Kandiss Taylor: ‘They’re lyin’ that I freakin’ blew up some Guidestones’
Five days after the Georgia Guidestones exploded in 2022, authorities in Appling County received a very strange emergency call. It seemed to originate from the home of Kandiss Taylor, who had run for governor that year and called for the monument’s demolition. Someone identifying themselves as Taylor claimed to have shot a man five times in the chest.
The call was fake, a malicious hoax. But the deputies who responded to Taylor’s home were real. And when the real Taylor made a real 911 call, she sounded afraid.
“Somebody did this to me ‘cause I ran for governor,” she told a dispatcher in a recorded call obtained by The Atlanta Journal-Constitution. “And they’re trying to kill me. They have rifles aimed at our house.”
Taylor is now running for Congress in Georgia’s first district, a seat currently held by Rep. Buddy Carter. The swatting incident is recounted in harrowing detail in the fifth episode of the AJC podcast “Who Blew Up The Guidestones?” That episode was released today.
“I’m scared!” Taylor said after the deputies entered her home. “They’re lyin’ that I freakin’ blew up some Guidestones.”
The Georgia Guidestones were an enigmatic monument that stood outside Elberton for 42 years. They featured a list of instructions for humanity in eight languages. One said to “Maintain humanity under 500,000,000 in perpetual balance with nature.” At the time, that would have required the global population to decrease by almost 90%.
In an interview with podcast host Tyler McBrien, Taylor explained why she pledged to bring down the monument if elected governor. She said the stones gave her a palpable sense of evil. When she visited the monument to film a campaign video, she saw people wearing black clothing and eyeliner. She said they had a sickly and malnourished dog.
“And I said, ‘What are you gonna do with that dog?’ And they got back in the car and left. And I’m telling you, there is no doubt in my mind, they were gonna sacrifice that animal.”
About two months after Taylor released her campaign video about the Guidestones, someone touched off an explosion in the darkness near Elberton.
Taylor said she received angry phone calls and hate mail. She initially believed the stones had been brought down by lightning. She was glad they were gone. But, she added, “if it was done illegally, somebody needs to be held accountable.”
Surveillance footage obtained by the AJC provides new detail on the sequence of the explosion. At 3:34 a.m. on July 6, 2022, according to the video’s timestamp, headlights appear in the black distance beyond the monument. About 13 minutes later, a distant figure in dark clothing walks across the grass toward the Guidestones. The person seems to be carrying something heavy.
The mystery figure sets down the object near the base of the monument with a faint clatter, then turns and hurries away.
About 16 minutes later, something detonates with a brilliant flash. There’s a loud boom. Shards of granite fly across the grass. Leaves swirl in the wind. A cloud of smoke and dust spreads outward from the damaged monument.
From outside the frame, we hear the rising whine of an engine. A silver car appears, speckled and obscured by shadows, driving not on the road but on the grassy shoulder. The silver car crosses the frame and disappears into the night.
Podcast producer Ian Enright analyzed the footage frame-by-frame. He noted the length of the hood and the width of the headlights. He examined 3D models of various cars and overlaid them onto the video. He tested theories on a message board with automotive enthusiasts. And he concluded that the getaway car was a BMW 3-series with an E90 chassis, model year 2006 to 2008.
As the GBI investigated the explosion, the agency also tried to find the person who swatted Taylor. A detailed case report obtained by the AJC shows that investigators traced a possible suspect to Indiana.
GBI Special Agent Wendell Goodman followed a trail of digital evidence and obtained an internet search history for the suspect. The searches included “places to prank call.”
But the practice of swatting is no mere prank. In 2017, two online gamers had a dispute that led one to have the other swatted. Police in Wichita, Kansas, responded to a gamer’s former address and encountered Andrew Finch, who had nothing to do with the dispute. Finch was shot and killed.
Taylor’s case drew attention from federal authorities. Matthew Josephson, then an assistant U.S. attorney, “indicated that there was a lot of interest within his office regarding swatting of politicians,” the GBI report said. The federal prosecutor told the GBI agent that he wanted the Indiana suspect interviewed.
Early in 2023, an FBI agent questioned the suspect in Fort Wayne, Indiana. The suspect admitted using a service called TextNow “to prank call friends” but denied using it for swatting calls, the report said. The FBI agent said that when the man was asked about swatting, his “voice began to crack and his lip could be seen shaking.”
That apparently was not enough to bring charges. The suspect did not confess, the report said, and “the use of foreign VPN services has obscured the identity” of the swatter.
The swatting case is closed, while the Guidestones case remains open. Almost four years later, neither perpetrator has been arrested.
About the Authors
Thomas Lake is a senior reporter for The Atlanta Journal-Constitution. His work has been published in The Washington Post, The Wall Street Journal, Sports Illustrated and The Guardian. He's a co-founder of The Lake Family Band. Please email thomas.lake@ajc.com if you'd like to share a story idea.
