Lone Wolf Killers in America: The Growing Threat Next Door

 

He Sat in Church on Sunday—Then Killed on Monday

     Melissa Hortman and her husband, Mark, were supposed to be safe in their own home. She was a former Speaker of the Minnesota House—respected, sharp, and not one to back down. Then, in a flash, they were both gone. Shot dead. It wasn’t random. Not even close. It was cold, deliberate, and charged with a purpose no sane person could justify.

     The man behind it? Vance Luther Boelter. Fifty-seven years old. Ex-military look. Quiet, the kind of guy you wouldn’t pick out of a crowd unless you knew what to look for. He’d been missing for two days when they finally caught him late Sunday night—ending what’s now the largest manhunt in Minnesota’s history.

     Turns out Boelter had posed as a cop to get into the Hortmans’ place just outside Minneapolis. Once inside, he opened fire. Before that, he’d hit another target—State Senator John Hoffman and his wife, Yvette, just a few miles away. They got lucky. Melissa and Mark didn’t.

Governor Tim Walz didn’t bother sugarcoating it. “A politically motivated assassination,” he said. And he was right.

     This wasn’t a robbery. It wasn’t madness. It was a mission—twisted and deadly, carried out by a man who thought he was some kind of holy warrior.

     Boelter wasn’t a ghost. He had a face, a voice, a presence in his community. He was deeply religious, a fixture in evangelical circles, and he had a long history of political conservatism. He attended Trump rallies. He once gave a sermon in Africa warning that America had lost its way, blaming churches for not taking a hard enough stance against abortion. He registered as a Republican in Oklahoma in 2004 and later settled in Minnesota, where party affiliation isn’t recorded. On paper, he looked like a passionate, God-fearing citizen. In reality, he had crossed into something far darker.

     This is the shape of a new threat: not foreign operatives or extremist cells from overseas, but radicalized Americans. Lone actors. Homegrown threats that simmer quietly until they erupt. And they’re becoming harder to stop.

     Boelter’s not some one-off nutjob. He’s part of a bigger, nastier trend. Guys like him are popping up all over—mixing fire-and-brimstone religion with hardcore political rage. They think America’s under attack, and they’re the ones chosen to save it. Guns in hand, Bible in the other.

     And here's the kicker—they’re not in some militia camp out in the sticks. Most of them radicalize online, tucked away in digital rabbit holes packed with conspiracy theories, fake news, and a steady drip of paranoia. No uniforms, no badges, no official club. Just rage, and a target list.

     They’re ghosts until they pull the trigger.

     And by the time anyone notices, the body count’s already started.

     Anti-government militias across the U.S. are no longer isolated backwoods fantasies. They are becoming structured, with recruitment pipelines, funding sources, and ideological cohesion. These groups often merge religious fervor with political extremism, spinning a narrative where violence against elected officials and government institutions becomes not only permissible, but holy. They’re not hiding. They’re on social media. They’re at school board meetings. They’re walking through your neighborhood in tactical gear.

     The murder of a public official by someone who once sat in a church pew and spoke of morality should shatter any illusion that radicalization only happens "elsewhere." It can happen in a suburban cul-de-sac. In a small-town chapel. In someone’s basement as they scroll endlessly through extremist forums masked as news.

     Robert Morton, author of the Corey Pearson—CIA Spymaster Series, has written extensively about this shift, where threats to America now rise not from overseas intelligence plots, but from within—fueled by ideology, grievance, and unchecked rage. His work captures the chilling transformation of ordinary citizens into violent actors convinced they are soldiers in a civil war that hasn’t officially begun, but in their minds, is already underway.

     The hard truth is—America’s biggest threat isn’t coming from across the ocean. It’s already here. It’s not some foreign agent sneaking through a border. It’s the guy grilling in his backyard. The one who shakes your hand at church. Smiles at the PTA meeting. Votes like everyone else. Until one day, he decides a gun speaks louder than a ballot.

     You can build walls, launch airstrikes, pass all the security bills you want—it won’t stop what’s festering inside. Not unless we deal with what’s really fueling this: unchecked radicalization, the nonstop lies pouring out of dark corners of the internet, and this dangerous mix of politics and religion that turns true believers into armed crusaders.

     What happened to Melissa and Mark Hortman? That wasn’t some fluke.   It was a warning.

     And we’d better listen.

 

Robert Morton is a member of the Association of Former Intelligence Officers (AFIO) and writes about the U.S. Intelligence Community (IC). He also writes the full-novel Corey Pearson- CIA Spymaster Series, which blends his knowledge of real-life intelligence operations with gripping fictional storytelling. His work offers readers an insider’s glimpse into the world of espionage, inspired by the complexities and high-stakes realities of the intelligence community.