing so. The defense will likely argue that this
was all fantasy, all talk all Internet, you know, all
internet tough guy bullshit posturing, and that Weisenberg and Thomas
never actually did genuinely believe that they could or would
invade Haiti. They'll point to the failures like Weisenberg washing
(18:54):
out of the fire academy, not enrolling in sailing school
because of the cost. There was no evidence that they
actually put weapons. There's no evidence that they actually recruited anyone.
They'll argue that joining the Air Force, taking creole classes,
researching weapons, that none of that proves intent to commit
mass murder. It just proves these were two young men
(19:15):
with disturbed fantasies who never took the final steps toward
making these fantasies real. But here's the problem with that defense.
They took a lot of steps, nearly a year's worth,
and prosecutors have their communications, social media messages where Thomas
allegedly told Weisenberg he joined the Air Force specifically to
further their invasion plan. That's absolutely consciousness of guilt. That's
(19:40):
evidence of intent. And then there's the child pornography charge.
That's not fantasy, that's not role play. That's a real
crime with a real victim, and it happened on August
thirty first, twenty twenty four, right in the middle of
their alleged conspiracy. If prosecutors can prove that charge, and
they must have some pretty solid evidence to bring it,
(20:01):
it establishes a pattern. It shows that these two guys
just weren't shit talking online. They were willing to victimize
real people, including children, to satisfy their sexual gratification. That
undermines any defense argument that quote they never would have
really done it. They already did something, and that something
(20:22):
was pretty fucking horrible. So the question is, I mean,
for sane people, how much more would they have done
if they hadn't been stopped. But let's zoom out for
a second, because this case raises some deeply troubling questions
about radicalization, fantasy, and violence in the Internet age. The
language in this case rape fantasies. That's the goal of
(20:43):
enslaving women and children as sex slaves. The language in
this case rape fantasies, sex slaves. This is textbook in
cell ideology for those somehow unfamiliar or have been living
under a rock. In cell stands for involuntary celibate. It
started off as an online support community for people struggling
(21:03):
with loneliness and romantic rejection. And by people I mean men,
because of course, but over the past decade it's morphed
into something gross, dark violent. There's a toxic subculture that
these women as objects, relationships as nothing more than transactions,
and sexual access is a right to them as men
(21:23):
that's been unjustly denied. At its most extreme, in cel
ideology leads to violence. We've seen it before with Elliott
Roger in California. Then you had Alec Manassian in Toronto,
the Plymouth shooting in the UK, men who believed that
they were entitled to women's bodies, and then when women
rejected them, they turned to mass violence. But this case
(21:44):
is different. Weisenberg and Thomas didn't plan to attack a
sorority or drive a van through a crowded street. They
plan to conquer a whole island to establish a fifdom
where they'd have absolute power over tens of thousands of
women and children. This isn't just Inceell violence. This is
like this is like Inceell colonialism, and that's fucking scary.
(22:08):
And then you have to think, okay, how to two
young men from suburban Texas develop fantasies This fucked up
I guarantee you I put my life on it. Somewhere
in their digital history, you're going to find discord servers,
Reddit forums, four chan threads, private chat, like a trail
of increasingly extreme content. Maybe memes about conquering women, discussions
(22:29):
about societal collapse, taking what's hours, you know, maybe something
specific planning. The Internet has created spaces where violent fantasies
are normalized, where they're encouraged. Refined. Young men can and
do find communities that tell them that their rage is justified,
their desires are reasonable, Your plans, whatever they are, are achievable.
(22:53):
And the scary part, I mean, thankfully most of them
will never act on it. They'll just spend years stupid
being in this tox success pool, engaging with others. Maybe
small acts of harassment or abuse here and there, which
is equally awful, but nothing quite like mass murder and
mass rape. But a few will take it seriously. A
(23:15):
few will start making plans. And if you will enroll
in the academies and join the Air Force and fly
to Thailand, And if we're lucky, if someone notices and
reports it, then they'll be stopped before they hurt anyone.
And if we're not lucky. Well, I guess we'll just
have to wait and see what happens. And one thing
that really kind of piqued my interest with this case
is there's another layer here, which is they chose Haiti
(23:38):
not a random deserted island, not some hypothetical place from
their imagination. Haiti a real country, a black country, one
of the poorest nations in the Western Hemisphere, still recovering
from centuries of exploitation, that devastating, awful earthquake, political instability,
(23:59):
gang violence. They looked at a population of vulnerable people,
people who have been suffering for decades, already struggling, and
thought sweet, perfect easy targets. That's not just misogyny, right
of them wanting to mass enslave and rape women. That's
not just mass misogyny. That's racism. That's imperialism. That's the
(24:20):
same colonious mentality that exploited Haiti for centuries now, just
brand new and repackaged a sexual fantasy by two idiots
who've probably never even experienced an actual moment of hardship
in their real lives. They quite literally wanted to play conquistador.
They wanted to be warlords. They wanted to act out
these scenarios on real human beings that they obviously viewed
(24:44):
as less than human. And what's wild is that the
people of Ghanav Island will probably never know that they came.
I want to stay close, but it really was not close.
But the people there probably have no idea of what
was transpiring. Maybe it's in the news there, I'm not sure,
but it's like preventing a school shooting where the community
learns about the threat after the fact. Right, Sure, the
(25:07):
victims don't exist, the trauma didn't happen, the violence was prevented. Cool, cool, cool,
But it was real in the minds of Weisenberg and Thomas.
Those people were real to them, real enough to plan around,
real enough to learn their whole language, real enough to
train to dominate them. And I just find something so
profoundly disturbing about that, you know, like, think about how
(25:27):
you could be living your life, just going to work,
coming home, being with your kids, and then somewhere on
the other side of the world could be someone planning
your death and enslavement and you would never know, you know,
And that's the world we live in. So Gavin Weisenberg
and Tanner Thomas are awaiting trial in Texas. Now they
face up to life in prison on the conspiracy charge
(25:48):
in fifteen to thirty on the child pornography charge. Their
attorneys say they'll plead not guilty and there will be
a trial, a jury, evidence presented, testimony given, the legal
system will do what it does. But regardless of the outcome,
we are still kind of sitting here left with a
fundamental question, how the hell did we get here? How
(26:09):
do we reach a point where two young men from suburban,
rural Texas could spend nearly a year planning to murder,
an enslave an entire island population. The first warning signs
were what exactly falling out of failing out of the
fire academy that happens every day, not enrolling in sailing
school that you can't afford, that happens every day. What
radicalized them? What enabled them? What community or ideology or
(26:33):
content pipeline led them down this path? And how many
others are out there right now in their bedrooms, on
their computers, on their phones planning similar attacks. The FBI
stopped Weisenberg and Thomas, but they can't stop ideas. You know,
that's on us as a society. As communities, as people
who give a damn about preventing violence before it actually
(26:55):
does happen. We need to pay attention here to the
warning signs, to the language the ideologies that dehumanize and
objectify and normalize violence, because the next Gavin Weisenberg or
Tanner Thomas is out there right now planning something. But
will we notice it in time. Thankfully, this entire plan
was so asinine and ridiculous that it didn't really stand
(27:18):
a chance. But I actually recorded a whole new episode
last night, kind of a news update on a handful
of cases in the news right now. And the website
that I was on, I was looking, it's just, you know,
a grid pattern with different headlines and thumbnails every single one,
every single story and they were about thirty on this page.
Is about a man randomly assaulting and as you know,
(27:40):
sexually assaulting and murdering a random person. It was about
husbands killing their wives and children. It was about serial killers.
It was just every single story, all thirty. It was
men committing acts of violence against women. I actually made
the episode to talk about the Slenderman case because I think,
as everyone is aware, Morgan Geyser, the stabber and the
Slenderman case escaped from her group home and that was
(28:04):
kind of big news. So I was doing an episode
to cover that story and then saw this one, and
then also Morgan was found as well. Absolutely insane, guys,
but I'm gonna be watching this case. I want to
know more, like I want to know what goes on
in their heads. Sometimes I just really really don't understand
people or things. But anyway, I'll be dropping a news episode.
(28:26):
It will be Patreon only, so for those of you
who are part of the Patreon look forward to a
Patreon only news episode coming in the next couple days. Again, guys,
you've been listening to We Saw the Devil, This is Robin.
If you're not, please follow the show on Instagram. You
can do so at We Saw the Devil podcast. On
Facebook and Twitter, you can find We Saw the Devil
website is We Saw the Deevil dot com. You can
(28:47):
email me anytime at info at wesaw Thedevil dot com,
and then you can find the show on Patreon if
you want to financially support the show. But anyway, I
will have a new Patreon episode and then also a
new red, white and Bruised episode coming in the next couple,
So until then, guys, until next prime