Sadly, all silly things must come to an end.
An out-of-state man who vowed to orchestrate the “political takeover” of a sparsely populated but oil-rich West Texas county by establishing a community with enough of his followers to out-vote local candidates has been arrested on criminal charges of threatening a local oil worker.
Malcolm Tanner is charged with six crimes stemming from a September 2025 confrontation near his settlement in the Permian Basin, police said. They include deadly conduct, unlawful restraint, engaging in organized criminal activity and making a terroristic threat causing fear of imminent serious bodily injury.
Tanner was taken into custody last week on the Texas warrant following a traffic stop in Crawfordville, Indiana, where he has a residence, said Sheriff Ryan Needham of Montgomery County, Ind. He is being held there pending extradition back to Texas, records show.
The criminal charges arose out of a single incident, in which Tanner and several of his followers allegedly threatened an oil field worker who had confronted them about selling bottled water on private property, said Loving County Sheriff Dave Landersman. Tanner and the others reportedly followed the man down a road, blocked his exit with their vehicle and threatened him, Landersman said. The man was uninjured but pressed charges, the sheriff said.
The alleged victim’s name was blacked out of police records. Tanner could not be reached for comment. It was unclear if he had a lawyer; he often has represented himself in court.
[…]
Drawn by the promises of a free home — as well as Tanner’s social media depictions of Loving County as a verdant waterfront community — several dozen people set up residence on a 10-acre plot of land outside of Mentone, the county’s only city. They arrived to find scorching temperatures and treeless, parched, kitchen-counter-flat expanses of caliche.
The group, calling itself Melanated People of Power, lived mostly in RVs, hauling in water and setting up generators. Many traveled to West Texas from other states. Using a local post office box as their mailing address, nearly 30 people registered to vote. Several said they had paid a fee to join Tanner’s group.
Yet soon after the Houston Chronicle revealed Tanner’s plans, Attorney General Ken Paxton filed a lawsuit against him alleging sanitation violations on his property and seeking a restraining order to stop him from moving more people onto the plot. In addition to the alleged environmental violations, the lawsuit seemed intended to thwart Tanner’s political ambitions.
[…]
While the remaining residents have been permitted to stay on Tanner’s property pending the case’s outcome, they will now be told to leave, Landersman said.
By then, there may be no one left to evict. The sheriff said the last time his deputies checked, fewer than a half-dozen of Tanner’s followers remained living in Loving County. Many already had requested to withdraw their voter registration, he said.
Fewer than 20 people associated with Tanner remain registered to vote in the county, said Landersman, who doubles as Loving County’s voter registrar. None has ever cast a ballot, he added.
And despite Tanner’s grand ambitions of gaining political control, none of his followers ever filed to run as a candidate for Loving County office, never mind being elected.
Landersman said he hoped to have Tanner extradited back to Texas within a week or two. Meanwhile, he said more charges would be forthcoming.
“There are other people out there who have been wronged by him,” said deputy Clinton Fielder, who is leading the ongoing investigation.
See here for the previous update – Tanner had engaged in some top-notch shenanigans to evade Paxton’s legal efforts – and here for the whole saga, which remains one of the most entertaining stories to come out of this state in awhile. Loving County really punches above its weight in the “I wish Molly Ivins had lived to see all this” department. I once again call for there to be a multi-part prestige podcast about this – hey, Texas Monthly, wyd? – or hell, get Ryan Murphy on it for a Netflix miniseries. Who knows what else we might learn once Tanner has been brought back to face those charges? This story isn’t over yet. Kudos to Eric Dexheimer and the Chron for their reporting on it.