Aug. 12, 2025
Patrick Crusius and the Conspiracy Theory That Inspired Mass Murder
Patrick Crusius and the Conspiracy Theory That Inspired Mass Murder On August 3rd, 2019, a twenty-one-year-old drove 600 miles through the night to commit what would become the deadliest attack on Hispanic and Latino people in modern American...
Patrick Crusius and the Conspiracy Theory That Inspired Mass Murder
On August 3rd, 2019, a twenty-one-year-old drove 600 miles through the night to commit what would become the deadliest attack on Hispanic and Latino people in modern American history. But here's what makes this story so disturbing: Patrick Crusius looked like any other customer when he walked into that El Paso Walmart. He browsed, ate an orange, acted completely normal. Nobody suspected a thing.
What happened next wasn't random violence. It was calculated terrorism rooted in a conspiracy theory that's unfortunately moved from the darkest corners of the internet into mainstream conversation. We're talking about the Great Replacement Theory, and how it turned a regular Saturday morning into a nightmare that changed El Paso forever.
This isn't the story you think you know. New evidence has recently been released, and there are details about Patrick's methodical planning and the community's incredible response that reveal both the worst and best of humanity. Twenty-three people died that day. Twenty-two others were injured. But what El Paso did next shows you something profound about resilience, love, and refusing to let hate win.
Because Patrick's case never went to trial, we're only now learning some of the evidence that would have emerged in court. The full picture is more complex and more heartbreaking than what made headlines. And unfortunately, it's more relevant today than ever.
#ElPasoShooting #GreatReplacementTheory #DomesticTerrorism #WalmartShooting #PatrickCrusius #HateCrime #MassViolence
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On a busy Saturday morning in El Paso, shoppers were doing what most people do every weekend at Walmart,
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getting groceries, rousing the aisles, living their lives.
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But one person in that store wasn't there to shop.
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Patrick Crucia said driven all night from 600 miles away, and in 11 minutes he would change everything.
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23 people would die, and a community would have to find a way to heal from unthinkable hate.
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[Music]
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On August 3rd, 2019, a 21-year-old man pulled into a parking lot of a Walmart in El Paso, Texas.
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The store was packed with weekend shoppers, families picking up groceries, people going about
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their Sunday morning routines. What happened next would become one of the most deadly attacks
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00:01:09,440 --> 00:01:13,600
against Hispanic and Latino people in modern American history.
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Patrick Crucia's looked like any other customer when he walked through those doors.
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He wandered the aisles, browsed around, even grabbed an orange and ate it right there in the store.
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Nobody gave him a second glance. Why would they? He was doing what thousands of people do every day
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at Walmart across the country. But Patrick wasn't from El Paso. He'd driven over 600 miles from
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Alan Texas through the night to get there, and he had absolutely no intention of actually shopping.
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Before we dive deeper into what happened that day, we need to talk about why Patrick chose El Paso.
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The answer lies in a conspiracy theory that's been spreading like wildfire across certain corners
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00:01:54,640 --> 00:02:01,200
of the internet. The great replacement theory was originally written by French author Rinald Camus.
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00:02:01,200 --> 00:02:07,520
The basic idea, political leaders and big corporations are supposedly working together to replace
20
00:02:07,520 --> 00:02:13,760
white people with people of other ethnicities and religions. According to this theory, politicians
21
00:02:13,760 --> 00:02:19,920
are doing this to secure votes while corporations want cheap labor. The conspiracy claims that white
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people will eventually become minorities in their own countries before being wiped out entirely.
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Now, this theory has been debunked thoroughly by experts, but that hasn't stopped it from gaining
24
00:02:30,400 --> 00:02:36,880
traction in right-wing media and online forums. It's moved from Europe to places like the United States,
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00:02:36,880 --> 00:02:42,880
where it's found a disturbing number of believers. Patrick was one of those believers, and he was
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00:02:42,880 --> 00:02:49,520
convinced that America was being invaded by Hispanic people from Mexico. He specifically targeted
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hispanics when he opened fire in the Texas border city that was crowded with weekend shoppers
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from both the US and Mexico. After Patrick finished his orange and returned to his car, he opened his
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laptop and started typing. He posted to 8chan, an online forum known for hosting extremist content.
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"It's time," he wrote. Then he uploaded a PDF document explaining exactly what he was about to do
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and why. In his twisted logic, he believed that he was serving his country by doing what others
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weren't brave enough to do themselves. "Our European comrades," he wrote, "don't have the gun rights
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needed to repel the millions of invaders that plague their country. They have no choice but to sit by
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and watch their countries burn." He went on to describe his plan. "The Hispanic population is
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willing to return to their home countries if given the right incentive, an incentive that myself
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and many other patriotic Americans will provide. Terrorist attacks will remove the threat of the
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Hispanic voting block. By his own admission, Patrick was about to commit an act of terrorism."
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After posting this manifesto, Patrick got out of his car and walked to his trunk. He pulled out a
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semi-automatic rifle and as soon as he slammed the trunk shut, he opened fire. His first victim was
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a woman pushing her shopping cart in the parking lot. Then he turned his attention to people at a
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fundraising event right outside the store, killing three more and injuring six others before heading
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inside. Store security cameras captured Patrick entering the Silo Vista Walmart just before 9am.
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What followed was methodical and calculated. He walked through the store, using the layout
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knowledge he'd gained during his earlier browsing trips to target as many people as possible.
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The attack lasted 11 minutes. When it was over, 23 people were dead and 22 others injured. The youngest
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victim was only 15 years old. After the shooting inside, Patrick went back out to the parking lot
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where he shot at moving cars, killing another person and injuring one more. Then he got in his car
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and drove away. Here's the thing though, Patrick could have probably made it out of El Paso without
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getting caught, but he didn't want to disappear. He wanted people to know his name and what he had done.
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Patrick drove straight to a group of police officers and stopped his car. He got out, identified
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himself, waved his Miranda rights and turned himself in. No chase, no standoff, no drama. He wanted
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the world to know exactly who was responsible for the carnage he'd caused. The attack sent shockwaves
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across the nation. El Paso, selected by a man who lived 600 miles away to be the target of the
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deadliest act of anti-Hispanic violence in modern history, had to begin the long process of healing.
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But what made this tragedy even more heartbreaking was how random it all felt. Patrick didn't know
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these people. He wasn't from El Paso. He'd never really even been there before. He'd driven through
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the night and stopped at a few other locations before settling on that specific Walmart, simply because
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it was open and he was ready to act. For the victims and their families, that randomness made everything
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so much worse. In the aftermath of the shooting, something beautiful happened in El Paso. The community
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came together in ways that would make you believe in humanity again. Vigils were held, tributes were
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created to honor the victims and funeral homes offered their services for free. Even Walmart employees
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took a stand. They began to openly protest the sale of guns and ammunition at their stores.
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The company eventually responded by changing some of their policies. While they still sell weapons,
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they've limited the types of guns and ammunition they stock. Patrick's trial was supposed to happen
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relatively quickly, but then 2020 hit. The pandemic brought the court system to a grinding halt,
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delaying his trial until February 2022. Even then, his defense team argued that they needed more time
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to review the evidence. By that point, the victims and their families were exhausted. They'd already
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survived this horrific event, then they lived through the pandemic. Some had lost more loved ones to
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COVID-19. One key witness was even deported back to Mexico after a minor traffic violation.
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Nobody wanted to give Patrick a platform to turn his trial into a spectacle,
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so the prosecution agreed to not seek the death penalty in the federal case. Patrick pleaded guilty
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to 90 federal hate crimes and firearms violations and was sentenced to 90 consecutive life terms.
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But he still faced state charges that carried the possibility of the death penalty. That trial
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finally concluded in April 2025, almost six years after the shooting. The prosecution initially said they
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would seek the death penalty, but later changed their course. Patrick pleaded guilty to all charges
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and received another life sentence without the possibility of parole. Today, Patrick will almost
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certainly never be free again, but his actions that day changed El Paso forever. 23 families lost
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loved ones. 22 others were injured and had to rebuild their lives. An entire community had to grapple
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with being targeted simply because of who they were and where they lived. The rhetoric, Patrick used,
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talk of invasion of Hispanics and immigrants as part of a great replacement has unfortunately
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moved from the darkest corners of the internet to mainstream political and media conversation.
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That makes this story not just a tragedy from 2019, but a warning about the dangerous power of
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conspiracy theories and hate speech. The people of El Paso showed incredible strength in the face of
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unimaginable hate. They proved that the love of community can triumph over division and violence,
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but they shouldn't have had to prove that in the first place. Patrick Krushius drove 600 miles to
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commit an act of terror. The people he targeted were grocery shopping, raising money for charity.
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Living their lives, the randomness of his choice made his crime no less calculated, no less devastating,
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no less of a stark reminder of what happens when hatred is allowed to fester and grow. El Paso
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deserved better. The 23 people who died deserved better. Their families deserved better.
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And all of us deserve a world where conspiracy theories don't drive people to commit acts of
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terrorism against innocent people.
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Thanks for listening to 10 Minute Murder, bingeable true crime stories.
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Hi, I'm Joe, I'm the host, and if you are a brand new listener to the podcast,
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welcome. Hit subscribe wherever you're listening right now. Then you can go to 10minute
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murder.com, catch up on everything you've been missing, get behind the scenes kind of stuff
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that's going on. There's a blog there. And also more importantly, links to where you can
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follow the show on social media. And that's all at 10minuteMurder.com. Also on the website,
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you can send me an email. And I'm going to read two emails today, both of them with kind of the same
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theme or subject. And it relates a little bit to the story that you heard today. Hey, Joe,
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I saw a comment on your TikTok where someone called your podcast to woke. I'm guessing they meant
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as an insult, but it cracked me up. How do you usually respond to people like that? Do you even
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bother or do you keep it moving? Love the balance of respect for victims in the occasional well-timed
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joke. Keep doing your thing. Rob in Phoenix. And the next one, Hi, Joe, I've been listening for a while,
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and I've never understood the reviews calling you woke. I mean, you're telling murder stories. Do
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they expect you to be pro-murder? Anyway, curious if you ever clapped back at those people, or if you
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just let the episode speak for themselves. Also, your delivery of the Mona Fandy episode was Chef's Kiss,
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Nina and Boston. Rob and Nina, I really appreciate you sending the emails and to answer you both at
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the same time, there was a time when I would clap back at people who called me woke for respecting
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pronouns or doing episodes that affect the LGBTQ+ community. And also a hundred other topics,
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like the one today. That's a majority, a very, very large majority, right wing talking point.
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They believe people of color, people of different religions than the traditional white religions
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are going to take over and they're replacing white people. And that's what the political leaders want.
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And that's what's being pushed on us. And it's all BS. The protest that turned into a riot in
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Charlottesville, Virginia, that was a great replacement rally for neo-Nazis. They were chanting,
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"We will not be replaced, caring teaky torches." And then Patrick, who we talked about today,
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went to an El Paso Walmart and shot it up. Just because he believes this anti-woke conspiracy theory
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being pushed on gullible white people, and that's the result of it. So no, I don't really clap back at
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them anymore. Mentally I do, but there's really no good. I'm not going to convince someone that
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their brain washed. So I delete the comment, block them, and keep on going. And to be completely
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transparent, it doesn't even really bother me when people say that I'm woke. If you want to know what
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woke means, I invite you to Google it, but to me, woke is basically shorthand for caring about people
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outside of your own bubble. If that's supposed to be an insult, then it says more about them than it says
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about me. I'm proudly woke, if that means that I have empathy and I care for others.
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All right. Didn't expect to be on a soapbox today, but I appreciate you listening. And if you're
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off to binge more episodes, don't let me stop you. But thanks again for listening to 10 Minute Murder.
00:00:00,000 --> 00:00:05,760
On a busy Saturday morning in El Paso, shoppers were doing what most people do every weekend at Walmart,
2
00:00:05,760 --> 00:00:09,120
getting groceries, rousing the aisles, living their lives.
3
00:00:09,120 --> 00:00:12,480
But one person in that store wasn't there to shop.
4
00:00:12,480 --> 00:00:20,480
Patrick Crucia said driven all night from 600 miles away, and in 11 minutes he would change everything.
5
00:00:20,480 --> 00:00:26,480
23 people would die, and a community would have to find a way to heal from unthinkable hate.
6
00:00:27,280 --> 00:00:50,960
[Music]
7
00:00:50,960 --> 00:00:58,720
On August 3rd, 2019, a 21-year-old man pulled into a parking lot of a Walmart in El Paso, Texas.
8
00:00:58,720 --> 00:01:04,000
The store was packed with weekend shoppers, families picking up groceries, people going about
9
00:01:04,000 --> 00:01:09,440
their Sunday morning routines. What happened next would become one of the most deadly attacks
10
00:01:09,440 --> 00:01:13,600
against Hispanic and Latino people in modern American history.
11
00:01:13,600 --> 00:01:17,680
Patrick Crucia's looked like any other customer when he walked through those doors.
12
00:01:17,680 --> 00:01:23,280
He wandered the aisles, browsed around, even grabbed an orange and ate it right there in the store.
13
00:01:23,280 --> 00:01:29,360
Nobody gave him a second glance. Why would they? He was doing what thousands of people do every day
14
00:01:29,360 --> 00:01:35,920
at Walmart across the country. But Patrick wasn't from El Paso. He'd driven over 600 miles from
15
00:01:35,920 --> 00:01:42,080
Alan Texas through the night to get there, and he had absolutely no intention of actually shopping.
16
00:01:42,800 --> 00:01:48,800
Before we dive deeper into what happened that day, we need to talk about why Patrick chose El Paso.
17
00:01:48,800 --> 00:01:54,640
The answer lies in a conspiracy theory that's been spreading like wildfire across certain corners
18
00:01:54,640 --> 00:02:01,200
of the internet. The great replacement theory was originally written by French author Rinald Camus.
19
00:02:01,200 --> 00:02:07,520
The basic idea, political leaders and big corporations are supposedly working together to replace
20
00:02:07,520 --> 00:02:13,760
white people with people of other ethnicities and religions. According to this theory, politicians
21
00:02:13,760 --> 00:02:19,920
are doing this to secure votes while corporations want cheap labor. The conspiracy claims that white
22
00:02:19,920 --> 00:02:25,040
people will eventually become minorities in their own countries before being wiped out entirely.
23
00:02:25,040 --> 00:02:30,400
Now, this theory has been debunked thoroughly by experts, but that hasn't stopped it from gaining
24
00:02:30,400 --> 00:02:36,880
traction in right-wing media and online forums. It's moved from Europe to places like the United States,
25
00:02:36,880 --> 00:02:42,880
where it's found a disturbing number of believers. Patrick was one of those believers, and he was
26
00:02:42,880 --> 00:02:49,520
convinced that America was being invaded by Hispanic people from Mexico. He specifically targeted
27
00:02:49,520 --> 00:02:55,040
hispanics when he opened fire in the Texas border city that was crowded with weekend shoppers
28
00:02:55,040 --> 00:03:01,920
from both the US and Mexico. After Patrick finished his orange and returned to his car, he opened his
29
00:03:01,920 --> 00:03:09,280
laptop and started typing. He posted to 8chan, an online forum known for hosting extremist content.
30
00:03:09,280 --> 00:03:16,880
"It's time," he wrote. Then he uploaded a PDF document explaining exactly what he was about to do
31
00:03:16,880 --> 00:03:22,880
and why. In his twisted logic, he believed that he was serving his country by doing what others
32
00:03:22,880 --> 00:03:28,640
weren't brave enough to do themselves. "Our European comrades," he wrote, "don't have the gun rights
33
00:03:28,640 --> 00:03:33,920
needed to repel the millions of invaders that plague their country. They have no choice but to sit by
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00:03:33,920 --> 00:03:40,240
and watch their countries burn." He went on to describe his plan. "The Hispanic population is
35
00:03:40,240 --> 00:03:45,920
willing to return to their home countries if given the right incentive, an incentive that myself
36
00:03:45,920 --> 00:03:50,960
and many other patriotic Americans will provide. Terrorist attacks will remove the threat of the
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00:03:50,960 --> 00:03:57,680
Hispanic voting block. By his own admission, Patrick was about to commit an act of terrorism."
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After posting this manifesto, Patrick got out of his car and walked to his trunk. He pulled out a
39
00:04:04,560 --> 00:04:10,640
semi-automatic rifle and as soon as he slammed the trunk shut, he opened fire. His first victim was
40
00:04:10,640 --> 00:04:15,840
a woman pushing her shopping cart in the parking lot. Then he turned his attention to people at a
41
00:04:15,840 --> 00:04:21,680
fundraising event right outside the store, killing three more and injuring six others before heading
42
00:04:21,680 --> 00:04:29,040
inside. Store security cameras captured Patrick entering the Silo Vista Walmart just before 9am.
43
00:04:29,040 --> 00:04:34,400
What followed was methodical and calculated. He walked through the store, using the layout
44
00:04:34,400 --> 00:04:39,040
knowledge he'd gained during his earlier browsing trips to target as many people as possible.
45
00:04:39,600 --> 00:04:47,680
The attack lasted 11 minutes. When it was over, 23 people were dead and 22 others injured. The youngest
46
00:04:47,680 --> 00:04:53,600
victim was only 15 years old. After the shooting inside, Patrick went back out to the parking lot
47
00:04:53,600 --> 00:04:59,920
where he shot at moving cars, killing another person and injuring one more. Then he got in his car
48
00:04:59,920 --> 00:05:05,360
and drove away. Here's the thing though, Patrick could have probably made it out of El Paso without
49
00:05:05,360 --> 00:05:11,600
getting caught, but he didn't want to disappear. He wanted people to know his name and what he had done.
50
00:05:11,600 --> 00:05:18,320
Patrick drove straight to a group of police officers and stopped his car. He got out, identified
51
00:05:18,320 --> 00:05:26,480
himself, waved his Miranda rights and turned himself in. No chase, no standoff, no drama. He wanted
52
00:05:26,480 --> 00:05:32,640
the world to know exactly who was responsible for the carnage he'd caused. The attack sent shockwaves
53
00:05:32,640 --> 00:05:39,040
across the nation. El Paso, selected by a man who lived 600 miles away to be the target of the
54
00:05:39,040 --> 00:05:45,680
deadliest act of anti-Hispanic violence in modern history, had to begin the long process of healing.
55
00:05:45,680 --> 00:05:51,760
But what made this tragedy even more heartbreaking was how random it all felt. Patrick didn't know
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these people. He wasn't from El Paso. He'd never really even been there before. He'd driven through
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the night and stopped at a few other locations before settling on that specific Walmart, simply because
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it was open and he was ready to act. For the victims and their families, that randomness made everything
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so much worse. In the aftermath of the shooting, something beautiful happened in El Paso. The community
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came together in ways that would make you believe in humanity again. Vigils were held, tributes were
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created to honor the victims and funeral homes offered their services for free. Even Walmart employees
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took a stand. They began to openly protest the sale of guns and ammunition at their stores.
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The company eventually responded by changing some of their policies. While they still sell weapons,
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they've limited the types of guns and ammunition they stock. Patrick's trial was supposed to happen
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relatively quickly, but then 2020 hit. The pandemic brought the court system to a grinding halt,
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delaying his trial until February 2022. Even then, his defense team argued that they needed more time
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to review the evidence. By that point, the victims and their families were exhausted. They'd already
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survived this horrific event, then they lived through the pandemic. Some had lost more loved ones to
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COVID-19. One key witness was even deported back to Mexico after a minor traffic violation.
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Nobody wanted to give Patrick a platform to turn his trial into a spectacle,
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so the prosecution agreed to not seek the death penalty in the federal case. Patrick pleaded guilty
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to 90 federal hate crimes and firearms violations and was sentenced to 90 consecutive life terms.
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But he still faced state charges that carried the possibility of the death penalty. That trial
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finally concluded in April 2025, almost six years after the shooting. The prosecution initially said they
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would seek the death penalty, but later changed their course. Patrick pleaded guilty to all charges
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and received another life sentence without the possibility of parole. Today, Patrick will almost
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certainly never be free again, but his actions that day changed El Paso forever. 23 families lost
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loved ones. 22 others were injured and had to rebuild their lives. An entire community had to grapple
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with being targeted simply because of who they were and where they lived. The rhetoric, Patrick used,
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talk of invasion of Hispanics and immigrants as part of a great replacement has unfortunately
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moved from the darkest corners of the internet to mainstream political and media conversation.
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That makes this story not just a tragedy from 2019, but a warning about the dangerous power of
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conspiracy theories and hate speech. The people of El Paso showed incredible strength in the face of
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unimaginable hate. They proved that the love of community can triumph over division and violence,
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but they shouldn't have had to prove that in the first place. Patrick Krushius drove 600 miles to
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commit an act of terror. The people he targeted were grocery shopping, raising money for charity.
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Living their lives, the randomness of his choice made his crime no less calculated, no less devastating,
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no less of a stark reminder of what happens when hatred is allowed to fester and grow. El Paso
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deserved better. The 23 people who died deserved better. Their families deserved better.
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And all of us deserve a world where conspiracy theories don't drive people to commit acts of
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terrorism against innocent people.
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Thanks for listening to 10 Minute Murder, bingeable true crime stories.
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Hi, I'm Joe, I'm the host, and if you are a brand new listener to the podcast,
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welcome. Hit subscribe wherever you're listening right now. Then you can go to 10minute
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murder.com, catch up on everything you've been missing, get behind the scenes kind of stuff
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that's going on. There's a blog there. And also more importantly, links to where you can
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follow the show on social media. And that's all at 10minuteMurder.com. Also on the website,
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you can send me an email. And I'm going to read two emails today, both of them with kind of the same
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theme or subject. And it relates a little bit to the story that you heard today. Hey, Joe,
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I saw a comment on your TikTok where someone called your podcast to woke. I'm guessing they meant
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as an insult, but it cracked me up. How do you usually respond to people like that? Do you even
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bother or do you keep it moving? Love the balance of respect for victims in the occasional well-timed
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joke. Keep doing your thing. Rob in Phoenix. And the next one, Hi, Joe, I've been listening for a while,
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and I've never understood the reviews calling you woke. I mean, you're telling murder stories. Do
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they expect you to be pro-murder? Anyway, curious if you ever clapped back at those people, or if you
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just let the episode speak for themselves. Also, your delivery of the Mona Fandy episode was Chef's Kiss,
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Nina and Boston. Rob and Nina, I really appreciate you sending the emails and to answer you both at
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the same time, there was a time when I would clap back at people who called me woke for respecting
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pronouns or doing episodes that affect the LGBTQ+ community. And also a hundred other topics,
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like the one today. That's a majority, a very, very large majority, right wing talking point.
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They believe people of color, people of different religions than the traditional white religions
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are going to take over and they're replacing white people. And that's what the political leaders want.
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And that's what's being pushed on us. And it's all BS. The protest that turned into a riot in
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Charlottesville, Virginia, that was a great replacement rally for neo-Nazis. They were chanting,
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"We will not be replaced, caring teaky torches." And then Patrick, who we talked about today,
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went to an El Paso Walmart and shot it up. Just because he believes this anti-woke conspiracy theory
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being pushed on gullible white people, and that's the result of it. So no, I don't really clap back at
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them anymore. Mentally I do, but there's really no good. I'm not going to convince someone that
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their brain washed. So I delete the comment, block them, and keep on going. And to be completely
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transparent, it doesn't even really bother me when people say that I'm woke. If you want to know what
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woke means, I invite you to Google it, but to me, woke is basically shorthand for caring about people
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outside of your own bubble. If that's supposed to be an insult, then it says more about them than it says
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about me. I'm proudly woke, if that means that I have empathy and I care for others.
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All right. Didn't expect to be on a soapbox today, but I appreciate you listening. And if you're
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off to binge more episodes, don't let me stop you. But thanks again for listening to 10 Minute Murder.
