In 2010, David Crowley, an Iraq war veteran and budding filmmaker with a magnetic presence in fringe political circles, embarked on creating his movie, Gray State. The film is set in a dystopian future where an unchecked federal government crushes civil liberties. Its trailer, funded by the public, was met with enthusiasm by a growing online audience of libertarians, Tea Party supporters, and the emerging alt-right. Tragically, in January 2015, Crowley and his family were discovered dead in their suburban Minnesota home. Their unexpected deaths quickly became a focal point for conspiracy theorists, who speculated that Crowley was murdered by a secretive government worried that his film and its creator were revealing truths too close to their hidden agendas.