That killdozer guy was a huge jerk, independent of his attempt to kill people and level the town.
He may have been a jerk but the town officials were raging assholes who were doing blatantly unethical if not outright illegal things aimed at screwing him over.
If you ever heard about that hilariously ugly Nashville statue of Nathan Bedford Forrest it’s actually kind of a similar situation. He put it up because the city eminent domained part of his land for a road, but refused to buy the whole lot, leaving him with an unsellable sliver.
Then he decided to build a metaphorical Killdozer of racism and poorly executed statuary in that sliver out of spite.